Fallout Shelter – How Explorer’s Happiness Level Affects His Quest

You need to send them out for longer time. By time you can skill your dwellers. Send them to the gym, casino etc. If their S.P.E.C.I.A.L values raise, you'll have a better chance to live longer. Just a hint, before sending a lvl 1 dweller out, put him in a fully equipped reactor or something. He will level up fast as you collect the energy.

If he gets a higher level he will have more life. If he had level 10 or 20 it's okay for his first run in the badlands.

Let him go with the maximum of stimpacks (25) and around 14-15 rad-away. Don't panic, if something is left over at the end, it will be added back to your stock.

Give him your best gun and your best outfit. If he survive 18/19 hours you'll have a good chance for getting better guns. My current dweller is on it's tour for around 38 hours and he has a machine pistol, a grenade launcher and a flamethrower (18-25 dmg).

Hopefully this will help you to get better weapons. :-)

The quality of items you find is directly tied to the length of time the dweller is out in the wasteland. Their survivability of course is related to their level (health) and the number of stims/radaways you give them.

Basically just wait longer. The longer they are out there, the better chance of getting a better drop. There are no guarantees of course, but if they can survive out there for several more days, leave them for as long as you can and you should get better drops. Since they take no damage or radiation while on their way back, you can wait until they are literally 1 hp away from death before recalling them to get maximum exploration time.