Fallout 76: 7 Reasons Why The Pepper Shaker Is Worth Using

Highlights

The Pepper Shaker is a powerful heavy weapon in Fallout 76, effective against Super Mutants and bosses like the Scorchbeast Queen.
The plan to craft the Pepper Shaker is a rare Meat Week reward, but it’s tradable, and the weapon itself can be bought from other players.
The Pepper Shaker can use three ammo types, and with the right perks and mods, it can deal significant damage and cripple enemies.

Heavy weapons are hard-hitting and fast-firing and tend to cause lots of damage. From the Gauss Minigun to Gatling Lasers, there are many heavy weapons in Fallout 76. One heavy weapon worth paying attention to is the Pepper Shaker.

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For those looking to bring some heavy firepower, these weapons should be just the ticket.

This beast can shred through enemies like Super Mutants and Mirelurk Kings with minimal effort. With the right effects and perks, a Pepper Shaker can even be used to take down enemy bosses like the Scorchbeast Queen and Earle Williams. While the plan to craft the Pepper Shaker can be hard to come by, it’s worth it due to how powerful the weapon can be when used correctly.

1 How To Craft The Pepper Shaker

A Meat Week Special

The plan to craft the Pepper Shaker is a Meat Week reward. This means that players only have a couple of weeks out of the year that they can earn this plan. It’s one of the rare rewards that players have a chance of getting when completing Grahm’s Meat-Cook.

However, this is a tradable plan. So, it’s possible to find other players selling the plan to craft the Pepper Shaker in their vendors. Also, the weapon itself is tradable, so it’s possible to buy a crafted version from another player by either checking vendors or by using an online trading forum like Market76.

As for the mods, the plans for them can be purchased from Regs inside Vault 79 for 200 Gold Bullion each.

2 Legendary Effects To Look For

A Versatile Weapon

Legendary Crafting on The Pepper Shaker in Fallout 76

The Pepper Shaker works well with most legendary effects. However, there are a few effects that make this weapon shine. Primary effects like Quad, Vampire’s, Anti-Armor, and Bloodied work well on the Pepper Shaker.

As for secondary effects, Rapid is the perfect effect on the Pepper Shaker. While the Pepper Shaker does have an okay rate of fire, it’s not the best. By having the Rapid effect, the gun will fire 25% faster than normal, making it a much deadlier weapon.

The third star effect isn’t as important as the first two, but players may want to try and get effects like Lightweight or Durability to either reduce the weapon’s weight or reduce the frequency at which the gun will break.

3 Plenty Of Ammo Options

It Takes Three Different Ammo Types

Unlike a lot of other weapons in the game, the Pepper Shaker can be modded to take three different types of ammo. The Pepper Shaker can take Shotgun Shells, Fusion Cells, and Plasma Cartridges.

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This is great for those with limited resources, as some ammo types are fairly costly to make. For the most part, players should opt for the Laser Magazine. This will allow the Pepper Shaker to fire Fusion Cells. Fusion Cells are harder-hitting than Shotgun Shells and cheaper to craft than Plasma Cartridges.

4 Multiple Damage Boosting Perks

Heavy Gunner And Shotgunner

The Pepper Shaker’s damage output can be increased by two core perk groups: Heavy Gunner perks and Shotgunner perks. This means that players can give the Pepper Shaker a big boost to damage by combining the two groups of perks.

Unfortunately, the player won’t be able to max out all of the damage-boosting perk cards as they add up to more than 15 under the strength category. But the maximum possible damage boost combination can be seen below:

Heavy Gunner: Rank 3
Expert Heavy Gunner: Rank 3
Master Heavy Gunner: Rank 3
Shotgunner: Rank 3
Expert Shotgunner: Rank 2
Master Shotgunner: Rank 1

5 Decent Ammo Capacity

Take Down Multiple Enemies With One Magazine

Crafting The Pepper Shaker in Fallout 76

While weapons like Miniguns and Gatling Lasers have much higher ammo capacities than the Pepper Shaker, the Pepper Shaker can still hold a fair number of bullets. Players can fire off 50 rounds before needing to reload.

While this is much lower than other heavy weapons due to its higher damage output, 50 shots is usually more than enough to take down whatever enemy is in its path. Also, the reload time isn’t particularly lengthy, meaning that the player won’t be out of action for very long.

6 Great For Crippling Enemies

Stop Enemies In Their Tracks

If the player is using the Concentrated Fire perk, then the Pepper Shaker can cripple almost any enemy with just a few hits in V.A.T.S. Even outside of V.A.T.S., The Pepper Shaker can destroy limbs and prevent enemies from moving.

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This is particularly great against hard-hitting enemies like Scorchbeasts and Mirelurk Queens, as the player can keep them in one spot while shooting them. Simply aim for a wing or a leg and pump out shots until the enemy can no longer move.

7 Minimal Recoil

Fire With Great Accuracy

Using VATS With A Pepper Shaker in Fallout 76

It’s worth using a Gunner’s Sight on this weapon. The Pepper Shaker has virtually zero recoil, meaning that the player can simply look down the sights and fire without having to reposition their aim every few shots.

While it doesn’t have the best accuracy in V.A.T.S., this weapon is great when manually aiming at enemies or firing from the hip. Also, due to its multi-shot effect, players can just spray enemies with a shower of bullets. This weapon can be particularly handy when used against groups of enemies like Ghouls.