Fallout: New Vegas was released more than a decade ago. However, it still has a huge community of active players and modders keeping the game alive with their creations. Today, let’s explore some of the best Fallout: New Vegas combat overhaul mods to massively improve your in-game combat experience.
Like Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas is one of the most played PC games that is still alive after more than a decade of its release. Thanks to its huge community of modders who keep releasing new mods to keep the game alive, you can still play Fallout: New Vegas with up to date graphics, visuals, weapons, sounds, quests, new locations, and more.
For players who feel like the default combats in New Vegas could use some improvements, we have gathered a list of the best Fallout: New Vegas combat overhaul mods to improve your in-game combat experience and give you a better edge over your enemies.
So are you ready? Let’s take a look at these top Fallout: New Vegas combat overhaul mods, shall we?
Top 13 Best Fallout: New Vegas Combat Overhaul Mods
#13 Realistic Combat Overhaul
The Realistic Combat Overhaul mod adds dozens of new gameplay options that overhaul the NPCs to make them more smart and realistic. It also makes your gun fights more realistic by adding realistic damage, removing Vats to improve the gunplay, bringing realistic ability, and so much more.
So if you are someone who looks for realism in fights and the amount of damage dealt, this should be your go to mod for combats. This means that even a single headshot can kill you, so tread carefully!
Here are all the great changes that this mod brings in the combat mechanics of New Vegas:
- Revamps the damage dealt to make it more realistic
- Adds screenshots for the toy factory raid
- Throws in more Scav factions
- Brings Realistic Hit Sound Effects
- Allows NPCs to stop you from long ranges
- Disables combat music
- Adds realistic movements
- Makes movement speeds slow when wielding medium and heavy armors
- Removes Vats
- Revamps the V.A.T.S. perks
- Adds several new perks
- Adds a toy factory raided by Scav
- Removes the extra sneak attack damage
- Makes it easy to kill when the armor is hit
- Allows NPCs to turn around faster
- Overhauls the damage threshold and cripple leg speed
- Increases random critical chances
- Gets rid of the explosions indicator
- Increases the firing range of NPCs’ guns
- Allows NPCs to flee faster
So if you are looking for a real-world-like combat in the Mojave Wasteland, get your hands on this mod.
Download the Realistic Combat Overhaul mod now for Fallout: New Vegas
#12 Dynamic Combat Styles
The Dynamic Combat Styles mod gives all the actors a dynamic combat style in the fights based on their Remaining Health, Confidence, Weapon Type, Faction, and Weapon Skill. It diversifies your combats by giving both you and the NPCs a new combat style based on various factors.
All the actors in a combat are assigned with one of the sixteen blank Combat styles, after which the following combat style fields are updated:
- Block % Chance
- Dodge % Chance
- Power Attack % Chance
- Attack % Chance
- Ignore Damaging Self
- Flee Based on Personal Survival
- Ignore Damaging Spectators
- Ignore Damaging Self
- Ignore Damaging Group
The mod requires New Vegas Script Extender, JohnnyGuitar NVSE, and JIP LN NVSE.
Download the Dynamic Combat Styles mod now for Fallout: New Vegas
#11 No Combat Gore No Environmental Gore
As you can tell from its name, this mod disables all the gore from normal combats, the Bloody Mess perk and even gets rid of all the environmental and scripted gore in the vanilla game and all 4 DLCs. If you are someone who feels sick by situations like your head exploding because of a radio setting off your collar, then this one is a must-have for you.
You can install the mod by extracting the ESPs to your main data folder and enabling it in the data files option before you start a Fallout New Vegas game.
Download the No Combat Gore No Environmental Gore mod now for Fallout: New Vegas
#10 Companions Combat-Ready
The Companions Combat-Ready mod allows all your companions to ready their weapons to fire exactly when you do. The mod supports all the modded companions and is modernized by JIP LN NVSE Event Handlers.
However, it excludes the thrown and unarmed weapons as the readied animations don’t look realistic. The mod also covers one and two-handed melee weapons. If you want to apply these changes to modded companions, simply add their reference form ID to the formlist of Companion Combat-Ready. Check out the mod page below to learn more about how it works.
Download the Companions Combat-Ready mod now for Fallout: New Vegas
#9 Unforgiving Combat
Have you ever felt like the combats in New Vegas have gotten too easy for you? Do you find it really easy to kill all your enemies or feel like they are not strong enough? Are you looking for a real challenge or threat in the game? If so, this is the mod for you!
The Unforgiving Combat mod makes your combats more realistic and unforgiving by giving you a real threat and making your fights more intense. This is a light-weight and non-intrusive mod that focuses on VATS rebalancing, enemy AI, and locational damage. You can either use it on its own or combine it with other New Vegas mods to make the most of it.
It overhauls the combat system in the game to make your combats more threatening, even for lower level characters. It also comes with an optional “Bleed” edition file that allows you to make the game even more challenging. Use it with the Bleed mod for an unforgiving experience.
Download the Unforgiving Combat mod now for Fallout: New Vegas
#8 Passive Combat Music
Passive Combat Music is a mod that allows the combat music to only play with you are aware that the enemies are fighting you. So whenever you spot or hit an enemy or when they hit you, the combat music will start playing. The music will only play when you are actually in a combat.
This mod requires xNVSE, JohnnyGuitar NVSE, and JIP LN NVSE Plugin to work.
Download the Passive Combat Music mod now for Fallout: New Vegas
#7 Pushabilitator – A Balanced Combat Push Mod
Aptly named, the Pushabilitator mod allows you to push targets down in as balanced way as possible. The mod adds 4 features in total, including AP consumption, Push Strength, Failure Chance, Strength Check, and Detection. All these features are completely configurable.
The mod has kept everything highly balanced. For instance:
- The Failure Chance is 3/10. There will be no chance of failure if you remain undetected.
- Your Push Strength is your player’s strength level divided by 9.
- Your target won’t attack you for 2.3 seconds if the push is successful.
Check out the mod page below for more details.
Download the Pushabilitator – A Balanced Combat Push Mod now for Fallout: New Vegas
#6 Better Combat Performance – wastedisposal edition
The Better Combat Performance mod improves your player’s performance during combats by getting rid of the shell casings and muzzle flash light effects. Have you faced FPS issue or noticed your PC slowing down during big fights in Fallout NV? If so, this mod aims to change that by removing the shell casings and muzzle flash light effects on older PCs that may cause crashes.
The mod comes in to esp files, one for removing muzzle flash lights and the other for removing bullet shells. However, do note that the mod does not get rid of the muzzle flash tracers or particle. It only removes the light that appears when you fire a weapon. For installation instructions and load order, check out the mod page below.
Download the Better Combat Performance – wastedisposal edition mod now for Fallout: New Vegas
#5 THE5 Combat Assistant – Better than any Nightvision etc
This is the ultimate combat vision mod that adds 4 unique goggles for vision in New Vegas. You can find these goggles in the iron cabinet in the Doc’s house on your way to his kitchen. You can also combine these vision goggles or use them all at once to get the ultimate vision.
Here’s what these goggles are and what they can do:
- Thermal Vision: A track of heat is left behind by actors that you can see even from a distance.
- Combat Assistant: Marks all your enemies in a huge range and even shows their current status, armor, items, and health. It also shows you their states, such as dead, ally, fleeing, attacking you, neutral, attacking someone, hostile, or sleeping, with the help of different colors.
- Advanced Nightvision: Used to spot your enemies at night. It also highlights them a little so you can make them out easily.
- Neuronal-Electric Field Detector: Allows you to see through walls.
How cool, right? So get your hands on this mod now to have the upper hand in all combats.
Download the THE5 Combat Assistant – Better than any Nightvision etc mod now for Fallout: New Vegas
#4 Combat Lag Fix (NVSE)
This mod fixes a serious engine bug in Fallout: New Vegas where your frame rate is lowered when attacking an enemy with a visible health bar. It fixes the problem by improving the frame rate in combats. So you will no longer notice the extra 1-10 ms per frame in the health bar code.
The problem has now been fixed, thanks to this mod. Although a subtle change, it will make a big difference during combats.
Download the Combat Lag Fix (NVSE) mod now for Fallout: New Vegas
#3 Immersive Hit Reactions – Makes Combat Responsive
Have you ever noticed how the enemies in New Vegas have little to no reaction when they get shot? The Immersive Hit Reactions mod aims to make your combats more responsive by fixing that. It makes your combats more fluid by making the enemies ore responsive and reactive when they get hit or shot. They will appear less like they have just absorbed a bullet and more like they have been shot.
So make your combats way more satisfying by seeing your enemies in pain. Even players can react to getting shot now. The mod works on geckos, dogs, ghouls, Super Mutants, and humans. Whenever you hit them, they will show signs of being distressed or in pain when shot, punched, or hit by a melee weapon.
The mod also comes with MCM options if you want to make changes to the mod. For instance, you can choose how often your enemies or the player react to being attacked.
Download the Immersive Hit Reactions – Makes Combat Responsive mod now for Fallout: New Vegas
#2 New Vegas Realistic Battle and Dynamic Combat
This realistic combat mod is also one of the best armor and weapon mods that makes your armors more relevant gives your weapons a little more punch. Just how they should be. It basically transforms the weapon and armor interactions so that they are more realistic.
So if someone is unarmored, you can easily take them out by any kind of attack. But if someone is equipped with power armor, it will be hard to take them out, especially with small arms pistol fire. As a result, all your combats will be more realistic and less forgiving.
Moreover, your skills will play a big role in weapon damage now. Although your weapons will deal realistic damage, their intensity will be baed on your skills. The DT values of most of the armors have also been doubled. So heavily armored opponents will become more formidable now. Whereas the unarmored enemies will be more vulnerable.
Download the New Vegas Realistic Battle and Dynamic Combat mod now for Fallout: New Vegas
#1 NPCs Sprint In Combat
Have you noticed how NPCs in combats just casually jog around instead of moving fast and smart? Well, this mod aims to change that by making NPCs sprint in melee combats. The mod uses custom-made sprint animations to make them look more real.
So all the melee combats will now be more realistic, fun, and scary. There are no known incompatibilities with other mods. So go ahead and make your NPCs sprint instead of running around aimlessly in combats.
Download the NPCs Sprint In Combat mod now for Fallout: New Vegas
Conclusion
So that’s all, folks! This list sums up the top 13 Fallout: New Vegas combat overhaul mods. Go ahead and download these Nexus mods for an epic performance during combats. Use a mod manager like Vortex or Nexus Mod Manager to install and manage these mod files.
Happy gaming!