Assaultrons are among the most infuriating bots you face in Fallout 4. The only thing more deadly than these black robots are the Sentry Bots, but we’ll get to those in a bit. Assaultrons are fast and powerful at both close and long range. As soon as they spot you they will start running towards you. As with most things, you’ll want to take out its legs, which is much easier said than done.
The armor on Assaultrons is very tough. On top of that, they will close the distance really fast. Their melee attacks knock you down and shake up your screen, making aiming extraordinarily difficult. V.A.T.S. will help to a degree, but you’ll want to keep dancing around if possible until you get a leg off. That will take care of half the threat.
The other major problem when confronting Assaultrons is the eye beam, a huge, continuous laser blast that can easily take you from full health to death if you don’t get out in a timely fashion. The one benefit you have is that when it fires this attack, Assaultrons are relatively stuck. It can shift it slightly to the left or right, but it will lock its stance, allowing you to get to the side, behind it, or run away. It will even try to use this attack while on the ground with no legs, but its inability to move well will take the scare out of this Assaultron attack.
One tip that may help you if you’re fast enough is to throw down mines. The Assaultron will always try to close the distance, it will come even closer if you take cover. Use that to your advantage and set a mine before it gets too close, then back away.
