Trying to get the best out of wasteland exploration here! I get it that you'd obviously need a big gun for survival out there, but apart from that, I'm wondering which stats / gear can get the best out of exploration.
I have good experience in sending out a dweller with high S and high E stats. An outfit which pushes those values further or an outfit which will add A/L would help too.
As I noticed in my own game, people with a higher L stat often come back with more corks and more/better items. S and E will help your dweller to fight against bigger enemies.
And yes, as you already stated... a very big gun would be beneficial. ;-) But if your dweller find a better thing on it's own - he will always equip it itself.
Another good thing are stimpacks and rad-away. I often gave them many on the road. This way they can survive for many hours. The longer the exploration - the better the loot.
I hope this helps you. :-)
For longer exploration in Fallout Shelter choose characters with higher:
Equip:
I usually send my guys out with at least 20 Stimpaks and 15 RadAway.
As far as I almost agree with other comment, I wish to add my own observations. Looks like high perception allows dwellers to find stuff more often; charisma not only rises amount of non-argo event, but also increases caps outcome of them. So if you find yourself caps-out, you may consider a possibility of sending away charismatic guy.
Endurance affects your resistance to radiation. Low-Endurance dwellers take much higher radiation damage while exploring, while higher-Endurance dwellers take less radiation damage. If a dweller's Endurance stat is at 12 (the maximum), the dweller suffers no radiation damage at all.
It seems the first time someone finds something in the wastes it sets a timer and they will find caps or an item every 15 minutes from then on. Sometimes they will find caps or an item then find the other within a minute or two then 15 minutes for another find.
They can hold a maximum of 100 items and will find caps much more often then items. They will usually have a full inventory after about four days in the wastes if they didn't run out of Stimpacks first.
I have found legendary weapons sometimes in the wastes but only one alien blaster, a few MPXL novasurge, a hardened gauss riffle and an amplified laser rifle and focused plasma rifle. My two best weapons were lunch box items though and I have never found a legendary outfit. I have 200 people in my vault and about enough rare items for every one of them so if it's possible to find legendary outfits in the wastes it's very rare.
I have a hunch that agility improves your chance of escaping unscathed from a tough battle ( particularly the longer you are out in the wastes)... I assume that charisma impacts the frequency of encountering non violent scenarios that give you xp ( like when you patch up a run away slaves leg..) Intelligence/perception may also play a role in your ability to defeat harder enemies, like murlocks without taking much damage if any at all. What has been said about endurance, strength, and luck are true in my experience. Overall it is best to have a well rounded special character exploring (as it says in the game) and a higher level character corresponds to more health in general. I have found it useful to send out characters that are not at a high level with a sweet gun and load them up with stimpacks and good armor and allow them to explore until their stimpacks run out, this is particularly useful when you want to lvl and individual quickly and I have found that the cost to revive them ( if you forget to monitor them) is low because they are at a lower level.
I hope this helps... sorry for the grammar, I'm typing this during my study break
