The Blade Of The West is a rare (though not unique ) variant of the Bumper Sword from Fallout: New Vegas’s Lonesome Road DLC. The only guaranteed copy of the sword can be found on Blade, a named Marked Man who can be found near an overturned building northeast of Ulysses’ Temple.

Quick tips before you go get the weapon:

• It can be found during the main story. Due to Blade being directly in your path during one of Lonesome Road’s main quests, you are likely to find it on your own.
• It’s sometimes carried by Marked Man Marauders. The weapon can (although rarely) be found carried by regular Marked Man Marauders.
• Lonesome Road DLC required. To get this weapon, you must have the Lonesome Road DLC installed.

Acquisition

You are very likely to acquire this weapon during the quest “The Courier”, while you’re attempting to reach Ulysses’ Temple. 

During this quest, you’ll find yourself in a valley surrounded by destroyed buildings, one of which will have Blade on top. 

He’ll attempt to chase you down the moment that he or his allies notice you, meaning that you should have no issues finding him.

Once you find him or he finds you, kill him and take the weapon from his corpse.

Comparing The Blade Of The West To The Bumper Sword

• Deals more damage (60 damage vs 30 damage).
• Deals slightly less critical hit damage (30 critical hit damage vs 32 critical hit damage)
• Has a higher critical hit chance multiplier (1.5x critical hit chance multiplier vs 1x critical hit chance multiplier).
• Has about ½ the durability (745 attacks before breaking vs 1495 attacks before breaking).
• Costs fewer AP to attack with in VATS (29 AP to attack vs 38 AP to attack).
• Has a special knockback effect that has a chance to trigger on hit. When triggered, the enemy you hit will fall to the ground. It takes about 3-5 seconds for an enemy to get up. This effect is very similar to the effect of the “Super Slam!” perk.

Gameplay Tips

• Despite not being unique, it objectively outclasses the unique Blade Of The East from the base game.
• It requires a Melee Weapons skill of 100 and a Strength of 9 to use effectively, making it one of the most demanding weapons in the game.
• Power attacking while moving forward with this weapon will execute the Mauler attack, which has an increased chance of knocking the attacked enemy down.