Fallout 3 Energy Weapons Guide
Energy weapons are very interesting guns in Fallout 3. You will go a short time without access to quality energy weapons, but once you have them you will be very powerful. The most basic of the energy weapons deals nice damage, and they are for the most part quite accurate, especially in the form of the Laser Rifle. Victims to powerful blasts of energy will disintegrate. Thankfully, the gear they carried will remain for the most part unharmed. The primary stat for energy weapons is perception, and having higher values in it will increase the damage done by all energy weapons.
The Weapons (Alphabetical List)
A3-21's Plasma Rifle: This is likely my favorite mid-range energy weapon. It's not great at a long range but it can pummel opponents up close. You get this weapon as a reward for completing The Replicated Man in Rivet City. It's of course a modified Plasma Rifle, and can only be repaired with them. Fortunately the enclave camps at the end of the game are endless sources of plasma rifles to keep A3-21's Rifle melting mutants.
Alien Blaster: The Alien Blaster is found at the alien crash site. To get to the alien crash site, you'll need to be in the square 2 east and 10 north from Megaton. If you have the MDPL-13 power station revealed, or minefield, it's easier to fast walk there and head north. You'll eventually pick up a new radio signal, a beacon. Listen to the radio signal and you'll hear that it gets a bit stronger as you near the square I suggested. The alien ship is crash-landed in the southwestern corner of the square here. The blaster is found to the south of the ship, when you finally find it. It's laying next to an alien body. Look for the small light blue alien power cells to get the ammo it takes. It doesn't use any other form of ammo, so it's likely the most scare ammo in the game ( a bit more can be found in fort independence). The blaster literally guarantees a critical hit. If you're an energy weapons specialist, you'll kill almost anything in a single blow to the head. This makes the 120 rounds of ammo you find near the alien body more significant. Use these rounds wisely. They're great for tough encounters like deathclaws and the like.
Colonel Autumn's Laser Pistol: This weapon can't really be gained without exploiting the game. Have a look at this video to see how it's done. Don't talk to Colonel Autumn if you do this or you'll potentially ruin your game. Try to shoot the pistol out of his hand while using a stealth boy or just kill him. Honestly, this weapon is not worth the trouble it takes to get it. It is fine outside of VATS, but it's a fully automatic laser pistol and owning it is basically asking for having troubles with the ammo of the gun. It doesn't do any more damage per shot than a normal laser pistol. Even if you're an energy weapons specialist, I recommend you skip exploting the game to get this weapon.
Firelance: The Firelance can only be found through a random encounter. That is, you're travelling on the world map and a random event occurs. There are several of these events in the game. The trouble is, you're unlikely to encounter them really. I've played 60 hours on my current game and haven't encountered this yet. The Firelance uses the same ammunition as the Alien Blaster, that is, Alien Power Cells. These are in limited supply. I'm not sure if you can encounter this event multiple times, or if it occurs only once. Still, don't bother hunting for this weapon as you're unlikely to find it. If you have any tips to getting this random encounter, share them below using the comment form. The weapon itself does more damage than a normal Alien Blaster, with the same high chance to critial. In addition, it deals burning damage to enemies. It's a very nice weapon, especially with the Pyromaniac perk. I feel you can get by easily without one of these. If you're lucky enough to get one, great!
Laser Pistol: Ah, the Laser Pistol. I really love energy weapons and this is of course the first one I got when playing through the game. Your results will likely be the same. It deals more damage than a 10mm handgun, for sure. You can find them in shops, so keeping laser pistols repaired shouldn't be a very big problem. The ammo is very common, making it a weapon you can use without worry as soon as you find it. It benefits from the gunslinger perk like any other one-handed weapon and has a higher critical chance than the 10mm handgun.
Laser Rifle: Laser Rifles are powerful medium to long range energy weapons. Finding one in the early game can be tough, but you'll find more and more as you progress through the game. They are highly accurate weapons, allowing for excellent performance a high range. The AP cost is very low, so it's easy to fire off four to six shots in VATS as the enemy approaches. They take micro fusion cells, which are a bit more rare than the energy cells the pistol uses. Still, most shopkeepers will stock enough of this ammo to get you by. You can also do some travelling to various shops and buy out their ammo to stock up.
Mesmetron: The Mesmetron can be gained in two ways. You can either accept the quest Strictly Business from Grouse at Paradise Falls or kill him. I encountered this item while doing the main quest. Grouse offered me to enslave several people for entry, but I killed him instead as I was playing a good Karma character. If you kill him like I did, you'll be limited to the mesmetron power cells you pick up off his corpse. If you take the quest, you can buy more cells from him at the cost of 200 caps per ten. The chance to actually mez someone (other than the quest NPCs associated with 'strictly business') seems to be 50/50. Sometimes heads will explode, and sometimes the victim will turn wild and start attacking everyone. If they do this, you can kill them without repurcussion.
Plasma Pistol: Plasma pistols are powerful, but rare energy weapons. The only problem when using them in non-VATS is that the shots are slow and can often miss moving targets. As such, if you're firing in non-VATS and the enemy is moving you may want to allow for some lead, that is, shoot just a touch ahead of where the target is moving so they'll run into the energy ball. These pop up more often once you've made it past the Waters of Life in the main quest. At that time, the Enclave will have camps set up in the wasteland, and you'll encounter them more often. Raiders don't usually have weapons like this, as you might expect.
Plasma Rifle: Plasma rifles do about twice the damage of a plasma pistol and work at slightly longer ranges. They have a low capacity for the microfusion cells they use as ammo, at just 12. Thankfully, plasma rifles are powerful enough that 12 shots is often enough. Like the plasma pistol, you'll need to accomodate for the slower speed of the weapon's projectiles. The weapon has an AP cost of 25, so you won't get off as many shots in VATS. Again, this type of weapon is much more common after the enclave begins setting up their camps.
Protectron's Gaze: You can get this unique laser pistol during the quest The Superhuman Gambit. The weapon fires clusters of lasers at the enemy, and deals a good bit more damage than your average laser pistol. This is a good midgame weapon for energy weapon lovers for that reason. Also, the Superhuman Gambit is not a quest that's hard to access for low characters as the biggest hurdle will be the long walk to the area. Read my walkthrogh of the quest for more information.
Smuggler's End: This is a second unique laser pistol. It's slightly more powerful than the normal laser pistol in VATS, but outside it can fire nearly twice as fast as a standard model. Obtaining this weapon is a simple matter of making it through the main quest to the point where you're allowed access to the citadel. Look in the B-ring of the citadel for the room marked 'the Solar', which are Elder Lyons' personal chambers. You'll need 100 lockpicking skill to open the safe which contains it. Taking this weapon is not considered stealing, despite that it's in Lyons' chambers. The weapon can consume a lot of ammo, but the energy cells it fires are hardly rare.
Wazer Wifle: This is probably my favorite energy weapon. It's also very easy to get from a child named Biwwy once you've gained entry to Little Lamplight. Look for the signs to the great chamber. This room is very large, and finding Biwwy can be challenging. You can buy this gun for 500 caps or less, depending on your barter skill. People with Child at Heart can get it for free! It does about five more damage than the normal laser rifle, and features a slightly larger ammo capacity. This weapon goes great with Tesla Armor. You'll be able to fire from long ranges, and if you took the commando or sniper perks they'll be even more accurate at range. You can repair this with normal Laser Rifles, but wont' have to very often because this weapon seems to have high durability. I use this for most fights, but occasionally like to use my Burnmaster at close ranges.
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