Esther is a unique, heavily modified Fat Man. Visually, it has a different rear mechanism, a blast shield, a light-blue body, and a thick clear glass or plastic bed holding the mini nuke. It is 10 pounds heavier than a standard Fat Man. However, it is more durable, never jams, costs 10 less Action Points per attack, is more powerful by 75 direct damage compared to the Fat Man, and is able to use the GRA mini nuke ammo types.
When equipped, Esther provides unique defense bonuses. It adds +10 to DT and +25 to Radiation Resistance, giving the user extra protection from the damage caused by the weapon.
Durability
Esther can fire a total of about 620 standard mini nukes from full condition before breaking. This is 125 mini nukes more than the regular Fat Man.
Even with the added DT and Radiation resistance, a mini nuke shot at anything other than far distances can still kill the player, especially with the Big Kid mini nukes; however, with maximum Damage Resistance of ×0.8, the Courier can easily survive the blast on normal difficulty.
At 40 pounds, it is the heaviest weapon in the game. This can be cut down to 20 pounds with the Heavyweight perk.
Esther's zoom targeting is more obstructed than the standard Fat Man, as the player looks through the blast shield which has a thick frame surrounding it.
Even when holstered, the player still has the increased DT and Radiation resistance.
Bugs
Playstation 3Xbox 360 This weapon may not affect bighorners.[verified]
Playstation 3Xbox 360 Sometimes it can fire a second time without reloading.[verified]
Playstation 3Xbox 360 Sometimes kills towards the Overkill challenge will not count using this weapon.[verified]
PCXbox 360 This weapon may not harm some coyotes. When killed, affected coyotes will display "Coyote" instead of "Search Coyote." [verified]
PC Due to incorrectly implemented texture set for the weapon, certain parts of the model may display in the game with broken textures. [verified]
PC When Esther is equipped, the +10 DT bonus, while working, will not be shown in the inventory. [verified]
The damage threshold seems to be lowered by -5 when equipping this weapon, while the bonus does actually apply.