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ARCHIMEDES II is an orbital laser. Effective only outdoors in a limited radius and requiring a long recharge.Veronica Santangelo

Euclid's C-Finder is a unique weapon in Fallout: New Vegas.

Characteristics

"The raw power of the sun, contained in an easy-to-carry package! Just point the handheld rangefinder at the bad guys, and pull the trigger!" The Archimedes II orbital laser will strike down and reduce foes to ashes.

In order to use Euclid's C-Finder the player character must complete the quest That Lucky Old Sun and choose to direct power to Archimedes II at the end of the quest. The weapon can only be used once every 24-hours due to the recharge time of the lasers. If the player has already completed that quest without directing the power to Archimedes II, the C-Finder cannot be activated.

Euclid's C-Finder is not a weapon in its own right, but rather a targeting device or "range finder" for the Archimedes II orbital laser platform. As such Euclid's C-Finder inflicts 0 damage on a direct hit to a target, with all the damage coming from the blast caused by the Archimedes II orbital laser strike. This also makes Euclid's C-Finder inoperable as a weapon when fired indoors.

Firing Euclid's C-Finder will result in a small delay and an animated sequence on Euclid's C-Finder's display, before the impact of the orbital laser strikes the ground. This delay means that Euclid's C-Finder can be repositioned for a new target before the laser strikes.

Location

In Freeside, outside of Mick & Ralph's, the player character can find Max during the day. Max thinks the weapon is actually just a toy, as it is reminiscent of the popular 1950s-60s toy laser guns for children. The player character can pay Max 1000 bottle caps, or 20 bottle caps with a barter skill of 45 or more, for his "toy gun" Euclid's C-Finder. Otherwise the player character can wait until Max goes to bed, usually after 9pm, then pickpocket the weapon from him, followed by a loss of karma. The game has been known to say "talk" rather than "pickpocket" Max when doing this. If you click the interact button it will take you into the pickpocketing menu where you can steal the gun. This will result in no loss of Karma.

Notes

  • Euclid's C-Finder cannot be used in V.A.T.S.
  • If you have Veronica as a companion, she will respond to the weapon when first fired saying "Yeah, I guess it works."
  • Though a heavy weapon of 15 lbs, Max, the child who owns it, has no problem holding it in one hand.
  • If you fire the weapon during its recharge time the positioning lasers will be seen but the weapon will not fire, however the weapon will fire immediately after the recharge time is over.
  • The weapon will not always fire if the recharge time of 24 hours is waited using the wait-function instead of passing it in the game without the wait-function.
  • Because the game does not allow the player to kill children, they will be knocked out when hit by this weapon.
  • Euclid's C-Finder's reloading animation is exactly the same as the alien blaster's (when multiple charges are possessed), save for the C-Finder having an orange power cell, as opposed to the alien blaster's blue.
  • Euclid's C-Finder does not work inside.
  • The sun ray causes a knock down effect in a large AoE where it is blasted so be careful with friendly fire, as your companions can be easily crippled by it.
  • Sometimes around every two days you may obtain another C-finder from Max if the player chooses to use the speech check. This can be repeated up to four times (note you cannot do this if the Lucky Old Sun quest is complete).
  • The Orbital Beam produced by the C-Finder is strong enough to take Legate Lanius to 2-1 blocks of health.
  • Even though Euclid's C-Finder is considered a Unique Weapon, there isn't a "normal" variant of it.
  • Euclid's C-Finder has a very striking appearance to the gun Captain Cosmos has, and when drawn in conjunction with Spacesuit and Spacesuit Helmet, the character looks relatively like Captain Cosmos.

Bugs

  • Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 After Exiting The Thorn Euclid's C-Finder may fire a beam with no warning, hitting The Courier, his/her companions and any other non-player character's in range.
  • PCPC It is possible Euclid's C-Finder may re-spawn multiple times on Max. If you do not have the gun in your inventory and return to Freeside some time after acquiring it, Max will have another Euclid's C-Finder . This will also result in additional ARCHII Charges added each day for each Euclid's C-Finder in the player characters inventory.
  • PCPC If the player character has the Heave Ho! perk, firing Euclid's C-Finder may freeze the game. To fix this a player user can remove the perk using console commands, this will allow the player to fire the weapon without crashing.
  • PCPC When trying to fire, the targeting laser may repeatedly play its animation without the laser firing. To fix, save the game with the gun drawn and firing and then quit the game completely back to the desktop/reset console. Restart, reload, and wait for the firing animation to complete. Ensuring to save far enough away from the target to not be hit, but close enough that the animation is still visible and playing.
  • PCPC Sometimes the gun will not get any ammunition after activating Archimedes II, or it will fire a few times and then not get any more ammunition. To fix, save the game and the quit to the desktop/reset console. Reload the saved game and then after some time the charges will spawn as normal.
  • PCPC Sometimes Euclid's C-Finder will not fire at all, only the lasers will be seen. However, the gun will also go off at a random time after this.
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 The game seems to register kills with Euclid's C-Finder as "unarmed" kills as evidenced by getting the Beautiful Beatdown perk while using it.
  • PCPC Obtaining Euclid's C-Finder before completing or at least initiating the quest I Could Make You Care, could bug the quest. See the page quest page for details.
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 If aimed at a lake or body of water, there will be a bright flash of light, but no laser.
  • Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Euclid's C-Finder may disappear from the player characters inventory after being caught stealing from the Silver Rush in Freeside, even after killing them.
  • Sometimes after activating Archimedes II the C-finder will have two charges, the first will fire normally, however the second will charge but will not fire. You will see the targeting laser animation (three lasers that circle the target and meet in the middle) but there will be no damage and as added downside the animation will loop indefinitely every 5–10 seconds following your crosshairs no matter what weapon you have equipped. The only known fix is to reload the last save, but this will however not fix the C-finder from firing blanks, just the targeting laser loop. FIX: Save your game after firing it. Exit from the game. Reload and the blue beam will strike your target upon reload.
  • PCPC Sometimes Max will appear with the gun again and you can buy it from him and have a second one.
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 If you obtain a second Euclid's C-Finder, DO NOT repair them. This may cause the bug in which it does not fire, and will show the laser marks only repeatedly even with another weapon out and may not fire.
  • Some times, the C-Finder may not spawn at all, causing the game to glitch.
  • Sometimes when firing the C-Finder at Hoover Dam it will show the targeting lasers but wont fire.

Behind the scenes

  • Euclid was a famous Greek mathematician, known as the originator of many basic geometric and mathematical principles. Euclidean geometry and Euclid's algorithm for calculating the greatest common factor of two integers are both named for him.
  • The name Euclid's C-Finder, and the graphics it shows the player while it is operating, are a reference to using Euclidean geometry to find the third point, C, of a triangle, given points A and B, and distances BC and AC. In this example B is the player's position on the ground, A is the position of the Archimedes II satellite, and C is the position of the target. The satellite gets distance BC from Euclid's C-Finder (which is described as a "handheld rangefinder", in the terminal notes at HELIOS One), and knows AC, one assumes, from radar height measurement. In practice, the satellite would also need to be able to determine the direction Euclid's C-Finder is pointing. Presumably, Euclid's C-Finder can only measure basic compass heading and range, leaving the satellite to calculate the target's elevation, unless it had an internal gyroscope and GPS, which would allow the elevation of the target to be calculated.

Gallery

Sounds

SingleShotVB BurstVB
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