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For an overview of Gauss rifle models, see Gauss rifle. |
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The Gauss rifle is a weapon in Fallout: New Vegas.
Characteristics[]
An advanced energy-based sniper rifle that utilizes a series of electromagnetic coils to energize and magnetize preloaded projectile rounds to fire at tremendous and deadly speeds.[Non-game 1]
In appearance, the Gauss rifle in Fallout: New Vegas is almost identical to the Gauss rifle found in the Fallout 3 add-on Operation: Anchorage, apart from the addition of an extra pad on the buttstock.
Like most other energy weapons in Fallout: New Vegas, finding additional instances of this weapon to independently repair it is difficult; Gauss rifles are rare in the Mojave Wasteland, particularly on the low end of the mid-game spectrum. While it uses the uncommon microfusion cell, the Gauss rifle in Fallout: New Vegas uses 5 cells per shot as opposed to its Fallout 3 counterpart which uses 1, so using it for protracted battles against difficult enemies without a substantial ammo supply is unwise. It comes pre-installed with a x3.5-magnification scope.
The Gauss rifle in Fallout: New Vegas also lacks the knock-down effect that it had in Fallout 3. It does still apply force to nearby enemies on projectile impact, though that force is largely negated unless the target is dead, in which case it will typically send the target's corpse flying.
In Hardcore mode, if more than 260 microfusion cells, or 52 shots, are carried, the Gauss rifle becomes heavier than the anti-materiel rifle. With the Heavyweight perk, it comes down to 60 cells, equivalent to 12 shots.
Durability[]
The Gauss rifle can fire a total of about 395 times using standard cells, the equivalent of 395 reloads, from full condition before breaking.
| Ammunition type | Durability | |
|---|---|---|
| Shots | Reloads | |
| Standard | 395 | 395 |
| Bulk | 466 | 466 |
| Optimized | 359 | 359 |
| Over charge | 262 | 262 |
| Max charge | 155 | 155 |
Variants[]
- YCS/186 - a unique variant used by a mercenary residing at the mercenary camp near Brooks tumbleweed ranch. It is only obtainable if the Wild Wasteland trait is not taken, otherwise the alien blaster will spawn instead.
Elijah's Gauss rifle - a unique non-playable weapon used by Father Elijah when he appears in the Sierra Madre vault. It only differs from the regular Gauss rifle in damage, which scales to the Courier's level. The damage increases at levels 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50, ranging from 50 to 208 damage per shot.
 | The following is based on test content from the Fallout: New Vegas files. |
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- The Faderator - a cut unique weapon found in all add-ons except Courier's Stash. It is fully automatic and does 20,160 damage per second (DPS).
| End of information based on test content from the Fallout: New Vegas files |
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Comparison[]
| Legend | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | - Weapon name (melee or unarmed) |  | - Attacks in V.A.T.S. | |
 | - Weapon name (gun, energy or explosive) |  | - Action point cost | |
 | - Damage per attack (damage per projectile) |  | - Damage per action point | |
 | - Damage per second |  | - Weapon spread | |
 | - Area of effect damage |  | - Magazine capacity (shots per reload) | |
 | - Effect damage & duration |  | - Durability (number of attacks before breaking) | |
 | - Bonus effects |  | - Weight | |
 | - Attacks per second |  | - Value in caps | |
 | - Critical chance % multiplier |  | - Value to weight ratio | |
 | - Critical damage |  | - Skill required | |
 | - Critical effect damage & duration |  | - Strength required | |
 | - With all mods attached | |||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gauss rifle | 120 | 360 | 3 | x2 | 60 | 40 | 3 | 0.03 | 5(1) | 395 | 7 | 3000 | 428.6 | 75 | 5 |
| YCS/186 | 140 | 420 | 3 | x2 | 70 | 40 | 3.5 | 0.0275 | 4(1) | 495 | 8 | 3000 | 375 | 75 | 5 |
Locations[]
- Hidden Valley bunker - Can be purchased from Knight Torres after progressing Still in the Dark to agreeing to find the missing BOS patrols. Many of the paladins wearing Brotherhood T-51b power armor have this weapon, including the group encountered during I Could Make You Care either outside the bunker if Veronica was convinced to stay or at the Follower's outpost if Veronica was convinced to leave the Brotherhood.
- Freeside - Sometimes sold by Gloria Van Graff in the Silver Rush at higher levels.
- Brewer's beer bootlegging - Can be located in a guns closet.
- Carried by Father Elijah. It spawns in his inventory when he is killed, replacing the non-playable variant he equips.
- Big MT - Can be found on Y-17 trauma override harnesses near the X-7a "Left Field" artillery launch at higher levels.
- Can sometimes be found on irradiated NCR heavy troopers residing at the Long 15 at higher levels (must launch the nuclear missiles at NCR territory during The Apocalypse).
Notes[]
- The energy weapon has numerous advantages over its ballistic equivalent, the anti-materiel rifle such as a lower Strength requirement of 5 compared to 8, dealing slightly more damage, double the Critical Chance (a maximum of 76% compared to the 38% of the anti-materiel rifle), uses a more common ammunition type, and weighs less. Finally, it has enough range to hit anything the Courier can see, whereas bullets may be unable to hit targets at the edge of their vision depending on their position and direction.
- When used in combination with the Meltdown perk, enemies killed with the rifle will frequently be launched incredibly high. This is due to the force that is normally applied to the target upon impact being compounded by the perk's explosive effect.
- The AP requirement in V.A.T.S. for this weapon is actually higher, as reloading a weapon costs some AP as well and this weapon has to be reloaded in every shot, so the AP requirement is 10 AP higher in practice (as defined by the "fActionPointsReload" setting in the toolset).
- A single shot in Hardcore mode will use 0.5 pounds of ammunition, costing at a combined value of 15 caps per shot.
- Because the Gauss rifle uses five microfusion cells per blast (which only accounts for one shot), it's only possible to get one empty microfusion cell from firing the rifle. This is also the same with all energy weapons that use more than one cell per shot.
- The weapon's Vault Boy icon in the Pip-Boy 3000 is different than in Fallout 3.
- The blast effect produced by the Gauss rifle's shots hitting a surface visually differs compared to Fallout 3.
- Despite the fact that the Gauss rifle fires magnetized rounds, no ammunition other than microfusion cells are ever consumed. More rounds never have to be put into the rifle, putting the concept of its preloaded projectile supply into question.
- When aimed straight down, the blast from the rifle will not knock the Courier down, nor will they take any damage, unlike with the Gauss rifle in Fallout 3. The shield indicating that the weapon's damage is being absorbed by the Courier's DT will appear.
Bugs[]
- The Pip-Boy's displayed damage per second (DPS) for the gun doesn't account for the need to reload every shot, unlike other single-shot weapons such as the missile launcher. This is due to the game mechanics not taking into consideration the weapon use of more than one ammunition per shot. [verified]
- The Gauss rifle's shot will rarely completely pass through an opponent when shot outside of V.A.T.S.. [verified]
- The Gauss rifle in Fallout: New Vegas is almost identical to the one found in Fallout 3, and thus suffers from similar bugs, including the one that affects its damage output when fired via V.A.T.S. When used in V.A.T.S., any hit will do exactly 95.244% of the maximum damage, regardless of the enemy damage threshold, critical hits, or Sneak Attack Critical. This means, that with an Energy Weapons skill of 100, the Gauss rifle shot will do 114.29 points of damage with every V.A.T.S. shot. This is still lower than free aiming, and no bonuses are applied to headshots. The damage bug is related to the Gauss rifle's "explosive" visual effect, which affects its V.A.T.S. damage calculations: the Gauss rifle's projectile is the only projectile in Fallout: New Vegas which is both a hitscan projectile and one which has an explosive effect. Removing the effect from the projectile via user-created mods is currently the only known solution to the issue. [verified]
- When scoped in, the rifle may show a high-contrast color computer interface as shown when activating a terminal, meaning the view will be completely impeded. [verified]
- When standing still and aiming straight down, then firing the weapon, the Courier will sometimes go into third-person, and the weapon will then fly out of their hands. While in third-person, the weapon will now fire directly from where it lies on the ground, or sometimes, float in the air. If entering first-person, the weapon acts like normal. The bug can be fixed by unequipping the weapon completely and re-equipping it again. This is also possible for its unique variant, the YCS/186. Since both weapons have small area-of-blast damage, this will also damage the Courier for about one-tenth of their health. [verified]
Sounds[]
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Gallery[]
Gauss projectile compared to .22LR bullet
References[]
Non-game
- ↑ Emil Pagliarulo in the Bethesda Game Studios forum [1][2] - "The gun energizes and magnetizes a standard projectile round; those are already preloaded into the weapon, and are in that giant clip attached to the side of the weapon... We did it this way because we knew we wanted to have an energy weapon equivalent of the sniper rifle"
