The Survivalist's rifle is a unique weapon in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Honest Hearts.
Background[]
Modified to be chambered for the 12.7mm round instead of the typical 5.56mm round, the weapon was issued from the Long Branch Arsenal in Ontario, by then a territory of the United States of America during its annexation of Canada. It once belonged to Randall Clark, a former US soldier and survivalist who took refuge in Zion National Park after the Great War and was prominently used by him to slaughter most of the Vault 22 expedition members that killed the Mexican refugee group Clark had been helping. He possessed it up until his death where it remained inside his duffle bag for decades until the Courier came to Zion with the Happy Trails Caravan Company in 2281.[1]
Characteristics[]
Survivalist's rifle expanded
Compared to the standard service rifle, the Survivalist's rifle deals higher damage per shot, has a lower rate of fire which gives a significantly higher damage-per-second (DPS) value, deals significantly higher critical hit damage, costs more AP, has significantly less spread, has a smaller magazine capacity, has higher durability than the standard but less than the modified, has the same weight, and has a significantly higher caps value.
In terms of appearance, the Survivalist's rifle has a shorter barrel, lighter wooden finish on the stock, metal ring supports around the wooden barrel cover. It reads "PROPERTY OF U.S. GOVT CHKPNT CARBINE 12.7MM CAL." and "LONG BRANCH ARSENAL ONTARIO, USA TERRITORY." on the receiver and has "STOP!" carved on one side and "ARRÊT!" (French for "stop!") on the other of the stock.
More significantly, the front sights are damaged. The entire front sight has bent out of alignment, which can make aiming the Survivalist's rifle difficult. Instead of aiming with the normal front sight, the right sight protector wing is the part in line with the rear sight. Otherwise, by turning True Iron Sights off, aiming is done over the top of the rifle which bypasses the problem entirely.
The damage stat of the Survivalist's rifle is slightly higher than This Machine when loaded with regular .308 rounds if the Grunt perk is taken, but the former fires nearly twice as fast and far more accurately. Even if This Machine is loaded with .308 JSPs, the difference in damage is not substantial and can be mitigated by using 12.7mm JHPs from the add-on Gun Runners' Arsenal.
The rifle uses rare 12.7mm rounds which generally must be bought from vendors. The Damage Threshold multiplier from 12.7mm JHP rounds and lower damage from normal 12.7mm rounds may also cause the Survivalist's rifle to be less than optimal against armored targets.
Durability[]
The Survivalist's rifle can fire a total of about 2,495 standard rounds, the equivalent of 250 reloads, from full condition before breaking.
| Ammunition type | Durability | |
|---|---|---|
| Shots | Reloads | |
| Standard, HP & JHP | 2495 | 250 |
Variants[]
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 | |||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service rifle | 18 | 75.6 | 4.2 | x1 | 18 | 15 | 1.2 | 0.55 | 20 | 1995 | 8.5 | 540 | 63.5 | 25 | 2 |
| Service rifle | 18 | 98.3 | 5.46 | x1 | 18 | 15 | 1.2 | 0.55 | 20 | 2995 | 8.5 | 2040 | 240 | 25 | 2 |
Survivalist's rifle  | 48 | 187.2 | 3.9 | x1 | 48 | 20 | 2.4 | 0.08 | 10 | 2495 | 8.5 | 5400 | 635.3 | 75 | 4 |
Location[]
- The rifle is initially found in a duffle bag marked "the Survivalist's duffle bag" at the summit of the Red Gate, where one will find three trees and the duffle bag next to the Survivalist's remains propped up on the rocks.
- Non-player characters such as White Legs will automatically scan the contents of the bag and collect the weapon to use it if they are not killed before getting to the area. They will then have to be killed in order to retrieve it.
- If Honest Hearts is completed before retrieving the rifle, and a non-player character has picked up the rifle and not been killed to reacquire it, the weapon will become unobtainable as all non-player characters apart from enemies disappear from Zion upon completion of the add-on.
Notes[]
This weapon does not count toward the Gun Runners' Arsenal "Against All Tyrants" challenge, as the add-ons cannot overlap without causing substantial bugs.
Behind the scenes[]
- Joshua Sawyer commented that the Survivalist's rifle was "loosely based on the .50 Beowulf AR-15 platform conversion,"[2] and that it was intended to be a checkpoint carbine.[3] The word "arret" written on it was an attempt to explore less often mentioned details regarding Canada.[4]
- When asked if the iron sights being misaligned was a bug, Sawyer stated that it was not and that the bent front sight was due to wear and tear, having been used and repaired in an improvised fashion for decades.[5]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Events of Honest Hearts.
- ↑ Question: "Was the Survivalist's Rifle based off anything in particular? Like the M4 .50 Beowulf?"
Joshua Sawyer: "Yes, it was loosely based off of the .50 Beowulf AR-15 platform conversion."
(Joshua Sawyer on Formspring) - ↑ Fallout: New Vegas 10th Anniversary Charity Stream (reference starts at 4:48:32)
Joshua Sawyer: "'Was there a specific reason for the Survivalist's rifle in 12.7?' Um, yeah, it's based on the Beowulf...there is an actual checkpoint carbine, like there's a 50 caliber Beowulf. It's actually intended to be a checkpoint carbine, like a real-world weapon like that. And 12.7 is essentially supposed to be like 50 AE or whatever, so, yeah." - ↑ Fallout: New Vegas 10th Anniversary Charity Stream (reference starts at 6:10:57)
Joshua Sawyer: "You liked the...ehr, the service rifle with 'arret'
written on it - French for stop, as in the stop sign. Yeah, Canada doesn't get talked about much, and so I thought with that service rifle, it would be neat to kinda explore that a little bit."
- ↑ Question: "will the bug with the survivalist rifles iron sights not being aligned be fixed and how could such happen?"
Joshua Sawyer: "It's not a bug. The Survivalist's Rifle was used by the Survivalist for decades and shows signs of improvised repair (the clamps on the foregrip wood, the mismatched wood furniture, etc.). The bent front sight is damage that the Survivalist couldn't or didn't repair and just adapted to using as-is. If you aim at the right front post, that's where the bullets are going."
(Joshua Sawyer's Formspring)
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