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For an overview of minigun models, see minigun. |
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The 4.7mm Vindicator minigun is a big gun in Fallout 2.
Background[]
The Vindicator minigun's exorbitant price, its late availability, as well as the use of superlatives and references to German engineering skill in its in-game description, suggest that the weapon was intended to be to Big Guns what the Gauss weapons (described in similar terms) were to Small Guns, i.e. high-tech weapons with unrivaled performance stats in their category. However, it appears that the developers brought the Vindicator's stats down at some point in its development, presumably to avoid creating a superweapon that would make the end game too easy.
This would explain the discrepancies between the gun's description and actual stats: it has a slower rate of fire than the standard minigun, even though these weapons' respective descriptions expressly claim the opposite to be the case; its ammo capacity is only 100 rounds as opposed to the 5mm miniguns' 120, even though the high-tech ammo used by the Vindicator supposedly brings dramatic improvements to magazine capacity; and its range is shorter than those of the other miniguns despite being touted as the "ultimate minigun."
Characteristics[]
The Vindicator has the slowest fire rate of all the miniguns in the game, capable of firing four 25-round bursts before the magazine is empty. This relative slowness is counterbalanced by higher damage per round and better armor penetration. The Vindicator averages 24.5 hit points per round on unarmored targets, and the fairly scarce and expensive 4.7mm caseless cartridge it uses has an armor-piercing effect. This allows the weapon to retain a relatively high percentage of its lethality against armor.
It has the second-highest damage output in the game after the Avenger minigun, but fares much better against armor, delivering devastating damage against any protective gear from leather jackets to hardened power armor. The Vindicator is particularly deadly with critical hits due to its combination of high damage output with armor-piercing ammunition. However, the Bozar outperforms it in non-critical damage against the two very heaviest types of armor found in the game.
This weapon's disadvantages are that it has the shortest range of all the machine guns in the game, 30 hexes as opposed to 35 to 40, and its 4.7mm caseless ammunition is quite rare to be firing away at 25 rounds per attack. On top of that, it is highly inaccurate at long range due to the missing Weapon Long Range perk.
Due to its relatively high rate of fire and the fact that its damage output consists of the combined effect of Base Damage + ammo's Damage Modifier, the Vindicator benefits more than most weapons from the Bonus Ranged Damage perk, which can be taken twice. Each level of this perk adds two points to the weapon's base damage of 14-19, which is then multiplied by the ammunition's Damage Modifier of 1.5, jacking the gun's average damage per round from 24.5 to 30.5. Multiplied by the number of rounds per burst, the increase is significant. With two levels of Bonus Ranged Damage, the Vindicator becomes the most powerful burst weapon in the game against all armor, though the Avenger still holds the edge in maximum damage on unarmored opponents.
A high-level, burst-fire optimized character with 10 Agility, 2 Action Boy and Bonus Ranged Damage, Bonus Rate of Fire and Fast Shot, armed with this weapon, can dish out 3 extremely high-damage bursts in a single combat turn. If the character has 10 Luck and Sniper, each of those bursts will be critical, meaning all but certain death, often by four-digit doses of damage, to three enemies in a turn. This is one of the few character-weapon combinations that allows killing even the End Boss single-handedly in one turn.
Overall, the Vindicator minigun is a very optional endgame weapon choice that is mainly based on stylistic preference rather than practicality. While it has a few "advantages" over its endgame Big Guns competitor the Bozar, these are mostly minor statistical and mechanical differences that introduce little to no improvements or overall difference in combat performance. It has numerous disadvantages, such as requiring a rare and expensive cartridge, only spawning in two locations in the game (San Francisco and the Enclave Oil Rig), being one of the most expensive weapons in the game at around $50,000 with lower Barter skill, having lower range and base damage while possessing a greater weight and Strength requirement, etc. that make the Bozar a more appealing weapon in the long run.
Locations[]
- Purchased from Mai Da Chiang at Red 888 Guns in San Francisco.
- Found in a locker in the armory of the detention center on the Enclave Oil Rig.
- Used by Enclave soldiers in advanced power armor on the Oil Rig.
Notes[]
The Enclave soldiers in the intro are using Vindicator miniguns. Interestingly, the minigun rotary barrels, only in between the barrel support rings, have a slightly different design that contradicts that of their inventory graphic and the rest of the rotary barrels.
Bugs[]
Though not a bug peculiar to this weapon, all the burst weapons in Fallout 2 suffer from a bug whereby dead creatures obstruct burst fire as if they were standing up. Thus if a dead entity is located between the attacker and the intended target of their burst fire, that dead entity will block the majority of the rounds fired.
Sounds[]
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Gallery[]
