Im level 20 now and iv hardly seen many energy weapons at all let alone a gauss rifle. I was going to specialize in EW and melee in my next play through but now im wondering if its worth it?

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I haven't had a problem finding energy weapons even at lower levels (I was even able to buy a plasma pistol from Chet in the beginning)

The problem that I see most people having is that energy weapons are underpowered (Don't know yet myself because I'm still creating characters that specialize in guns)

There's a laser pistol in the house you start in with some energy cells. It's actually way easier to go EW than in any other fallout game. In FO3 you had to get to Rivet City pretty much before you had reliable access, and they rarely dropped in the wild. Now a few minutes of farming in west vegas ruins and you can have 2-3 laser rifles and an RCW.

There's plenty of them. The fiends seem to specialize. Equipment like gauss rifles you're not going to find on random enemies. You won't find sniper rifles or AMRs that way, either.

Laser weapons are less used because they eat through such an IMMENSE amount of ammo.

Not to mention, they were extremely underpowered, and lacks any real AP abilities.

Imo, in my opinion, lasers should do more damage, and ignore almost any armor.

And be a lot more expensive.


To see fiends wallow in Laser weapons is just a disgrace. I thought Laser weapons were cutting edge technology, only available to the small, scientifical elite, like BOS, Enclave, and powerful Wasteland forces.

Laser weapons are largely pre-war tech. A major plot thread of this game is that people like the Brotherhood are actually falling behind compared to new developments.

Silver Rush anyone?
Incinerator and Flamer?

Fiends have quite a lot of rifles as well. I may even complain there is too much choice of energy weapon while I have a hard time trying to find enough ammo for my Cowboy repeater....

even the overcharged rounds are weak. thank god i put points into melee. sledgehammer is awesome start.

Max charge > You

1.75x damage. Seriously. A Gauss Rifle firing that does something like 210 damage per shot.

Energy ammo ways too much. I dont know the exact numbers but just what i'v seen from scavenging energy weapon ammo weighs like 2x as much.

I think the benefit with energy weapons are all the higher level perks associated with it - I guess. Haven't tried my energy weapons character yet.

Now that large energy weapons are governed by energy weapons not big guns skill, EW gains a lot more utility. Having access to gatling lasers and flamers is rather nice.

The Brotherhood of Steel specializes in EW, so go to them if you're having troubles.
You can also buy some, or kill for some at the Silver Rush in Freeside.

Or.... you can grab a stealth boy and go into the silver rush and steal everything that isn't nailed down because you don't loose karma :tops:

Or drag them to the back of the shop and steal them, and save the Stealthboy for sneaking around Deathclaw nests .

I had a EW character, who I deleted due to massively screwing up, and I found them to be alright in the early stages as long as I wasn't fighting Radscorpions. I eventually got my hands on a Flamer, and that alone vindicated the choice since I could BBQ almost anything I came across even though my EW skill was low due to how I raise skills in the early levels.

One aspect of EW that I find to be a big advantage over conventional weapons is greater ease of recycling spent rounds; to recycle EW ammo all I need is the cells, while conventional rounds need the cases, powder, primer, and lead, and the powder and primer have to match the type (i.e. large rifle) being recycled.

My current character is using Guns for now, since she is still in the early stages, but I am thinking of using EW as well since I can then save conventional weapons for those situations that require AP ammo and use EW for most other targets due to ease of cell recycling.

1. You can steal almost every single energy weapon there is from Silver Rush including Multiplas, Tri-beam, Plasma Caster, Recharger Rifle and Pistol, and Plasma Defender.
2. REPCONN HQ will net you unique Q-35 Plasma (comparable with La Longue Carbine in damage and very cheap in ammo spending) and Laser RCW as long as your Lockpick and Science permit it.
3. Gauss is in the Bear Bootlegging shack west from Sarsaparilla HQ.
4. Fiends around Vault 3 carry a ton of good replacement weapons so after you have Jury Rigging you can just go there every 3 days and gather what you need to repair your stuff.
5. Gatling you will have to buy from the BoS.
6. There are two normal laser rifles in Nipton. There's unique laser in Vault 22. A bit useless all of them - but enough to get by until you get Gauss.
7. Get 50 star caps, get Pew Pew, best energy pistol.
8. McCarran bounty target Cook-Cook will give you a Flamer (also Vault 22), Incinerator can be found in Primm hotel.

Here you have it, all energy weapons are easy to acquire. Ammo weights a lot but you can convert it between types freely.

1. Go to Silver Rush at level 1-8.

2. Drag stuff to the bathroom or have sneak...then steal it. (Plasma Caster, probably one of the best)

3. Profit?

i have more energy weapons than i know what to do with.... even the fiends are using them.... alot of them I just vendor away.... and have found a ton randomly in places in the game.