Tesla-Beaton Prototype

The Tesla-Beaton prototype is a weapon in Fallout: New Vegas. It is a unique variant of the Tesla cannon.

Characteristics
The Tesla-Beaton prototype appears to be similar to the Tesla cannon, but with an orange glow instead of blue, and a fully encased energy emitter. It also has several exposed wires and various lights attached to the casing, giving it a more makeshift appearance. Prior to patch 1.3.0.452, each shot expended 45 electron charge packs, but it now expends 6 electron charge packs per shot, with a magazine capacity of 24. Also, the patch removed the prototype's AOE blast damage. Unlike the original Tesla cannon, it only has half the HP. This is likely due to it being in the prototype stage. Because of this issue, the need for constant repair makes it a less practical weapon for repeated use.

Durability
The Tesla-Beaton prototype can fire a total of about 195 times using standard packs, the equivalent of 49 reloads, from full condition before breaking.

Variants

 * Tesla cannon
 * Elijah's jury-rigged Tesla cannon

Location
The Tesla-Beaton prototype can be found at the crashed vertibird next to a skeleton, near the old nuclear test site far southeast. Use caution, however, as there may be up to 6 Hardened Mister Gutsies and 4 hardened sentry bots standing guard.

Behind the scenes

 * The weapon's name is a reference to Kate Beaton, a webcomic artist whose comics have featured Nikola Tesla several times.

Bugs

 * Sometimes the robots surrounding the crashed vertibird will not appear. If reloading a save near the crash site after picking up the weapon the robots will spawn all around you.
 * In some cases, the clear encasing on the cannon will not show the Tesla coil animation and instead always stay glowing orange, reloading a saved game or fast traveling will fix this.
 * After patch 1.5/1.3.0.444, when looking from third person, the Tesla-Beaton prototype will eject the electron charge pack in the back of the cannon after the first shot, and then seemingly eject electron charge packs out of nowhere during any shots after the first one. This can be remedied by reloading after each shot, though it is not recommended.