Plasma gun (Fallout 4)

The plasma gun is a weapon in Fallout 4. Variants include the plasma pistol, plasma rifle, plasma scattergun and plasma thrower.

Characteristics
Plasma guns are a versatile urban warfare weapon that can be used as a pistol, sniper rifle, semi-auto rifle, assault rifle, shotgun, or even as 'plasma flamethrower'. It is usually encountered later in the game and found on technologically advanced opponents, although at even higher levels it can be found on raiders and legendary enemies.

Compared to the previous iterations, Fallout 4's plasma projectiles travel much faster and cause both ballistic damage and energy damage as opposed to only energy damage. It is a good weapon for facing high tier enemies, with its dual damage output a fully upgraded plasma rifle in a non automatic format and proper investment in the Rifleman perk can feature monstrously high damage outputs (inflicting more than 100 damage in both ballistic and energy damage) with the only non explosive weaponry capable of reliably exceeding it in damage output being the Gauss Rifle. Unfortunately the plasma bolts despite being faster than in previous renditions still have a noticeable lag time, potentially limiting the utility of Plasma Sniper Rifles at distant moving targets.

Not only is the weapon itself much rarer than other energy weapons, its plasma cartridge ammo is much more valuable as well. This reduces the viability of this weapon as an all-around firearm.

One of the other only downsides to this weapon is the lack of an ability to add a silencer meaning to some builds, a weapon with this option would be far better suited.

Plasma guns are the lightest ranged weapon class in the game, closely followed by laser weaponry. A fully upgraded plasma gun in a rifle type variation weighs just over 8 pounds while a top tier laser gun in a rifle configuration weighs around 9 pounds, making both weapons even more useful as a powerful backup weapon that can be carried around at all times without weighing its owner down too much.

Variants

 * Experiment 18-A, a unique plasma rifle, purchased from a synth at the Institute for approximately 3000 caps.
 * Sentinel's Plasmacaster, a unique plasma pistol, sold by Teagan in the The Prydwen after reaching the rank of sentinel in the Brotherhood of steel.

Locations
Legendary Plasma Guns start dropping at level 24.

Vendors start selling Plasma Guns starting from level 17.

Bugs

 * The plasma thrower is bugged and has a high (though not 100%) chance of dealing no damage each time the trigger is pulled. This occurs both with and without using VATS.