Gauss Rifle (Fallout 4)

The Gauss rifle is a weapon in Fallout 4.

Characteristics
The Gauss rifle is able to deliver very high damage after being fired when fully charged. It can be modded with more capacitors, a shielded barrel, and a compensator or suppressor.

Capacitors and exposed copper wiring run alongside the barrel, and a Nixie tube display above the stock gives the weapon's charge percentage. The rifle operates on a charging principle: the user holds down the trigger to build up the charge, and releasing the trigger fires a round (roughly 50% of a fully charged shot). It is fed rounds through a dorsal mounted cylindrical magazine and its projectile produces a momentary blue trail, similar to a lightning bolt.

The Gauss rifle is rather inaccurate when attempting to shoot from the hip. The reflex sight is essentially a "rear sight" aperture for a glowing front sight post. Most of the main advantages of most reflex sights (clear sight picture unobstructed by the weapon's bulk) are lost when attempting to use one on a Gauss rifle.

The Gauss rifle is inaccurate with its standard sights. The scopes needed to offset this deficiency require a heavy investment in the Gun Nut perk to craft, with night-vision and recon versions also requiring investment in the Science! perk.

The Gauss rifle is chambered for the rare and expensive 2mm EC rounds as opposed to the microfusion cells used by the Anchorage-era variants. Gauss rifle shots produce a bluish explosion upon impact. This enables the Gauss rifle to hit multiple targets with a single shot, provided they are clustered together in very close proximity to each other. However, secondary targets don't receive any damage, as the rifle's explosion effect has no damage value assigned to it.

Variants

 * The Last Minute - A variant of the Gauss rifle sold by Ronnie Shaw after the quest Old Guns.

Locations

 * Up to five Gauss rifles can be found at Skylanes Flight 1981 and Skylanes Flight 1665. One needs rank 3 of the Locksmith perk to get them from a hidden compartment of the far most trunk under the cockpit. This cache contains leveled loot (causing different versions of the corresponding manifest to spawn). If the player is below level 32, they will not encounter Gauss rifles at this location.
 * A Gauss rifle is found on the Prydwen in Teagan's shop. This will always spawn regardless of level and can only be stolen.
 * Carried very often by level 35+ Railroad heavy units.
 * Rarely carried by super mutant warlords at higher levels.
 * The Gauss rifle can be purchased from weapons vendors after reaching level 25.
 * A large quantity of Gauss rifles can be found during The Battle of Bunker Hill, as the constantly spawning Railroad and Brotherhood troops will carry them. One must be quick in picking them up because NPCs will pick them up at the first chance.
 * Aaron Corbett can sell this weapon, and at a much earlier level than any other weapon merchant in the game.

Bugs

 * When drawing the Gauss rifle, if holding "attack," the weapon will charge a shot, but upon release, no shot will be fired, or ammunition consumed.
 * "Aborting" a reload of a Gauss rifle (by either bringing up the Pip-Boy or using a weapon-bash) will make the next charge-up a dud that will not expend ammunition or fire as expected
 * Charging the Gauss rifle, then switching to another weapon, will keep the charging sound looping until the Gauss rifle is switched to again.
 * When repeatedly zooming in with a scope, the player may become stuck within the scope and will only be able to fire dud shots.