Vindicator minigun (Fallout 2)

The Vindicator minigun is a big gun in Fallout 2.

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 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.

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.

Due to its 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, improving 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.

Locations

 * This variety of minigun itself can be acquired on-board the Enclave Oil Rig, or sometimes bought in San Francisco.