Anti-Materiel Rifle (Fallout: New Vegas)

The Hécate II anti-materiel rifle (AMR) is a weapon in Fallout: New Vegas.

Background
Utilizing an ergonomic, metallic skeleton design with a free-floating barrel, the .50 Hécate II is a bolt-action, high caliber precision weapon intended for use against materiel and hard targets. For balance, the rifle includes a tapered barrel and a large muzzle brake to reduce recoil to manageable levels. Unlike most rifles, the AMR was designed from the ground up to be used at long and extreme ranges: It lacks any kind of sights, featuring instead a mounting rail for high powered scopes and a forward bipod mount.

Characteristics
The AMR is similar in design principle to that of a sniper rifle, delivering a high power shot at long distances with great accuracy, although chambered in a larger caliber for hardened targets. As such, the AMR has extremely high damage and low spread and comes pre-equipped with a scope. The magnification level of the scope is 3.13x. Offsetting this is its slow rate of fire, resulting in a low damage-per-second and that the weapon itself weighs 20 pounds, making it one of the heaviest shoulder fired weapons in the game.

Additionally, its .50 MG ammunition is very rare, very expensive, and is heavy if carried in bulk in hardcore mode; a full magazine weighs two pounds without the Pack Rat perk and one pound with the perk.

When fired from the hip (without aiming), the resulting recoil from the weapon's large-caliber will result in the user being pushed slightly backward (evident in third-person view). Aiming down the scope will prevent this.

Durability
The anti-materiel rifle can fire a total of about 470 shots, the equivalent of 59 reloads, from full condition before breaking.

Variants

 * Anti-materiel rifle (GRA) - the variant added by Gun Runners' Arsenal that accepts modifications.


 * Oliver anti-materiel rifle

Locations

 * Gun Runners - can be bought from the Vendortron if the player's level is at least 16.
 * NCR Veteran Rangers will usually carry these when the player reaches a medium-high level. The rifle will commonly be in poor condition when looted from them. NCR veteran rangers are common at Camp Golf.
 * During the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, many troops of Caesar's Legion carry these in the outdoor area.
 * Knight Torres, in the Hidden Valley bunker, may sell one.
 * White Legs tribals can be found with these rifles at higher levels in Zion Canyon.
 * Marked men, particularly hunters, may carry these at higher levels in the Divide.
 * The Courier's Mile - in a high-tech gun case.
 * Ulysses' Temple - Ulysses carries one.

Behind the scenes

 * The anti-materiel rifle was influenced by the PGM Hécate II and is named after it, due to Sawyer being sick of Barrett sniper rifles being featured in games.
 * As displayed on the key art, the anti-materiel rifle had a different scope that is more in-line with its real-life counterpart.

Bugs

 * If loading a saved game from the main menu in which the anti-materiel rifle is equipped and drawn, the reload animation will take twice as long as normal. This can be solved by simply switching to another gun and then back again.
 * When fired at close range, it may completely miss even though the end of the barrel is almost literally touching the target, this is more common when you are not aiming down the sights.
 * When the weapon is fired in short range (almost melee), the barrel sticks through the enemy and misses the target.
 * If an anti-materiel rifle loaded with incendiary rounds is used to target anyone in V.A.T.S and V.A.T.S is canceled without being activated, the targeted opponent will still catch fire, causing standard fire damage.
 * Sometimes when zoomed in the scope glitches and prevents sniping with the scope. Turning off the system and reloading the save file will fix this.