Tesla Armor (Fallout 3)

The Tesla Power Armor, often called simply Tesla Armor by Enclave Troops, is a type of Power Armor. Unlike the pre-War Tesla Metal Armor, constructed from plans left by Nikola Tesla, it is a variant of the Advanced Power Armor Mk II with a Tesla device that disperses a large percentage of directed energy attacks. Additionally, the armor makes operation of energy weapons easier, boosting the Energy Weapons skill of the operator.

Although this is powerful armor and a great addition to your wardrobe, the only place to get it (and spare suits for repairs) is by fighting Enclave soldiers. Their armor is usually acquired in rather poor condition, with several new holes in it. Despite this drawback, the armor is still one of the best you can find by the end of the game, bested only by the T-51b.

Tesla Armor can be given to Protector Casdin at Fort Independence for 5.56mm rounds, Frag Grenades , RadAway or Stimpaks

Tesla Armor can only be repaired with itself, or by a NPC repairer.

Locations
Three Enclave soldiers with Tesla Armor are frequently found near Alexandria Arms

Three Enclave soldiers, one with Tesla Power Armor, can be found at an outpost on the other half of the broken overpass behind Arefu. There is a possibility that the Enclave soldier wearing the tesla armor is friendly.

A set can be found on the body of an Enclave soldier in the Deathclaw Sanctuary

During the quest "Take it Back!", some Tesla Armor can be found on the body of the Enclave soldiers' bodies.

You may also find Tesla armor on fleeing enclave soldiers running away from Raven Rock after you explode it, come back in a few days and there will still be people there.

During the quest "The Waters of Life", in the second section of the Taft Tunnel, there are a pair of Enclave soldiers with Tesla Armor on a balcony, just after you are stopped to deal with Garza. If you have the Bloody Mess perk, you may be able to loot the armor from a body part that falls from the balcony after killing them with a headshot. If body parts fail to fall from the balcony, you might be able to use a Frag Grenade to blast some parts down.

Three Enclave soldiers in Tesla armor armed with plasma rifles can be found north of Arlington Public library. The first time you see them, they will be dropped by a Vertibird. These Enclave shoot cars surrounding you quite frequently, be aware of your surroundings while fighting them. This is a very reliable source as the soldiers respawn every 1-2 days. It should be noted also that if you have good karma, several Talon Company Mercs will spawn at the same time as these three Enclave soldiers. This actually makes the fight easier, since the Talon and Enclave combatants will attack each other before you, killing each other off and injuring those who survive.

If you go to Rockbreakers Last Gas there will be 2-3 enclave soldiers with plasma rifles and one with tesla armor

Appearances
While the Enclave's Tesla Armor appears only in Fallout 3, an unrelated powered version of the Tesla Armor appears in Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, found in a Shop-Tec weapon vending machine in the Secret Vault Warehouse Basement.

Tesla Armor may also be found on soldiers dropped off by Enclave vertibirds.

If you fast travel to the Enclave base at Raven Rock, there will be three Enclave Soldiers in flee mode and a Giant Radscorpion. They are easily killed with a few shots as their health is low. Try again in 3-4 days and they will be back, still fleeing. This is an event that seems to always happen when visiting Raven Rock.

Bugs
(Confirmed, PS3) If you have on your person a fully repaired (100%) piece of Tesla Armor, and it is equipped, it will not depreciate no matter how many times you are hit. You must have another (not necessarily 100%) piece of Tesla Armor in your inventory for this to work. The unequipped piece of armor will take the damage instead.

Tesla Power Pack
Some users have found a third item called "Tesla Armor", which has been dubbed by some the "Tesla Power Pack". Differing theories have argued that this item is glitched, or was a test item cut from the final version of the game.

While players encountering the item in the game is a glitch, which will be explained shortly, it is not a test item, and actually functions the way it's supposed to in most cases.

All power armors (and some other armor) have a "Biped Model List" which adds on extra parts to the default model. These items generally include gloves, backpacks, and shoulder decals. In the case of Tesla Armor, it has an item labeled by the GECK "ArmorTeslaPowerFX". This is the infamous power pack, and its purpose is to provide the lightning arc effect that is seen when the Tesla Armor is equipped.

The reason for the unusual behavior exhibited by this item is human error. Most items found on a biped model list are categorized as "Armor Add-On", which get applied by armor, but cannot be obtained by the player. On the other hand, "ArmorTeslaPowerFX" was created as an actual piece of armor, based on the default Enclave Armor. It doesn't have a world model, which is why it disappears when dropped. The reason that the aforementioned item appears as a backpack when equipped is that it uses the Enclave Armor's biped mode list, which equips the Enclave Armor backpack and gloves.

The glitch is most likely caused by the mis-categorization. Since the items added by Add-on lists aren't supposed to be normal armor, the code that implements them may occasionally mix things up and add the third piece as an actual item. What prompts this is currently unknown. However, changing the model of the item, or removing it from the Tesla Armor's list would cause the armor to stop producing the lightning effect.