Tri-beam Laser Rifle (Broken Steel)

The  is a weapon which is added to Fallout 3 with the Broken Steel add-on. It is carried by Super Mutant Overlords.

Characteristics
The Tri-Beam Laser Rifle has the appearance of a "sawed-off" laser rifle, missing the tube on the bottom length of the barrel and having a new emitter aperture and attached wires. The new emitter fires three laser beams with each shot. Unlike the Metal Blaster, and Protectron's Gaze, it also expends three Microfusion Cells per shot. Because each shot depletes 3 microfusion cells, it has an actual magazine size of only 8.(24 ÷ 3 = 8)

This weapon is smaller than a normal AER9 Laser Rifle, yet it's one pound heavier.

This weapon has an Object Effect that makes it do 40 additional HP damage when the target is the player. That means that each beam does 65 points of damage, and taking all three beams deals 195 points of damage.

Appearances
The Tri-Beam Laser Rifle appears only in the Fallout 3 add-on Broken Steel.

Glitches
It is also possible to get the Tri-Beam Laser Rifle from one of the Super Mutants outside of the GNR building before the Super Mutant Behemoth attacks during the related quest.

Tri-Beam Laser Rifle vs. Metal Blaster

 * The Tri-Beam Laser Rifle has a longer effective range.
 * The Metal Blaster has a slightly shorter effective range.
 * The Tri-Beam Laser Rifle will do more damage with a VATS sneak attack (only one critical bonus allowed per VATS attack).
 * The Metal Blaster will deal greater damage in a non-VATS sneak attack (one critical bonus per beam allowed in free-aim).
 * The Tri-Beam Laser Rifle will generally do more damage for a player with a low critical chance.
 * The Metal Blaster will do substantially more damage for a player with a high critical chance.
 * The Tri-Beam Laser Rifle uses three Microfusion Cells.
 * The Metal Blaster uses only one cell per discharge.
 * The Tri-Beam Laser Rifle is repairable only with other Tri-Beam Laser Rifles.
 * The Metal Blaster can be repaired with any AER9 Laser Rifles or the Wazer Wifle.
 * The Tri-Beam Laser Rifle shoots 3 lasers per shot
 * The Metal Blaster shoots 9 lasers per shot

Videos
thumb|500px|left