Gauss Rifle (Fallout 4)

The Gauss rifle is a weapon in Fallout 4.

Characteristics
Unlike the earlier iterations of the Gauss Rifle from Fallout 3 and New Vegas, this rifle appears to be a crude prototype weapon. 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 but even without charging it is still able to inflict a hefty punch. The projectile produces a momentary blue trail, similar to a lightning bolt.

Although heavy and crude looking, the Gauss Rifle is able to deliver astoundingly high damage when fully charged, outclassing a Hunting rifle (Fallout 4) chambered in .50 caliber in its base state. Its ability to be modded with more capacitors, a shielded barrel, and a compensator or suppressor make it a lethal tool for the patient marksman. Unfortunately the weapon is not particularly accurate in its default state; it can be frustratingly inaccurate whilst attempting to hit a distant humanoid target with its default iron sights (particularly while attempting to use a charged shot).

Upgrading the weapon with alternate sights or a scope is highly recommended. However, with the sole exception of the short scope, the Gauss Rifle requires a heavy investment in both the Gun Nut and Science! perk to make any modifications to it. Like the M72 Gauss rifle it is chambered for the exceedingly rare and expensive 2mm EC rounds as opposed to the Microfusion cells used by the Anchorage-era variants.

Variants

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

Locations

 * A Gauss rifle is found on the Brotherhood of Steel's ship The Prydwen. It may be stolen as soon as the player gets onto ship from the ship's armory. There are seven known ways to accomplish this: (1) Master lock picking. (2) Master hacking. (3) Pickpocket the Brotherhood Knight Captain for the Prydwen Armory Key near the power armor (stay hidden to avoid angering everyone, without Paladin Danse as your companion). (4) A carefully placed fragmentation grenade behind the table can throw the gun off the table and into range (although any damage to the quartermaster and they'll get angry). (5) Direct Cait to unlock the door. (6) Direct Nick to hack the terminal. (7) Use of the blitz perk in VATS to melee attack the quartermaster (note it is a good idea to cancel the attack once in the armory).

Stealing the key is by far the easiest way. Hold the "use" button to move the rifle out of sight (hidden) before you loot it.
 * Carried very often by level 35+ railroad heavies and rarely by Brotherhood power armor troops during Institute faction missions.
 * 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 however be quick in picking them up, because NPCs will pick them up at the first chance.

Behind the scenes
The ammo used for the Gauss Rifles are relatively rare, making it a possible throwback to Fallout 2's Gauss rifle, as it had a very specific ammo type it used that was rarely sold by any vendors, although most commonwealth weapon vendors sell the ammo of the Fallout 4 version in small numbers.

Bugs

 * when drawing the Gauss Rifle, if you hold 'attack', the weapon will charge a shot, but upon releasing, 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