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. 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 it's 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 at minimum the short 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 opposed to the Microfusion cells used by the Chinese 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 player gets onto ship and is capable of picking a Master lock or hacking a terminal.
 * 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 Note: Weapon appears in vendors at level 29.
 * A gauss rifle can sometimes be found in a chest upstairs in the Nahant Chapel (found at level 39, unconfirmed how consistent or min. level)
 * A gauss rifle can sometimes be found at the Combat Zone possibly a random spawn in the area or on a raider (needs more verification as the player has to have not be inside of Combat Zone until after level 35)
 * May be acquired as loot from chests or PAM at higher levels.
 * A high amount 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 NPC's will pick them up at the first chance.
 * Unlike the previous versions, the version found in the commonwealth is designed more closely to an actual coil gun, as it seems to use some kind of capacitors to power up the gun, which is how actual models of the coil gun operate instead of instantly releasing a precharged amount of energy, however these capacitors would not be able to store the energy for more then a few seconds before having to release it to prevent damage due to overcharging.