Euclid's C-Finder

Euclid's C-Finder is a weapon in Fallout: New Vegas.

Characteristics
The raw power of the sun, contained in an easy-to-carry package! Just point this weapon at the bad guys, and pull the trigger! The ARCHIMEDES II orbital laser will strike down at the speed of light and reduce your foes to ashes. The weapon can only be used once each 24 hours because of the recharge time of the lasers. To use the C-Finder the player must complete That Lucky Old Sun and choose to direct power to ARCHIMEDES II at the end. Once that quest is complete, the power cannot be redirected; the player can choose to arm the ARCHIMEDES I defense system even after the quest has completed, but that is a separate system, not controlled with the C-Finder.

Locations
Found in Freeside, near the east gate. A boy named Max carries it. He is chasing a girl named Stacey. The player may either buy it for 1000 caps (or 20 caps with a barter skill of 45), or it can be pickpocketed from Max, or taken from his bedside while he is sleeping. Max goes to sleep at 9:30pm, and sleeps on the second floor of the building on the right after coming into Freeside from the East Gate.

Behind the scenes

 * Euclid was a famous Greek mathematician. Among other things, he discovered basic geometric principles such as conic sections.
 * The name of the C-Finder, and the graphics it shows the player while it is operating, are a reference to using Euclidean geometry to find the third point, C, of a triangle, given points A and B, and distances BC and AC. In this example B is the player's position on the ground, A is the position of the ARCHIMEDES II satellite, and C is the position of the target. The satellite gets distance BC from the C-Finder (which is described as a "handheld rangefinder," in the terminal notes at HELIOS One), and knows AC, one assumes, from radar height measurement. In fact in practice the satellite would need significantly more information about, for example, the direction the C-Finder was pointing, and given good direction and range information the handheld device could calculate the target position directly. Perhaps one is to assume that the C-Finder can only measure basic compass heading and range, leaving the satellite to calculate the target's elevation.

Bugs
EDIT: Please verify, you only need 1 Euclid equipped on you, which you place in the crate with the ammo. After the ammo disappears from crate you just need to pick up same Euclid; repeating same steps of placing it and ammo in container accumulating inifinite ammo. To save ammo accumulated in storage on your ammo arsenal, you need to pick up all, both the Euclid and entire ammo inventory as soon as you place them into container.
 * It is possible to obtain infinite ammo for this weapon. To do so, you will need two of them. Equip one and put the other in a crate or something along with one or more charges, wait about five seconds and one more charge will spawn in your inventory. Pick up the other weapon and the charges that you put in the crate, and repeat.

EDIT2: (Only confirmed on XBOX) - Tested in '38 suite footlocker with only 1 Euclid: Put Euclid into container. Put ARCHIMEDES II ammo in container. Take Euclid back out. Exit the inventory dialog. Container will show "Empty" when hilighted, its ok, ignore. Wait for "ARCHIMEDES II Charge added" to appear in upper left corner. Open container. Put Euclid in again. You now have 1 charge in the container and one in inventory. Put your the charge from your inventory in the container and pull the Euclid out again. Charges will accumulate in the container, not your inventory. Repeat this process until you have all the charges you want in the container. Then for the last time, pull the Euclid out and all the charges out.

Edit3: (Only confirmed on Xbox)- can do this in any container in the wasteland (I did this in a trashcan at Sloan)

Edit4: (Confirmed on PS3)- Works in any container. (Done in a locker in the Nellis Hangers)


 * Occasionally, it is possible to get another shot right after the first one is fired. This has been tested by targeting the sky, then targeting a ground target and sometimes another charge will be acquired right after.
 * Even though it states that the recharge takes 24 hours it is actually closer to something like 28 hours.
 * If you've already bought the gun from Max before the quest I Could Make You Care, you can buy it from him again.
 * When attempting to fire at any location, the game will freeze (after activating Archimedes II at Helios One). Usually related to having the perk 'Heave Ho!' Using the console to remove this perk will allow you to fire the gun without crashing.
 * When trying to fire, the targeting laser will repeatedly play its animation without the laser firing. This will prevent the player from both using the weapon and from getting a new charge. The animation will continue to play indefinitely.
 * A fix is to save and quit the game, restart the game and load in the save. However: be warned, the animation will start straight away on loading but this time it will fire breaking the glitch.
 * Another possible fix might be to open the console (`) and type "StartQuest 16aeff", this should cause the laser to fire and reset the targeting script.
 * Fix does not work for the 360, though on 360 if you have the latest patch, clear the system cache, the laser will fire after you load your game (the laser will hit you), use the storage glitch in order to fix.
 * You can disable the repeated animation in the console by left clicking on the targeting laser and writing disable.
 * If you obtained the weapon from Max, wait for a few days he will have it again and you can buy it off him. It doesn't give you an extra charge, just another weapon.
 * For some unknown reason sometimes Max would be unarmed and running about and the Euclid's C-Finder would be in his inventory but if you pickpocket it out and talk to Max (if you have not bought it) and buy it you would get 2
 * On some systems using Turbo during any part of the targeting or explosion sequence will cause a crash
 * Sometimes if the player removes the gun from their inventory you can buy it again from Max
 * The barter check for Max doesn't appear when your barter is high enough, but does when it isn't.

Appearances
Euclid's C-Finder appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.