Metal Blaster

The Metal Blaster is a unique AER9 laser rifle added in the Fallout 3 add-on The Pitt.

Gameplay
The Metal Blaster fires nine separate beams per microfusion cell expended, with the damage being split evenly between the nine beams. Outside of V.A.T.S., each beam can cause a separate Critical Hit, doing 27 damage for each beam striking the target. A sneak attack critical and the Better Criticals perk has the potential to inflict 839 damage if all beams connect with a target. The spread of the beams increases when used in V.A.T.S., however, and may strike wide of a selected target. It can be repaired with standard laser rifles.

Durability
The Metal Blaster can fire 455 shots, or about 19 reloads, from full condition before breaking. That's 631 fewer shots than a regular laser rifle.

Variants

 * Laser rifle - standard laser rifle.
 * Wazer Wifle - this unique variant of the AER9 has higher damage and durability, as well as a larger magazine. It is obtained from Biwwy in Little Lamplight for five hundred caps, 250 with a speech check, or free with the Child at Heart perk.
 * Tri-beam laser rifle - the tri-beam laser rifle is a variant of the AER9 that fires three high-powered beams per shot, similar to the Metal Blaster, though it does require three microfusion cells every time the trigger is pulled. This weapon is not unique and is dropped by super mutant overlords but is not repairable with anything but other tri-beam laser rifles. It was first made available in Broken Steel.


 * A "demo" version of the laser rifle is included in Fallout 3, presumably left from the game's E3 demo. It does one point less damage per shot and less than half the critical damage than the standard variant, but has a much higher critical chance percentage. It is not used anywhere in the game and is only accessible through the use of console commands.

Locations
It can be obtained in The Pitt by bringing Everett 50 steel ingots during the quest, "Mill Worker."

Related quests

 * Mill Worker

Behind the scenes
The Metal Blaster is the second item in a two-part reference to Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Two characters, Master and Blaster, correspond to the Metal Master armor and the Metal Blaster, respectively.

Bugs
Very rarely, after restarting the game, the Metal Blaster will do zero damage to anything. This bug can be solved by un-equipping and re-equipping the weapon.