Gauss Rifle (Fallout 3)

The Gauss Rifle is an advanced sniper rifle included in the Fallout 3 add-on, Operation: Anchorage. The rifle uses a series of electromagnetic fields to propel 2mm rounds at tremendous speed. It has a knockdown effect that will knock enemies off their feet following a critical hit.

Unlike the German M72 Gauss Rifle, which uses 2mm EC magazines containing both batteries and ammunition, this gun requires the user to load in the Microfusion Cells needed to magnetize each preloaded 2mm round contained in the magazine attached to the side of the weapon. Each round produces a small "explosion" on impact, dealing minor splash damage.

Location
In the Capital Wasteland:
 * One is located in the VSS Armory after completing the Anchorage Reclamation simulation.

In the Anchorage Reclamation simulation:
 * During The Guns of Anchorage quest, there will be a deceased paratrooper with a Gauss Rifle.
 * One can be obtained from the Quartermaster at the U.S. Army Field Headquarters after successfully passing a speech check.
 * One can also be found on an American Trooper just before the end of the simulation.

Comparison
The following table compares the stats of the various sniper rifles.

The Gauss Rifle has greater reliability per shot than the Victory Rifle for knocking down enemies, but its buggy VATS performance and low clip size limits its usefulness in close-quarters combat.

Bugs

 * Sometimes (especially outside of V.A.T.S.) the Gauss Rifle's projectile will travel straight through your foe or even directly hitting them, doing no damage and alerting him and his companions to your presence. This is more likely to happen in close range.
 * This weapon does not deal proper damage when in V.A.T.S., and only seems to cause normal damage even with critical strikes in V.A.T.S. When targeting an enemy, their health bar will still display the full potential damage. This is related to the small "explosion" effect disrupting standard VATS formula calculations. The knock-down effect is still there, though less powerful. Hotfixes and plugins that remove the explosion effect seem to fix the issue.