Fat Man (Fallout 3)

The  is a tactical nuclear catapult in Fallout 3.

Description
The Fat Man has an estimated range of 150+ yards. The blast zone will be irradiated for a short time.

The Mini Nuke projectile is very heavy, and if simply fired straight ahead, it will travel only a short distance before falling to the ground and detonating (causing you to be caught well within the very damaging mini-nuclear blast). For optimal range, the Fat Man should be fired in V.A.T.S. mode at high skill levels (which automatically compensates for the projectile's downward trajectory), or at an upward angle to catapult the mini nuke further so that it impacts at a safer distance.

The launched mini-nuke will fall if shot while in the air.

The Fat Man's condition can wear down surprisingly fast with frequent use (though its firepower is still devastating at any state of repair).

Variants

 * Experimental MIRV - An incredibly destructive weapon, the MIRV fires 8 Mini Nukes in a single shot.

Locations

 * GNR Plaza, on a dead Brotherhood soldier with 8 Mini Nukes, during the quest Following in His Footsteps. (The corpse of the Brotherhood soldier will not appear if the normal GNR quest is skipped and Sentinel Lyons is not encountered.)
 * Evergreen Mills, at the top of the Foundry in a locked room.
 * In the basement armory of Germantown Police HQ - an Average locked closet near the firing range.
 * Fort Bannister, in the Fort Bannister Main building in an Average locked room at the bottom of the concrete stairs.
 * The end of the Old Olney Sewers after a battle with a number of Deathclaws.
 * Fort Constantine, along with 2 Mini Nukes. You will need all 3 of the special keys from the You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head Quest to access the room.
 * In the ruins of the White House near a skeleton. Next to the Fat Man are three Mini Nukes. The White House can be accessed from a Utility manhole at White House Plaza, south of the building on Penn Ave.
 * Flak and Shrapnel in Rivet City have been known to sell one.
 * Capitol Building, during or after the fight with the Super Mutant Behemoth. It can be found equipped by Talon Mercenaries.
 * In a random encounter, a dead scavenger is carrying a Fat Man and a Mini Nuke.
 * Towards the end of the Operation: Anchorage quest, four American Soldiers with T-51b Power Armor will equip Fat Men, which can be knocked out of their hands or pickpocketed, and kept using the Gary 23 glitch.

Bugs

 * V.A.T.S. incorrectly calculates extra damage for a headshot. The Fat Man does not do extra damage with headshots.
 * If you equip the Fat Man with a Mini Nuke loaded, then drop all Mini Nukes in your inventory, the animation will still show a mini-nuke loaded into the Fat Man. There isn't actually a mini-nuke loaded, and the weapon cannot be fired.
 * Standing in front of a bus with a Fat Man, then, pausing, saving and re-loading, may result in the bus flying into the air when you walk forward.

Behind the scenes

 * The launch mechanism of the Fat Man is pneumatic. Coupled with the heavy projectile, this accounts for the short range of the weapon. This type of launch system was first pioneered by the British PIAT anti-tank weapon of WWII, where the projectile was launched from a similar cradle-like contraption using a mechanical spring system (though in the case of the PIAT, was used to detonate a small propelling charge), which had the similar properties of short range and lack of accuracy. The only real-world weapon remotely similar to the Fat Man is the M-388 Davy Crockett, developed by the United States during the Cold War.
 * Fat Man was the codename for the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan by the United States on August 9, 1945, at 11:02 a.m. It was the second of just two nuclear weapons to be used in warfare and was the third man-made nuclear explosion. The name also refers more generically to the early nuclear weapon designs of U.S. weapons based on the "Fat Man" model. It was an implosion-type weapon with a plutonium core. Early artwork for the Fat Man also included a miniature version of the B-29 bomber, the 'Enola Gay', attached to the top of the Mini-Nuke. This was scrapped because the Enola Gay actually dropped a 'Little Boy' type bomb, not a Fat Man.
 * Because of its relation to the real historic event, the weapon was renamed to the Nuka Launcher in the Japanese version of Fallout 3. It is, however, still referred to as the Fat Man in dialogue.
 * The bell heard after reloading is actually the lunch bell at Bethesda.

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