Holorifle

The holorifle is a weapon in the Fallout: New Vegas add on Dead Money.

Background
The holorifle, along with other model types, was constructed by Father Elijah, utilizing technology that he had obtained from the Big Empty and fashioned from the holograms in the Sierra Madre. He used a standard grenade launcher as the template, modifying it with a hologram emitter and drawing power from microfusion cells loaded into the grenade tube.

The construction of the holorifle enabled him to circumvent the security of the Sierra Madre, which normally confiscates items with even trace amounts of contamination and returns them to the owner's home.

Gameplay
The holorifle is a scoped, pump-action energy based weapon. The weapon's frame is similar in appearance to that of a grenade launcher. The scope of the weapon also appears similar to that of a Laser Rifle Scope, but with the advantage of integrated night vision. However, the magnification level of the holorifle scope is only 2.86x, compared to the 3.5x magnification of the Laser Rifle Scope.

The weapon is unique in that its projectile is not a bullet, plasma, laser, flame, electromagnetic pulse, or electrical charge. Since the holorifle is based on hologram technology, it fires a concentrated photon-based energy projectile, and so is most similar to photonic energy weapons (i.e., lasers). On impact, the projectile applies a "holorifle damage" effect, dealing an additional 15 damage over three seconds and visualized by glowing flakes wafting off the target (similar to the "flame damage" done by a Flamer or Incinerator) and knocking the target back. As with most other energy weapons, the holorifle's projectile will ignite any gas traps and other flammable hazards that it comes in contact with.

The holorifle uses microfusion cells for ammunition, loading up to four cells in a tubular under-barrel magazine. As the magazine is internal and like the tube of a pump-action shotgun, the weapon must be reloaded by hand, one cell at a time, resulting in longer reload times compared to other energy weapons. However, the reloading process can be interrupted for immediate firing. The holorifle thus has the singular advantage of being able to immediately fire again if less than a full magazine is needed.

Due to the unique nature of the holorifle, it cannot be repaired by any other weapon, even with the Jury Rigging perk. It can be repaired only by Weapon Repair Kits, merchants, or through ED-E with at least one rank of the Camarader-E perk.

Durability
The holorifle can fire a total of about 495 times using standard cells, the equivalent of 124 reloads, from full condition before breaking. Because of a bug, the reinforced components only improve overall weapon durability by 8 more shots, or only 2 more full reloads.

Modifications

 * Holorifle Focus Optics, increases the holorifle's damage by 25.
 * Holorifle Adv. Calibration, reduces the holorifle's spread by 0.25.
 * Holorifle Reinf. Components, improves the maximum condition of the holorifle by 1.5% (see bugs).

Location
The player character is given the holorifle at the beginning of Dead Money. It is not possible to subsequently obtain any additional holorifles without the use of console commands.

Behind the scenes
Joshua Sawyer stated that he wanted to create custom MFC ammo for the weapon, to make it stand out more, but could not do it due to technical limitations.

Bugs

 * With the reinforced components modification and 100% condition, the holorifle will not take damage while firing regular microfusion cells. With Raul as an active companion applying the Full Maintenance companion perk, the holorifle will not take any damage even while firing overcharged, max charge or optimized cells, and even with the Built to Destroy trait.
 * When using a weapon repair kit on a fully repaired holorifle, it is possible to raise the weapon's value to high amounts, thus increasing its total hit points. In other words, the more repair kits one uses, the higher its value and total HP become.
 * The holorifle will sometimes be affected by the same scope bug as many other weapons: while aiming with the scope, brightly colored shapes will appear instead of the standard scope image, obscuring much of the screen.
 * Unequipping the rifle and then reequipping it will fix this.
 * During V.A.T.S., it will not fire. The player character will be stuck in V.A.T.S., leaving them vulnerable. One must reload a save to fix it. Alternatively, one can also wait and V.A.T.S. will end after a while.
 * Disconnecting and reconnecting the controller will fix this.
 * When switching ammunition types, it may infinitely loop the reload animation. This can be fixed by switching ammo types again.
 * The weapon will not jam, even at near-breaking conditions.