Gauss Rifle (Fallout 76)

The Gauss rifle is a weapon in Fallout 76. It uses 2mm EC ammo.

Characteristics
The Gauss rifle can be modded with more capacitors, a shielded barrel and a compensator or suppressor.

Capacitors and exposed copper wiring run alongside the barrel, and a nixie tube display above the stock gives the weapon's charge percentage. The rifle operates on a charging principle: the user holds down the trigger to build up the charge, and releasing the trigger fires a round with full base damage. An uncharged round only has 50% of base damage. It is fed rounds through a dorsal mounted cylindrical magazine and its projectile produces a momentary blue trail, similar to a lightning bolt.

The Gauss rifle is rather inaccurate when attempting to shoot from the hip. The reflex sight is essentially a "rear sight" aperture for a glowing front sight post; most of the main advantages of most reflex sights (clear sight picture unobstructed by the weapon's bulk) are lost when attempting to use one on a Gauss rifle.

The Gauss rifle is chambered for 2mm EC rounds as opposed to the microfusion cells used by the Anchorage-era variants. Gauss rifle shots produce a bluish explosion upon impact. This enables the Gauss rifle to hit multiple targets with a single shot, provided they are clustered together in very close proximity to each other.

Due to the amount of recoil and the charging rate, this weapon will not achieve the fire rate listed in its statistics. The actual fire rate is closer to 10.

Variants

 * Presidential Gauss rifle

Locations

 * The Whitespring bunker - Sold in the military wing command center.
 * Watoga Station - Sold by the vendor bot.
 * Randomly awarded by events/quests in the Cranberry Bog.