Alien Blaster (Fallout: New Vegas)

The alien blaster is a unique weapon in Fallout: New Vegas.

Characteristics
The alien blaster is one of the most powerful weapons in the game because a Critical Hit is guaranteed. This weapon will often be able to take down any foe with a single shot to the head. Enemies killed by a critical hit from this weapon are disintegrated into ash, identical to a laser with the exception that the disintegration effect is colored blue instead of red.

As with the alien blaster, the ammunition used by the pistol is also unique, meaning the 140-250 alien power cells found on the alien captain cannot be found anywhere else, limiting the use of the alien blaster.

Durability
The alien blaster can fire a total of about 2,495 shots, the equivalent of 250 reloads, from full condition before breaking, significantly more than the 222-272 cells that are normally available to be found.

Locations
The alien blaster is found just north of Horowitz farmstead, but is only available to characters that have the Wild Wasteland trait. If the Wild Wasteland trait is not chosen, the YCS/186 Gauss rifle, wielded by a mercenary, will replace the alien blaster.

The alien blaster is found on the alien captain, along with 140-250 alien power cells. The captain is aided by two other aliens, both of whom are armed with laser weapons, usually laser pistols.

Bugs

 * Sometimes, the alien captain does not carry the alien blaster. If this happens, loading a save from before you encounter the aliens solves this problem.
 * Be careful when putting the alien blaster into ED-E's inventory; sometimes it will replace its standard weapon with the alien blaster as would any other companion but, as ED-E can't physically equip the weapon, it simply disappears from ED-E's inventory and its standard laser blasts become the distinctive blue energy blasts of the alien blaster. It's impossible to get the alien blaster back when this occurs without loading a save from before the weapon was given.
 * When using Steady and entering VATS, all targets will have a 0% chance to hit, regardless of range or line of sight.