Gauss Rifle (Fallout 3)

The Scoped Gauss Rifle is one of the deadliest rifles in the Fallout 3 add-on, Operation: Anchorage. The rifle uses a series of electromagnetic fields to propel rounds at tremendous speed. Its range, accuracy and stopping power are almost unparalleled. It has a knock-down effect that will knock enemies off their feet following a critical hit.

Features
Unlike the German M72 Gauss Rifle, which uses 2mm EC magazines containing both batteries and rounds, this gun requires the user to load in the Micro Fusion Cells needed to energize/magnetize each standard 2mm projectile round; those are already pre-loaded into the weapon, and are in the magazine attached to the side of the weapon.



Location
Upon completion of the Anchorage Reclamation simulation you will gain access to the VSS Armory, which is located across the way from the simulation room. There you will find the Gauss Rifle.

Appearances
While this Gauss Rifle model does not appear in the main Fallout 3 game, it makes an appearance in the Operation: Anchorage add-on pack, instead of the M72 Gauss Rifle from Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics. Upon completion of the Anchorage Reclamation simulation, an armory containing the Gauss Rifle is opened and the rifle is unlocked and able to be used in the main game. The Gauss Rifle has been reassigned to the Energy Weapons skill and uses Microfusion Cells for ammo.

Gauss Rifle Repair
One way to repair the Gauss Rifle is through the use of NPCs with repair skill. The best NPC is one of the traveling merchants, Crazy Wolfgang, who can repair the rifle to up to 88% condition. This requires an investment on your part, as well as Reverse-Pickpocketing. See Caravan merchant investment.

The Wasteland version and sim version can be repaired by the sim version of the Gauss Rifle. One copy of the sim rifle can be obtained in game by the Gary 23 glitch to repair the Wasteland version. The Gauss Rifle can be repaired once unless PC uses use the console command to obtain more copies of the sim version. However all items obtained through the Gary 23 glitch are in perfect condition and will remain that way no matter how much you use them (just as they were in the simulation)

Trivia

 * The rifle is featured in one of two Chinese propaganda posters within the simulation, which means that it was either of Chinese origin, or was sold to China and possibly the U.S. by another country (Perhaps Germany, as the Germans are the developers of its predecessor, the M72 Gauss Rifle). It is also possible that the Chinese aquired and copied the technology.


 * There is a beta version of the Gauss rifle that uses the model of a laser rifle and features a five round magazine. It only does about 25% of the damage of the final version, but has a 100% knock-down chance. It is only obtainable through console commands. The beta version is especially interesting because, when fired, it shows the true trajectory of the Gauss rifle's shots, whereas the "official" version of the weapon shows a misleading visual representation of the bullet trajectory. When one fires the beta version, the round clearly fires quite a ways up and right of the center of the scope. For some reason this off-center trajectory remained unchanged in the "official" version, leading many players to confounding missed shots, because visually the round appears to be dead-center despite the fact that the actual coded pathing for the round remains up and to the right. A side-by-side comparison of both Gauss Rifles, the beta and the "official", tested on multiple targets from multiple angles seems to confirm this.
 * It is possible that the Gauss rifle was originally planned to be a shoulder-mounted "big gun". This would explain the disconnection between the coded projectile vector and the expressed projectile vector. Perhaps the Gauss rifle's projectiles were coded to be emitted from a shoulder-mounted weapon (such as the missile launcher). This would account for the coded projectile firing from a point up and to the right of the center of the scope.

Bugs

 * Sometimes (especially outside of V.A.T.S.) the Gauss Rifle's projectile will travel straight through your foe, doing no damage and alerting him and his companions to your presence. This is more likely to happen in close range. Until it has been patched, it is suggested that players limit their use of the Gauss Rifle in free-aim mode. (X360 and PC)
 * 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.
 * While wearing power armor with an equipped Gauss Rifle, in 3rd person view the power pack on the back of the armor disappears (most obvious when wearing Tesla Power Armor). This may be because the Gauss Rifle may have been intended to be a heavy weapon wich would have used an ammo pack replacing the power pack.
 * Firing while moving in 3rd person, the weapon may freeze in place and remain stationary in mid air, while the character model appears to be holding an invisible gun. (Occured in Megaton wearing Winterized T-51b Power Armor)
 * When using VATS, the player character (PC) may seeming disappear during the VATS scene, though this has no effect on the player character.
 * If the player aims straight at the ground while in 1st person mode and fires, it is possible to damage yourself, and it causes the character to be disarmed and drop the rifle. In 3rd person mode, the rifle will be frozen in place and fire from that position, but will disappear in 1st person mode. Unequipping and re-equipping seems to solve this, but may leave lingering bugs with the sound.
 * Certain instances of when a player is holding a Gauss rifle after picking up the Alien blaster has made a glitch where it shows in the PIP Boy as equipped despite you choosing another weapon to equip. The Gauss rifle then appears invisible but your hands are positioned as if they are holding it....with a grenade on the left hand, but still fully functional.. Oddly, when the Shishkebab is equipped (theoretically in junction with the Gauss) the player will instead be holding the Gauss Rifle at the end and move it the same angle as the Shishkebab when zooming in, yet can still damage enemies with it. It is rather humorous to be whipping your opponent effectively with a Gauss rifle, and see them somehow catch on fire (since it is still using the Shishkebab's ability, think of it as a skin for the Shishkebab, being a Gauss Rifle.). The glitch can be removed by simply deselecting the Gauss Rifle in the PIP Boy. (1 Case Confirmed for Xbox 360)
 * The gun can at times send characters shot by it flying. In one instance, while in sneak mode and undetected, I shot at a talon company merc's missile launcher, and while the missile launcher fell as it was supposed to, the merc went flying about the height of one and a half super mutant behemoths at twice the distance towards the direction he was facing (right) and into a wall.  He clearly would have flown further than that.  This may have something to do with either the knock back effect or the explosion the shot makes on impact (or both).

YouTube Videos
thumb|left|Obtaining the Gauss Rifle thumb|right|The Gauss Rifle in the Anchorage simulation