Gatling Laser (Fallout 3)

The Gatling laser in Fallout 3, is the most advanced weapon type for the Big Guns skill. It is similar to the minigun, as the only major differences are the fact it fires lasers instead of bullets, and of course the obvious appearance differences.

Background
In contrast with the L30 Gatling laser, this model is not only fully automatic and with a much larger capacity (albeit requires a back-mounted battery pack), but also mass produced. While they entered service shortly before the war, they quickly became an important part of the arsenal, both of pre-War and post-War factions.

Characteristics
The Gatling laser is actually not a Gatling weapon as the barrels do not rotate when it fires - instead, the barrels fire in a rotating order. However, although the animation for this firing makes it appear very random and haphazard, the barrels do not have to 'spin-up' making the Gatling laser much easier and quicker to use than the minigun.

At long range the weapon is actually an incredibly accurate weapon, but in V.A.T.S. it is a very poor weapon. One can easily take out any threat at a safe distance with a Gatling laser, however.

At point blank range, it actually aims a bit lower than the cross hair. This is easily observable when trying to shoot a corpse's head off while standing on top of it.

A fully repaired Gatling laser can fire 3127 bolts, about 13 full cells, before breaking.

Variants

 * Vengeance - The most powerful Gatling laser, Vengeance is also one of the most durable weapons in the game, with 2000 item HP.
 * Precision Gatling laser (Broken Steel add-on) - While not as powerful as Vengeance, the Precision Gatling laser has a very high critical multiplier of 4.

Locations

 * Gatling lasers are most commonly found on Enclave, Brotherhood of Steel Outcasts, and Brotherhood of Steel soldiers. These soldiers can be found in areas like The Washington Monument, Fort Independence, inside Arlington Library, Pennsylvania Avenue, and outside the Citadel. It can be acquired from these NPCs either through killing them, pickpocketing the ammunition for their weapon and coming back when they've unequipped it, knocking it out of their hands by shooting it, or stunning (save before doing this) them using the Mesmetron and taking the item from their inventory.


 * Inside Raven Rock there is a Gatling laser in an Enclave crate behind the energy shield in the last area of Raven Rock. You will notice it on your right as you near the Sentry Bots which fight off three Enclave soldiers. There are three cases which carry armor and this weapon.
 * Vengeance is a unique and very powerful Gatling laser, Vengeance can be found in the Deathclaw Sanctuary in the southeast part of the sanctuary next to the pool of blood


 * With the Broken Steel add-on, Gatling lasers are also carried by super mutant overlords. The overlords can be encountered from level 13.


 * With the Point Lookout DLC, two Gatling lasers can also be found in the St. Aubin Medical Facility.


 * With the Mothership Zeta DLC, at least 4 Gatling lasers can be found on the Cargo Hold and on the Engineering Core as the quest Among the Stars progresses.

There is a respawning pair of Super Mutant Overlords on the path to The National Guard Depot from Friendship heights who come armed with Gatling Lasers.

Ammunition
Ammunition for this weapon (electron charge packs) is easy to come by, especially after upgrading the traveling weapon merchant Lucky Harith. Flak and Shrapnel in Rivet City also tend to have a good supply of the ammo for sale. While the ammo is fairly easily bought, it's much more rarely found as loot. Since the Gatling laser has the highest ammo consumption rate, this can be a problem.

Appearances
This model of Gatling laser appears only in Fallout 3, replacing the L30 Gatling laser known from previous games. Unlike that version, the Gatling laser runs on electron charge packs and uses the Big Guns skill.