Firelance

Firelance is a lightweight, yet powerful, weapon of alien origin.

Tips
With the Pyromaniac perk, the maximum damage is raised to 120. However, since most hits are critical, it has a good chance to do a whopping 360 points of damage per shot- Combine this with the Better Criticals perk, and your damage with this weapon is increased to a colossal 540 damage, making it a viable emergency weapon replacement for the Fat Man if your Energy Weapons is high enough, since it's significantly lighter, you normally have more ammo for it, it fires faster, it is easier to aim, and you will not accidentally kill yourself with it.

Appearances
The Firelance appears only in Fallout 3. It can only be obtained through the UFO random encounter.

The random event has a better chance of happening with a higher luck stat. There will be a sound like a jet flying overhead, followed by an explosion. Then something crashing and skittering across the ground will be heard, similar to knocking over a large object. At night, the explosion looks similar to a plasma rifle shot impacting; during the day, it looks like a frag mine going off.


 * The explosion is a random encounter and can happen in any location of the game.

After the explosion, the immediate area will be strewn with Alien Power Cell ammo and the Firelance. Unfortunately, it is in no particular pattern, and the player will have to search the immediate area to find the ammo (there are 24 total) and the Firelance on their own.

The Firelance will need some careful searching for (best by daylight) as it is small and blends in with the surroundings. Dogmeat is useful for this.

The items can sometimes become stuck in the sky, you can turn off clipping (console command: ) to get them.

Unfortunately, the weapon is likely to get stuck on buildings like a water tower in the wasteland. Your best bet is to try and blast it off with explosives, ideally frag grenades

In Wasteland, which served as an inspiration for the Fallout games, the Firelance is a weapon mentioned in the Paragraph Book included with the game.

Dogmeat is incredibly useful for this situation, as he can be told to search for a weapon and he'll fetch the Firelance. Dogmeat can also search for ammo and retrieve the alien power cells. Alternatively, wait until night time and look for the ammo, which glows blue in the dark. It is important to note that if an NPC discovers the Firelance during a combat situation they will pick up and equip the weapon. Confirmed NPC's include Raiders, Enclave and wasteland scavengers.

Firelance event
The quickest method to trigger it at Rockopolis:

Travel to Smith Casey's Garage, enter and save. Then exit, and immediately turn right and go west until the building does not cover the view. You now should see big rock(s) in front of you nearby. In the distance right of it there is a group of trees around some large boulders. Go to the right side of that formation - now to your left should be two large and a small tree. If you look west-northwest you see the top of a large tree over the slope. Go there, turn SW and quicksave. Now if you head SW - there is a big rock nearby and a large tree behind it - you should arrive to the 3-way crossing in front of Rockopolis. The random event is triggered just as you arrive to/pass the big rock. You can use Dogmeat to find the gun and the ammo which glows in the dark. It is hard to find without Dogmeat, but keep an eye on your dog, it attacks big enemies without discretion and will die.

Depending on your Perception stat you might see blue or red bars symbolizing living creatures instantly, in that case you can quickload immediately without checking the situation. If there are no creatures, but no sound of explosion at that point, you can quickload too (mines / dead persons type of encounter).

Please note that if you have been there before and triggered an encounter, you will not have any event there anymore. If you do not find the weapon and all the ammo, and do not have Dogmeat with you: and   console commands can help as some of the cells might be invisible because of their placement. Using you can find and get those cells too.

Firelance event is a unique encounter, meaning it can happen only once for a character. Even going to another unique random encounter location will not trigger it anymore.

Someone reported the Firelance may be found on people: while fighting an Enclave Soldier shooting with it. Also found on a Raider in front of Super-Duper Mart. Also reportedly found in perfect condition on a Talon Company merc at Fort Bannister, along with 1 alien power cell - though this may have been a glitch/bug due to the condition of the weapon and the overall irrationality of the find.

Another way to get this weapon is to finish the quest Head of State the good way by moving the slaves to The Lincoln Memorial, as this then makes the Temple of the Union a random encounter spot. Then save, quick travel there, go up to the second floor and see what encounter happens. If it isn't the firelance event, reload and try again.