Firelance

Firelance is a lightweight, yet powerful, weapon of alien origin that uses the same ammo type as the Alien Blaster. It also sets the target on fire, like the Flamethrower or Shishkebab, causing 2 points of damage every 5 seconds. It also has a ridiculously high chance to inflict a Critical Hit with each shot, nearly 100% with average luck.

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 you normally have more ammo for it, it fires faster, it is easier to aim, and you will not accidentally kill yourself with it.

Without the Pyromaniac perk, its max critical is 240, and Better Criticals will increase this weapon's critical damage to 360- still not a number to scoff at.

Appearances
The Firelance appears only in Fallout 3. It is primarily obtained from a random event, though it can sometimes be found on random NPCs in the Capital Wasteland.

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.

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. Meresti Trainyard is particulary prone to this event. 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: tcl) to get them.

In Wasteland, which served as 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 nighttime 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.