Tesla Armor (Fallout 3)

The Tesla Power Armor, often called simply Tesla Armor by Enclave Troops, is a type of Power Armor. Unlike the pre-War Tesla Armor, constructed from plans left by Nikola Tesla, it is a variant of the Advanced Power Armor Mk II jury-rigged with a Tesla device that disperses a large percentage of directed energy attacks. Additionally, the armor makes operation of energy weapons easier, boosting the Energy Weapons skill of the operator. Enclave soldiers using this armor tend to use rarer, more powerful energy weapons; such as the Plasma Rifles. Although this is powerful armor and a great addition to your wardrobe, the only place to get it (and spare suits for repairs) is by fighting Enclave soldiers. Their armor is usually acquired in rather poor condition. Despite this drawback, the armor is still one of the best you can find by the end of the game, bested only by the T-51b and the Enclave Hellfire Armor.

Tesla Armor can be given to Protector Casdin at Fort Independence for 5.56mm rounds, Frag Grenades, RadAway, or Stimpaks.

Tesla Armor can only be repaired with other Tesla Armors, or by a NPC repairer.

Locations
For locations please refer to the discussion page.

Appearances
The Enclave's Tesla Armor appears only in Fallout 3. Another, yet unrelated powered version of Tesla Armor appears in Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, found in a Shop-Tec weapon vending machine in the Secret Vault Warehouse Basement.

Bugs

 * (Confirmed, PS3 | Doesn't work on 360) If you have on your person a fully repaired (100%) piece of Tesla Armor, and it is equipped, it will not depreciate no matter how many times you are hit. You must have another (not necessarily 100%) piece of Tesla Armor in your inventory for this to work. The unequipped piece of armor will take the damage instead.
 * When you have the Scoped Gauss Rifle equipped the Tesla pack disappears.


 * Though it does not lower your agility, the lights built on the shoulder plates makes sneaking very hard.

Tesla Power Pack
Some users have found a third item called "Tesla Armor", which has been dubbed by some the "Tesla Power Pack". Differing theories have argued that this item is glitched, or was a test item cut from the final version of the game.

While players encountering the item in the game is a glitch, which will be explained shortly, it is not a test item, and actually functions the way it's supposed to in most cases.

All power armors (and some other armor) have a "Biped Model List" which adds on extra parts to the default model. These items generally include gloves, backpacks, and shoulder decals. In the case of Tesla Armor, it has an item labeled by the GECK "ArmorTeslaPowerFX". This is the infamous power pack, and its purpose is to provide the lightning arc effect that is seen when the Tesla Armor is equipped.

The reason for the unusual behavior exhibited by this item is human error. Most items found on a biped model list are categorized as "Armor Add-On", which get applied by armor, but cannot be obtained by the player. On the other hand, "ArmorTeslaPowerFX" was created as an actual piece of armor, based on the default Enclave Armor. It doesn't have a world model, which is why it disappears when dropped. The reason that the aforementioned item appears as a backpack when equipped is that it uses the Enclave Armor's biped mode list, which equips the Enclave Armor backpack and gloves.

The glitch is most likely caused by the miscategorization. Since the items added by Add-on lists aren't supposed to be normal armor, the code that implements them may occasionally mix things up and add the third piece as an actual item. What prompts this is currently unknown. However, changing the model of the item, or removing it from the Tesla Armor's list would cause the armor to stop producing the lightning effect while wearing any type of apparel.

Rumor has it the item can be acquired on PS3 and Xbox 360 as a "glitched" item - whereas a soldier who is wearing Tesla Armor might have it equipped. The most prevalent rumor of it's location would be in the Taft Tunnels; specifically in the room next to the Overflow Controls where the Enclave are all on an elevated platform raining down fire on you. It is believed one of the Tesla Soldiers up top would have the pack.

There are three ways to access these dead soldiers:


 * The first method is to try and decapitate/blow off a limb in combat and hope it lands in a reachable place, preferably on the ground nearby to you.
 * The second method (And the the hardest) would be to continue down the tunnels towards where the Ghouls are located and take a few of the 55 Gallon Drums (Barrels) and bring them back into the room. Using some ingenious barrel stacking you can reach the top, check the corpses and explore a little. Up top there is a ladder that has no apparent use (Other than being able to swap it from 'Open' to 'Close') and a door which leads to the upper level of the seconds section, where a few Enclave Soldiers are situated. They are marked Hostile yet will not fire on you immediately, and will even respond to interaction made with them.
 * The third (And by far easiest if you are prepared) is to simply use explosives to break apart the dead bodies and blow the limbs to a reachable place. A few well placed Frag Grenades or well angled Missiles will do the trick. If you were lucky enough to stumble upon an Enclave Officer with Plasma Grenades beforehand they will help alot.

A hint for if you are over-encumbered and wish to check for the Tesla Power Pack at a different time:

The corpses of the Enclave Soldiers disappear upon speaking with Elder Lyons in the Citadel. If you loot the Enclave Soldiers of all of their possessions, however, the corpses will remain. Dropped items will also remain. That said, if you want to come back and check the armor/collect it for sale it is recommended you loot the Soldiers of all of their possessions and drop them on the ground. This includes weapons dropped by the Enclave upon death - those will disappear unless picked up and re-dropped. You cannot re-enter the sewers after leaving them for the first time; and even though the entrance in the purifier;says it takes a key, there are no keys to be found on any of the associated characters bodies. As well as being able to enter the rest of the sewers from the metal door in the now accessible room just outside of the Citadel. Although, the armor can only be obtained by the Enclave soldiers wearing Tesla armor on top of the balcony in the last room that you encounter Enclave before getting to the Citadel, and the door that would be assumed to enter into the area leading to the top is inaccessible,but it is very rare to do so in any case.