H&K P90c

The H&K P90c  is a small gun in Fallout 2.

Characteristics
The H&K P90c is a heavy-duty Submachine gun (SMG) chambered in the cheap, plentiful and powerful 10mm caliber. It boasts a strong single shot averaging 21.2 Hit Points of damage on soft targets, as well as a potent burst mode of 12 rounds per attack. However, the P90c's main advantage over other high-end select-fire weapons is its low action-point cost. At only 5 AP per burst, it has the highest damage-per-action-point of any small gun in 23rd-century New California.

This SMG's burst attack averages 240 HP, 95 HP, and 27 HP against unarmored, medium-armored and maximally armored foes, respectively. Moreover, the 10mm hollow-point round's favorable set of modifiers enables the P90c to benefit unusually heavily from the Bonus Ranged Damage perk, each level of which increases the gun's damage per round by 3 HP, for a maximum total bonus of 6 HP per round. This yields a major damage increase for the P90c's burst attack which, with 2 ranks of the perk, averages an impressive 305 HP, 125 HP, and 45 HP of damage against soft targets, medium armor and maximum armor, respectively -- all for one action point less than the other high-end select-fire weapons.

At only $2500, the P90c is remarkably cheap for its high combat value. Another advantage is the extreme abundance of 10mm ammunition, which is sold by practically every vendor and found fairly often in houses and containers, as well as on dead enemies, in New California.

On the minus side, the P90c's ammunition capacity is a modest 24 rounds, which allows only two bursts per magazine, but its low action point costs free up AP for more frequent reloading. A ranged-combat-specialized character (10 Agility, 2x Action Boy, Bonus Rate of Fire, Fast Shot) can technically fire 4 bursts per turn with the P90c, it requires having one P90c in each active-item slot, and even then it is only possible every other turn, without using addictive action-point-boosting drugs.

Another, more minor, drawback is the P90c's range of 30 hexes, which is 5 to 10 hexes shorter than that of the other high-end weapons in its class.

Locations

 * Wielded by marauders encountered in areas near NCR.
 * Sold by both Buster and Duppo in NCR.
 * Vault 15 Level 3, found on a New Khan guard's corpse.
 * Robber Cave random encounter, found on Robber's corpse.
 * NCR, obtained from Mira after finishing "Take care of Officer Jack" for Mira.
 * Sold by Lao Chou and Mai Da Chiang in San Fransisco Chinatown.

Behind the scenes
The actual P90 personal defense weapon is produced by Fabrique Nationale de Herstal. In the game, this gun is being depicted as having been produced by another real-life gun company, Heckler & Koch. It is also shown as being either 10mm or 9mm, while the real version is chambered for FN's 5.7x28mm ammunition. The magazine holds 50 rounds in real life, compared to the 24 rounds in-game.

Bugs

 * Though not a bug peculiar to this weapon, all burst weapons in Fallout 2 suffer from a bug whereby dead creatures obstruct burst fire as if they were standing up. Thus if a dead entity is located between the attacker and the intended target of their burst fire, that dead entity will block the majority of the rounds fired.
 * In Vault 15, some raiders have H&K P90c's incorrectly loaded with 9mm ammo rather than 10mm. These weapons can be fired normally but can only be reloaded with the correct 10mm ammo. In addition, random encounter robbers carry 9mm, but have the P90c loaded with 10mm. It seems that the P90 was originally going to be loaded with 9mm, but was changed shortly before release.

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