Tesla cannon (Beta)

The Beta Tesla Cannon is a developer test weapon, presumably an early beta version of the Tesla Cannon. It is aesthetically identical to a Missile Launcher and uses Missiles as its ammunition source. It can be obtained via a glitch or console commands.

Characteristics
As already mentioned the weapon is both identical to and uses the same ammunition as ordinary Missile Launchers, but still fires the same blast of electricity as the normal Tesla Cannon. This Beta Tesla Cannon (though it is just called "Tesla Cannon" in the game) delivers less damage then the actual Cannon, and uses up more A.P. per shot, but it can actually be repaired by ordinary Missile Launchers (but not vice versa). This means that unlike the Tesla Cannon, the Beta Tesla Cannon can be repaired to 100% indefinitely (assuming the player's Repair skill is high enough).

Location
One copy of this weapon can be found outside the map boundaries at Satellite Relay Station. It is obtainable via some rather tricky jumping, building an ammo staircase, using Dogmeat, or console commands.

Getting it Yourself

 * 1) This glitch is best utilized during the Liberty Prime destruction sequence, after Liberty Prime blows up and his head is propelled southwards use his head as reference and head south-west towards an outcropping of rocks and you should soon hit an invisible wall, denoting the map boundary, after trying to jump up onto a ledge. After you are in a position where you can see the wasteland but you are blocked by the invisible wall, SAVE the game here.
 * 2) Reload that same save, and while the game is loading, start moving forward until the game loads and your character has moved past the invisible wall (you may need to reload and try a number of times).
 * 3) Now that you have made it past the invisible wall, head slightly south as you are going westwards. You will eventually come across a table with what appears to be a Missile Launcher levitating above it and 3 ammo boxes underneath. This weapon is the Beta Tesla Cannon, and the ammo boxes contain some Missiles.
 * 4) Exit the cliffs from the way you got up. If you can't however, don't worry as there are a number of ways to get back inside the Map boundary:
 * 5) Skirt round to the North side of the map and jump down from on top of the building that got partially blown up during the Liberty Prime set-piece.
 * 6) Find your way to the concrete support (with a communication transmitter on it) that is on the opposite side of the concrete support next to Liberty Prime's head. Jump onto it and again to ground level.
 * 7) Jump at/onto ground-level trees from the rock ledge above (you should hear a wooden plank noise when you land), then jump again from the tree back onto the ground.
 * If you have an Xbox 360 or PS3, then you can obtain this weapon even after you complete the quest; this is perhaps easier for those who have no success with the save/reload jumping glitch. As soon as you exit the Rockland Car Tunnel into the Satellite Relay world map, go south to the fence, and use 5mm ammo crates to build stairs on the right side, up against the concrete support. There is no invisible wall beyond the fence. After scaling the fence, go directly south to a small outcrop on the rocks just in front of two trees that are close together. Climb to the clear ground and follow the power lines north toward the satellite dishes, and eventually northeast into a nook where a table, the The Beta Tesla Cannon and the ammo boxes will be on your right. If unable to re-enter the valley below where the battle took place using the "Exit the cliffs" method, you will have to backtrack to the fence and build another 5mm ammo crate staircase.

Using Dogmeat
Using Dogmeat's weapon finding command, then waiting a few game hours, should glitch him to where the weapon is outside of the map, allowing it to be retrieved from him. This process can be sped up by already standing close to where the weapon is outside the map.

Appearances
The Beta Tesla Cannon appears only in the Fallout 3 add-on Broken Steel