The Gauss Rifle

[danconnors]

Just got my first gauss rifle at level 35, and I can see right away that I'm going to have to plant some new water purifiers. 17 caps per shot! That must be the most expensive ammo in the game. Still it is super powerful. I got the gun new, and it was putting out around 250 damage per shot. With the few upgrades available to me at gun nut 3 and science 3 I have it up to over 350 damage per shot.

It's strange that I can only hang a short scope on it at level 3 gun nut. At level 1 I think I could put a recon scope on a pipegun. Guess the notches are harder to make or the screws require microscopic screwdrivers--or something. In a few more levels I'll have gun nut 4, and this should be the ultimate sniper rifle. It will be extremely heavy, so if I want to stick to my limit of one rifle and a pistol, I'm going to have to knock that long barrel off my combat shotgun and go with a short barrel that I could conceivably carry as a pistol.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

nice

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

it's actually extremely easy to keep refilled if you got the ammo scavenge perk early on. You can literally find like 10 2mm cartridges every now and then.

As you said 1 shot is all it takes to kill most enemies at max'd out mods.

Tbh with the ammo scavenger perk it doubles you can just sell off excess ammo. If you kill enough enemies they drop low caliber .38 ammo but in such large quantities and so often you can buy like 1 bullet per every 2 enemies dropped.

[danconnors]

But with 200 water I can buy over 100 rounds. I think I should be okay with 100 rounds per day. I'm about to take it to the Malden Center and try it out on a bunch of synths.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Originally posted by danconnors:

But with 200 water I can buy over 100 rounds. I think I should be okay with 100 rounds per day. I'm about to take it to the Malden Center and try it out on a bunch of synths.

yeah but you gotta carry them.

unless survival ammo is literally weightless.

if survival you got bigger things to worry about.

[danconnors]

I play survival and the 2mm cartridges are surprisingly heavy. I was carrying 176 of them, and they weighed 23 pounds--around 2 ounces per shot. That's extremely heavy for such a small diameter cartridge. My guess is that there must be some kind of energy cartridge attached to the projectile--something that provides power to the rifle capacitors.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Then mods are here for you.

I think theres a modded perk that allows you to cut ammo weight by half (or mods to give you rings to inc. carry weight.

[danconnors]

No. If that's what it weighs I'll have to manage with it. I think 200 gauss rifle rounds and 200 shotgun shells--about 45 pounds altogether--should get me through most fights.

[danconnors]

Made level 4 gun nut, and the gauss rifle is complete. Without adrynalin it does 362 points of damage per shot. It is suppressed, and makes very little noise for such a powerful shot. But it is almost like carrying a piece of artillery. The total mass comes to about 24 pounds.

Now to try to find these super mutants that were supposed to be immune to my assault rifle fire. Might go looking for a mirelurk queen too, as well as a legendary deathclaw. Let me at them!

[ƎϽ∀ƎԀ]

And all you need is 1 little tree twig or branch ( that you cant see as you are too far away ) in the way of your shot and you wont hit anything. Fence wire, a small bush, anything in the "bullet" path and it makes the weapon useless. Far better off with a rifle. Just try and hit a headshot from an enemy sticking their head out from the corner of a building or from behind cover, forget it. The shot will splash on whatever they are hiding behind every time. Its only good for wide open spaces and considering the weight of it, once again, better off with a regular rifle.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Originally posted by PEACE:

And all you need is 1 little tree twig or branch ( that you cant see as you are too far away ) in the way of your shot and you wont hit anything. Fence wire, a small bush, anything in the "bullet" path and it makes the weapon useless. Far better off with a rifle. Just try and hit a headshot from an enemy sticking their head out from the corner of a building or from behind cover, forget it. The shot will splash on whatever they are hiding behind every time. Its only good for wide open spaces and considering the weight of it, once again, better off with a regular rifle.

VATS critical hits

my philosophy if it's a high grade weapon save for the tougher enemies and no more than 100 ft away.

[danconnors]

Seems to be doing okay so far. I took my old laser sniper rifle, replaced the sniper barrel with an improved short barrel, and the scope with an open sight. Damage dropped from over 120 to somewhere in the 80's, but that's good for most enemies. The gauss rifle with its long recon scope is very effective at range, but I don't rely on it at close range. So far it has put down a few yao gui, and that's been its toughest target to date.

[danconnors]

It's gotten a couple of radscorpions now. One was with a single shot; the other took 2. It's also dropped a huge number of feral ghouls. The problem is both radscorpions were at close range, which led to several complete misses. As with most weapons misses do no damage at all. Quite a few of my gauss rifle shots have been misses, but that's my fault--not the rifle's.

[darinbob]

Originally posted by danconnors:

That's extremely heavy for such a small diameter cartridge. My guess is that there must be some kind of energy cartridge attached to the projectile--something that provides power to the rifle capacitors.

Logic vs gameplay. Logic says there would be some sort of universal power weapon standard and you can use the same power source for all US made energy weapons, with no more energy cell vs microfusion cell vs electron charge packs. Gameplay says have multiple types of ammo just to enforce some sort of usage limit on the most powerful weapons.

[danconnors]

Up to a point. But present US firearms come in quite a few different bullet calibers. At almost two ounces the main mass of the 2mm shell could itself be a highly charged capacitor that would release its energy into the gauss rifle's capacitors when detonated.

As for power I have taken down a sentry bot robot with a single shot from it. That's the big robot that spills 2 fusion cores, 40 each 5.56 mm cartridges, some aluminum, and electrical devices when it drops dead. It also killed Hammer, the most powerful super mutant at Everit Estates with a single shot. So, I'm very pleased with its performance. It just costs me thousands of caps to keep it in ammo.

[kharille]

I remember in my first normal playthrough I ran into an assaultron for one of the companion quests. Had to grab the Gauss rifle back then. These days I keep hoping I'll find a two shot version, and I'll probably end up sticking with my plasma pistol. Helps me do more when I can fire off 15 rounds in vats....