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Huh. Figured it would have more buttons and dials and stuff, you know? Oh, well. It's still the electronic equivalent of a disease from Gomorrah.Veronica Santangelo

The pulse gun is a unique weapon in Fallout: New Vegas.

Background[]

Developed by the USAF at some point prior to the Great War for use against the alleged threat of Chinese soldiers wearing power armor,[1] the weapon, under the codename "CIRCUITBREAKER", was initially stored in the Nellis AFB before Col. Blackwell authorized the transfer of it to the armory in Vault 34 for safekeeping, conducted by Staff Sgt. Daniels, while waiting for the weapon manufacturer to develop a means to mass-produce it.[2]

After the nuclear apocalypse, the pulse gun remained in storage within Vault 34 even after the exodus of the residents that became the Boomers and the Vault's reactor went into critical condition, causing the remaining residents to be ghoulified.

Characteristics[]

A one-handed, portable electromagnetic pulse (EMP) based weapon that delivers additional bonus damage to robots and those wearing power armor.

When fired, the pulse gun suffers from a small delay before discharging, due to its building up the charge for the pulse. This results in the need to continue aiming at a target after pulling the trigger to ensure a hit. As a weapon, the pulse gun is only effective against robots and opponents in power armor, since it only delivers a small amount of impact damage otherwise.

Because of the amount of impact damage and the EMP bonus damage being constant, it is essentially unaffected by different ammunition types, perks, chems and Energy Weapons skill level. Additionally, the pulse gun is also ineffective against NCR salvaged power armor due to the removal of the armor's joint servomotors, meaning it is no longer power armor in a traditional sense.

Durability[]

The pulse gun can fire a total of about 495 times using standard cells, the equivalent of 99 reloads, from full condition before breaking.

Ammunition typeDurability
ShotsReloads
Standard49599
Bulk584117
Optimized45090
Over charge32966
Max charge19539

Locations[]

Notes[]

  • If the pulse gun is to be used frequently, bulk energy cells can be quite useful. The EMP effect isn't altered by the ammunition while the gun will take longer to break.
  • A single shot in Hardcore mode will use 0.39 pounds of ammunition, costing a combined value of 10 caps per shot.
  • The pulse gun uses 5 energy cells per blast, yet it's only possible to get a single empty energy cell from firing it, much like other energy weapons which use more than 1 cell per shot.
  • When aiming with true iron sights on, the crosshair will still be shown.
  • The pulse gun is very similar in appearance and function to the sonic emitters from Old World Blues, both being anti-robot weapons. Cosmetically, the only major differences are that the pulse gun lacks an oscilloscope, and uses more red in its finish. The pulse gun also deals far greater damage to robots than any of the sonic emitters without a critical hit. However, on a critical strike, the sonic emitter - robo-scorpion does nearly double the damage to power armor users and can roughly tie the pulse gun in damage dealt to robots. The sonic emitters have much higher base damage than the pulse gun making them feasible to fight non-robots and people not wearing power armor, whereas the pulse gun is nearly useless against non-machines.
  • The robots of Big MT are resistant to EMP damage, making this weapon work less effectively against them.
  • The gun noticeably shakes during the charge-up of a shot but does not affect aiming or the accuracy of the shot.

Bugs[]

  • PCPC Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Xbox 360Xbox 360 Sometimes, the pulse gun can be found on a Fiend outside of the Strip, east of the Horowitz farmstead inside an abandoned home.[verified]

Sounds[]

SingleShotVB ReloadVB

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. The Courier: "What's a pulse gun?"
    Veronica: "Electromagnetic weapon from before the Great War. Experimental. It never saw mass production. But they were building it as a countermeasure to power armor, which they feared the Chinese were developing. Supposedly a prototype was being housed at Nellis. Imagine what it could do to the Brotherhood. We'd be on equal footing with any idiot with a gun."
    (Veronica's dialogue)
  2. Inventory transfer order
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