Tri-beam laser rifle (Broken Steel)

The tri-beam laser rifle is a weapon which is added to Fallout 3 with the Broken Steel add-on.

Characteristics
The tri-beam laser rifle has the appearance of a "sawed-off" laser rifle. It lacks the tube on the bottom length of the barrel, but has a new emitter aperture, wire assembly, and a darker color. The new emitter fires three laser beams with each shot. Unlike the Metal Blaster, and Protectron's Gaze, it expends three microfusion cells per shot instead of just the one. Since each pull of the trigger consumes three microfusion cells, it has an effective magazine size of eight shots.

This weapon is smaller than a normal AER9 laser rifle, yet it's one pound heavier.

This weapon has an object effect that allows it do 40 additional HP of damage when the target is the player. The +40 damage is for EACH beam, thereby increasing its damage potential by 120 per shot, and this value is not mitigated by your damage resistance, nor the condition of the gun itself. Therefore, even a high level player can be decimated by an opponent wielding this weapon within 4-5 hits.

A fully-repaired tri-beam rifle can fire 334 shots, which is 1002 microfusion cells worth of energy, before breaking.

Variants

 * AER9 laser rifle, the more common variant.
 * Wazer Wifle, a unique variant that does more damage and is more durable.
 * Metal Blaster, a unique AER9 that's more a laser shotgun than rifle.


 * Operation: Anchorage add-on includes an unused add-on-specific version of the laser rifle. It is identical to the normal laser rifle in both statistics and appearance. Its intended purpose in the add-on is unknown and it was cut from the final release, rendering it accessible only through the use of console commands.
 * A "demo" version of the laser rifle is included in Fallout 3, presumably left from the game's E3 demo. It does one point less damage per shot and less than half the critical damage than the standard variant, but has a much higher critical chance percentage. It is not used anywhere in the game and is only accessible through the use of console commands.

Locations

 * Most super mutant overlords (especially the ones in the Chryslus building) will carry these. Although they are incredibly powerful against the player, the weapon itself is usually only in mid- to low condition.