Talk:Tri-beam laser rifle (Broken Steel)

Found this weapon on an Enclave trooper
Has anyone else seen an Enclave soldier with a Tri-Beam Rifle? Over by Dukov's Place I fought against 3 Enclave soldiers and an Enclave officer (the Deathclaw was friendly because of the jammer); one of the soldiers and the officer had a Plasma Rifle, one was an Enclave Hellfire Soldier, and he had a Heavy Incinerator, and the last one I originally thought had a Laser Rifle, but I realized that it fired 3 beams...once I killed him and searched his corpse, he had a Tri-Beam Laser Rifle. Did anyone else see this? --Robotwarfare89 19:27, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

yeah I got that too. Did you find an overlord's corpse nearby ?

Is this it?
In this screenie there are two Super Mutant Overlords, and the second overlord has an unidentified gun, I'm thinking that this is the Tri Laser? //--Teh Krush 19:35, 21 April 2009 (UTC)


 * That may be it. Looks like a variant of the Gatling Laser. -- Commdor /{Talk} 19:38, 21 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Nah, that is just a Gatling Laser, look at the OTHER overlord.. His weapon is new.. Hard too see. //--Teh Krush 20:33, 21 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Information overload! Seriously, trying to figure out what is what now is confusing. The weapon in the background looks like the standard Laser Rifle (it did look like another Gatling Laser at first, at least to me). If that is the Tri-Laser, then the Tri-Laser is a Laser Rifle variant. Makes sense given that the previews have said it works like a shotgun. I guess I'll remove the image since it doesn't prominently feature the T-B. -- Commdor /{Talk} 20:39, 21 April 2009 (UTC)


 * http://g4tv.com/xplay/videos/37852/All-Access-Preview-Fallout-3-Broken-Steel.html I think the wierd laser rifle in that is it. //--Teh Krush 11:39, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

'I was actually coming here to post the same thing, the gun looks a bit'' different from a laser rifle (aside from the basic rectangular prism shape), but based on how the weapon looked in the vid from x-play, I'm pretty sure this is it. Could someone edit the photo to better show the rifle and post it?'''--Clean Up 18:44, 26 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Here are some pics of the Laser in action, from the looks of it I'm pretty sure that photo is it (this pics were taken from the G4 videos): --Clean Up 20:27, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

I have photgraphic memory of everything in Fallout 3 and that is definitely it in that first posted image

The second overlord 'is' carrying a tri beam laser rifle.

Difference between this and Metal Blaster?
I got to admit I'm a little confused here. Bethesda says the Tri-Laser is a "long range laser shotgun." Isn't this the role the Metal Blaster has already filled? And the Metal Blaster is already pretty lethal. I prefer it to even plasma rifles... I hope this newfangled Tri-Laser isn't an absurdly overpowered version of the same thing. ~Unsigned

Yeah? Well, I'm Betting this is so people without The Pitt have one (other than Protectron's Gaze). Plus, its likely to have a new model, be slightly stronger, and less rare. (Assuming Super-Mutant Overlords are a common enemy, of course.)Jetholt (Jetty) 15:04, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, then I suppose the Pitt has a gauss rifle for those that dont have Anchorage? Havent found it yet though. 

Honestly since it's more common, I'm betting it's not quite as hefty as the Metal Blaster (unless there is a unique version that's more powerful).67.211.81.140 16:52, 22 April 2009 (UTC)Cavesloth

Guys, I'm thinking it is more accurate at a longer range than the Metal Blaster, and probably doesn't have the same scatter affect.


 * I saw it used on G4's April 22 video. From initial impressions it's definitely more accurate in VATS than the Metal Blaster but may have a higher spread outside VATS. So basically they took the spread characteristics of the Metal Blaster and reversed them. I couldn't speak to the damage of the weapon (they were playing on normal) but if I had to venture a guess I'd agree with the guy above me -- the Blaster is probably stronger because its a unique weapon. ~Unsigned

I don't think the blaster is even that good, it just felt like a re-skinned combat shotgun to me. I hope this thing is better.. Otherwise i'll just stick with A3-21's plasma rifle, no other common weapon beats that with ten luck and the better criticals perk.--Greig91 17:59, 28 April 2009 (UTC)
 * The blaster is only good when it crits. Then it's unstopable DragonJTS 18:02, 28 April 2009 (UTC)
 * The plasma rifles are good, but it's harder to hit things due to travel time and the annoying large green flash that obstructs your view in first person mode. In my opinion these laser rifles are better for the aforementioned reason. 72.235.91.236 06:49, 15 May 2009 (UTC)


 * There seem to be 2 big differences. For one, this is supposed to be a long range laser rifle, which is great. Secondly, from the videos it looks like it has a knockdown effect. --Clean Up 00:17, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Spread??
Could a PC user please add the spread thx.--Cc123 20:34, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Ups and Downs of the Tri-Beam
I'm going to make this simple for everyone. What do you ask are the advantages and disadvantages of the Tri Beam? The GOOD: It has a base stat of 75, which is triple the power of a standard laser rifle. It has a better range and spread than the Metal Blaster. It has a relatively low carry weight. (and yes it has a cool black paint job) The BAD: Each shot you take out of its 24 camber muzzle takes 3 MF cells, so that means ya only get 8 shots before you need to reload. The Metal Blaster fires 9 beams yet only takes one MF cell. The UGLY: THE TRI BEAM CAN ONLY BE REPAIRED WITH OTHER TRI BEAMS!!!!!!! This is extremely annoying considering you can repair the Metal Blaster with standard laser rifles. The only way to get a Tri Beam is to kill those annoying Super Mutant Overlords and they don't always have them! REVIEW: My advise is if you don't mind going all over the place to find spare parts for the Tri Beam it's a decent weapon. Same applies with your energy weapons skill (should be around 100) Otherwise just stick with the Metal Blaster. --69.242.90.220 19:01, 6 May 2009 (UTC)Squatch7

I don't know... i mean, once you've got the Metal Blaster, why would you need comething harder to fix and that burns up three times faster the ammo? this weapon is just meh to me. C.


 * There's one other big difference between the two weapons. The Metal Blaster uses less AP. This means you can stack it higher in VATS. For example, on my character I can stack 6 Blaster shots at a time but I can only stack 4 Tri Beam. So at 55 DPS the Blaster can deal 330 DAM versus the Tri Beam's 75 DPS and 300. Also, the Blaster has 8 individual laser beams so you have 8 chances at a critical hit. The Tri Beam only has... 3, obviously. This isn't a big deal for players who don't use VATs, but the crit multiplier can be a game changer. ~ Unsigned 6 May 2009


 * Remember kids... in VATS mode, multiple beams are treated as a single projectile. So you only get 1 critical chance per "shot"! This means that Metal Blaster is a big deal for Free-Aim players, since you can roll a crit for each beam that hits in real-time mode.--Brian ranzoni 00:20, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Heres an idea,not everyone has the pitt,some may only have broken steel.

Also,just cause the metal blaster is better doesnt mean you shouldnt use the weapon,i use it all the time since i had a ton of MF cells and subtly missed out on the metal blaster cause i sold most of my steel ingots *sniff* Werewolfhell 14:08, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

In my opinion, even if this weapon hits harder, the metalblaster is better overall. There are some situations where you'd need a harder hitting weapon, but generally, the metalblaster does just fine. Also, though you may have a lot of mf cells, the reload time is the real killer with this weapon. 72.235.91.236 02:45, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

I know this may sound tedious and dumb but, what I did was I jotted down the places where I had encountered a Super Mutant Overlord, then, with the Tesla Cannon, (which you should have because you need Broken Steel just to get the Laser) it would only take me 1-3 shots to bring down the Overlord. Thus you have another piece to repair your laser with. The only thing I don't know, is if it is stronger than the Metal Blaster can anyone please just directly state yes or no without saying well its more accurate and has a higher spread because that doesn't tell me ANYTHING!!

One thing not mentioned when comparing Tri-Beam with Metal Blaster, is that this one fires faster outside VATS. Attack Shots/Sec value for Tri-Beam is around 2.7, while for for Metal Blaster it's around 2.0 (just like regular laser). Kinda strange considering that Metal Blaster is faster in VATS. So while Metal Blasters crits better outside VATS, it's also slower outside VATS. P22 13:19, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

The Tri-beam uses three MF cells per shot, and fires three beams per shot, effectively giving it 8 shots per magazine. The Metal Blaster, on the other hand, uses 1 MF cell per shot, has 24 shots per magazine.It also fires 9 lower-power beams per shot. This allows for a high-luck and/or finesse character to add 27 damage(two more than a non-critical beam from the tri-beam)to a 6 (approx.) damage beam. With critical hits, and multiple crits per beam, the Metal Blaster can easily become a much better weapon. It already had more damage per unit of ammo (assuming all beams hit), and is easier to repair. Of course, all of these things were assumed that the player was not using VATS.--Hollow Points 19:58, November 25, 2009 (UTC)Hollow Points.

Why don't people just shut up and use both?

Knockdown?
Is it known if this weapon really does have a knockdown effect? I've been using it for a while now, and I haven't seen any sort of knockdown with this weapon, even with 9 Luck. Wanderer Lao 21:23, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

I haven't had any knockdowns either. Fat Man Spoon 21:25, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

Tri means three, right?
When I shoot (or overlords shoot at me) I see four beams spreading in a square shape.

Tri-Beam Laser Rifle - Where Do You Find It?
I've been playing with Broken Steel on for a week now, and I've yet to see even one of these. Every Overlord I've encountered has either had a Gattling Laser, or a Super Sledge. I'm at level 27/28 (I believe) at the moment, and I've actually been mutant-hunting with the hope of finding one of these, but so far, no luck.

Thoughts?--67.161.164.163 23:32, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

I've just got Broken Steel and when I use the console to try and spawn one in my inventory, it says that 5818 (Tri beam LR (Laser Rifle)) isn't in the weapon etc. spawning directory. Anyone know why?

16807 Compunctious Transgression

try the supermutants hotspots- I find always 3 of them at the capitol building62.163.88.139 17:42, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

I found one south of Citadel. There was single Mutant Overlord there equiped with it. First one I ever encountered, since I haven't even finished base campaign (still have to go to Vault 112). P22 20:02, 13 August 2009 (UTC) I also found one south of the Citadel in that everyday firefight the brotherhood had from their Citadel rooftop shooting down at Supermutants. One of them was an Overlord that had the Tri-Beam. This area would be better hunting grounds than Dukov's Place because at Dukov's place you won't have any back-up as you do at the Citadel. However at Dukov's you are fighting the Enclave, not Supermutant Overlords. 63.231.119.62 13:44, September 17, 2009 (UTC)

I found 2 on the mutants attacking the GNR when I first came there. It was really hard to kill them though - had to use Alien Blaster for that, nothing else seem to affect them. It happened in a new game with all DLC enabled which I started by completing the MZ and proceeding on the main quest.

why is this listed as unique?
this weapon is listed as unique, but its not really, i mean there is an unlimited number in the game right? and if it were a unique version of the laser rifle, like the metal blaster, it would be repairable with standard laser rifles

Gas leaks?
I can't get a Tri-Beam to ignite gas leaks, where regular Laser Rifles, even the torch of a Flamer, will. Suggestions? Nitpicker of the Wastes 23:37, 14 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Call British Gas. Tell them their gas isn't flammable enough to be set off by three lasers at once. Fat Man Spoon 23:39, 14 June 2009 (UTC)
 * America, remember? Who am I gonna call? Nitpicker of the Wastes 23:43, 14 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Ghost Busters. Fat Man Spoon 23:44, 14 June 2009 (UTC)
 *  Nitpicker of the Wastes 23:46, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

EDIT: Oh ho! The damage type is EMP. Pulse grenades don't set off gas leaks either... wait, then why doesn't the laser do more damage against robots? Blast, nothing makes sense. Nitpicker of the Wastes 14:37, 15 June 2009 (UTC) Because lasers are not good against robots. It's just light to them. Fat Man Spoon 14:39, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Tri-Beam Attack?

 * Couldn't this be a reference to Tien? (DBZ)GodPlageon 02:45, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

One of the notes inaccurate
I just wanted to mention that on of the notes on this article is not entirely accurate. The one I am referring to is the one remarking that Super Mutants would not be intelligent enough to modify Laser Rifles to make Tri-beams. This contradicts one of the Search Party Logs in Fallout 3 that mentions that Super Mutants are "good with metal." So it would not be much of a surprise if Super Mutants were able to modify Laser Rifles.

Actually I could believe that the super mutants modified the weapon, if you look closely you can see that the extra tubes and whatnot are attached by a metal concrete binder. As well the "aperture" looks like a magnetic cooling duct. Aryeonos 01:58, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

I noticed somewhere also that indeed it was modified where the wire carries the power source to the extra aperatures on the top such as improvised extra gun barrels with part of it sawed off since you dont need the extra range if your dividing the laser and the bottom tube taken off so you can hold the gun better or the "pump" if you will. And since it carres the power source to 3 different areas at the same time it wastes more energy obiously causing you to reload faster. So in general you are correct super mutant overlords modified the laser rifle. JdoubleA

HP -40 Effect
I don't see this effect anywhere on the page for this weapon. However, when I load my game now I don't see the entire 'Effects' section for this weapon on my Pip-Boy. I'm not sure when this happened so I don't know if this was changed in one of the latest patches or is part of Point Lookout. Does anyone know what is going on here? I definitely remember seeing this effect in the Pip-Boy when I first got Broken Steel and it definitely does ridiculous damage still as if the 'HP -40' was still there.

--RizzleQ 01:32, 8 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I was just looking at this weapon in the GECK, as it seemed to me as if the Super Mutant Overlords were doing unexpectedly high damage with it. It turns out that is has an effect like the one of the weapons in Point Lookout, doing additional damage to the player. I'll add this in the article.

On the topic of additional damage, I also checked the Super Sledges that the Super Mutant Overlords use in Broken Steel. They too have an Object Effect that makes them do 25 HP damage, again only to the player. I noticed that the Super Sledge article mentions this but says the damage is 35 instead of 25, so I'll fix that. OverLord of Chaos 15:35, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Thought it might be worth mentioning,I just checked and my character is seriously getting the HP-40 affect too from the Tri-beam.And he's getting the HP-35 affect from the Double-Barrel and Lever-action,too.Was that NOT suppeosed to happen to my character? HuangLee 00:04, October 30, 2009 (UTC)

Origin?
How and where did Super Mutants get a weapon such as this? Surely they're not smart enough to create this weapon for themselves, though I have yet to see anyone else wielding it that the Muties could've stolen it from. Perhaps another faction was working to develop superior laser weaponry, ended up with this, and labeled it a failure.--Warped Mind 03:19, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

I think the real question here is actually, how can they even use this weapon? We've never seen a super mutant use anything other than small arms, missile launchers, and miniguns. Fawkes is the exception to this since he can use a gatling laser, but even Fawkes can't use a laser rifle (I think...there are definitely weapons that he can't use though, like the shishkebab). So I think the real question we should start with is, how did these super mutants even learn HOW to use these weapons?--[Me] 7:55, 24 August 2009

Overlords can use Gatlings too. P22 12:09, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

You know guys this could have been the reason Bigsley was kicked out of the order of the swords As he had indeed made a weapon too powerful for initates to handle and mabye the mutants got ahold of mass amounts of it Salty Demon 17:38, September 5, 2009 (UTC)

"Homemade"?
Does anyone think that this weapon was constructed after the War? I noticed that the top piece is being held on by a metal band and that doesn't really seem to be something that the military would put into the weapon. Maybe this was produced by the Bortherhood but they trashed it (the unknown weapon Bigsley made that was too powerful) and the Muties got ahold of it.

Also did anyone ever notice that there's a little but of a graphic error when the PC has this on their back? I noticed this with Colonel Autumn's Uniform. The Laser Rifle and its variants have a metal rod going from the trigger guard to the piece extending from the bottom of the barrel. This goes through the trenchcoat part of the uniform. Strangely the Tri-Beam also has this even though this band has been removed. I checked several times.--KnightNapier 02:24, November 27, 2009 (UTC)

Glitch
I was playing last week, I had a Huge glitch. I went into vats, I only had 2 shots instead of three. It glitched and goes into an infintie loopof not firing and makes a click sound like the weapon is empty. I did this twice, any one else have this problem.

Cant find Overlords
I just got Broken Steel and I beat all quests. I am a level 23 and I have yet to encounter an overlord. I have looked in every location that I know of super muatnts appearing, and NONE were overlords...does anyone know why?--Chipgambino 09:12, June 10, 2010 (UTC)

Fallout: New Vegas
Until the game is released or we get a developer comment that the weapon in the New Vegas video using the same model as the Tri-beam laser rifle is, in fact, the Tri-beam laser rifle, it's still speculation. It's possible that the Tri-beam was intended to be a modified AER12 Laser Rifle in Broken Steel, and that the one in the video is an unmodified AER12 that fires a single beam with greater power and accuracy than an AER9 laser rifle. There's many other possibilities as well, so until it's known what the truth is, no mention of New Vegas should be made on this page. Kris (talk) 16:31, July 26, 2010 (UTC)
 * There really shouldn't be a mention of it here anyway. Nitty Tok. 16:32, July 26, 2010 (UTC)

Recently removed note.
In regards to this recently removed note: "This weapon is obtainable on an early level even if playing in very hard, just go to the Citadel and you will the BoS fighting a super mutant overlord and some other mutants, the Overlord will most likely be in the possession of a Tri-beam laser rifle, just wait fo the Bos to kill the mutant, or help a hand and go collect your prize" There are a number of problems with this scenario.
 * 1) At low levels, that Overlord is a Master; at extreme low levels, that Master is a Brute
 * 2) When you are high enough for there to be an Overlord there, he will readily take out the two BoS soldiers and then turn on you, without apparently being injured much by the BoS. I've even seen a Master take out the BoS when I didn't intervene to save them, though he's weakened enough by the effort to not pose a serious threat to the player.
 * 3) Even should you manage to get a Tri-beam laser rifle at low levels, it will run into the same problems as A3-21's plasma rifle: namely, a lack of ammo and difficulty in repairing the weapon. In addition to that, this weapon is not particularly accurate, so even when I can get one at high levels with high Repair skill and Overlords around every corner, I prefer a plasma rifle (A3-21's or generic) or a Small Guns weapon.

Kris (talk) 18:51, July 27, 2010 (UTC)