LAER

The LAER (laser assisted electrical rifle) is a weapon in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Old World Blues.

Characteristics
The LAER resembles a mix of many existing energy weapons; the barrel looks like the pulse gun, the microfusion cell is held in a basket on the bottom like a plasma rifle, the stock is similar to a laser rifle, and it features vacuum tubes similar to a recharger rifle. It also offers very high damage (on par with the plasma caster) for low ammunition consumption making it a great all-round weapon.

The only drawbacks of this weapon are its low critical hit damage and low item HP, so the player may have to rely on the Jury Rigging perk or weapon repair kits, especially if using over or max charged ammunition. One can use bulk ammunition to increase the weapon's life span, and, due to its high damage and decent fire rate, the reduced damage from bulk ammunition is a small cost. It's worth noting that it has a very high spread for an energy rifle, equivalent to the laser RCW, limiting its usefulness at longer ranges.

When compared to its variant, Elijah's advanced LAER, the standard model could be viewed as the more practical version as it has 50% more HP, although it has a slightly slower rate of fire.

Modifications

 * LAER mod - auxiliary recharger chip, recycles one round per four shot.
 * LAER mod - prismatic lens, splits the beam into three beams increasing total damage by 30% similar to the Laser rifle beam splitter.

Variants

 * Elijah's advanced LAER, a semi-unique variant that has a faster rate of fire but less durability and downsized magazine.

Locations
Seven LAER's can be found in total:
 * One can be found in the Big MT north tunnel, toward the northern most side of the lower level below the force field.
 * One can be found at the X-8 research center on the corpse of Gabe.
 * One can be found at X-7a "Left Field" artillery launch on the corpse of the unique sentry bot, RY-589 Ultimo bot.
 * One can be found on top of the X-13 research facility. To reach it, you must jump down from the cliff to the north. The cliff can be climbed by jumping up a pile of rocks just to the west of the Big MT west tunnel.
 * One is in The Forbidden Zone Dome, in the second floor room, just left of the brain tank.
 * One can be found on the corpse of the X-42 giant robo-scorpion in the Forbidden Zone Dome entrance.
 * The last, along with various energy weapon ammunition, is in the same room as above in a chamber connected to the exit platform. It is on a table in the middle of the room, and is in good condition. This one requires a force field to be disabled in order to gain access to it.

Behind the scenes

 * It was at first a cut energy weapon of Fallout: New Vegas, appearing in the concept art section of the Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's edition. The only existence of it found in the game files was its own icon and left over object effects.
 * The name implies a function like modern attempts at making electrolasers which use lasers to create a conductive plasma conduit in the air and then discharge an electrical differential across the conduit. While practical devices do not yet exist, the concept has been proven and the effect on the target is dependent upon the amount of energy delivered. At lower powers the effect would be much like a stun gun and higher energies being more like a bolt of lightning.

Bugs

 * Both the normal LAER and Elijah's advanced model use the pick up, drop, equip, and unequip sounds of pistols as opposed to rifles.