Codenamed the "CIRCUITBREAKER",[1] this pulse pistol is a prototype weapon developed for the United States Armed Forces, in order to provide a weapon that would be able to disable power armor, out of fear that the Chinese were developing their own versions.[2] It was transported by Staff Sergeant Daniels to Vault 34 by orders of Colonel Roy Blackwell, for safe keeping until the manufacturer could retrieve the prototype for production.[1]
Characteristics[]
The pulse gun is an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) based weapon, similar in principle to that of pulse grenades and pulse mines. Though it delivers miniscule damage to regular targets, it delivers an outstanding amount of bonus damage to robots and those wearing power armor due to its electromagnetic properties.
When fired, the pulse pistol suffers from a small delay before discharging, due to it building up the charge for the pulse. This results in the need to continue aiming on target after pulling the trigger to ensure a hit.
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 weaponskill level. Additionally, the pulse pistol is also ineffective against NCR salvaged power armor, mainly due to the fact that the armor has had all its joint servomotors removed and is no longer power armor in the traditional sense.
Prior to patching, it could be bought from the Silver Rush and, in an extremely rare encounter, found on a fiend, albeit in poor condition.
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 at 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, you will still have a crosshair.
This weapon is potentially very useful when going to Big MT as encountering robots and other technology is commonplace.
↑Veronica's dialogue: "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."
Pulse gun concept art by Brian Menze.
