Small Guns go bang. Big guns go boom. Melee weapons slice and dice. But sometimes what you really need is a little pew-pew, and when that urge strikes a Wastelander, they grab an Energy Weapon. Light, high in damage, and accurate at long ranges, Energy Weapons are contender for best primary weapon.
Armed To The Teeth: Fallout 3 Weapons Guide Part 4
While the Wasteland may have lost most of the technology required to meet basic requirements like water and food, weapons-grade technology is still easy to come across. In fact, guns seem to be nearly as common as canned beans - some sort of weapon can be found on the corpse of nearly every humanoid enemy. Among these, Energy Weapons are among the most advanced, and despite their high-tech nature, both Energy Weapons and their ammo are plentiful. All of them can come in handy in a fight, but some are far more deadly than others.
This article is the fourth in a series covering the weapons of Fallout 3, and as you might have guessed, this section covers Energy Weapons. Despite their advanced technology, Energy Weapons are in many ways similar to Small Guns. Ammo for them isn't hard to come by, they pack a deadly punch, and they're easy to carry around. Unique weapons are not covered because they are rare, and you'd have to perform specific steps to get a hold of them. It is not the intention of this guide to include spoilers. You should also know that the DPS stat shown with each weapon stands for damage-over-time, and indicates how much damage a weapon can do in approximately one second. This is a better indicator of overall firepower than the damage stat show in your Pipboy.
Energy Weapons
Laser Pistol - DPS: 11 - Likely the first energy weapon you'll come across, the Laser Pistol is nothing fancy. It has low damage per second and low damage per hit. That said, the Laser Pistol, in comparison to most of the other low-end weapons you can get your hands on, isn't bad. It less power than the 10mm Pistol, but ammo is still plentiful. But it doesn't really matter how good the Laser Pistol is, because it is the only low-end Energy Weapon. You don't have any choice but to use it.
Plasma Pistol - DPS: 23 - Not a bad little gun, this one. Its damage is high for a pistol, and doubly so for a pistol which runs off extremely common ammo. Once you get your hands on the Plasma Pistol, you've found your side-arm of choice for the rest of the game. Should you ever run out of ammo for your primary weapon, this should be enough to get by in meantime, as long as you don't get hit by a hoard of Deathclaws.
Fallout 3 Weapons Guide
So, you have the best perks, your skills are high, and you think you're ready to take on a thousand Deathclaws at once. But wait - you're missing perhaps the most important part of survival. Your Weapon.