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Curios and Relics

Related articles[]

The following articles have been split to provide a better reading experience:

Guns[]

Guns are the most common ranged weapons of the Mojave Wasteland. They are numerous and varied and ammunition is relatively easy to acquire.Fallout: New Vegas loading screens

Pistols[]

Pistols

.357 Magnum revolver2
Lucky357Magnum

Lucky2

.44 Magnum revolver2
MysteriousMagnum

Mysterious Magnum2

.45 Auto pistol2 Honest Hearts
A Light Shining in Darkness

A Light Shining in Darkness2 Honest Hearts
FNV556mmPistol

5.56mm pistol (GRA)2 Gun Runners' Arsenal
FNVThatGun

That Gun
9mm Pistol

9mm pistol2
Maria

Maria2
10mm pistol (Gamebryo)

10mm pistol2
Weathered10mmFNV2

Weathered 10mm pistol Courier's Stash
FNV 12,7mm Pistol

12.7mm pistol
Lil' Devil

Li'l Devil (GRA)1 Gun Runners' Arsenal
HuntingRevolver

Hunting revolver
HuntingRevolver

Hunting revolver (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
RangerSequoia

Ranger Sequoia
PolicePistol

Police pistol1 Dead Money
Silenced22Pistol

Silenced .22 pistol1

Unique weapons are listed in bold text.
1 Normal holdout weapon: May be concealed regardless of Sneak skill.
2 Improved holdout weapon: May be concealed if Sneak ≥ 50.

Rifles[]

Rifles
Anti-materiel rifle

Anti-materiel rifle1
Anti-materiel rifle

Anti-materiel rifle (GRA)1 Gun Runners' Arsenal
FNV assault carbine

Assault carbine
FNV assault carbine

Assault carbine (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
Automatic rifle

Automatic rifle Dead Money
Battle rifle

Battle rifle (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
ThisMachineFNV

This Machine
BBGUN

BB gun
FNVLEBBGun

Abilene Kid LE BB gun
BrushGun

Brush gun
Medicine Stick

Medicine Stick (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
Cowboy repeater

Cowboy repeater
La Longue Carabine

La Longue Carabine1
HuntingRifleFoNV

Hunting rifle
Paciencia

Paciencia (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
LMGRend

Light machine gun
BozarFNV

Bozar (GRA)1 Gun Runners' Arsenal
Marksman carbine

Marksman carbine1
All-American

All-American1
ServiceRifle

Service rifle
Survivalist's rifle

Survivalist's rifle Honest Hearts
Sniper rifle

Sniper rifle1
FNV sniper rifle Suppressor

Christine's CoS silencer rifle1 Old World Blues (add-on)
FNV Gobi Campaign Scout Rifle

Gobi Campaign scout rifle1
TrailCarbine

Trail carbine
Varmintrifle

Varmint rifle
Ratslayercropped

Ratslayer1

Unique weapons are listed in bold text.
1 Scoped by default.

SMGs[]

Submachine guns

.45 Auto SMG Honest Hearts
9mm SMG (Fallout New Vegas)

9mm submachine gun
Vance's 9mm submachine gun

Vance's 9mm submachine gun
10mm SMG

10mm submachine gun
Sleepytyme

Sleepytyme (GRA)1 Gun Runners' Arsenal
12

12.7mm submachine gun
12

12.7mm submachine gun (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
H&H Tools nail gun

H&H Tools nail gun Lonesome Road (add-on)
Silenced22SMG

Silenced .22 SMG

Unique weapons are listed in bold text.
1 Improved holdout weapon: May be concealed if Sneak ≥ 50.

Shotguns[]

Shotguns
Caravan shotgun

Caravan shotgun
SturdyCaravanShotgun

Sturdy caravan shotgun Courier's Stash
HuntingShotgun

Hunting shotgun
DinnerBell

Dinner Bell
Lever-action shotgun

Lever-action shotgun
RiotShotgun

Riot shotgun
Sawed off

Sawed-off shotgun1
BigBoomer

Big Boomer
Single shotgun

Single shotgun

Unique weapons are listed with bold text.
1 Improved holdout weapon: May be concealed if Sneak ≥ 50.

Heavy weapons[]

Heavy weapons
K9000CyberdogGun

K9000 cyberdog gun1 Old World Blues (add-on)
FIDO

FIDO1 Old World Blues (add-on)
5MMMINIGUN

Minigun
CZ57Avenger

CZ57 Avenger
Shoulder mounted machine gun

Shoulder mounted machine gun Lonesome Road (add-on)

Unique weapons are listed with bold text.
1 Scoped by default.

Energy weapons[]

Energy weapons are less common and varied than guns, but have a small number of ammunition types and can be quite potent.Fallout: New Vegas loading screen

Energy pistols[]

Energy pistols
F3Firelance

Wild Wasteland Alien blaster1
Euclid's C-Findercropped1

Euclid's C-Finder
Flare gun

Flare gun2 3 Lonesome Road (add-on)
Laser pistol (Gamebryo)

Laser pistol2
Laser pistol (Gamebryo)

Laser pistol (GRA)2 Gun Runners' Arsenal
Compliance Regulator

Compliance Regulator2 Honest Hearts
Laser pistol (Gamebryo)

Missing laser pistol5
Pew Pew

Pew Pew2
PlasmaDefenderFNV

Plasma Defender
PlasmaDefenderFNV

Plasma Defender (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
PlasmaPistol

Plasma pistol2
PlasmaPistol

Plasma pistol (GRA)2 Gun Runners' Arsenal
Pulse gun

Pulse gun4
RechargePistol

Recharger pistol
MF Hyperbreeder Alpha

MF Hyperbreeder Alpha (GRA)2 Gun Runners' Arsenal
Sonic emitter

Sonic emitter - Gabriel's bark2 4 Old World Blues (add-on)
Sonic emitter

Sonic emitter - opera singer2 4 Old World Blues (add-on)
Sonic emitter

Sonic emitter - revelation2 4 Old World Blues (add-on)
Sonic emitter

Sonic emitter - robo-scorpion2 4 Old World Blues (add-on)
Sonic emitter

Sonic emitter - tarantula2 4 Old World Blues (add-on)
Unique weapons are listed in bold text.
1 May only be acquired if one has chosen the Wild Wasteland trait.
2 Improved holdout weapon: May be concealed if Sneak ≥ 50.
3 Frightens abominations.
4 Does bonus damage to robots and power armored foes.
5 Quest item.

Energy rifles[]

Energy rifles
Gauss rifle

Gauss rifle2
Gauss rifle FNVUnique

YCS/1861 2
Holorifle

Holorifle2 Dead Money
LAER

LAER Old World Blues (add-on)
LAER

Elijah's advanced LAER Old World Blues (add-on)
RCW

Laser RCW
AER9 laser rifle

Laser rifle
AER14 prototype

AER14 prototype
AER9 laser rifle

Van Graff laser rifle
MultiplasRifle

Multiplas rifle
PlasmaRifle

Plasma rifle
PlasmaRifle

Van Graff plasma rifle
Q35mattermod

Q-35 matter modulator
FNVRechargerRifle

Recharger rifle
Tri-beam laser rifle

Tri-beam laser rifle
Tri-beam laser rifle

Tri-beam laser rifle (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
Unique weapons are bolded.
1 May only be acquired if one has not chosen the Wild Wasteland trait.
2 Scoped by default.

Energy heavy weapons[]

Energy heavy weapons
FNV arc welder

Arc welder1 Lonesome Road (add-on)
FLAMER

Flamer
Cleansing Flame

Cleansing Flame (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
GatlingLaser

Gatling laser
SprtelWood9700

Sprtel-Wood 9700 (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
Heavy incinerator

Heavy incinerator
Incinerator

Incinerator
PlasmaCaster

Plasma caster
SmittySpecial

The Smitty Special (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
Tesla cannon

Tesla cannon
FNVTeslaBeatonPrototype

Elijah's jury-rigged Tesla cannon Old World Blues (add-on)
FNVTeslaBeatonPrototype

Tesla-Beaton prototype

Unique weapons are listed with bold text.
1 Does bonus damage to robots and power armored foes.

Explosives[]

Explosive weapons are best used when dealing with crowds or in situations where precision is not a high priority.Fallout: New Vegas loading screen

Projectile[]

Explosive weapons
25mm grenade APW

25mm grenade APW (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
Fat Man

Fat Man
Fat Man

Fat Man (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
Esther

Esther (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
GrenadeMachinegun

Grenade machinegun
FNV Mercy

Mercy
Grenade launcher

Grenade launcher
GrenadeRifleFNV

Grenade rifle
Scorpion rifle

Great Bear grenade rifle Lonesome Road (add-on)
Mercenary's grenade rifle

Mercenary's grenade rifle Courier's Stash
Spider rifle

Red Victory grenade rifle Lonesome Road (add-on)
GrenadeRifleUniqueFNV

Thump-Thump
MISSILELAUNCHER

Missile launcher
Annabelle

Annabelle
RedGlare

Red Glare1 Lonesome Road (add-on)

Unique weapons are listed with bold text.
1 Scoped by default.

Thrown[]

Thrown weapons
Dynamite (Fallout New Vegas)

Dynamite2
Fire bomb

Fire bomb2 Honest Hearts
Flash bang

Flash bang2 Lonesome Road (add-on)
FRAGGRENADE

Frag grenade2
HolyGrenadeFNV

Wild Wasteland Holy Frag Grenade3
IncendiaryGrenadeFNV

Incendiary grenade
Long-fuse dynamite

Long-fuse dynamite2
MFC grenade

MFC grenade1 Gun Runners' Arsenal
Nuka-grenade

Nuka-grenade1 Gun Runners' Arsenal
PlasmaGrenade

Plasma grenade2
PulseGrenade

Pulse grenade2 4
Tin grenade

Tin grenade1 Gun Runners' Arsenal
Unique weapons are listed with bold text.
1 Normal holdout weapon: May be concealed regardless of Sneak skill.
2 Improved holdout weapon: May be concealed if Sneak ≥ 50.
3 May only be acquired if one has chosen the Wild Wasteland trait.
4 Does bonus damage to robots and power armored foes.

Placed[]

Placed weapons
Bottlecap mine

Bottlecap mine2
C-4plasticexplosive

C-4 plastic explosive1
Demolition charge

Demolition charge Dead Money
Detonatortrans

Detonator1
Fat mine

Fat mine Gun Runners' Arsenal
FragMine

Frag mine
Gas bomb

Gas bomb Dead Money
MFC cluster

MFC cluster1 2
Gun Runners' Arsenal
Plasma mine

Plasma mine
PowderChargeFNV

Powder charge2
PulseMine

Pulse mine3
Satchel charge

Satchel charge Lonesome Road (add-on)
TimeBombFNV

Time bomb2
TimeBombFNV

Time bomb, high yield2 Gun Runners' Arsenal

1 Improved holdout weapon: May be concealed if Sneak ≥ 50.
2 Custom-built weapon.
3 Does bonus damage to robots and power armored foes.

Melee[]

Most Melee Weapons are completely silent, making them excellent stealth weapons.Fallout: New Vegas loading screen

Bladed[]

Bladed melee weapons
Bowie knife

Bowie knife2 Lonesome Road (add-on)
Bowie knife

Blood-Nap2 Lonesome Road (add-on)
BumperSword

Bumper sword
Blade of the East

Blade of the East
Blade of the West

Blade of the West
FNV Chainsaw

Chainsaw3
FNV Chainsaw

Chainsaw (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
CleaverFNV

Cleaver2
CleaverUniqueFNV

Chopper2
Combat knife

Combat knife2
CombatKnifeUniqueFNV

Chance's knife2
CosmicKnife

Cosmic knife1 Dead Money
Cosmic knife clean

Cosmic knife clean1 Dead Money
Cosmic knife super-heated

Cosmic knife super-heated1 Dead Money
FireAxe

Fire axe
Knock-Knock

Knock-Knock
FNVMeleeHatchet

Hatchet2
Katana

Katana Gun Runners' Arsenal
Knife FO3

Knife1
KnifeSpear

Knife spear Dead Money
KnifeSpear

Knife spear clean Dead Money
MacheteGeck

Machete
BroadMachete

Broad machete Courier's Stash
MacheteGeck

Liberator
Machete Gladius

Machete gladius
ProtonAxe

Proton axe5 Old World Blues (add-on)
ProtonicInversalAxe

Protonic inversal axe5 Old World Blues (add-on)
Ripper FO3

Ripper2 3
Ripper FO3

Ripper2 3 Gun Runners' Arsenal
Shishkebab

Shishkebab
Gehenna

Gehenna Gun Runners' Arsenal
StraightRazorFNV

Straight razor1
StraightRazorUniqueFNV

Figaro1
Switchblade

Switchblade1
ThermicLance

Thermic lance3

Unique weapons are listed with bold text.
1 Normal holdout weapon: May be concealed regardless of Sneak skill.
2 Improved holdout weapon: May be concealed if Sneak ≥ 50.
3 Ignores DR/DT.
4 Includes double normal weapon damage in V.A.T.S.
5 Does bonus damage to robots and power armored foes.

Blunt[]

Blunt melee weapons
9 iron

9 iron
Nephi's golf driver

Nephi's golf driver
BASEBALLBAT

Baseball bat
BASEBALLBAT

Baseball bat (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
CattleProd

Cattle prod
Dress Cane

Dress cane
Lead pipe

Lead pipe¹
The Humble Cudgel

The Humble Cudgel1
Nail board

Nail board
Pool cue

Pool cue
FONVEagleFlagPole

Old Glory Lonesome Road (add-on)
Police baton

Police baton1
RebarClub

Rebar club
Nuka Breaker

Nuka-Breaker (GRA) Gun Runners' Arsenal
Rolling pin

Rolling pin
Shovel

Shovel
Sledgehammer

Sledgehammer
SUPERSLEDGE

Super sledge
SuperSledgeFNVUnique

Oh, Baby!
TIREIRON

Tire iron1
War club

War club1 Honest Hearts
X-2 Antenna

X-2 antenna3 Old World Blues (add-on)

Unique weapons are listed with bold text.
1 Improved holdout weapon: May be concealed if Sneak ≥ 50.
2 Includes double normal weapon damage in V.A.T.S.
3 Does bonus damage to robots and power armored foes.

Thrown[]

Thrown melee weapons
Proton throwing axe

Proton throwing axe2 Old World Blues (add-on)
Protonic inversal throwing axe

Protonic inversal throwing axe2 Old World Blues (add-on)
FNVThrowingHatchet

Throwing hatchet
ThrowingKnifeFNV

Throwing knife1
Throwing knife spear

Throwing knife spear Dead Money
SpearFNV

Throwing spear
Tomahawk

Tomahawk Honest Hearts

1 Normal holdout weapon: May be concealed regardless of Sneak skill.
2 Does bonus damage to robots and power armored foes.

Unarmed[]

Unarmed melee weapons
BallisticFist

Ballistic fist
Two-Step Goodbye

Two-Step Goodbye2 Gun Runners' Arsenal
BearTrapFist

Bear trap fist Dead Money
Bladed gauntlet

Bladed gauntlet
Cramopener

Cram Opener
FNVBoxingGloves

Boxing gloves
Golden Gloves

Golden Gloves
Boxing tape

Boxing tape
Brass knuckles

Brass knuckles1
Displacer glove

Displacer glove
Pushy

Pushy
Dog tag fist

Dog tag fist3
Dog tag fist

Recompense of the Fallen
Deathclaw gauntlet

Fist of Rawr Lonesome Road (add-on)
Wild Wasteland Fist of the North Rawr
Industrial hand

Industrial hand2 5 Lonesome Road (add-on)
Mantis gauntlet

Mantis gauntlet
Embrace of the Mantis King!

Embrace of the Mantis King! Gun Runners' Arsenal
POWERFIST

Power fist2
POWERFIST

Power fist (GRA)2 Gun Runners' Arsenal
Saturnite fist

Saturnite fist2 Old World Blues (add-on)
Saturnite fist super-heated

Saturnite fist super-heated2 Old World Blues (add-on)
GreasedLightning

Greased Lightning2 Gun Runners' Arsenal
Salt-Upon-Wounds' power fist

Salt-Upon-Wounds' power fist2 Honest Hearts
Scientistglove

Scientist glove2 Old World Blues (add-on)
Corrosive glove

Corrosive glove2 Old World Blues (add-on)
RedSterilizerGlove

Sterilizer glove2 Old World Blues (add-on)
SterilizerGlove

Dr. Klein's glove² Old World Blues (add-on)
Dr

Dr. Mobius' glove2 Old World Blues (add-on)
Spiked knuckles

Spiked knuckles1
Love and Hate

Love and Hate1
Yao guai gauntlet

Yao guai gauntlet2 5 Honest Hearts
Yao guai gauntlet

She's Embrace2 5 Honest Hearts
Zap glove

Zap glove4
Paladin Toaster

Paladin Toaster4

Unique weapons are listed with bold text.
1 Normal holdout weapon: May be concealed regardless of Sneak skill.
2 Improved holdout weapon: May be concealed if Sneak ≥ 50.
3 Includes double normal weapon damage in V.A.T.S.
4 Does bonus damage to robots and power armored foes.
5 Ignores DR/DT.

Other[]

Despite being in the weapons category on the Pip-Boy 3000, these items are not used offensively.

Other weapons
BigMountainTransportalponder!

Big Mountain Transportalponder! Old World Blues (add-on)
Binoculars

Binoculars
FNV Codac R9000

Codac R9000
Laser detonator

Laser detonator Lonesome Road (add-on)

Quest items are listed with bold text.

Unused weapons[]

Cut content[]

Cut weapons
Weapon Bugspray icon

Bug Spray Honest Hearts
Deathclaw gauntlet

Deathclaw gauntlet
9mm Pistol

Debug Mega Pistol
DoubleBarrelShotgun

Double-barrel shotgun
FRAGGRENADE

Gas grenade
No icon

GP machine gun
No icon

Heavy rail cannon
No icon

Heavy riveter
No icon

Light rail cannon
Steak

Meat mine Old World Blues (add-on)
PlasmaRifle

Plasma rifle always crit
PlasmaRifle

Plasma rifle weak
Slaves Burden

Slave's Burden
Boxing tape

Starlet's hand wraps Dead Money
No icon

Stun baton
FNV Stun grenade

Stun grenade
AER9 laser rifle

The Disintegrator
Gauss rifle

The Faderator1
Laser pistol (Gamebryo)

X-13 field disruptor pistol Old World Blues (add-on)
1 Available in all add-ons except Courier's Stash.

Non-player character weapons[]

NPC weapons
Ripper FO3

Arcade Gannon's Ripper
HuntingRifle Scope

Boone's scoped hunting rifle

Follows-Chalk's .45 Auto pistol Honest Hearts
Follows-Chalk's war club

Follows-Chalk's war club Honest Hearts
Weap joshua pistol whippin 45

Joshua's Pistol Whippin' .45 Honest Hearts
LilysAC

Lily's assault carbine
Lily's gauntlet

Lily's gauntlet
LilyVertibirdSword

Lily's Vertibird blade
MysteriousMagnum

Mysterious Stranger's .44 Magnum
MysteriousMagnum

Miss Fortune's Bad Luck Bringer
SUPERSLEDGE

Mean super sledge
Anti-materiel rifle

Oliver anti-materiel rifle
Bladed gauntlet

Poisoned bladed gauntlet Honest Hearts
CleaverFNV

Poisoned cleaver Honest Hearts
FNVMeleeHatchet

Poisoned hatchet Honest Hearts
FireAxe

Poisoned fire axe Honest Hearts
MacheteGeck

Poisoned machete Honest Hearts
Mantis gauntlet

Poisoned mantis gauntlet Honest Hearts
SpearFNV

Poisoned throwing spear Honest Hearts
Yao guai gauntlet

Waking Cloud's yao guai gauntlet Honest Hearts

Behind the scenes[]

Specific rifles

Even the "max" ranges of sight in F:NV are actually very short for firearms in the real world. Take one of the longest shots in the game: hitting Aurelius of Phoenix at Cottonwood Cove from the Sniper's Nest (where the Gobi Campaign Scout Rifle is found). We calculated it out and that's under 200 yards, I think. Apparent distances are skewed in the engine because the field of view is 70 degrees by default.Joshua Sawyer
In general, I prefer to give weapons functional names and avoid getting wrapped up in specific designations used by manufacturers or the military. Because our weapons must, for technical reasons, occasionally differ functionally from the weapons upon which they are based (different caliber, charging handle placement, receiver height, stock shape/length, etc.) giving them a more utilitarian name helps negate some of the potential pedantry over those deviations.

There are no AR-15s, Colt Commandos, Browning Hi-Powers, BFRs, M1 Garands, Winchester 1886s, 1887s, or 1892s in Fallout: New Vegas -- just Service Rifles, Assault Carbines, 9mm Pistols, Hunting Revolvers, This Machine, Brush Guns, Lever-Action Shotguns, and Cowboy Repeaters.

That's also why there are no M1911s or Thompsons in Honest Hearts, but you'll find plenty of .45 Auto Pistols and .45 Auto Submachine Guns.
One of Obsidian's programmers was a tank driver in the U.S. Army, stationed in Germany and later deployed to Iraq in the early 90s. His issued sidearm was a beat-to-hell Ithaca M1911. If you know your M1911 history, that should give you an idea of how old it was.Joshua Sawyer, responding to a question whether weapons in New Vegas would really work due to age
Nah, I’m satisfied with them. Fallout 1 and 2 delved into 90s weapons designs (e.g. the P90c) and the mid-90s is when the M4/Picatinny rails entered the scene. There are a lot of rifles in F:NV and I think the more modern appearance of the marksman carbine and assault carbine help visually distinguish them from the rest of the lineup in a good way.Joshua Sawyer, responding to a question on if he would change the Assault Carbine or Marksman Rifle.

General implementation

The process was iterative and went through a lot of revisions. There were a few questions I asked for deciding what would get included and what would not:
  • What are iconic Fallout weapons that should return?

In my mind, the 10mm pistol and SMG had to return, as did the minigun, sawed-off shotgun, flamer, and a few other choice weapon.

  • What are players’ role-playing expectations within this setting and what weapons will help the expression of those roles?

We can’t account for every type of character a player might imagine, but we knew a lot of people would want to be a) Mad Max b) post-apocalyptic cowboy/cowgirl c) wacky bazinga science person d) agro military operator e) sneakthief stealth murderer.

Supporting those concepts throughout the game necessitated an array of thematically appropriate equipment options that was available from the beginning and allowed for power growth through the end game. That’s why you can use revolvers and lever action rifles from the first two hours (.357 Revolver and Cowboy Repeater) through the Battle of Hoover Dam (Hunting Revolver and Brush Gun).

  • What weapons share common ammunition types to avoid resource/loot problems?

There are only a few weapons that use an ammo type that isn’t used elsewhere. Western-style weapons make some of that easy since a lot of revolvers and lever-action rifles used the same rimmed ammo types. Ammo types like .22 and .308, were also easy to use in multiple weapons.

  • What are weapons with distinctive/iconic looks that can stand out from each other?

Service and battle rifles are based on distinctive historical weapons, the slim 9mm pistol is easy to distinguish from the bulky 10mm, and even the lever-actions are relatively easy to distinguish from the bolt-action and sniper rifles.

  • What are weapons that can be modified in distinctively different ways from each other to allow for orthogonal growth within a subtype of weapons (e.g. lever-action rifles).

If all weapons of a certain type can be modified in the same way, upgrading those weapons becomes less interesting, especially since we expect players to stick with thematically consistent weapons (not always, of course, but…). This is why the cowboy repeater and brush gun feature top eject: it prohibits the use top-mounted scopes, allowing the trail carbine to be modified in a way that the other two lever-actions cannot. The unique cowboy repeater does have a scope, but it’s a side-mounted scope, like the one used by Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

  • What are different ammo subtypes that can be used that offer distinctly different properties from each other to allow for another axis of differentiation.
Different ammo types have different variants. This is not only true within a category (e.g. revolver/lever-action rimmed rounds) but of course between categories. In F:NV, you can’t get armor-piercing rounds in a lever-action or a revolver – except for That Gun/the 5.56mm pistol. Weapons that fire .44 magnum can also fire .44 special. Similarly, .357 magnum weapons can fire .38 special, but .44 magnum also has a semi-wadcutter variant, while .357 magnum has a jacketed flat point variant. The differences are minor, but significant enough to make a difference to players who want to fiddle around with ammo subtypes.
— Joshua Sawyer, Tumblr
I didn’t think of making the F:NV guns differ from F3 as much as I tried to return to what I believed was the spirit of Fallout 1 & 2 guns: a mix of common real-world guns, some real-world niche guns, and some completely fictional guns.

I also felt like Fallout 1 (especially) had great gun progression. I really liked how even though the Desert Eagle .44 did more damage than the 10mm pistol, it had a lower ammo cap. Also, because the .44 Magnum ammo is relatively rare (IIRC) when you get the first DE from Garl, it promotes more deliberate, considered use of the weapon and suggests keeping the 10mm pistol around as backup. That sort of overlapping/orthogonal progression is great and I tried to achieve it in F:NV. I always tried to make the “upgrade” of a weapon have one thing that was obviously inferior to / different from the previous version. With the .357 Magnum Revolver and .44 Magnum Revolver, the .357 is slightly more accurate and can never suffer a malfunction/jam.

F3 did some things with ammo types that I understand and appreciate from a game design perspective but I felt contrasted too much from real-world weapon/ammo design. The fact that a handgun and a rifle shared an ammo type is nice for gameplay, but .32 is an odd caliber to use for a number of reasons. One of the things that bothered me most was the use of a similar ammo type in a revolver (typically using rimmed cartridges) and a bolt-action rifle (typically using rimless cartridges and headspacing at the front of the cartridge). Because I liked a more (American) western aesthetic for F:NV, I decided to use rimmed “cowboy cartridges” for revolvers and lever-action rifles. This was extremely common back in the day and can still be done with modern revolvers and lever-actions in the same caliber. The hunting rifle (.32 in F3) went to .308, which we reserved for high-powered rifles and didn’t use in handguns.

In general, when we used real-world weapons and ammo types, I tried to go with ones ordinary people (well, Americans, anyway) were familiar with: .22 LR 9mm, 10mm, .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, 5.56mm, .308, .50 MG. The ones that were made up (12.7mm) or less familiar (.45-70 Gov’t) were generally reserved for later weapons.

The real-world weapons were also sort of a “greatest hits” list: the 9mm based on the Browning Hi-Power, the .357 based on the Colt SAA, etc. - classic designs for people familiar with them that looked great for players who weren’t familiar with them. At times we had to adjust the design for animation/gameplay purposes, e.g. the Automatic Rifle in Dead Money is recognizable as some kind of BAR knockoff, but it differs in some significant ways.

I based the anti-materiel rifle on the Hécate II because honestly I was/am sick of seeing Barretts in games and I think the Hécate II looks better.
— Joshua Sawyer, Tumblr
Can I ask why you don't use the original weapons' actual names? Like why do you call the M16 a "Service Rifle"? Is it due to liscencing issues?
Joshua Sawyer: It's partially for that and also because they aren't "really" those weapons. We take liberties for animation and aesthetic reasons. Rather than provoke players into debating how "legit" a weapon is, I'd rather just give weapons a functional name that gets the basic idea across and leave it at that.
— Joshua Sawyer, Formspring answers, archived at RPGCodex
200 years old rifles? I know nothing of guns, but is this like, something that happens, or just stretching reality for the sake of the setting?
Joshua Sawyer: Is this honestly the first time you've considered that many of the firearms in Fallout were made Pre-War? Come on.

EDIT: Re-reading my response, it sounds rude. Apologies. I'm not sure if this is a genuine or disingenuous question, partially because the majority of questions are anonymous.

The majority of firearms in use in the Fallout setting are likely Pre-War in manufacture. Things that would make conventional firearms stop working: rust (seizing), dry rot (anything wood or rubber), alkaline corrosion/buildup (anything with batteries).

A lot of firearms (and other things, but especially firearms) put in long-term storage are coated in a substance called cosmoline that can prevent rust (and other processes) for a long time. It's unlikely that all of the weapons in Fallout were coated for storage, so it's just a hand-wave of the setting.
— Joshua Sawyer, Formspring answers, archived at RPGCodex
Who made up all of the energy weapons?
Joshua Sawyer: I tuned all of the EW stats (too low for a lot of them, unfortunately), but the EWs were modeled and textured mostly by Mitch Ahlswede, Paul Fish, and Aaron Brown.
— Joshua Sawyer, Formspring answers, archived at RPGCodex
Why do the energy weapons in the Fallout series tend to fire like conventional automatic weapons rather than ever using a continuous beam? I'm thinking specifically of guns like the gatling laser, that fires a series of beams rather than one unbroken one.
Joshua Sawyer: I think continuous beam weapons are cool. We actually tried implementing a continuous beam weapon in F:NV and it was a colossal mess. We put a fair amount of time into it, but it was causing tremendous problems, so we pulled it out.
— Joshua Sawyer, Formspring answers, archived at RPGCodex
why don't laser wepons in NV use iron sights?
Joshua Sawyer: There were a variety of animation and model issues with the laser weapons that delayed any attempts to add iron sights prior to implementing "true" iron sights. Once that system was in place, we realized that we would need to do a certain amount of work well into beta to make true iron sights work for laser weapons. Because the weapon artists were already heavily tasked and the QA staff had a huge amount of content to go through, I decided that it was too late to implement the required content. On their own, the weapons don't actually require that much work to modify for iron sights. The timing was just really bad.
— Joshua Sawyer, Formspring answers, archived at RPGCodex
'Why do energy weapons not have iron sights?' Part of it is that we were adapting a lot of the Fallout 3 energy weapons, which... are just very bulky, and when we went to try to put iron sights on them, it was actually kinda hard. That's the real reason. Y'know, we could've put in the effort to redesign the weapons, but we didn't. Just didn't seem like there was enough time to do that. So, apologies for that. But that's why.— Joshua Sawyer

Unique weapons

I decided very early on that unique weapons should at least have unique textures and sometimes have unique models. By accounting for this early in development, production was able to incorporate it into the schedule. Most unique variants were textured/modeled around the same time as the base weapon, IIRC.

Deciding what weapons would get unique variants was a little more difficult. The first consideration was to make sure the uniques weren’t all bunched up in one type of weapon, so there should be unique weapons more or less equally spread across different categories.

After that, it was more arbitrary and based on feeling/inspiration than anything practical. I always figured people would want to see the return of the .223 pistol, a unique 9mm pistol and sniper rifle seemed obvious, and when we made Honest Hearts, not including a unique .45 would have been a high crime.

Over time, there were also gaps I saw that became opportunities for new uniques. The Survivalist’s Rifle was created to fill a gap between the sniper rifle and the service rifle and to get more use out of the 12.7mm round.

When I started as a game designer at Black Isle, I worked on the original Icewind Dale. We used (a lot of) words to tell the story of a unique item. Fallout: New Vegas didn’t have text descriptions for items, so the story had to be told through the appearance of the weapon or armor itself. Details like the writing on A Light Shining in Darkness and the Survivalist’s Rifle or the bits and pieces of info that can be gleaned from the Desert Ranger Armor are all part of that. Many players never notice them, or if they do notice them, it’s just part of the aesthetic of the item, but for some players, those details tell the story of the item and fill in details about the world and its history.
— Joshua Sawyer, Tumblr
We often develop technology not because it's great immediately, but because developing that technology helps us move toward its potential. We've had various forms of hybrid vehicles (gasoline combustion engine + ???) around for a long time. Most of them were pretty bad and impractical. We've had biofuels around for a while, but most of those are STILL bad and/or impractical. We saw tanks developed in WW1 that were absolute garbage.
All of those things were kind of crummy for a while, but if we hadn't gone through the stage of "Yeah... this is... okay, I guess," we would never have reached the subsequent stages. Coil/rail gun technology used to be completely impractical. Now it's reached the stage where maybe/sorta we could mount an enormous one on a destroyer and blast through a bunker with a huge slug from miles away. We're probably not going to have Eraser- or Fallout-style Gauss rifles for a while, but we see the potential.
In the Fallout universe, I think that the military appeal of weaponry that uses a small number of more-or-less universal ammunition types would be great. Today, we have NATO standards so that allies armies can share ammunition. But what if you could use the same ammunition type for powering a sniper rifle that you'd use for a devastating close-range weapon (e.g. a Microfusion Cell powering a Laser Rifle or a Plasma Rifle)? For a military force in the field, the flexibility of that would be immense.
Anyway, I considered the EWs in F:NV to have reached the point where they were starting to replace conventional weapons, but had not yet completely eclipsed them -- sort of like the early days of firearms, when they were still being used concurrently with bows.
— Joshua Sawyer, Formspring

Bugs[]

  • PCPC Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Xbox 360Xbox 360 Scoped guns will occasionally display a blank "computer terminal" screen instead of the scope. This bug completely blocks the weapon's view when using the "scope". On the Xbox 360, this can be fixed by clearing the system cache and reloading the game. It eventually "goes away" on its own, or by restarting the console, but the cause for start/end is not yet determined. This also makes it hard to use a terminal since no screen or text appears unless you have the weapon out. This can also be similar when lockpicking as the tumbler may disappear, although it is not impossible to still attempt to pick the lock, depending on the difficulty.[verified]
    • Xbox 360Xbox 360 Can be fixed by making a new save and restarting the console.
  • PCPC Xbox 360Xbox 360 Occasionally, weapons dropped by the player will have the red "Press A to steal x" marking as if the weapon was previously owned, regardless of whether or not it ever was owned by an NPC. This can be fixed by opening the console, clicking the weapon, and typing the "setownership" command.[verified]
  • PCPC Xbox 360Xbox 360 With heavy energy weapons that use a backpack as an ammunition supply as well as the katana with a sheath, removing a weapon that has one will cause it to remain on your back. This happens with multiple backpacks, so they clip through each other. This can be corrected by equipping the weapon that caused this, then unequipping it.[verified]
  • PCPC Xbox 360Xbox 360 Sometimes, when using melee weapons, you get blood splatter on the weapon and the blood refuses to come off of the weapon. You can fix this by leaving the game and coming back.[verified]
  • PCPC Xbox 360Xbox 360 Rarely, the weapon models can become small.[verified]
  • PCPC Sometimes, when you fire until you have no ammo left, the gun will still shake like it is shooting. It won't make a sound or inflict any damage.[verified]

See also[]

Weapons in Fallout: New Vegas
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