The Fallout New Vegas Unique Weapons you can find will give you a small edge while surviving the wasteland. However much of the time you'll need to find them in the first place and often require a range of stats, perks and other abilities to reach then or use them.
That said, the unique weapons aren't that special compared to both other Fallout games and the regular weapons you find as you play. Most of the unique weapons are little more than a slightly modified base weapon with one or two weapon mods added. That actually counts against them to some extent because instead of having, say, a gun you can fully customize with mods you end up with a weapon that does a bit more damage, with one or two mods built in that can't be modified any further.
But despite all that they can be fun and are especially useful if you find them early, so here's what you can get and where to look.
Abilene BB Gun
Location: Mojave Wasteland, Fields Shack / Jimmy’s Well with Wild Wasteland
The Abilene is actually quite a viable weapon. It pulls off critical hits with surprising regularity which allows it to damage enemies a lot faster than a BB gun has any right to. In addition the weapon is classified as being silent so any enemies that you kill with it will fail to alert other enemies to your presence. Paired up with perks like Better Criticals, Finesse and a high Agility and Luck, it’s more than possible to use this weapon like a silenced sniper rifle. Heck you may as well pile on the Cowboy perk for another, minor, damage increase.
You can get the Abilene BB Gun at just about any time. All you need to do is leave Freeside through the north gate and then head to the north-east towards Nellis AFB. As you reach an intersection in the roads a shack can be seen near the cliffs up ahead – simply head on inside and loot the BB gun off of some shelving.
HOWEVER, if have the Wild Wasteland perk then the Abilene Kid BB Gun will be located in Jimmy’s Well, a location that is opened up by speaking to Rex out in the Mojave Wasteland. In that case Field’s Shack will be empty of more or less anything of value beyond a few BB’s.
AER14 Prototype laser rifle
Location: Vault 22, 5th Floor, Common Area
The AER14 is a good deal stronger than an unmodified Laser Rifle but only a little stronger than a fully modded one. But since the AER costs two MF cells per shot this advantage is very quickly lost. A fully modified Laser Rifle will do slightly less damage (3.5 or so) and has an awesome scope. All the AER really has to its name is that bit of extra damage and a very high Critical Hit chance.
Vault 22 isn’t exactly hard to find, located to the west of the Westside South Entrance and the north of Ranger Station Foxtrot, but is a bit difficult to navigate thanks to a broken elevator. If you have a Repair skill of 50 then you can simply fix the elevator and ride it to level five. Turn to the right to find the stairs to the common area, kill the Giant Mantises and then search the ground for the weapon and some energy cells.
If you don’t have a Repair skill high enough you'll have to take the stairs to the fifth floor and deal with all of the Spore creatures and Giant Mantis along the way. If you can’t find the vault you can get this weapon during the “There Stands the Grass” quest given by Dr. Hildern in Vault 22.
Alien Blaster
Location: Mojave Wasteland, North of Horowitz Farm
To get the Alien Blaster you’re going to need the Wild Wasteland perk as it changes the landscape of the area a short ways north of the Horowitz farm. The farm is found along the road northwest of New Vegas, namely Westside, so it isn’t easy to miss. Without the perk there’s a mercenary camp but with it you will see a spaceship parked on an upper ledge and three aliens around a campfire. These guys are tough but take them down and you can have their equipment.
Sadly the Alien Blaster isn’t that fantastic. Smmo is limited, the damage doesn’t seem to be quite as impressive as it was in Fallout 3 and overall you’re much better off with the YCS/186… which doesn’t spawn if you have Wild Wasteland as it overwrites the mercenary camp with the alien ship.
All-American carbine
Location: Vault 34
While it may be one of the better weapons in the game, the All-American is in one of the most aggravating areas in the entirety of Fallout: New Vegas. Vault 34 is found southeast of the Crimson Caravan Company and New Vegas Medical Clinic. It features constantly respawning enemies and is linear enough to explore in a short time, but has a confusing in layout. Paired up with radiation it means you’re going to need to explore fast, and bring a lot of Rad-X and RadAway.
To find the All-American you’re going to need to move through the caves, into the Vault proper, drop down into the Atrium and then drop down into the lower level. From here find the first sunken staircase, swim down and grab the password off the dead ghoul. Next find the medical clinic, go through the far door and find the second sunken staircase to get the next password. Head into the Utility Room to drain the nearby sunken staircase, go down into it and open the Overseers area. Find the Overseers office, kill his ghoul self and use his terminal to open the armory. Double back, enter the armory and take this gun off of one of the tables.
Realistically it's probably not worth the effort other than looking really cool, and having an immensely cool scope... unless you get certain Fallout New Vegas companions to equip it. Boone or Cass will tear your enemies a new one at long range with this thing. Just make sure that they’re set to fight passively or you might find them taking pot shots at enemies at absurd distances and picking fights.
Annabelle assault rifle
Location: Black Mountain
Annabelle is an absolute beast when blasting away at your enemies. It does a helluva lot of damage and is generally superior to the regular missile launcher in every way. With better range, cheaper AP cost to use in VATs and more accuracy. It even has better condition, lower weight and lower strength requirement.
To get to Annabelle it’s up Black Mountain which is pretty central on the map, located East of Sloan which is itself northeast of Goodsprings Cemetery along the road. Once you’ve found Black Mountain you have two ways to actually make your way up but the best way is to approach from the east. To the north and a ways east of Novac and Helios One is a location called Hidden Valley. This is the much safer alternative to climbing up the heavily guarded main route.
While facing the gate entrance to Hidden Valley look to your right. Here you can find a trail that is guarded by a bunch of Centaurs, likely Evolved Centaurs. Kill them and start climbing up the path where you will reach the Black Mountain summit. Open the gate and slip through the buildings, taking a look around. You should see a large radio broadcasting tower with two Nightkin on it. Killing the two of them will let you loot Annabelle off of the Nightkin Sniper.
Big Boomer shotgun
Location: Old Gibson Scrapyard, North of Novac
Getting your hands on the Big Boomer is a tricky proposition. It’s being held by a nice old lady who is related to a few quests so you don't want to kill her as soon as you meet her. Regardless, there’s actually no way to get it without some form of conflict.
The big problem is that the old lady has the weapon equipped and you have two main options:
- First and foremost you can just murder the old lady. Loot her body for the gun and a key that she’s carrying. This key is used during a quest at the REPCONN facility nearby. Try not to do this dark deed until she’s helped you start up Ed-E’s data logs though.
- There's is a way to get it without killing her or causing quest problems but it's tricky - take out a silenced or melee weapon and use it to kill her dogs that are outside. Now do the same inside. If done properly you should be able to kill them all without alerting her. With that done take out a weak weapon, like a 9mm pistol, and get ready. Walk up to the old lady, put the gun away, punch her and then take it back out. She should draw her Big Boomer. Shoot her arm to cause her to drop the gun allowing you to quickly grab it and flee. When you return to her some hours later she should have returned to peaceful state, but this isn’t 100% so save your game before you attempt this.
Cram Opener bladed gauntlet
Location: Camp MacCarran
You can only get the Cram Opener from one person – Little Buster in Camp MacCarran has it in his inventory. There are a few ways to go about getting this weapon off of this poor schmuck:
- If you have a high enough Sneak skill simply remove your armor to enhance your sneaking abilities and then pickpocket the weapon off of him.
- It’s possible to simply wait until completing the Three-Card Bounty quest. When you do this, Little Buster can be found dead along the railroad tracks in Freeside. Then you simply loot his corpse for the weapon. Neat and clean.
- Killing him is a possibility but you have to be really careful about it. If you’ve got a strong enough silenced weapon, killing him with a single headshot won’t turn anyone else hostile or cost you NCR reputation. It’s also possible to reverse pickpocket a grenade or mine into his inventory but this seems to almost always alert everyone to your crimes.
- The fastest way to get this weapon from Little Buster is by killing him by simply blowing up one of the trucks near him. This will blow him away and allow you to loot his dead body. This will have no repercussions with the NCR or karma loss.
While weapons like Pushy or Displacer Glove do a good deal more damage, sometimes twice as much, the Cram Opener is quite powerful in its own way because it ignores Damage Threshold. With a high critical hit chance, a slightly lower AP cost when used in VATs and a bit of a higher attack speed. Heck this weapon can even make dealing with the Brotherhood of Steel a rather impressively easy matter.
Holy Frag Grenades
Location: Camp Searchlight
Take note that you cannot acquire this unique weapon without the Wild Wasteland trait. If you don't have that then there will only be a pair of Mini-Nukes in the location.
Unfortunately these incredibly destructive weapons are in the most heavily irradiated area in the Mojave Wasteland, Camp Searchlight. It takes a whole lot of preparation to not die within minutes of arrival so you’re going to need to prepare by getting enough Rad-X, Rad-Away, and possibly a Radiation Suit.
When you're ready travel from Nipton to the east, past the crossroads, until you reach the radiated military base. Make your way from the center of the camp towards the church to the south. This is located near the Fire Station so you’ll see the red trucks to let you know you’re heading the right way. When you reach the church head inside and go down into the basement storage area. A pair of Golden Gecko’s will attack so be careful – they do a lot of damage and since it’s such tight quarters a non-combat spec character can die easily here. Once they’re dead you can find these grenades on the table.
Liberator machete
Location: Nelson
If you’re into melee weapons then Liberator can be a bit of a help early on in the game. It’s one of the few weapons that can be gotten with the help of allies. You’ll have to get this from Dead Sea, a Legionnaire in Camp Nelson - a small settlement to the east of Novac that has been taken from NCR by the Legion. There are a few ways of getting Liberator from there depending on how you’re playing through the game.
If you’re planning on siding with NCR, or at least working with them for much of the game, then make your way to Camp Forlorn Hope. This location should appear on your map through natural gameplay progression but it is found northeast of Novac, west of Helios One, in the hilly area. By completing the quests here you will be able to instigate an attack to retake Novac from the Legion. Help them out, kill Dead Sea and then loot the Liberator off of his cold corpse.
Mysterious Magnum
Location: Mojave Wasteland, El Dorado Billboard
Those of you non-laymen to the Fallout games will know that the Mysterious Stranger, the weird guy who assists you when you have the perk named after him, is based off a 1950’s film noir detective. The Mysterious Magnum, which is skinned exactly like the Mysterious Stranger's weapon in New Vegas, can be acquired from a man named The Lonesome Drifter. Located at a campsite near the El Dorado Billboard to the southeast of the 188 Trading Post, the Drifter has an interesting story about who his father might be. To get it from him you’re going to have to either shoot him in the face or, if you have a barter of 50 and the Talent Pool quest, you can you can talk him out of it
Pushy displacer glove
Location: Ruby Hill Mine
Put simply Pushy is the best unarmed weapon in the game. The only stronger weapon is a Ballistic Fist but that has a ridiculously high strength requirement for very little improvement. Pushy even has a better condition rating, lasting far longer between repairs than the Ballistic Fist. Pushy is also a bit easier to repair although putting it in Veronica’s able hands can work just as well as the condition won’t degrade.
Pushy is found in the Ruby Hill Mine, a location found a bit to the northeast of Jacobstown. The cave is somewhat dangerous due to the fact that there are more than a half dozen Lakelurks in here and their sonic attack is devastating. Even for a very high level character in the best equipment they are going to rock your world. Once you enter the cave fight through the main hall, killing the five or so enemies in here, and then head to the left and down into a large cavern with water. Here you can find this weapon on a dead Jackal lying near the mouth of the tunnel.
That Gun pistol
Location: Novac, Dino-Bites Gift Shop
That Gun is one of the simplest unique weapons to acquire as it can be bought in a shop. Make your way to Novac and head towards the giant T-Rex statue. In the gift shop located inside of the statue you can purchase That Gun off of Cliff Briscoe for a rather impressive sum of money. It’s a rather good investment as it’s one of the more powerful pistols in the game due to it firing rifle rounds out of a freaking one-handed gun. The reload time is surprisingly short, the range is good and the critical hit chance of this gun is absolutely through the roof.
However, there is unfortunately no way to repair That Gun other than by using Weapon Repair Kits or paying merchants to repair it for you. This is because there are absolutely no weapons like it in the game. If you plan on making extensive use of this weapon then it is advised that you pick up the Jury Rigging skill so that you can simply use any one-handed small guns to repair it or invest in a lot of Weapon Repair Kits as soon as you possibly can.
This Machine
Location: Camp MacCarran
This is one of the many unique items that can be found in Camp MacCarran. This one is property of Sgt. Daniel Contreras but it’s currently being held by Sgt. Boyd. To get it you’re going to have to complete an unmarked quest dealing with Contreras’ weapon smuggling and Boyd’s attempts to figure out what the heck is happening to their supplies. You have four ways to solve this one depending on how dirty you’re willing to get.
The first way is rather the simplest. Agree to work with Sgt. Contreras’ smuggling operation. He’ll send you out on a few missions around the Wasteland and when you finish the last one he’ll give you this as a reward.
Your second choice is more complicated. During the course of doing Sgt. Contreras’ mission you will encounter an undercover agent. Speaking to him you can choose to turn on Contreras, turning him in to Boyd. This takes a bit more running around to actually complete but at the end of the mission Sgt. Boyd will actually give you This Machine. This ends up with Contreras in the prison where he can be bartered with but his caps / inventory never cycle so he’s no longer very useful.
Third you can simply go up to the second floor of the Supply Shack, hack the computer and download the Weapon Shipment data. With this in hand you can either talk to Contreras to start his quests or go back to Boyd to turn him in immediately.
Lastly if you’d like to make a bunch of money and get this gun there’s a dirty little trick you can perform. Go up the second floor and hack the terminal to get the weapon shipment data. Now go downstairs to trade with Contreras. Sell him everything you have except for one good weapon, trying to take as much of his 8,000 caps as you can. With that done execute him, preferably with a sneak attack critical, and loot everything he has. If you can’t carry all of it then stash some in a nearby container. Once you have all of his stuff go turn him in to Boyd who will give you This Machine. There you go, lots of caps and equipment with the quest reward.
Thump-Thump
Location: Nellis Array
The main advantage to Thump-Thump is that it’s attack speed is fairly increased over the regular grenade rifle along with a slight increase to the explosion radius. Otherwise it’s basically just a grenade rifle with a long barrel mod already slapped on. However if you’re planning on making any regular use out of grenade weapons then there is little to no reason not to use this weapon instead of the regular one especially in light of its increased condition allowing it to go longer between repairs.
Getting Thump-Thump requires first making your way onto the Nellis Air Force Base and then getting the quest, Ant Misbehavin’. This will get you access to the Array which allows you to enter from one of the two doors. Use the door that is near the fence, not the other one as that leaves you further from the weapon. Once inside go through the tunnel and into the main chamber. Walk to the far end of the chamber, turn to your left and search in this small area to find the weapon on the ground.
Vance's 9mm submachine gun
Location: Wins Shack, Northwest of New Vegas
You can't get this if you have the Wild Wasteland trait as the location where you find it changes.
This submachine gun is actually almost absurdly powerful for something firing 9mm rounds. You get sixty shots to tear through an enemies' health and with increased damage and reduced spread. The only drawback to this is one that’s common to all 9mm guns – they’re basically useless against armored foes. If you tried using this on a Brotherhood Paladin or Giant Radscorpion they would laugh you off, much less using it around a Deathclaw or some of more heavily armored faction troopers.
First off you will need to head to Primm and speak to Primm Slim about Vicki and Vance. When he tells you about their gun, go examine the case and return to the robot, informing him that it isn’t there. To diagnose his memory block you’ll need a Science skill of 50+. Now make your way over to the area outside of Westside's northern gate, to the Wins Hideout. Go inside ands peak to the two to find out they’re planning a bit of foolishness. With a Speech of 55+ you can talk them out of it which results in them giving you the combination to the safe.
If you don’t have the requisite Speech you can try to pick the lock but that requires a Lockpick skill of 100. Don’t try to kill them for the key as it will not be found on their corpses – your only option is to talk to them about their plans and convince them out of it or pop the lock on the safe. That’s it.
YCS/186 Gauss rifle
Location: Mojave Wasteland, North of Horowitz Farmstead
You must not have the Wild Wasteland perk to acquire this weapon. If you do the location changes to give you the Alien Blaster instead.
The Horowitz Farmstead is found in the north-western part of the Mojave Wasteland. More specifically it’s found to the north-west of the entrance to Westside, off of the roads near the top of the map. When you finally reach the Horowitz Farmstead head to the north to find a small mercenary camp with a few hostile mercs. Kill them and loot the YCS/186 off of their cold corpses.
The YCS is probably one of the better energy weapons in the game. It’s basically the Gauss Rifle from Fallout 3 in that it deals a lot of damage, knocks enemies down and needs to be reloaded constantly. This paired up with its innate sniper rifle scope makes it a very powerful weapon. There are a few bugs associated with the weapon though, namely that it seems to do less damage than advertised, exactly like the one in Fallout 3. Supposedly this is due to the shockwave visual effect but why this is remains unknown.
Rare Fallout New Vegas weapons
Listed below are weapons that, while not unique, are pretty rare to find in the Mojave Wasteland. Take note that since much of this game is randomized it can seem like certain weapons are indeed Unique even when they aren’t.
Mini-Nuke launcher
Locations: One can be found in Quarry Junction. Look around and you will find it lying in a pool of water.
The Mini-Nuke launcher from Fallout 3 returns with a vengeance. Just like in Fallout 3 this bad boy fires explosives that devastate everything in a rather ridiculous area of effect when fired. Just be judicious with these as you can easily kill yourself by accident and the amount of ammo for this weapon is seriously limited (14 in total). Sadly this lack of ammo renders the weapon fairly useless for the most part.
Ranger Sequoia revolver
Locations: Chief Hanlon in Camp Golf is carrying one of these. You can get it by stealing it from him, killing him for it or completing the quest Return to Sender.
This. Weapon. Is. Bad. Ass! Right here you’ve got a one-handed revolver that can obliterate your enemies with an almost ridiculous ease. With the Cowboy perk and Rapid Reload you will dish out an insane amount of damage at a rate that makes it one of the most powerful weapons in the game. Only shotguns and some of the energy weapons are able to keep up with the damage that this beast deals in combat.
Sometimes high level NCR Rangers will be equipped with this weapon. It pretty much takes killing them to get it though. This is fairly easy to accomplish if you’re high level and picking fights with NCR though.
