Fallout New Vegas Unique Weapons guide

There weren’t all that many unique weapons in the older Fallout games but upon release of Fallout 3 they became a much more prominent part of the game. Almost any given unique weapon was a good deal better than its more common available variants. As such it was almost always in your best interest to find some of the unique weapons as soon as possible so that you’d have an advantage against the various things that wanted to kill you in the Capital Wasteland (i.e. everything).

In a strange, and somewhat frustrating, change made by Obsidian, the unique weapons are no longer all that special compared to some regular weapons. As a matter of fact most of the unique weapons are little more than a slightly modified weapon of its base type with one or two of the weapon mods. So instead of having a light machine gun you can fully customize with weapon mods you end up with a weapon that does a bit more damage than a light machine gun, has one or two mods as part of the weapon, and then cannot be modified any further.

The one thing that keeps this from being too frustrating is that most of the weapon mods are almost impossible to reliably find in the Wasteland. As such, finding the unique weapons that will compliment your fighting style is not only fairly important butstrongly suggested. Otherwise you’re just going to be making your travels through the Mojave Wasteland a lot more treacherous than they need to be. Then again considering that some of the unique weapons are hidden in Deathclaw or Cazador infested areas…

Good luck!

Make sure to check out our Fallout New Vegas Wild Wasteland guide right here!

Abilene BB Gun

Location: Mojave Wasteland, Fields Shack / Jimmy’s Well with Wild Wasteland

As the game doesn’t seem to regard this weapon as anything special you can literally 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 this shack can be seen near the cliffs up ahead – simply head on inside and loot the BB gun off of some shelving.

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.

Take note that the above is only true if you don’t have the Wild Wasteland perk. If you should have this 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

Located to the west of the Westside South Entrance and the north of Ranger Station Foxtrot, Vault 22 isn’t exactly hard to find but is a bit difficult to navigate thanks to a broken elevator. If you don’t have a Repair skill high enough to just flat out fix the elevator you’ve got a bit of an adventure ahead of you. The stairs will take you up to the fifth floor but you’ll have to 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.

If you do 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.

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.

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 with a little bit of coercion (i.e. bullets to the face) they will go down and you can take their equipment.

Sadly the Alien Blaster isn’t that fantastic here. The ammo is seriously 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.

However, if you have a high enough Luck then the Alien Blaster becomes infinitely more useful. With a Luck in the range of 4 or 5 this weapon seems to land critical hits with almost every shot. When it does happen to execute a critical this thing does well over one hundred points of damage that seem to blow through damage threshold and damage resistance with almost ridiculous ease. This weapon makes short work of even the Legendary Deathclaw.

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. This Vault, found southeast of the Crimson Caravan Company and New Vegas Medical Clinic, is the height of frustration to navigate. It features constantly respawning enemies and is linear enough to explore in a short time, but yet somewhat confusing in layout. Paired up with the radiation this means you’re going to need to explore fast, bring a lot of Rad-X and RadAway and move as fast as possible.

For this 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.

Honestly this weapon is totally not worth all the damn effort you have to go through to get it. Other than looking really cool, and having an immensely bad-ass scope, this gun isn’t really all that special. The main advantage of this gun is the same thing as the regular Marksman Carbine; it can be used to snipe multiple enemies very quickly. If you have a high enough Gun skill to keep your aim steady then you can tear enemies apart at rather extreme ranges.

If you can get Boone or Cass to equip this weapon than they will tear your enemies a new one at long range. 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

To get to Annabelle it’s up Black Mountain with you. This location is pretty central on the map, located East of Sloan which is itself northeast of Goodsprings Cemetary 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.

Annabelle is an absolute freaking beast when blasting away at your enemies. It does a helluva lot of damage is generally superior to the regular missile launcher in every way. With better range, cheaper AP cost to use in VATs and more accurate. Hell it’s even got better condition, lower weight and lower strength requirement. If you’re planning on using big weapons / explosives then this is an ideal weapon for you.

Big Boomer shotgun

Location: Old Gibson Scrapyard, North of Novac

Getting your hands on the Big Boomer is kind of a tricky proposition. It’s currently being held by a nice old lady who is related to a few quests. As such it’s somewhat ill-advised to kill her as soon as you meet her although it might be doable before leaving Novac. Regardless this nice old lady is the one holding on to the gun and there’s actually no way to get it without some form of conflict.

The problem here is that the old lady has the weapon equipped. Even if you give her something to make her unequip it, or pickpocket the ammo for it so that she chooses to do so, she will always notice when you attempt to take the gun. That doesn’t mean we have no options:

1.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.

2.This one is a bit trickier as you’re going to pick a fight. Take out a silenced weapon, 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 gone peaceful again 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 / location – 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:

1 – 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.

2 – 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.

3– 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.

4 – 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.

If you’re using unarmed weapons then you have a decision to make. Weapons like Pushy or Displacer Glove do a good deal more damage, sometimes twice as much, but the Cram Opener is quite powerful in its own way – 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. But then again the Paladin Toaster can do that as well.

Holy Frag Grenades

Location: Camp Searchlight

Take note that you cannot acquire this unique weapon without having the Wild Wasteland trait. Otherwise there will only be a pair of Mini-Nukes in the location.

Unfortunately for your intrepid Courier these incredibly destructive weapons are held 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 yourself for this. Once you’ve obtained enough Rad-X and Rad-Away (and possibly a Radiation Suit) you’re ready to acquire this weapon. 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, especially if you’re not willing to risk going to Chance’s Grave. It’s one of the few weapons in the game that can be gotten with the help of allies. You’ll have to get this from Dead Sea, a Legionnaire in Camp Nelson. Nelson is 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. In Fallout 3 the Mysterious Stranger’s Magnum is a unique weapon the player cannot acquire that does ludicrous amounts of damage. While it can be gotten in the PC version via console commands and the like it’s not meant for the player to use due to how much damage it does.

The Mysterious Magnum, which is skinned exactly like the Mysterious Strangers 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…

Pushy displacer glove

Location: Ruby Hill Mine

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.

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 improvements. Heck 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.

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 on this gun is surprisingly short, the range is good and the critical hit chance of this gun is absolutely through the roof.

Take note that 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 a bit 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 here 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

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.

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 nay 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.

Vance's 9mm submachine gun

Location: Wins Shack, Northwest of New Vegas

The trail to actually pick up this gun is going to take you around the Wasteland a bit. 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+ which ends with you holding a memory block. Now make your way over to the area outside of Westsides 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.

This submachine gun is actually almost absurdly powerful for something firing 9mm rounds. You get sixty shots with which to tear through an enemies health with this guns increased damage and reduced spread compared to its common siblings. The only drawback to this weapon 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.

As fair warning – If you possess the Wild Wasteland trait then you cannot get this weapon as the location that nets you it will change. Be aware of this.

YCS/186 Gauss rifle

Fair warning – You must have the Wild Wasteland perk to acquire this weapon. If you do have the Wild Wasteland perk then you cannot get the YCS/186.

Location: Mojave Wasteland, North of Horowitz Farmstead

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.

Listed below are some 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.

Blake at the Crimson Caravan Company will sell one when you reach a high enough level.

Sometimes sold by the Munitions Manager in Nellis AFB after you have gotten Pearl’s permission to trade.

One can be purchased from the armory in Hidden Valley when you have earned their trust.

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.

Freelance Writer

Daniel is a freelance games journalist, but is also the Editor-in-Chief at Gaming Excellence. 

With contributions from