My Top 10 Favourite Fallout 3 Weapons

Silenced 10mm Pistol



Damage: 8
Ammo Capacity: 12
Rate of Fire: Medium
Ammo Type: 10x25mm Auto
Weight: 3 lbs
Effective Against: Mole Rats, Radroaches, Bloatflies

Similar Weapons:
Chinese Pistol, which also uses 10mm ammo, and of course the standard unsuppressed version of the 10mm Pistol that you start the game with.

Personal Thoughts:
Great for stealth kills. Extra ammo is cheap and pretty common.

Scoped .44 Magnum
Unique Variants: Blackhawk, Callahan's Magnum (Broken Steel)


Damage: 35
Ammo Capacity: 6
Rate of Fire: Slow
Ammo Type: .44 Remington Magnum
Weight: 4 lbs
Effective Against: Giant Ants, Fire Ants

Similar Weapons:
.32 Revolver, much less powerful and doesn't have a scope.

Personal Thoughts:
Powerful little hand cannon. Ammo is relatively common and inexpensive.

Railway Rifle


Damage: 30
Ammo Capacity: 8
Rate of Fire: Medium
Ammo Type: Railway Spikes
Weight: 9 lbs
Effective Against: Yao Guai, Feral Ghouls

Personal Thoughts:
A custom-built, steam-powered weapon that can pin enemies and body parts to walls! It's a fun gun to shoot but ammo capacity is low. Only available through crafting, so you'll have to find the schematics and all the necessary components if you want to try out one of these rifles.

Fat Man
Unique Variant: Experimental MIRV

Damage: 1,610
Ammo Capacity: 1
Rate of Fire: Very Slow
Ammo Type: Mini-Nuke
Weight: 30 lbs
Effective Against: It's a nuke. Everything.

Similar Weapons:
Missile Launcher, much less powerful but much more practical.

Personal Thoughts:
NOTHING is gonna survive a direct hit from this monster, just be careful not to blow yourself up in the process. Insanely powerful, but has severely limited practical use.
Ammo is very, very rare and extremely expensive. A big drawback is the force of the explosion tends to scatter any nearby loot all over the place.

Sniper Rifle
Unique Variants: Reservist's Rifle, Victory Rifle


Damage: 40
Ammo Capacity: 5
Rate of Fire: Slow
Ammo Type: .308 Winchester
Weight: 10 lbs
Effective Against: Super Mutants

Similar Weapons:
Hunting Rifle, also bolt-action, but fires .32 caliber rounds and has iron sights instead of a scope.

Personal Thoughts:
When facing superior numbers and/or tough enemies, picking them off at a safe distance is a good strategy. And it's just so much fun. Ammo is fairly common and relatively cheap. Maintenance may be an issue, as spare parts are uncommon. Reloading is slow and ammo capacity low.
Not recommended for use in a close range firefight (except maybe against a small number of enemies, then you could use it in VATS like a shotgun, if push comes to shove).

Gatling Laser
Unique Variant: Vengeance


Damage: 8 (per laser)
Ammo Capacity: 240
Rate of Fire: Very Fast
Ammo Type: Electron Charge Pack
Weight: 18 lbs
Effective Against: Enclave Vertibirds

Similar Weapons:
Minigun, which uses good old fashioned gunpowder and shoots 5mm bullets instead of lasers.

Personal Thoughts:
A gatling gun with lasers. How is that not all kinds of awesome? This bad boy can shoot down an Enclave Vertibird in the hands of an experienced user. Only drawback is it's heavy, so it takes up a large portion of your inventory space and cuts down on how much loot you can scavenge.

Combat Shotgun
Unique Variant: The Terrible Shotgun


Damage: 55
Ammo Capacity: 12
Rate of Fire: Medium
Ammo Type: 12-gauge
Weight: 7 lbs
Effective Against: Regular Super Mutant and Radscorpion varieties, Mirelurks, Enclave Soldiers, Brotherhood of Steel Outcasts (if hostile)

Similar Weapons:
Sawed-Off Shotgun, which is inferior in almost every way.

Personal Thoughts:
Trustworthy, dependable, and packs a punch. Ammo is common and inexpensive. Spare parts aren't too hard to come by. Maintenance isn't much of a problem.

Chinese Assault Rifle
Unique Variant: Xuanlong Assault Rifle

Damage: 11
Ammo Capacity: 24
Rate of Fire: Fast
Ammo Type: 5.56x45mm NATO
Weight: 7 lbs
Effective Against: Regular Super Mutant and Radscorpion varieties, Mirelurks, Enclave Soldiers, Brotherhood of Steel Outcasts (if hostile)

Similar Weapons:
Assault Rifle, which is pretty much inferior in every way.

Personal Thoughts:
Versatile, reliable, and has decent firepower. Ammo is plentiful and cheap. Spare parts are fairly easy to find, if you know where to look. Not too difficult to maintain.

Alien Blaster
Unique Variant: Firelance

Damage: 100
Ammo Capacity: 10
Rate of Fire: Medium
Ammo Type: Alien Power Cell
Weight: 2 lbs
Effective Against: EVERYTHING

Similar Weapons:
None. This extraterrestrial sidearm has no equal. Two human engineered models of energy pistol do exist (Laser and Plasma), but they're both total weaksauce.

Personal Thoughts:
Ammunition is EXTREMELY LIMITED, but you'll only ever need one shot with this precious baby. Impressive power to weight ratio. Only one of these in the whole game (that is without DLC, cheats, or mods).

Tri-Beam Laser Rifle (Broken Steel DLC)

Damage: 75
Ammo Capacity: 24 (3 lasers = 8 shots)
Rate of Fire: Medium
Ammo Type: Microfusion Cell
Weight: 9 lbs
Effective Against: Super Mutant Overlords, Albino Radscorpions, Deathclaws, Feral Ghoul Reavers, Enclave Hellfire Troopers

Similar Weapons:
Plasma Rifle, and the much weaker, standard single-beam Laser Rifle.

Personal Thoughts:
What's better than a rifle that shoots lasers? A rifle that shoots THREE lasers! This is a deadly beast. It uses more ammo per shot but dishes out superior damage allowing you to cut down enemy after enemy with ease. Even more powerful than the best Plasma Rifle, and invaluable against the tougher enemies you will bump into in Broken Steel.

If I could only carry one weapon, this would be it. Bring it on Wasteland.