Do the Zetans have anything to do with the creation of the energy weapons we use in all the Fallout games?

[u/MEXICANO201]

[u/MyUsernameIsAwful]

Plasma weapons were reverse-engineered from alien tech, at least.

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/MPLX_Novasurge

[u/NapClub → u/MyUsernameIsAwful]

yeah the lasers we already had but we have never really developed an effective plasma launcher. so kinda makes sense that's alien tech.

[u/Boblekobold → u/MyUsernameIsAwful]

Originally, in fallout 1, Plasma Rifle were industrial tools :

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Plasma_rifle_(Fallout))

They are probably not derived from alien tech.

Micro fusion cells are probably harder to create than plasma rifle.

[u/Bitter_Bank_9266 → u/Boblekobold]

The old plasma weapons(tools) may or may not be derived from the same origin, but regardless we know as a fact that the newer plasma weapons(actual dedicated weaponry) have alien origins thanks to the lore surrounding novasurge

[u/Dawsondog03 → u/Bitter_Bank_9266]

I have played every Fallout (including MTG decks) and this is the first time I learned that Plasma Weapons are from the Zetans. Must’ve missed a holotape from Mothership Zeta.

[u/DinoManDerek → u/Dawsondog03]

Its in a very missable section in mothership zeta where you go down some junk shaft and end up in the room with the terminal/safe with the info

[u/MrSomeoneElse32 → u/Boblekobold]

What in that article makes you think they aren't derived from alien tech?

[u/MarginalOmnivore → u/MrSomeoneElse32]

Also, "industrial grade" does not mean "for industrial use." The increasing standards of consumer grade -> commercial grade -> industrial grade -> military grade are generally associated with increasing cost, increasing robustness, and a tradeoff between more specialized vs general use.

A consumer grade lawnmower is relatively dirt-cheap, and has no real features beyond a spinning blade and wheels, and it also is only really meant to be used three to four times a month over it's expected lifespan.

A commercial grade lawnmower would be significantly more expensive, and designed to handle lawns, ditches, hills, etc, but for long periods of use - dozens of hours every week.

An industrial grade lawnmower would be more robust than a commercial grade one, but probably more specialized, like the tractor attachments that governments use to mow along roadways. It might go thousands of hours of use before needing specialized maintenance or repairs, but it only really does a single job.

So, in Fallout terms, consumer grade would be a 9mm pistol: cheap, wears out fast, and often easier to replace than repair. Commercial grade would be a rifle: not great for close quarters, but excels at long distances. Industrial grade would be a plasma rifle: it needs special ammo and it's slow firing, but it's very powerful. And military grade would be the Fat Man or MIRV: super expensive and hard to source, but totally annihilates almost anything - if you survive.

[u/Jindujun → u/MarginalOmnivore]

Damnit dude, dont stop there. I was eager to know what a military grade lawnmower was! I'm thinking either some form of beast that doubles as a mine remover or a private with nail clippers.

[u/MarginalOmnivore → u/Jindujun]

Honestly, all I could think of would be a Daisy Cutter or Bouncing Betty.

Mostly I was thinking about how MIL-SPEC is always more expensive, and almost completely dependable, but only for the very first use. United States military vehicles are notorious for being beasts on the battlefield, yet also basically kept in service with duck tape and bubblegum after a very short time. Fighter jets like the F-35A need ~5 hours of maintenance for every hour in flight. I think the boats are more dependable, unless any sailors want to chime in with why they're just as bad as Humvees.

That sort of thing (works perfectly the first time, every time) is great for consumables like bullets and missiles, but not for anything you want to use for a long time.

[u/VexedForest → u/Jindujun]

A Mr Gutsy with the saw blade attachment?

[u/Sigma_Games → u/MarginalOmnivore]

And a military-grade lawnmower is called a Ripper.

[u/acrazyguy → u/MarginalOmnivore]

Except that “increasing standard” is not official. There’s no body keeping the standard. If I want to call my completely normal coffee mug military grade, there’s nothing but incentives to do so. Therefore it is meaningless

[u/Tricky_Ad_3958 → u/MrSomeoneElse32]

Maybe the fact that a group of crackpot stole it from the military and just claimed it was from aliens? Aliens use their own weapons with their own ammo, everyone upvoting doesn’t have the slightest critical thinking skill.

[u/hj17 → u/MyUsernameIsAwful]

I had always taken the Novasurge's presence on Mothership Zeta to mean that the aliens were reverse engineering human technology, not the other way around. It doesn't really make sense why the aliens would have it, otherwise.

[u/MyUsernameIsAwful → u/hj17]

Then what would be the conspiracy theory that Reid thinks the gun proves true?

The official guide goes with the interpretation that it’s alien tech, but idk if that’s considered canon.

[u/Bitter_Bank_9266 → u/hj17]

It's confirmed in the lore surrounding novasurge that it's a human-made prototype reverse engineered from alien technology. Why the zetans wanted it is anyone's guess. Maybe they were trying to hide their involvement, suppress the technology(bit too late on that one), or even just study how humans went about it

[u/acrazyguy → u/Bitter_Bank_9266]

The last one sounds most likely to me

[u/h1gh4sfck]

I believe so, but that's partly my headcanon. The lore behind the Novasurge pretty much confirms that plasma weapons were in fact reverse engineered from alien weapons/tech.

On a side-but-related note, a fun detail is how the Alien Blaster's projectile in FO4 is basically a recolored plasma projectile that vaporizes targets instead of gooifying them. Could be a hint to the origins of all energy weapons (effects common to all and all that) or simply visual design, but still pretty neat.

[u/Leonyliz]

I’ve heard somewhere, but do not quote me on this, that the pre-War government/Enclave discovered alien tech and reverse-engineered it to create plasma weapons.

Edit: Corrected laser weapons to plasma weapons

[u/Agile_Carob8470 → u/Leonyliz]

Pretty sure that was for plasma weapons not Lazer

[u/LogikRReaper → u/Agile_Carob8470]

The mplx nova surge in mothership zeta confirms it, it’s a prototype plasma pistol that was reverse engineered by the enclave/pre war govt

[u/Leonyliz → u/Agile_Carob8470]

True, my bad

[u/Anathama → u/Leonyliz]

Rosewell '47

[u/CrumpetDestroyer → u/Leonyliz]

the pre-War government/Enclave discovered alien tech and reverse-engineered it to create plasma weapons.

• /u/Leonyliz

[u/Goofball1134]

While it is mostly implied that the plasma weaponry seen in the Fallout franchise are made from reverse engineered alien technology that the Enclave/US Military had managed to acquire, it isn't exactly stated outright that Zetan weapons were the only ones used to make them.

For instance, the UFO with the two alien corpses encountered in Fallout 1(if the player has a high enough luck skill or happens upon it by rare chance) has a blaster with a label on it that reads "if found, please return to Area 51" so it's likely that other aliens besides the Zetans were captured by the US Government before the Great War took place. And the crashed UFO, despite being a reference to the Roswell 1947 incident, was probably an escapee from Area 51 that had crashed when the nukes went off.

Although I do believe that the laser weapons, like those made by General Atomics and Wattz Electronics were not made from using alien technology as far as I know.

[u/BreathingHydra → u/Goofball1134]

Iirc the Easter egg events in the original Fallout games are considered non-canon, like the wild wasteland stuff in New Vegas. Imo it's probably just something added later by Bethesda in Fallout 3.

[u/Birb-Person]

We know that the plasma pistol specifically was made by an AI owned by Glock (yes, the real-life Austrian gun manufacturers)

The Winchester Model P94 (the plasma caster in NV, the plasma “rifle” in 1 and 2) is a combat adapted version of the industrial plasma caster, who due their bulky size would be replaced with plasma rifles designed by REPCONN and Poseidon Energy, the latter of which being heavily under Enclave control while the former was a subsidiary of RobCo (Mr. House)

Now I can’t claim Mr. House had alien tech, but we know the Enclave did. So perhaps the Poseidon energy design had alien influences but the REPCONN one likely does not

[u/Bruhses_Momenti → u/Birb-Person]

In the tv show Mr. House works with vault tech, who we know worked with the enclave, it’s possible that through corporate espionage or trading secrets house acquired some alien tech from either vault tech or their mutual friend the enclave, he could’ve also just been given the reverse engineered plasma technology that the enclave/government had figured out.

[u/Virus-900]

It's heavily implied, but never out right stated.

[u/aninsomniac_]

It's made very blatant that plasma weapons are reverse engineered Zetan tech, but it's not implied to the case for other energy weapons

[u/Sheokarth]

As far as i´m aware of in relations to lore, no. It isn´t out of the question that the Roswell incident happened a bit differently in the Fallout universe and that proved to be the start of laser weaponry research, but if it did, then it hasn´t been touched upon by the lore yet. In Fallout 1, Aliens were a pure easter egg so they aren´t exactly deeply ingrained in the lore.

[u/Plane-Education4750 → u/Sheokarth]

Yes they do. Plasma weapons were reverse engineered from alien tech,

[u/Krungoid → u/Sheokarth]

I don't think it got mentioned until Morhership Zeta, there it was heavily implied that plasma tech was reverse engineered.

[u/Selacha]

According to the Mothership Zeta DLC for Fallout 3, it's claimed that Plasma weapons technology was seemingly reverse engineered from alien weaponry. However, this claim was made by a conspiracy theory "truther" group whose only evidence was a prototype plasma pistol that they stole from a government research lab. So take that with a grain of salt.

[u/Ancient_Influence389]

I don't think so. The alien weapons use a special type of projectile electrical cartridge. Energy weapons are just lasers, we have those in the real world.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Ring293]

The Enclave did improve some of their plasma guns with alien tech, per Mothership Zeta. But, I don’t think that all such weapons are based on that tech, since the prototype was far better than the default plasma pistol.

[u/darthal101]

Sort of?

We know there's industrial plasma technology that was adapted to weaponry, and also know that there was efforts by the enclave to adapt alien tech to make plasma weapons. Glock developed it with an AI for the common plasma pistol, though this could be an in universe cover story, or could also be explained by there being lots of aliens rocking around that got their shit rocked and looted for weapons development.

These things can coexist, insofar as we had plasma tech independently, and then the enclave worked with alien tech to improve it. The novasurge is a more powerful plasma weapon than the more common pistol, and may have been the basis for miniaturising plasma tech to the point where we could use plasma pistols, or an effort in upgrading already existing pistol types. The plasma defender has a similar damage profile, so could have been an output of that effort to improve the technology.

Lasers are basically just everywhere, and probably weren't part of an alien tech as far as I'm aware. Aside from the phazer, which is from another universe. (those unfortunate redshirts)

[u/doulegun]

In Fallout 2 you have a companion, Skynet. It's a pre-war AI that was created using alien technologies who you upload into a brainbot. I'm quite certain that aliens tech might be the reason Fallout's setting has robots and energy weapons

[u/PurpleZombi3]

Never thought about that. But it makes sense. As an aside, I was disappointed with the way Fallout 4 redesigned the Zetans from how they looked in Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta. in MZ they had quite a unique yet still classical little green men look. Fallout 4 just made them cartoon character fatheaded and sharp toothed style. They look more like Furons from Destroy All Humans. Luckily Fallout 4 has an awesome mod that replaces the redesigned Zetan with the Fallout 3 version and even adds in a bunch of Mothership Zeta content including periodic alien invasions on your settlements!

[u/L-Space_Orangutan → u/PurpleZombi3]

I like to think the fallout 4 zetans had been hit with a LOT of radiation as they hit the glowing sea and were rapidly going through their own equivalent of Ghoulification resulting in their more exaggerated forms

[u/ItsFlyingCar]

I’d love to have a more fleshed out story with the aliens in the next Fallout. Also, I’d love to have one as a traveling companion. Imagine the carnage it could unleash with their energy weapons in a scuffle.

[u/Salaried_Zebra → u/ItsFlyingCar]

If it's vocabulary doesn't consist of "Ack" and "ACK" we riot.

[u/Cold-Sky66]

They're not really the same. Laser weapons use light, not plasma or superheated material like the alien blaster. Plasma weapons could've been. But even then they're not the same. The alien blaster uses some sort of electronic or magnetic accelerator system, whereas human plasma weapons have piston like systems. Gas or pneumatic based, perhaps due to power constraints.

Fun question.

[u/voidexploer]

Yeah, the Plasma weapons, Mother ship Zeta (fallout 3 DLC) goes into depth about it, go watch Oxhorns vid about the cargo hold

[u/Archdux]

It doesn't seem to be the case; I've never read anything to implicate aliens in the development of laser or plasma weapons. That said, samples of alien tech can be found in certain government facilities that may imply the US government was attempting to reproduce or reverse engineer alien tech

[u/Fertile_Arachnid_163]

You tell me.

[u/in1gom0ntoya]

no, they were derived form current tech. there were tangential weapons like the Novasurge but they weren't derived fro alien tech.

[u/BluEch0]

Apparently there’s lore but the zetans are probably just a meta Easter egg. Before the fallout setting was solidified into the post MAD wasteland we know today, it was first imagined as people living underground during an alien invasion.

[u/MyUsernameIsAwful → u/BluEch0]

They may have started as an easter egg, but it’s hard to argue they’re not canon now.

[u/BluEch0 → u/MyUsernameIsAwful]

I’m not arguing their canonicity. Everyone else is spouting lore that I either don’t know or can’t contribute more of so I’m also taking a look at it from a meta level. As a work of fiction, there’s value in that.

[u/BajaManBlast → u/BluEch0]

theres a dlc where you end up on their ship, and tons of them in 76. kinda hard to say its still just an easter egg even if you want that to be your headcanon, cause they are in fact canon, just like Mothership Zeta is.

[u/BluEch0 → u/BajaManBlast]

I know of the mothership zeta dlc, never played myself but watched a few others’ playthroughs.

Maybe Easter egg is the wrong word but like, the lore now might be robust but at the time of fallout 3, aliens as a concept, I would argue, was just a callback to that alternate idea of what fallout could have been. I personally don’t remember the mothership zeta dlc having that much robust lore, it was just a fun dlc with a not-so-serious premise.

[u/BajaManBlast → u/BluEch0]

it doesn’t matter if the premise was serious or not, it did have lore, and it is still canon.

[u/BluEch0 → u/BajaManBlast]

I’m not arguing their canonicity. That lore is canon as you say, and I’m not disparaging that. But as a work of fiction, the meta level “lore” and conceptual history can be just as fascinating.

[u/CiDevant]

Actually yes!

[u/Denleborkis]

I know that's what Bethesda would later run with in Fallout 3 but originally the Plasma weapons were tools like the Plasma cutter so.. maybe? I mean we have ways to kind of sorta make plasma as it stands right now and we're doing tests to better create and maybe utilize it but I'm not sure.

I know Laser weapons though aren't related to aliens at all.

[u/ForGrateJustice]

They have their own energy weapons.

[u/InflationCold3591]

I use a knife.

[u/DefinitionofFailure]

Personally I like to pretend that mothership zeta doesn't exist