One of the new weapons that arrived with the next-generation update in Fallout 4 is the Tesla Cannon, a powerful Fusion Cell gun that shocks any enemy unfortunate enough to get in its way. The primary way to get the Tesla Cannon is by completing the quest called “Best of Three,” which is part of the next-generation update. However, there’s an additional and much easier way to get the Tesla Cannon as well.
You can see both ways of acquiring the weapon in the guide below.
Getting the Tesla Cannon in Fallout 4
The Tesla Cannon is a highly sought-after weapon on which the Enclave faction has its sights. This is made evident in the quest Echoes of the Past, which is also part of the new update. In that quest, you can read a terminal entry that details the Enclave’s current efforts to find the Tesla Cannon. We have a full walkthrough of the Echoes of the Past quest, which you might want to start sooner rather than later.
If you’re on a leveled-up character in Fallout 4, both the Best of Three and Echoes of the Past quests should automatically be added to your quest log. However, new characters must wait until a certain point in the story to start the quests. Both quests offer a way to get the Tesla Cannon, and you can see how to get the weapon in either quest below.
Completing Best of Three
First up, we have the dedicated quest that concludes with you acquiring the Tesla Cannon. Best of Three begins by tuning to the Vault-Tec Distress Signal in the Radio section of your Pip-Boy. Once you’ve listened to it, you’ll see a new quest marker that’s near the Glowing Sea appear on your map.
After reaching the quest marker’s destination, you’ll find a dead Gunner slumped up against a tree. Loot the Gunner’s body to pick up the Gunner Holotape, which you can play to learn more about what happened to them. To quickly sum it up, the Gunner was part of a team that learned how to infiltrate an encrypted part of the Pip-Boys, giving them the locations of different vaults in the area. This particular Gunner was a prankster who picked on another man named Caroni when they were stationed at Vault 95.
Once you’re done reading the holotape, you learn of new coordinates from another distress signal further into the Glowing Sea. These new coordinates come from another dead Gunner who’s lying dead on the ground floor of a church. The church is overrun with ghouls, but after defeating them, you can make your way over to the dead Gunner. When you hover over the body, you’ll see a new option appear next to “Take” and “Transfer,” which is “Download Pip-Boy Data.” Press the button next to that option to read what’s on the Gunner’s Pip-Boy.
Read what’s on the Pip-Boy, and then go to the next quest marker on your map. You’ll be taken to Relay Tower 0DB-621, where you can download more data off the body of a dead Gunner.
Reading the only accessible entry on the Pip-Boy reveals the Gunners were trying to acquire a pre-war weapon called the Tesla Cannon. Eventually, they could find it, but a war broke out over who would get to wield it. This soon led to many of the Gunners being killed by the creatures of the Glowing Sea. However, a few men survived, one of whom was Caroni.
The holotape also lets you access a new radio station called the “Gunner Signal Remnant.” Tune into the station and move in the direction the signal takes you by following the beeps and percentages in the top-left corner. You’re trying to reach 100% on the signal. To make things easier, you want to head west, where you’ll run into a Deathclaw and find the remnants of a plane crash. Inside the plane is another dead body, which is where the signal leads. You learn Caroni killed his squad using the Tesla Cannon, and now you need to finish the job.
After reading the data, Caroni appears out of nowhere, wielding the Tesla Cannon. Defeat him and loot the Tesla Cannon off his body. This completes the Best of Three quest in Fallout 4.
Going through Echoes of the Past
If you want to obtain the Tesla Cannon more simply, follow the questline in Echoes of the Past. Eventually, you’ll enter the Glowing Sea and find an office building the Enclave has set up as a base. When you arrive, a soldier wearing Power Armor on the roof starts shooting at you with a Tesla Cannon.
All you have to do is defeat this soldier and loot the Tesla Cannon wherever it falls. In my case, the Tesla Cannon fell to the ground before me, so I didn’t have to move much, but you might have to go to the roof to get the weapon.
This is a much easier way to get the Tesla Cannon, but you miss out on the Best of Three quest if you only take this route. Either way, you now have a Tesla Cannon to use in Fallout 4.
