Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition: Deus Ex Plasma Rifle Analysis and Ammo Walkthrough

Deus Ex’s Plasma Rifle is an interesting weapon. Looking at its in-game stats, it appears to have a very impressive damage output, making it something of the ranged equivalent to the Dragon’s Tooth Sword — a sort of ultimate weapon to help the player power through the second half of the game. Indeed, both weapons even share the aspect of them having ‘multi-hit’ attacks. The Plasma Rifle was intended to launch three plasma projectiles that deal a base damage of 40 points (with additional damage from the projectile explosions), while the Dragon’s Tooth actually hits five times in a single swing for 20 point base damage for a total of 100 damage.

Of course, as many Deus Ex players are aware, the Plasma Rifle is nowhere near as strong as its stats indicate. In fact, the damage of the weapon ends up having an incredibly low total of 8 base points of damage per projectile, which makes it one of the weakest firearms in the game, only slightly stronger than the Assault Rifle (which does base 3 damage per bullet) and the Flamethrower (which does base 5 damage per flame projectile, but does set targets on fire). This discrepancy is actually the result of the Plasma Rifle in the Game Of The Year and 1.112fm versions of the game erroneously using the damage values from Deus Ex’s multiplayer mode. As more of a side note, the Plasma Rifle is also bugged in that it will lose its firing sounds when the weapon is taken from the map in which it is initially spawned to another map. It shares this bug with the Flamethrower.

However, one must also remember that the 8 damage is the strength of the weapon at an untrained skill level. Mastering Heavy Weapons will turn the damage into 16×3 (master gains a +100% damage bonus and extra damage bonuses are possible with the Targeting Augmentation and headshot multipliers) with the addition of damage from the explosions from the plasma projectiles making it a perfectly reasonable, though perhaps disappointing weapon.

This guide is to further assist any desired usage of the weapon by providing a list of locations of the fairly uncommon ammunition.

The first Plasma Rifle in Deus Ex comes roughly at the end of the first third of the game, during JC’s harrowing escape from UNATCO HQ. You will find it in the armory of the Majestic 12 lab facility in a locked case.

The first ammo pickup available is also within the MJ12 facility. Within the Nanotech Lab (the room with the scientists and Greasels) there is a grating that will lead to a small room containing some ammo crates.
Beware the lone Greasel.

The final ammo pickup is in locked cabinet of the meeting room of UNATCO.

Surviving the UNATCO escape, the first container of Plasma Rifle ammunition you can obtain in Hong Kong is from a boat in the canals. It also contains some rockets and flamethrower fuel.
Within Maggie Chow’s penthouse, one of her MJ12 guards will be carrying a Plasma Rifle. Also, speaking to Maggie and getting the code to the Wan Chai police station will allow you access to another container of plasma ammo in the police vault.

The armory/shooting range in the Luminous Path Compound contains a Plasma Rifle. The room in which Alex Jacobson will take residence will have a container of plasma.
The triad who wanders around the room full of junk and barrels will have a Plasma Rifle in his inventory. He will need to be killed or rendered unconscious if you want it.
Within the Versalife Pacific Rim Research Facility there will be a Plasma Clip in a locked cabinet in armory (the room with several MJ12 Troopers). On the lower level, a Man-in-Black will be wielding a Plasma Rifle. Again, MiBs need to be knocked unconscious if you want access to their inventories.

The only Plasma Clip in this level is behind a locked door on the upper floor of the the interior of the PRCS Wall Cloud. The rooms is labelled “Observation Deck” on the in-game map.

Paris’s hub ends up having quite a few Plasma Clips available making up for the long drought since Hong Kong. Breaking and entering a couple of the buildings will be a rewarding experience. The apartment #11 is home to an arms smuggler. In his flat, you will be able to find one Plasma Rifle and two clips of ammunition.

Building #15, the bakery, will contain a Plasma Clip within the oven.

Nicolette’s room has a rather well hidden Plasma Clip. Interact with the skull on her fireplace, and it will slide, revealing a small hiding spot.

Continuing a trend of Plasma Clips appearing mostly in non-combat areas, Morgan Everett has two Plasma Clips hidden away in Morpheus’s room.

The scenic gas station near Vanderberg Airforce Base, where unleaded gasoline was $3.95 per gallon during the world of Deus Ex’s collapse, you will find one Plasma Rifle in the hands of an MiB and one Plasma Clip in the rear of a truck trailer in the gas station’s junkyard.

There are no Plasma Rifles or ammo of the first map of the Ocean Lab, but on the second map you will immediately find a Plasma Rifle submerged in a tank with two Karkians. Further into the level, a locked armory door hides a Plasma Clip on a shelf.

On the return trip from retrieving the Universal Constructor schematics, you will come across a Plasma Rifle toting Walton Simons.

There is a clip of plasma topside inside the rear of a semi truck trailer.

Howard Strong, the most dangerous boss in Deus Ex after Maggie Chow, carries a Plasma Rifle.

If you avoided Walton Simons at the Ocean Lab, you will have a second chance to acquire his Plasma Rifle. In the nearby hanger on the Area 51’s surface, there will be an MiB with two MJ12 Commandos. The MiB will have an Assault Rifle equipped, but his inventory also holds a Plasma Rifle.

Within the barracks of Sector 2, there will be a Plasma Rifle and clip locked inside one of the sleeping pods.

Near the end of Sector 3, right before the entrance to the Sector 4 map, there will be a supply room that contains a single Plasma Clip.

Sector 4 will have a Plasma Clip in a chest in a side room to the irradiated room, which is located on the northwest side of the map.