When starting an energy weapon courier, you need to upgrade your weapons, and quickly. Running off to Freeside makes sense, and robbing/massacring the Van Graffs. But (providing you are following They Went That-a Way and pretending you don't already know where Benny is) it takes a while, and you have a lot of stuff to kill in the meantime.

Before you make it, you'll have to face the ambushes at the Nipton Pit Stop, that lil' place just past Nipton (where you lose an arm or two to some girl with a Grenade Rifle) and probably a few Radscorpions and Giant Ants. Now, the laser pistol stolen from Doc Mitchell, doesn't cut it here, unless you've got a whole lotta stimpaks/Rosie.

So, where can you go, to pick up a Laser Rifle/Plasma Rifle early on? The best place I can think of is REPCONN Test Site, but that's beyond Novac (a place which, upon reaching, you are relatively safe for quite some time). After that is REPCONN HQ, with the Q35 Matter Modulator.

So fellow couriers, where can I find a good energy weapon, pre-Nipton?

(I shan't be sneaking past deathclaws either.)

There are 1/2 plasma and laser rifles in Nipton itself. The Yangtze Memorial may have a plasma rifle in a grave nearby. There is a dead Bright Brotherhood guy in Goodsprings cave who should have an energy weapon.

The main place to get them is actually OWB as the Big Mountain facility has plenty of energy weapons and ammo. However, that is a whole other issue.

Energy weapons somewhat trickle in at random for me while I'm first starting out.

I play it safe in the early game and try not to get into too many tough encounters.

There's also a Bright Brotherhood under the bridge before Sloan, at the foot of the gas sign at Nipton Road Reststop and at the bottom of the billboard north of Wolfhorn Ranch. I find Chet usually stocks GRA plasma/laser pistols with some of their respective mods after a few days. Eddie also carries a plasma pistol, if you wanted to take him out.

That should tied you over until REPCONN Test Site where you can't move for energy weapons. If you can cobble together the money early then pick up the MF Hyperbreeder Alpha from Cliff Briscoe, you can then win what you spent on it back via Caravan but that necessitates having the cash upfront in the first instance.

The guy that sends you to fight geckos at the goodsprings source has a plasma pistol. As others have said there is some in the coyote cave in goodsprings, a follower corpse in the coyote cave on the railroad tracks near Nipton and a laser rifle near the trailer park in Nipton. Also Chet sells them and the mods, you want all of them as they are pretty cheap.

Ditch the laser pistol as it is worthless. Get a plasma pistol and add the mods. Until you can get a plasma defender this will serve as your main sidearm. Buy a recharger rifle and use for all trash mobs. It fires really fast with fast shot - no reason not to grab fast shot with an energy build- and is cheap to repair at Mojave outpost. Use the plasma pistol for bigger game like giant radscorpions. At low levels with around 50 energy skill you can drop a charging radscorpion if it is coming straight on and you can hit it. The plasma pistol is the most powerful single damage weapon in the early game, at 30-40 damage per shot it will punch through the DT of giant radscorpions better than anything else around on the west side of the mountains.

I actually find it easier to get good weapons as an energy build compared to a guns build. Before handloader .357 ammo for the cowboy repeater, there just isn't anything to use against a giant radscorpion. The service rifle with AP ammo works but AP ammo is scarce and expensive at the start of the game. With a plasma pistol and a hardy constitution you can hunt the big game at level 2.

Barton Thorn only has a plasma pistol with the JE Sawyer mod, but Eddie at the NCRCF should have one all the time.

Yeah Barton Thorn has a 9mm pistol. I typically do pick up the GRA plasma pistol from Chet, and a few upgrades if possible.

chet is also one of the only guys who sells cheap bulk Se cells, work good with plasma pistol since dmg is pretty nice, so small loss is nothing. Honestly I am playing e-weapon guy now, and I have hundreds of small e-cells, have not found a rifle yet, but this fully modded plasma pistol is perfect, cheap ammo, cheap cheap repair(save all those repair kits to make money!!!, since buying a pistol to repair costs like 150 caps? if it is GRA one, other ones are really dirt cheap. It kills pretty much anything I have faced, including some leet ghouls and a certain super mutant by the race track;)