1. What happens if you shoot it with a 00 charge? how much damage gets lost?

do you always use it with 99 charge, or is there any benefit from shooting quickly?

2. What damage gets used when using VATS? does it use the 99 charge, without actually loading it up?

Is this why the most people actually think, that it's 'overpowered'?

3. I remember there being a receiver that increased the fire rate of the Gauss Rifle.

How can something like this work, when you have to charge it with each shot?

thanks

I think you're misunderstanding it. Try it and your questions will probably be answered. Fully charging takes maybe a second and a half.

I've tried shooting it without loading the Gauss at all. And I tried loading it up to 99, then shooting.

I've targeted the same body part (torso) and shot from the same distance (~5m), on a Behemot. I toggled detection off so the enemy was not moving. If I consider the fully loaded shot took 100 hp, the non loaded one did about ~40 hp damage. So less than half.

Now for vats. I noticed that any shot in vats does full damage, as if the Gauss is always loaded to 99. The cool thing is it doesn't seem to take time to load it to 99 in vats. There you have it.