This is a simple mod that allows you to drain energy weapon ammo again, either for storage to reduce the weight or to store the energy and convert it to a more powerful type. Combined with the game's existing ability to convert between different types of energy weapon ammo like SEC to MFC to ECP, this makes you the master of your energy weapon arsenal, able to drain anything you find to power whatever you need.

As long as you possess the requisite Science skill and have access to a workbench, you can now break down energy weapon ammo into drained Energy Cells, Microfusion Cells, Electron Charge Packs and even Flamer Fuel. The return rate is the inverse of the same 4:1 ratio you would normally be able to recycle them at. Or, if you take the Vigilant Recycler perk, the inverse of a 3:1 ratio. For example, normally you need 4 drained small energy cells to recycle in order to fully charge 1 basic Energy Cell. So now, breaking down that 1 fully charged Energy Cell will return the 4 drained small energy cells.

You can also now break down the more powerful energy weapon ammo variants--Over Charge, Max Charge and Optimized--into their basic drained versions. To keep everything balanced, I've based this off of the existing formula to craft these variants (using the wiki for reference). For example, normally it takes 5 basic Energy Cells to make 2 Max Charge Energy Cells. So with this installed, 2 Max Charge Energy Cells will drain down to 20 drained small energy cells (remembering that it takes 4 drained small energy cells to recycle and charge 1 Energy Cell). Make sense?

You still have to possess the same amount of Science skill to drain the energy ammo as it would take to craft it. Finally, you need the Vigilant Recycler perk in order to be able to drain any Optimized ammo variants. If you're like me, you convert all the energy weapon ammo you have to Optimized without even thinking about it...until later when you could really use the extra punch of some Max Charge. Well, now you can fix your mistake when you really need it.

There are currently no recipes added for Bulk energy ammo or Homemade Flamer Fuel. In the base game, Homemade Flamer Fuel has a 0% chance of recovering a drained fuel tank anyway, while Bulk ammo has a 20% chance to recover drained ammo but can't be crafted.

Most important of all, remember that due to the randomization inherent to the vanilla recycling ratios (4:1 and 3:1), you will still lose some energy every time you drain and recycle. As in nature, there is no 100% efficient means of energy conversion.

An alternate file is provided for users of the excellent Mojave Arsenal, requiring you to have a Fission Battery in your inventory any time you use any of the draining recipes, except for Flamer Fuel of course. Just like how, with that mod, you need to have a Fission Battery on hand in order to convert or increase the charge on any energy ammo. The Fission Battery is not consumed in this process.

To install to your Mod Manager, go to Files and click the Mod Manager Download button. I use Mod Organizer 2 so that's what I recommend.

To install manually, put the downloaded esp file in the Data folder of your New Vegas installation folder (but I strongly recommend using a mod manager such as Mod Organizer 2).

As this mod contains only new records and doesn't overwrite anything, it's compatible with everything so place it as high in your load order as you want.