History
Auraxium SMGs – Shuriken, Tempest and Skorpios – used to be very awkward. They had Extended Mags and a special version of HVA with negligible bonuses to velocity and minimum damage range, and a whopping penalty of +50% Vertical Recoil.
They were supposed to be better at range, but whatever small benefit they gained from HVA, was crushed by the recoil penalty.
They were essentially a worse version of the base SMG with Extended Mags, which isn’t exactly a no-brainer attachment for many players who prefer hip firing and hunting for smart 1v1 engagements.
Present Days
Thankfully, that changed in the 2nd Feb, 2017 patch.
Now Auraxium SMGs are provided with Extended Mags, Forward Grip and normal version of HVA. As a penalty for this many attachments, Auraxium SMGs do not get a velocity benefit from HVA, and they have longer reload.
It may be not the best combination of attachments; many players feel like a ranged setup for an SMG – obviously a close quarters weapon – is a silly notion.
But it’s not that bad.
Base SMGs already have close quarters well covered with access to SPA and ALS. But a combination of Forward Grip and Extended Mags and HVA on top? You can’t get that setup any other way, on any other SMG.
And, if for some reason you would want to kit out an SMG to be more potent at range – which is the biggest weakness of all SMGs – this setup is a dream come true.
Normally, you’d be faced with a conundrum of Forward Grip vs Extended Mags.
On one hand, SMGs have terrible damage degradation, and you will need more bullets to kill the enemy. Armistice and Skorpios in particular simply do not have enough magazine capacity to reliably kill a shielded HA beyond certain range.
On the other hand, SMGs also have terrible horizontal recoil, so you might want to reduce it, so you don’t need that many bullets in the first place.
This one is a mindcracker, and Auraxium SMGs solve both problems elegantly by giving you everything at once and then some.
And you don’t lose much in close quarters either. At most, you’re going to need an extra bullet to kill at certain ranges, but given super high SMG RoF – it’s not that big of a deal.
Reload Speed Penalty
This is the big one. It’s not that big of a deal with Short Reload, but the Long Reload can be especially punishing, as it already was kinda long with base SMGs.
| Armistice | Shuriken | Eridani | Skorpios | Cyclone | Tempest | |
| Short Reload, sec | 2.25 | 2.7 | 1.74 | 2.08 | 1.855 | 2.23 |
| Long Reload, sec | 2.92 | 3.5 | 2.8 | 3.36 | 3 | 3.6 |
Damage Comparison
It wouldn’t be practical to list all the BTK Thresholds in this article, since SMGs degrade so many tiers, and I don’t want to drown you in numbers. The graphs below clearly show you ranges where base SMGs with SPA deal more damage, and where Auraxium SMGs start to overtake.
Click images to enlarge
If we take Tempest vs Cyclone as an example:
- Best case scenario, Tempest deals 21% more damage at 46m.
- Worst case scenario, Tempest deals 5% less damage at 11m.
Gameplay Tips
Do not treat Auraxium SMGs as some sort of ranged powerhouse, because even with all those attachments – they’re not. Most primary weapons will have easier time killing enemies at 20-30m. Instead, treat them like base SMGs that do not immediately suck at range.
They still can dish out a lot of damage in close quarters, and they have better ADS accuracy. You don’t have to pray to Higby that much when you’re trying to headshot ding an enemy at 20m.
And you don’t have to close the distance to 10-20m for every engagement just to stand a chance at killing the enemy.
Conclusion
Naturally, Auraxium SMGs will never be as good at range as proper ranged weapons. At best, they can rival an NS-7 PDW with a CQC setup.
But they will be noticeable better than base SMGs, which is all they’re trying to do.
They’re not an amazing super weapons that you should feel obligated to work towards and power through 4 SMG auraxiums, nor should they be. They merely offer an interesting niche and a unique playstyle for fans of this weapon class.