T9 CARV-S – the TR’s “adaptable” LMG, which has a large selection of attachments. Never was popular.

SVA-88 – the faded star of the VS arsenal, which used to offer 75% ADS speed, same as Orion, but with better controllability. The weapon has been rebalanced since then, and fell behind the Pulsar LSW in terms of viability. 

Pulsar LSW – can be treated as a slightly more CQC-oriented version of SVA-88 with a different recoil pattern and attachment selection.

MGR-L1 Promise – a newly released NC LMG with an exquisite and unique model, artfully crafted by /u/d0ku. The general theme of the weapon is ease of use and controllability over time, with some stats and mechanics intended to make sustained fire less punishing.

Let’s take a closer look and figure out if any of these weapons are worth using, and what circumstances would benefit them the most.

Stats

Damage Output

All of these LMGs share the damage model of 143 @ 10m – 112 @ 65m, which puts them in a weird place.

At range, they deal carbine-tier damage, and cannot really compete with weapons that deal more damage per shot, even if they’re not specialized towards ranged combat. It feels that you cannot kill an enemy 50m away without filing a notice two weeks in advance.

On the other hand, strictly average DPS makes them inferior in close quarters combat. 

Historically, weapons like that are shunned by players, and for a good reason. You would think that being average would make them versatile, and give them passable performance in every situation, but in reality it rather makes them mediocre. 

SPA and HVA are available to some of these LMGs, and they’ll have an impact on their performance:

Notes:

• At best, SPA provides a 2% DPS boost or a 0.086 second TTK reduction at 15m.
• At best, HVA provides a 7% DPS boost at 65m, or a 0.086 second TTK reduction between 42m and 52m.
• In terms of damage per bullet, HVA overtakes SPA at 30m.

Bullets-to-Kill and Time-to-Kill

Standard Infantry

 Heavy Assault

For the sake of brevity, BTK and TTK are listed only for the first threshold.

Notes:

• The only time SPA really makes a difference is the 7 -> 8 BTK Threshold in the 10m -> 15m range bracket. Otherwise, it’s merely a nice little boost.
• Same as with SPA, the only time when HVA is at a real disadvantage is in the 7 -> 8 BTK Threshold, and even then only when compared to SPA. This disadvantage can be sidestepped by landing at least one headshot.
• When talking about 100% headshots, there will be no BTK Threshold all the way up to ~40m. This is because 143 damage weapons kill an enemy with headshots with a good amount of overkill, and this is where they will differ from 167 damage weapons. 143 damage will take slightly longer to kill at close range, and slightly shorter beyond that range.
• Ammo choice doesn’t play a meaningful role against shielded Heavy Assaults, especially if you land some headshots.
• 6 headshots within maximum damage range deal 1430 damage, and an NMG HA has up to 1438 damage, so the only way it’ll take actually 6 headshots to kill them, is if they activate the overshield right when they’re being shot. Otherwise, NMG energy drain over time will eat those 8 energy, and 5 headshots will be enough. Thanks to /u/madoka_magica for pointing that out.

Both ammo attachments don’t make a big impact, especially for a moderately competent player, who goes for headshots at close ranges most of the time.

When both ammo attachments are available, pick depending on whether you want better performance within 30m or outside of that range. I’ll note that among skilled players CQC performance is generally deemed more important.

If only one attachment is available, you should use it, though it’ll be fairly low priority compared to other attachments.

Effective Range

Hip Fire Accuracy

All of these have a bad case LMG-tier Hip Fire accuracy, and won’t be able to hip fire effectively outside of few meters.

While the SVA has better Hip CoFs, it also has a nearly mandatory Compensator, which would bump up the Hip CoFs to be the largest of the four.

ADS Accuracy

T9 CARV-S, Pulsar LSW and SVA-88 have standard ADS CoFs for LMGs, which are rather bad, though all four LMGs can get an accuracy advantage for being still for the first several shots.

Promise has slightly better starting ADS CoF, and this is almost as good as it gets for LMGs – TR’s MG-H1 Watchman is the only LMG to have a better ADS Standing Moving CoF. 

As a more unique feature, Promise has reduced Maximum ADS CoFs for most of the stances, meaning that its CoF will not Bloom past a certain point. The CoF of 1 degree more or less guarantees 100% accuracy on the center mass of an infantry-sized target ~25m away. 

This means that Promise is vastly more effective in magdumping at close ranges, or when you start engaging out of a jump or a fall, though you will still have to burst fire when going for headshots, which you’ll definitely need to do if you want to kill enemies in a reasonable amount of time.

ADS Cone of Fire Bloom

Pulsar LSW and SVA-88 have reduced ADS CoF Bloom. However, Promise starts firing at lower CoF Bloom, so it’ll have better CoF for the first 5 shots, after which Pulsar LSW and SVA-88 will match and overtake it.

I’d consider this a point in favor of Promise, since at ranges where CoF matters you won’t be firing in overly long bursts anyway, and even with the CoF Bloom advantage, it’ll take 5 more shots for the lower bloom weapons to accumulate a 0.05 degrees of CoF advantage.

Recoil

Promise has negative recoil scaling, meaning its maximum Vertical and Horizontal Recoil will reduce with each shot, until they become the same as minimum values. This happens at the following rates, per shot:

• Vertical Recoil Increase: -0.05
• Vertical Recoil Increase Crouched: -0.1
• Horizontal Recoil Increase: -0.05

Recoil Analysis

Presented values are calculated for 10 round bursts, and account for FSRM and recoil scaling mechanics, assuming Standing stance and average recoil per shot.

Numbers in the table are pretty telling, so I’ll highlight only the biggest outliers.

Vertical Recoil

From the get-go, it’s obvious that Promise has by far the best Vertical Recoil per Second. In fact, it’s one of the lowest values for automatic weapons, and the lowest for all LMGs. The only ones that come even in close are NS-15M2 and T32 Bull, when they’re used with Compensator.

As mentioned, these numbers assume average values and take recoil scaling into account, but Promise will have excellent VRPS even if you get the worst possible values all the time. 

It’s worth noting that Promise requires only 2 shots to fully scale Vertical Recoil, if you fire them while crouching. It’s a neat feature to quickly stabilize the weapon from the get-go, though you shouldn’t go out of your way and crouch in every engagement. It’s mostly useful when you’re engaging a remote and exposed enemy from a safe position.

Horizontal Recoil

In terms of Horizontal Recoil, the classic trio is pretty close to each other, and not particularly good. CARV-S is slightly ahead of the VS LMGs, but Promise, once again, beats all three pretty soundly, and remains nearly twice as good.

Since Promise has unprecedented Tolerance size of 5 degrees, it can potentially have a huge amount of consecutive kicks in one direction, but this is unlikely to happen. The chance of 3 kicks in one direction is 12.5%, and 4 kicks is ~6%.

You’ll almost never see Promise slide along Horizontal plane for long. What’s more likely, Promise will shake around the middle, but every once in a while that middle will shift by one or two shots, and you will have to adjust your horizontal aim. 

Besides, just after 4 shots, Promise will have the lowest Horizontal Recoil per Shot among all automatic weapons, and you will barely notice Horizontal Recoil at all.

Picture to the left demonstrates a typical horizontal recoil pattern for Promise, though it doesn’t take recoil scaling into account, and values are not up to scale.

On the following two pictures, you can compare the Horizontal Deviation Probability Distributions for MGR-L1 Promise, T9 CARV-S and SVA-88. Pulsar LSW would have an identical pattern to SVA-88, so it’s not listed. All weapons are presented with a Forward Grip, and the results are averaged out between tenths of thousands of simulations.

On this graph you can see that Promise spends ~85% of the time within 0.1 degrees of the original crosshair position, and about 92% within 0.2 degrees, 95% within 0.3 degrees. This is basically showing how likely you are to have 4 kicks in the same direction in a row. Statistically, Promise can go further, but it’s highly unlikely. 

If you take a look at CARV-S and SVA-88 further below, you’ll that their recoil pattern is somewhat less consistent. 

For example, CARV-S spends about 52% of the time within 0.12 degrees, and about 82% within 0.3 degrees, which is already slightly worse than for Promise. 

You’ll notice that SVA-88 has about 10% chance of kicking all the way to 0.42 degrees. 

Recoil Angle

Pulsar LSW is the only LMG of the four to have a Recoil Angle. It has medium “strength” to the right, and overall doesn’t affect weapon handling in a meaningful way.

Promise is in a weird place. It has average Recoil Angle of zero, but 10 degrees of variance, so it’ll shake about a lot, but without bias to any particular direction. This will be especially noticeable and annoying during first few shots, while the recoil per shot is still comparatively large. Once recoil scaling fully kicks in, you won’t notice it much. 

Tap Firing Speed

Tap Firing Speed is measured in Rounds Per Minute, same as Rate of Fire, and it depends on weapon’s First Shot Recoil and Recoil Recovery statistics. 

Recoil Recovery Mechanics don’t really matter outside of tap firing or shortbursting, so Tap Firing Speed is the maximum RPM at which you can fire single shots, and still have the crosshair fully recenter between shots.

It’s a fairly useless statistic for normal gameplay, since usually you’ll fire more than 1-3 shots per burst, but it can be useful when dealing with tiny targets such as deployables, or when an exposed enemy is vastly outside of your effective range.

You’ll notice that Promise holds a huge advantage over other LMGs in terms of Tap Firing Speed, which is both due to lack of additional Recoil Recovery Delay, as well as best in class Recoil Recovery Rate.

Velocity

The classic trio is fairly close together, and has good projectile velocity, slightly above average for LMGs. SVA-88 is slightly ahead, especially with HVA, showing the weapon’s inclination towards ranged combat. 

Promise is noticeably behind, and its stock velocity is below average. There is a caveat – its SPRW Ammo attachment will increase velocity by 25% at the cost of reducing magazine size from 100 rounds to 75.

Conclusion on Effective Range

All of these weapons don’t particularly shine outside of 50m, for various reasons.

* – requires attachment.

Due to just average DPS and LMG-tier hip fire accuracy, none of them particularly shine at closer ranges either. Their sweet spot seems to be the infamous “medium range” somewhere between 20m and 50m. 

The problem is that within that range bracket ANY LMG will serve perfectly fine, including those oriented towards CQC. In fact, this is why weapons like LA1 Anchor are so popular.

Sure, CQC LMGs will be clearly inferior in terms of effectiveness at range, but it’s not a big deal. The nature of ranged engagements is that you often can just walk away into cover from an unfavorable fight, especially thanks to Heavy Assault’s overshield.

And if you’re engaging in favorable conditions, having slightly longer TTK is not a big deal. Thanks to LMGs’ large mags, you can keep sending rounds down range until target is dead. At worst, you’ll miss out on a kill, but you won’t die to your weapon’s inaccuracy. 

Situations where you have to fight effectively or die, and don’t have an option to run, are much more common in CQC, hence why CQC performance is generally preferable. Additionally, as a HA you’re expected to aggressively push the frontline, and that’ll often mean engaging at close ranges.  If you want to be useful to your faction, you don’t really get an option to play around your effective range, and purposefully stay out of close quarters.

Open field battles usually aren’t required, but even if you get stuck in one, you’d probably want to equip a ranged LMG or a Battle Rifle. Or even switch to Infiltrator.

This is a general philosophical problem with any non-CQC LMGs, what I’d like to refer as “the LMG problem”. 

Utility Stats

Ammo Capacity

* – uses Smart Feeder ammo attachment, which increases Reload Time by 0.325 seconds.

Nothing especially noteworthy. VS LMGs lag behind in terms of capacity, while Promise has the largest Ammo Pool to make sustained fire less punishing, which is the general theme of the weapon.

Note that Promise has two Ammo Attachments that affect Magazine Size, but no effect on damage. 

Reload Speed

Notes:

• Pulsar LSW enjoys the fastest reload, which definitely makes it more convenient.
• SVA-88 is not that far behind, but it has a much bigger Long Reload penalty.
• Surprisingly, Promise has the longest Reload, especially with Smart Feeder attachment. Running SPRW Ammo and having to reload more often is likely to cause issues.
• CARV-S has typically LMG-tier slow reload times.

Equip Time

CARV-S is about average for an LMG, while Pulsar LSW and SVA-88 are slightly below average. Having a short Equip Time is especially important for Heavy Assaults, who tend to switch to their Rocket Launchers and Med Kits a lot. And this is where Promise drops the ball. Even such a giant as Gauss SAW with a Forward Grip has Equip Time of 1.25 seconds. 

Long Equip Time of the Promise will definitely let you down in close quarters, and whenever you’re switching back and forth, you have to be ready to drop everything and equip your sidearm instead. 

Comparisons to Competition

Overall, none of these weapons look particularly appealing, and this is mostly the fault of their mediocre damage model; it lacks focus. Why would you ever use a 143 @ 698 weapon over 167+ damage LMGs, which are much more effective at the same medium range bracket and beyond? 

143 @ 698 LMGs do hold some advantages. For example, higher RoF makes a weapon more consistent, especially in close quarters. They’ll have slightly better recoil than CQC-oriented LMGs, and higher DPS than range-oriented LMGs, though that weapon class is another can of worms entirely.

None of this is really enough to compensate for inferior damage. Let’s go weapon-by-weapon and see what kind of competition they have to go against.

TR are left with TMG-50 as the only 167 damage option. I personally hate that it has 2 tiers of damage degradation and relatively poor recoil, especially the Tolerance. However, even TMG-50 will fare better than CARV-S at medium range and beyond, though there will be a significant reduction in effectiveness in close quarters, especially when comparing TMG-50 with HVA to CARV-S with SPA.

As another alternative, MSW-R has almost the same recoil as CARV-S. There are some noticeable disadvantages in ranged combat, such as smaller Magazine, lack of HVA and lower velocity. However, MSW-R comes with massively better performance at closer range, and makes a decent competitor overall. 

For VS, there is a similar situation for Pulsar LSW / SVA-88 and Orion VS54, which actually has slightly better Horizontal Recoil, though noticeably stronger Vertical Recoil and no Ammo attachment options, as well as smaller magazine battery.

Flare is generally frowned upon, but even it will be better at medium range than both of the 143 @ 698 LMGs.

For NC, you can take pretty much any 167+ damage LMG and it’ll be more effective at medium range, and depending on choice, better in CQC or at longer range. However, only the Promise has such low and smooth recoil, which is rather uncharacterestic for NC, and some people will certainly enjoy its controllability.

The recoil is non-existent. It’s almost a laser beam. It’s not a very strong laser beam, but a laser beam, which is good if you can aim.

– KosViik

If you’re looking for combat effectiveness, I’d say it’s better to learn to deal with recoil, though. Promise has a couple of other cool perks, such as limited Max ADS CoF and best in class Tap Firing speed, but those aren’t easily leveraged as advantages. 

Closing Thoughts

On overall spectrum of the effective range and effectiveness within that range, 143 @ 698 LMGs are between CQC LMGs and 167+ damage LMGs with ~matching DPS. The problem is that these waters are so muddy that there’s no reason to settle for this mediocre option.

Something like GD-22S will perform much better at range, and not particularly worse in CQC. And Anchor is basically a meme at this point, being one of the most versatile LMGs in the game. 

143 @ 698 LMGs seem to be in a bad place. They need to have their Minimum Damage Range extended at least to the levels of Assault Rifles, and their advantages over CQC LMGs in terms of recoil and controllability are not big enough. Hell, in some aspects they are even worse! 

Pretty much the only real advantage of 143 damage weapons at medium range is consistent BTK when engaging with headshots, and except for Promise, none of these guns are particularly good at it. 

As far as how 143 @ 698 LMGs relate to each other, I’d rank them as follows:

Promise > Pulsar LSW > SVA-88 > CARV-S

Overall, Promise is a unique case of a weapon. Its recoil pattern is one of a kind. Typically, LMGs have a ton of recoil, and while there are some exceptions, they usually come with below average DPS. I’d say Promise is a good weapon for newbies and casual players, and has even some role-play potential with its sustained fire feature.

There are some noticeable disadvantages, such as long Reload and Equip times. Promise also lacks attachments to boost the damage ranges, though as we’ve established, it’s not a big deal for this damage model. 

Promise also lacks an option to equip a Suppressor, not that it would be a good idea with this damage model.

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage of the Promise, and something I haven’t mentioned yet, is the inconsistency of its first few shots. First shots are often the most important, and can easily decide the outcome of a firefight, and between high Recoil Angle Variance and highly variable Recoil, there’s definitely some annoying shake.

It’s not so bad, though. Realistically, even if your get the worst possible Recoil values every time, Promise will still have less recoil than other 143 @ 698 LMGs. It’s just that it can be annoyingly inconsistent, albeit on a small scale, and it still goes against what a competitive player would look for in a weapon.

As a final thought, don’t be discouraged by my negative outlook on these weapons. In the end, they’re perfectly capable killers. It’s just the differences between PlanetSide 2 weapons are so minuscule, that every little detail gets blown out of proportion. Worse is worse, even if it’s just by a few percent. 

Players have been asking for an LMG like this for a long time, and now that we have it, let’s take a deeper look to try and figure out how fast should you be throwing money at the monitor.

The following guide will be taking a good close look on the weapon, but if you want just a short summary:

It’s a great weapon for short range up to 20-50 meters. If you mainly go for headshots, it is very easy to kill multiple enemies inside buildings.

– /u/flub1337, the first player to earn an auraxium medal with Watchman

Stats

DAMAGE	125 @ 10m – 100 @ 55m
RATE OF FIRE	857 RPM
VELOCITY	550 m/s
AMMO	125 / 375
RELOAD TIME	5.525 sec / 7 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 699

Auto

Damage Output

Watchman’s damage output is above average, equal to 143 @ 750 weapons, like T9 CARV and Orion. This is pretty much as high as LMGs go, and it’s a solid amount of damage. 

Watchman has two tiers of damage degradation, which is typical for LMGs. However, low damage-per-shot weapons lose less absolute damage over range, though higher damage-per-shot weapons have longer Minimum Damage Range. So while they lose more damage over range, that process happens slower. For example:

• LA1 Anchor: 167 @ 10m – 125 @ 75m -> loses 42 damage (25%) over 65m.
• T9 CARV: 143 @ 10m – 112 @ 65m -> loses 31 damage (21.6%) over 50m.
• Watchman: 125 @ 10m – 100 @ 55m -> loses 25 damage (20%) over 45m.

If you imagine a Super Anchor with 641 RoF – that’s what it would take for a 167 damage weapon to match Watchman’s DPS – and compare how their DPS changes over range, you will notice that Watchman starts dealing more DPS at ~61m.

Of course, it doesn’t mean Watchman will actually be more effective at range than Anchor. Higher damage-per-shot weapons are naturally more effective at range.

Watchman has access to two Ammo attachments that affect its performance in a meaningful way, and it should be always used with one of them:

• Soft Point Ammunition (SPA) – increases Maximum Damage Range from 10m to 15m at the cost of reducing Projectile Velocity by 5%.
• Impact Ammunition (IA) – increases Minimum Damage from 100 to 112 at the cost of reducing Magazine Size from 125 to 100 rounds.

In terms of raw DPS, SPA is better within 20m, and IA is better outside that range. 

• SPA is most powerful at 15m, where it has a 1.6% advantage.
  • DPS: 1785 @ 15m – 1428 @ 55m
• IA is most powerful at 55m, where it has a 12% advantage.
  • DPS: 1785 @ 10m – 1600 @ 55m

As a 125 damage weapon, Watchman has very consistent and clean BTK Thresholds. As long as the standard infantry target is within Maximum Damage Range, it will be killed without any overkill whatsoever, both with headshots or bodyshots, with or without Nanoweave. Going even 1cm outside the Maximum Damage Range will increase the BTK by 1 and TTK by 0.07. The main function of SPA is to postpone this effect by extra 5m.

However, Watchman has a super high Rate of Fire, and among other advantages, it means Watchman’s TTK is not as penalized when going to the next BTK Threshold. For example, the 500 RoF Gauss SAW requires extra 120ms to kill an enemy 1m outside of the Maximum Damage Range, while Watchman requires only extra 70ms.

Impact Ammunition provides a noticeable damage boost at range, and makes damage degradation even less of an issue. For example, if we take our previous example with Super Anchor, but add ammo attachments this time, you’ll notice that Watchman starts dealing higher DPS at any range further than 20m.

Or if you compare Watchman with Impact Ammunition to CARV. Both degrade to 112 damage, but one fires at 857 RPM, and the other one at 750. Watchman will overtake CARV’s DPS at 15m already.

Bullets-to-Kill and Time-to-Kill

Standard Infantry

 Heavy Assault

For the sake of brevity, BTK and TTK are listed only for the first threshold.

Notes

• Within Maximum Damage Range, Watchman kills in 4 headshots, same as 143 damage weapons. Given Watchman’s higher RoF, it makes for an incredibly fast headshot Time-to-Kill, rivaling the infamous AF-4 Cyclone.
• Against Heavy Assaults, Ammo Attachment choice has no effect on TTK all the way up to medium range. Depending on enemy health and overshield energy, there could be some situations where SPA still kills faster, but since SPA deals at most 2 extra damage, these situations are highly improbable. 
• Against full-health targets, Impact Ammunition doesn’t come into play until 35m against standard infantry, and 48m against Nanoweave Infantry. 

Effective Range

Hip Fire Accuracy

Watchman has better than average starting Hip Cones of Fire, same as dedicated CQC LMGs like MSW-R and LA1 Anchor. It’s still pretty far from being able to comfortably hip fire at everything that moves, but you can land some decent shots at the center mass of an enemy a few meters away, and high Rate of Fire ensures good consistency. 

Laser Sight provides a few extra meters of effective Hip Fire range, but it’s nothing breathtaking, and it will not confer any new combat options, like being able to reliably hip fire for headshots, or being able to take on enemy Heavy Assaults without ADSing.

ADS Accuracy

On one hand, Watchman has fairly terrible Cones of Fire for stationary positions. Even in situations where you can afford to stand still, you cannot squeeze any more accuracy out of the weapon. It is definitely one of the meaningful downsides of the Watchman.

On the other hand, the 0.3 ADS Standing Moving CoF is hands down the best among all LMGs, period. Most other LMGs have 0.35 or 0.4 CoF.

This is honestly a weird and unexpected quality on a “bullet hose” type of weapon. However, this is somewhat compensated by relatively high Cone of Fire Bloom.

Cone of Fire Bloom

Despite dealing only 125 damage per shot, Watchman has the same Bloom per Shot as 143 damage weapons.

Watchman starts with better Cone of Fire, and it will hold an accuracy advantage for the first 8 shots – up to 2000 damage. After that, CARV and other similar 143 @ 750 will have a more efficient Cone of Fire. However, this doesn’t really matter outside of prolonged magdumping scenarios.

For example, by the time both weapons would fire 3000 damage, CARV’s CoF advantage would be only 0.05, and a 0.1 advantage by 4000 damage. Basically, as long as you keep your bursts within 15 rounds or so, you will not feel any downside to higher Bloom per Shot, but there will be a meaningful accuracy advantage for the first several shots. 

Recoil

Recoil Analysis

Watchman’s Vertical Recoil has a bit of random to it, but it’s not a big deal. The gun fires so fast that recoil will average out, and you won’t notice it. Vertical Recoil per Second is slightly lower than for MSW-R, and generally isn’t very high for an LMG with such a high DPS. 

First Shot Recoil and Multiplier are somewhat high, but still better than for competition.

As a more interesting feature, Watchman has some negative scaling applied to its Horizontal Recoil. 

After just a few shots, Watchman’s Horizontal Recoil scales down to the level of T32 Bull, which is downright incredible for a weapon with such a high DPS. 

These numbers are calculated for 10 round bursts and take scaling into account. Without Forward Grip, Watchman’s Average Horizontal Deviation is only 7% higher than for MSW-R and Orion with a Forward Grip.

T9 CARV has noticeably worse Horizontal Recoil Tolerance than all three, and will have ~60% higher Maximum Horizontal Deviation. 

Recoil Angle is average. A slight bias to the right with a bit of Variance to it. Most of the time you won’t even notice it, though statistically it will result in a minor impact to overall accuracy, giving the Watchman a slight nudge towards being a bullet hose.

Recoil Recovery

Watchman has better Recoil Recovery than vast majority of other LMGs, and this is good, because it increases the effectiveness of burst fire, making it easier for Watchman to repeatedly take advantage of its better starting Moving CoF. 

Velocity

Watchman’s velocity is average for a CQC LMG, and it’s about average on the overall velocity spectrum as well. It’s not too low, but you will definitely have to do some conscious leading when engaging enemies beyond medium range. 

Conclusion on Effective Range

Due to bad minimum Cones of Fire and low damage per shot, as well as high-ish FSRM and average velocity, Watchman has a somewhat limited effective range overall. 

However, Watchman gives you a lot of tools to keep itself under control, such as its affinity for burst firing, stable recoil and good Standing Moving ADS CoF.

So within that “limited effective range”, a properly handled Watchman will be more effective than your average CQC bullet hose like T9 CARV.

Another thing is consistency. The effective range of other CQC LMGs is roughly equal to Watchman’s, but their performance becomes noticeably worse as the range grows, while Watchman – especially outfitted with Impact Ammunition – will perform nearly equally well at 20m and 40m.

Just keep in mind that no matter the user skill, there eventually will be a stone wall of range where Watchman is simply not effective, and hitting shots and getting kills relies mostly on luck and enemy Exposure Time. 

Exposure Time is how long the enemy spends out of cover, susceptible to your shots. Given enough Exposure Time, pretty much any weapon can kill any target at any range, but Exposure Time is the one thing you have the least control of. 

Finding exposed targets is easier for flanking classes, such as Light Assault and Infiltrator, but it comes much less naturally to Heavy Assaults. Often you have to land shots on just a tiny part of enemy hitbox sticking out of cover, and Watchman may well let you down, if the enemy is too far.

And when you do stumble on an exposed enemy, often you’ll have just a few moments before they make it into cover, and you won’t have enough time to pepper the enemy with weak Watchman’s shots.

Utility Stats

Ammo Capacity

Watchman has a respectable ammo capacity, overall close to the bountiful T9 CARV, and more or less keeps up even while using Impact Ammo.

Reload Speed

Watchman takes a lot of time to reload, which makes it somewhat annoying to use, especially for those who suffer from reloaditus – an obsessive-compulsive disorder that forces the player to reload their weapon after every engagement.

If we wanted to assess how efficient is the Watchman, we could calculate how much “damage” it reloads per second, and compare it other LMGs:

Reload Damage per Second = Average Damage * Magazine Size / Reload Speed
Where Average Damage = (Maximum Damage + Minimum Damage) / 2

We can see that Watchman has good efficiency, though it’s still ~10% below average.

However, the issue is not time efficiency, but the fact that reload takes so darn long. Every second added to the Reload Time has an exponentially increasing negative impact, increasing chances of being engaged on, or missing a kill opportunity.

All that said, in terms of Short Reload, Watchman is very comparable to CARV, and as long as you avoid the unusually punishing Long Reload, you’ll be fine most of the time. Seriously, d0ku, what the hell were you thinking, putting the charging handle so far to the right and front?

Equip Time

Watchman’s Equip Time is about as expected for a full-sized LMG, and roughly equal to CARV overall.

Pros and Cons

Recommended Attachments

Tips and Conclusion

On the surface, Watchman looks like a typical bullet hose, but it’s actually a bit more nuanced, and to take advantage of everything it has to offer, it needs to be properly handled. You have to fire in bursts, which is made easier by excellent Recoil Recovery statistics. At the same time, high FSRM may make Watchman feel less controllable than it is. 

At the end of the day, Watchman’s most defining feature is short headshot TTK within Maximum Damage Range. Otherwise, it is effectively a sidegrade to the default T9 CARV. 

Apart from the First Shot Recoil, Watchman requires noticeably less recoil management, but more Cone of Fire management – burst firing, in other words. 

You have to be mindful of Watchman’s reload. Unlike MSW-R, you can’t just reload on the go, and you have to be ready to switch to a sidearm in case you get caught while reloading. At the same time, Watchman’s reload disadvantage is somewhat overblown – as long as you avoid being hit by a Long Reload, it won’t be much different from other “big” LMGs.

Overall, Watchman is a welcome addition to the Terran Republic arsenal. It provides veterans with a stylish answer to Anchor’s headshot TTK, and this time without the TR Recoil.

Easy recoil makes Watchman a suitable option for less skilled players as well, and it’s not like Watchman is too difficult to handle. Just remember to cut your bursts at about 10 shots at the most, and you’re good to go.

Watchman’s biggest downside is its inability to reach out to distant targets. Even when you can afford to stand still, there won’t be any accuracy boost. Couple that with low damage per shot and you can pretty much forget about even trying, unless the enemy will be exposed for a long time. That’s the price you have to pay for the combination of high DPS and easy recoil.

Scout Rifles are a primary weapon class, available only to Infiltrators. Semi Auto Scout Rifles are precision weapons with good mobility, and they focus on taking out enemies with several headshots at medium-long range. Full Auto Scout Rifles are medium range ambush weapons, and handle like weak Assault Rifles. 

Despite looking different, Scout Rifles are perfectly mirrored between factions. 

You can find general tips on using PlanetSide 2 weapons in the Gunplay Guide and some Infiltrator-specific tips in the Infiltrator Guide.

Semi Auto Scout Rifles

SA Scout Rifle Mechanics

Scout Rifles follow the same Weapon Mechanics as other weapons. Semi Auto Scout Rifles are overall similar to Semi Auto Sniper Rifles, but with these differences:

• Deal less damage per shot, and require more bodyshots. However, they still kill most targets in the same number of headshots.
• Higher effective Rate of Fire.
• Larger magazines and faster reload. 
• Can mount Flash Suppressors.
• Higher Projectile Velocity, much better ADS Moving and Hip Fire accuracy.
• Less Vertical Recoil.

SA Scouts suffer from the same Tap Firing Issues that plague Semi Auto Sniper Rifles, albeit to a lesser degree:

Refire Time: 0.235 seconds.
Cone of Fire Recovery takes: 0.25 seconds after a shot
Recoil Recovery takes: 0.243 seconds.
With Compensator: 0.225 seconds.

Source of the numbers: Toolbox. Assuming no Forward Grip.

To put it into words, it takes SA Scouts longer to recover CoF Accuracy than to move crosshair down after a shot. If you fire while the crosshair is moving, or right after it stopped moving, CoF will not have time to recover, and your shots will have reduced accuracy. 

It also means the Compensator is a trap certification and it should be avoided. 

DAMAGE	334 @ 15m – 280 @ 75m
RATE OF FIRE	255 RPM 240 RPM when Tap Firing
VELOCITY	570 m/s
AMMO	12 / 84
RELOAD TIME	1.95 sec / 2.4 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 699

You can find some tips on how to play with a SA Scout Rifle in CQC Sniping Guide by Davregis.

Scout Rifles play a bit differently to CQC Bolt Action rifles, but only in the way you move and fire. Both reward hit and run play and quick headshot takedowns. If you can’t reliably get your headshots – avoid 1v1s and float around a fight, using cloak to find and pick off stragglers and wounded enemies.

– Unknown redditor

NS-30 Vandal

DAMAGE	334 @ 15m – 280 @ 75m
RATE OF FIRE	255 RPM 240 RPM when Tap Firing
VELOCITY	520 m/s
AMMO	15 / 90
RELOAD TIME	2.6 sec / 3.5 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 799

NS-30 Vandal is a cross faction scout rifle. It is very similar to faction-specific SA Scout Rifles. In many cases, it has slightly worse base stats:

• Has a Recoil Angle
• Lower Velocity
• Longer Reloads

However, it has a larger magazine, and most importantly – it has 0.75x ADS Movement Speed Multiplier, which arguably makes Vandal the best SA Scout rifle, as it often operates at ranges where having higher ADS Speed gives a crucial advantage. 

Vandal is the best SA Scout for leveraging their main advantage over SA Sniper Rifles: mobility and ADS accuracy.

Full Auto Scout Rifles

FA Scout Rifle Mechanics

Scout Rifles follow the same Weapon Mechanics as other weapons. Full Auto Scout Rifles are overall similar to Assault Rifles, but aside from low damage degradation, they have absolutely unimpressive stats. 

DAMAGE	143 @ 10m – 125 @ 60m
RATE OF FIRE	652 RPM
VELOCITY	530 m/s
AMMO	24 / 240
RELOAD TIME	2 sec / 2.64 sec
UNLOCK COST	650or 499

Artemis has 20 m/s lower velocity, but doesn’t have any bullet drop. Artemis is also incredibly silent when used with a Suppressor.

NSX Tomoe

DAMAGE	112
RATE OF FIRE	750 RPM
VELOCITY	520 m/s
AMMO	22 / 286
RELOAD TIME	2.1 sec / 2.9 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 799

NSX Tomoe is a cross faction automatic scout rifle. It has a slew of unique features:

• Low bullet damage without any damage degradation.
• Increased headshot multiplier, to ensure that despite low damage per shot, Tomoe kills standard infantry in 4 headshots at all ranges.

Overall, NSX Tomoe is a unique case of an automatic precision weapon with high Rate of Fire. Tomoe’s weaknesses include horrible Hip Fire accuracy, low damage per magazine and long TTK with bodyshots. 

Tomoe kills very fast with headshots at medium range, but suffers whenever it’s not possible to easily get multiple headshots.

You can learn more about Tomoe in its Highly Technical Weapon Guide.

It’s worth noting that Tomoe doesn’t count towards Scout Rifle Directives, and instead counts for Nanite Systems Exports directives. Kills with Tomoe will count as Scout Rifle Kills for Infiltrator Directives, though.

LMGs are a primary weapon class, available only to Heavy Assaults. LMGs in PlanetSide 2 fulfill a different role than in real life, and basically play like heavy Assault Rifles. Each faction has a lot of LMGs, but there is surprisingly little variety. Half of them could be removed, and little of value would be lost.

You can find general tips on using PlanetSide 2 weapons in the Gunplay Guide and some LMG-specific tips in Heavy Assault guide.

LMG Mechanics

LMGs follow the same Weapon Mechanics as other weapons. LMGs are characterized by these traits:

Lots of ammunition, but longer reloads. This allows LMGs to comfortably lead several engagements back-to-back, without reloading, and unleash a sustained stream of damage on MAXes and light vehicles.

Low to average DPS. This means that LMGs often have to go for headshots in order to have a competitive TTK. This is somewhat offset by the fact that Heavy Assaults have an overshield to outlast the enemy.

Heavy recoil, especially Vertical Recoil. Most LMGs require conscious and deliberate recoil control when engaging enemies at medium to long range, more so than any other primary weapon class.

Bad initial accuracy on the move. LMGs have either 0.35 or 0.4 ADS Moving CoF, which means that LMGs have to fire in shorter bursts than most other weapons to maintain the same CoF accuracy. 

When engaging targets at longer ranges, LMGs earlier encounter the threshold where the user has to remain stationary in order to land even a shot on a target.

Low Recoil Recovery Rate and high First Shot Recoil. While LMGs have to burst fire more, they are simultaneously worse at it.

Longer Equip Times. LMGs take more time to equip, and take longer to recover after a grenade throw or quick knife swing. That’s kind of a big deal, since Heavy Assaults spend a lot of time switching back and forth between their primary weapon and their rocket launcher.

Worse Hip Fire accuracy than Assault Rifles’, but still notably better than Sniper Rifles’. For most LMGs, hip firing isn’t an option outside of few meters. 

Some LMGs also get access to Extended Mags rail attachment, which in most cases doubles magazine size.

Attachment Availability

LMG Tier List

This tier list has been compiled by /u/miniux, a very skilled an experienced player from the infamous Das Anfall outfit:

…I’ve done the LMG directive about 10 times (all factions at least twice) along with an aurax of every one.

– /u/miniux

In this tier list, Miniux gives each LMG a subjective score, that shows how much a skilled user is likely to benefit from the weapon. 

In other words, a low score doesn’t mean a weapon is completely unusable and struggles to kill anyone, and a high score doesn’t mean the weapon just kills everyone by itself, and all you need to do is point it at the enemy. Score is more about how efficiently the weapon can convert skill into kills.

The main goal is to showcase which weapons are considered “good” by the more skilled part of the community, and why.

Starting LMGs

These LMGs are available by default. They come with free Forward Grip, 1x Reflex Sight and a bit of faction flavor.

T9 CARV

T9 CARV is a bulky and oppressive machinegun. It has lots of firepower, and thanks to the large magazine, can dish it out for a while. However, CARV also has a ton of recoil, and its accuracy leaves something to be desired. 

T9 CARV is an ADS powerhouse… if you can control it.

– [RMIS] nicigee

NC6 Gauss SAW

Gauss SAW is a controversial weapon. It deals the highest damage per shot among all LMGs, and in skilled hands becomes an amazing weapon for medium to long range combat. Basically, a portable autocannon, with enough ammo to last for days. 

However, it faces a number of issues and gets a lot of heat for:

(1) One of the highest values for Vertical Recoil per Shot. When coupled with low RoF, it makes for very choppy, rough recoil pattern. It can be especially hard to get under control to an inexperienced player. 

(2) For that reason, it’s not recommended to use SAW with a scope with magnification stronger than 1x. Which creates another problem: it’s a ranged LMG and you can’t even get decent magnification for it, as it would make your aim jump all over the screen.

(3) Strong vertical recoil makes Compensator a mandatory attachment, which carries penalties to Minimap Firing Detection Distance, and to hip fire accuracy, which is already fairly terrible.

(4) Due to low Rate of Fire and damage model, SAW gets hard countered in close quarters by Nanoweave Armor, and has to go for headshots to compensate.

(5) Poor initial ADS Moving accuracy means SAW struggles to reliably land multiple headshots on enemies outside ~20m, despite being a hardcore ranged LMG. 

(6) Finally, ranged LMGs are simply not needed a lot of the time. Most of the “useful” fighting happens at ranges where most other LMGs would be just as effective, without sacrificing so much close range power.

SAW is high risk, high reward. Frustrating most of the time, but there is no better feeling than 3 tapping an enemy at long range. A Nightmare for inexperienced players, and more of a meme weapon if you compare it to a real “tool” like a GD-22S, Pulsar LSW or T32 Bull.

– [RMIS] nicigee

Many players have spoken against the fact that Gauss SAW is the default LMG, saying that GD-22S should fulfill that role instead, as it’s much more versatile. 

But it’s not all bad. There are some redeeming qualities as well:

(1) Consistent performance over range. SAW has only 1 tier of damage degradation, and kills standard infantry target roughly in the same amount of shots at all ranges. Headshots are especially devastating. 

(2) SAW’s Vertical Recoil per Second isn’t that big. It is actually only above average for LMGs even without the Compensator, and below average with one.

(3) As said, SAW has potential for amazing ranged performance. It’s an excellent weapon for open field combat. It just takes a bit of getting used to its recoil pattern. SAW is actually very controllable and accurate for an LMG.

Orion VS54

Orion is the staple close range LMG for Vanu Sovereignty. Overall, it handles more like a big Assault Rifle, and it’s noticeably more mobile than most LMGs. It has faster reload, shorter Equip Time, and its hip fire accuracy isn’t that bad. It also has a good damage output, but pays in magazine size. Similarly to CARV, it has a ton of recoil, and will require some deliberate handling to be effective at medium range. 

One of the more unusual features is that Orion has reduced Cone of Fire Bloom, so it can fire in longer bursts than most other LMGs. 

Unlike other Close Range LMGs, Orion doesn’t get access to SPA nor ALS, but it has better Hip Fire accuracy from the get-go, so even with basic Laser Sight it gets roughly the same Hip Fire accuracy as other Close Range LMGs with ALS. 

Close Range LMGs

These LMGs behave more like big Assault Rifles. They have increased Hip Fire accuracy, shorter Equip Times, faster reloads, as well as access to Soft Point Ammo and Advanced Laser Sight. However, they have smaller magazines, worse handling and shorter effective range than most other LMGs.

For VS, Orion is the dedicated CQC LMG.

MSW-R

DAMAGE	143 @ 10m – 112 @ 65m
RATE OF FIRE	750 RPM
VELOCITY	550 m/s
AMMO	50 / 250
RELOAD TIME	3.045 sec / 3.305 sec
UNLOCK COST	325or 250

MSW-R is the TR workhorse. One of the most popular LMGs, and for good reason: it’s cheap, simple, reliable, effective. Everything you’d want for breaching points and taking the fight to the enemy. It deals good DPS and doesn’t have any issues killing with just bodyshots at close range. 

LA1 Anchor

DAMAGE	167 @ 10m – 125 @ 75m
RATE OF FIRE	600 RPM
VELOCITY	570 m/s
AMMO	50 / 250
RELOAD TIME	3.37 sec / 4 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 699

Another wildly popular LMG. It deals more damage per shot than other Close Range LMGs, but due to lower RoF has lower overall DPS. However, Anchor has excellent accuracy for a CQC LMG, and within 10m (15m with SPA), it kills standard infantry in just 3 headshots, which makes for a shorter TTK. 

Most beastly CQC LMG in the game. Works great on public servers and dominates competitive scene. Possibly the best LMG overall, once you figure out the recoil, which is still much simpler than for MSW-R. Hip Fire is the only noticeable disadvantage.

– [RMIS] nicigee

Adaptable LMGs

These LMGs have access to a wide variety of attachments, and can be specialized for any range. Their concept is similar to Select Fire Carbines and Assault Rifles, but unlike them, these LMGs don’t get access to anything unique, like underbarrel attachments. 

They have middle-of-the-road stats, which makes them rather boring, “just another LMG” type of weapons.

T9 CARV-S

DAMAGE	143 @ 10m – 112 @ 65m
RATE OF FIRE	698 RPM
VELOCITY	600 m/s
AMMO	100 / 400
RELOAD TIME	4.64 sec / 5.58 sec
UNLOCK COST	650or 499

CARV-S can be treated like a variant of the CARV that sacrifices raw DPS in favor of better recoil and more attachment choices. CARV-S actually has higher Vertical Recoil per Shot than CARV, but due to lower RoF, it boils down to less Vertical Recoil per Second, especially when equipped with a Compensator. It also has nearly a second faster reload.

Overall, CARV-S makes for a typical general-purpose LMG that doesn’t stand out in any particular area.

T9 CARV-S is a part of this Highly Technical Weapon Comparison with other similar LMGs.

NC6S Gauss SAW S

DAMAGE	167 @ 10m – 125 @ 75m
RATE OF FIRE	577 RPM
VELOCITY	630 m/s
AMMO	75 / 300
RELOAD TIME	4.24 sec / 5.02 sec
UNLOCK COST	650or 499

Despite having a similar name to the starting NC6 Gauss SAW, the SAW-S has a different damage model, and overall is much closer to EM6. They have only minor differences:

• SAW-S has better Horizontal Recoil properties, and marginally better Hip Fire accuracy, reload speed and Projectile Velocity.
• In return, SAW-S sacrifices Magazine Size and overall Ammo Pool, and has marginally lower RoF.

Overall, SAW-S makes for a decent general-purpose LMG, and it’s arguably better than EM6. 

Flare VE6

DAMAGE	167 @ 10m – 125 @ 75m
RATE OF FIRE	577 RPM
VELOCITY	600 m/s
AMMO	75 / 300
RELOAD TIME	4.24 sec / 5.225 sec
UNLOCK COST	650or 499

Flare VE6 deals higher damage per shot than majority of VS LMGs. In combination with Soft Point Ammunition, Flare has excellent headshot Time-to-Kill within 15m, which is a fairly competitive range bracket. 

Mild Vertical Recoil makes Flare easy to handle up to medium range, but comparatively high Horizontal Recoil and damage degradation limit Flare’s effectiveness at range. 

Flare is overall similar to Ursa, so a detailed comparison between these two weapons was made.

Point Hold LMGs

These LMGs have an interesting combination of traits:

• Their Maximum Damage Range is extended to 20m.
  • Some of them also have access to SPA, which further increases Maximum Damage Range by 5m.
• Good accuracy and easy recoil.
• 100 round magazines, with Extended Mags boosting them to 200 rounds. 
• An extra spare magazine.
• Low raw damage output.

The main feature, of course, is unusually long Maximum Damage Range. It gives these LMGs very consistent performance. They have roughly the same bodyshot TTK against nanoweave targets within ~30m, and maintain headshot TTK within ~50m. 

While they don’t have as much raw DPS as some other LMGs, thanks to extended Maximum Damage Range, they can actually deal more effective DPS at certain ranges than weapons with higher RoF.

T16 Rhino

DAMAGE	143 @ 20m – 112 @ 65m
RATE OF FIRE	659 RPM
VELOCITY	640 m/s
AMMO	100 / 500
RELOAD TIME	3.96 sec / 4.925 sec
UNLOCK COST	650or 499

T16 Rhino gets access to Advanced Forward Grip and High Velocity Ammo, but not Compensator. Fortunately, it already has low Vertical Recoil per Shot. With Advanced Forward Grip, Rhino has roughly the same Horizontal Recoil as T32 Bull with its basic Forward Grip. 

Overall, Rhino sort of has an identity crisis:

• It tries to be an LMG for fighting within 30m, but unlike other Point Hold LMGs, it doesn’t get Hip Fire accuracy benefits, nor access to SPA and ALS.
• Its attachment options – AFG and HVA – suggest that it wants to be a ranged LMG, but it has comparatively high damage degradation. 

So Rhino gets stuck without a place to call “home”, and there’s no reason to use it, aside from the combination of low recoil and ability to sustain fire.

EM1

DAMAGE	143 @ 20m – 112 @ 65m
RATE OF FIRE	659 RPM
VELOCITY	630 m/s
AMMO	100 / 500
RELOAD TIME	3.5 sec / 4.465 sec
UNLOCK COST	650or 499

EM1 is comfortable and controllable, and it’s one of the few 143 damage LMGs available to the NC. Other perks include slightly increased Hip Fire accuracy, though not as great as for Close Range LMGs.  EM1 gets access to SPA and Advanced Laser Sight. 

VX29 Polaris

DAMAGE	143 @ 20m – 112 @ 65m
RATE OF FIRE	659 RPM
VELOCITY	625 m/s
AMMO	100 / 500
RELOAD TIME	3.925 sec / 4.925 sec
UNLOCK COST	650or 499

VX29 Polaris features the best hip fire accuracy among LMGs, sharing the first place with NS-15M2, and it also has access to SPA and Advanced Laser Sight. When equipped with it, Polaris gets hip fire accuracy slightly better than an average stock Carbine, which is quite impressive for an LMG.

Polaris has controllable recoil, and overall makes for a surprisingly decent LMG. Its only real weakness is low damage output. 

General-Purpose LMGs

These LMGs share a couple of traits: they remain effective at a variety of ranges, but don’t particularly stand out in any field. Their attachment availability and stat allocation are all over the place, though.

TMG-50

DAMAGE	167 @ 10m – 125 @ 75m
RATE OF FIRE	577 RPM
VELOCITY	615 m/s
AMMO	75 / 300
RELOAD TIME	4.24 sec / 5.225 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 699

TMG-50 is the only TR LMG that deals more than 143 damage per shot. It’s also slightly more accurate on the move than most LMGs, and has access to HVA and Compensator, but not Advanced Forward Grip. Fortunately, it has great Horizontal Recoil by default, so the basic Forward Grip is enough to facilitate good accuracy.

If not for two tiers of damage degradation, TMG-50 would make a decent ranged LMG. It’s not a terrible weapon, but usually doesn’t get much love from players.

GD-22S

DAMAGE	167 @ 10m – 125 @ 75m
RATE OF FIRE	577 RPM
VELOCITY	620 m/s
AMMO	50 / 250
RELOAD TIME	2.275 sec / 3.765 sec
UNLOCK COST	325or 250

GD-22S can be treated as a more general-purpose variant of the Anchor. GD-22S is more accurate and easier to control, and its Hip Fire accuracy and DPS are only slightly worse. 

GD-22S is also dirt cheap and has an amazingly fast reload for an LMG. It’s a simple and effective weapon, and its only real disadvantage is scarce attachment choices. However, having such great base stats, it doesn’t really suffer from it.

GD-22S often gets recommended as the starting point for anyone willing to play NC Heavy Assault. 

I would recommend GD-22S for less experienced players, but even I enjoy using it, because it’s so user-friendly. 

– [RMIS] nicigee

EM6

DAMAGE	167 @ 10m – 125 @ 75m
RATE OF FIRE	600 RPM
VELOCITY	570 m/s
AMMO	100 / 400
RELOAD TIME	4.655 sec / 5.655 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 699

EM6 has access to a variety of attachments, and overall makes for a typical, versatile LMG.

Where other LMGs have built in specializations, the EM6 just got tired and decided it would let its attachment do the work.

/u/unit220

Pulsar LSW

DAMAGE	143 @ 10m – 112 @ 65m
RATE OF FIRE	698 RPM
VELOCITY	620 m/s
AMMO	75 / 300
RELOAD TIME	3.09 sec / 3.9 sec
UNLOCK COST	325or 250

Pulsar LSW can be treated as a variant of Orion, with less raw DPS and worse Hip Fire accuracy, but much easier recoil and larger magazine. Similarly to Orion, Pulsar LSW gets the reduced CoF Bloom per Shot, so it can fire in a bit longer bursts than most LMGs. Great weapon overall. 

Pulsar LSW  is a part of this Highly Technical Weapon Comparison with other similar LMGs.

SVA-88

DAMAGE	143 @ 10m – 112 @ 65m
RATE OF FIRE	698 RPM
VELOCITY	630 m/s
AMMO	75 / 300
RELOAD TIME	3.38 sec / 4.7 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 699

SVA-88 is stunningly similar to Pulsar LSW. The main difference is that instead of Flash Suppressor and Extended Mags, SVA-88 gets access to HVA and Compensator. 

SVA also has more Vertical Recoil, but no Recoil Angle, and marginally better Hip Fire accuracy. With the Compensator, SVA-88 has roughly the same Vertical Recoil as Pulsar LSW, and HVA gives it a slight edge in ranged combat. 

Overall, SVA-88 can be treated like a more expensive variant of Pulsar LSW with more inclination towards ranged combat. 

SVA-88  is a part of this Highly Technical Weapon Comparison with other similar LMGs.

Long Range LMGs

These LMGs have only one tier of damage degradation, which gives them an edge in ranged combat over the majority of other primary weapons.  

The dedicated Long Range LMG for NC is Gauss SAW. 

T32 Bull

DAMAGE	143 @ 10m – 125 @ 65m
RATE OF FIRE	659 RPM
VELOCITY	640 m/s
AMMO	60 / 300
RELOAD TIME	2.89 sec / 3.28 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 699

T32 Bull is one of the more unusual LMGs. It gets the best Hip Fire accuracy, amazing recoil pattern, high projectile velocity and fast reload. It takes no effort to hold on target, and low damage degradation ensures the damage remains consistent at all ranges. 

Unfortunately, low damage output makes Bull undesirable to competitive players, and its ADS accuracy doesn’t do anything for it in close quarters. 

Additionally, Bull is very close to NS-15M2, which also gets higher ADS Movement Speed, making it a much better choice overall.

T32 Bull is my weapon for everyday use. It’s easy to use and lets you focus on your playstyle, without any compromises. It rewards good aim, but doesn’t punish bad aim, like Gauss SAW would, for example. It is the perfect platform for your daily squadplay and biolabfarm adventures.

– [RMIS] nicigee

Ursa

DAMAGE	167 @ 10m – 143 @ 75m
RATE OF FIRE	550 RPM
VELOCITY	640 m/s
AMMO	75 / 300
RELOAD TIME	3.72 sec / 4.7 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 699

Ursa is the dedicated ranged LMG for VS. Ursa has a mild recoil for an LMG, but its low damage output limits its effectiveness outside of ranged combat.

Ursa is overall very similar to Flare VE6, so a detailed comparison between these two weapons was made.

Empire-Specific LMGs

This set of empire-specific LMGs has interesting mechanics or unique attachments, as well as unusual models and sound design.

MG-H1 Watchman

DAMAGE	125 @ 10m – 100 @ 55m
RATE OF FIRE	857 RPM
VELOCITY	550 m/s
AMMO	125 / 375
RELOAD TIME	5.525 sec / 7 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 699

Auto

Mechanically, Watchman is an LMG version of TORQ-9 Assault Rifle. It has the highest Rate of Fire among all LMGs, though it deals only 125 damage per shot.

In terms of raw DPS, Watchman is very close to default T9 CARV. Watchman has limited effective range due to bad Cones of Fire while being still, as well as low damage per shot and somewhat low Projectile Velocity. However, fairly stable recoil makes Watchman easier to handle within that range. 

Watchman has good Hip Fire accuracy for an LMG, but it’s still far from being able to hip fire comfortably.

Soft Point Ammunition is also available, and it will make Watchman more competitive in close quarters, while the Impact Ammunition increases Watchman’s damage outside of 20m, and it’s a great choice if you don’t intend to specifically focus on the most competitive performance within 15m. 

Overall, Watchman is an effective LMG that trades effective range for easier handling, and in certain situations it can kill faster than CARV or MSW-R.

You can learn more about Watchman in this Highly Technical Weapon Guide, and enjoy some juicy lore in this video by Cyrious Gaming: 

MGR-L1 Promise

DAMAGE	143 @ 10m – 112 @ 65m
RATE OF FIRE	698 RPM
VELOCITY	550 m/s
AMMO	100 / 500
RELOAD TIME	4.75 sec / 5.775 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 699

Modular Gauss Rifle, LMG-1 “Promise” has low Recoil and high Rate of Fire, which is uncharacteristic for NC. Promise is also the first weapon where Recoil Scaling plays a big role.

With each shot, Promise’s recoil gets lower and lower, up to a certain limit. Vertical Recoil specifically decreases even faster if you fire while crouched.

Promise also has reduced values for Maximum ADS Cones of Fire, for most stances equal to 1 degree. This makes sustained full auto fire much more accurate than for most other primary weapons. For some context, 1 degree is the diameter of the center mass of an infantryman about 25m away.

SPRW Ammunition is available to Promise, increasing Projectile Velocity by 25% at the cost of reducing Magazine Size by 25 rounds. Promise’s base velocity is below average, and can make it challenging to hit moving targets at medium+ range. SPRW Ammo bumps it up to respectable 687 m/s, which is the highest value for LMGs. 

Smart Feeder is a unique ammo attachment, available only to Promise. It increases Magazine Size by 50 rounds at the cost of increasing Reload Times by 0.325 seconds. Since this is an ammo attachment, it is mutually exclusive with SPRW Ammo.

Between SPRW Ammo and Smart Feeder, Promise allows you to choose between focusing on volume of fire or precision. 

Overall, Promise makes for an interesting medium-range LMG with decent firepower. After ~4 shots it becomes the most stable LMG in the game, and it’s not bad during first 4 shots either.

MGR-L1 Promise  is a part of this Highly Technical Weapon Comparison with other similar LMGs.

VE-H Maw

DAMAGE	167 @ 10m – 125 @ 75m
RATE OF FIRE	600 RPM
VELOCITY	550 m/s
AMMO	60 / 300
RELOAD TIME	3.45 sec / 4.6 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 699

Maw is intended to compete with NC’s Anchor as a high-damage, close-medium range LMG. Maw has good damage output, including the infamous 3-headshot kill within maximum damage range.

Maw is tied for the first place for Hip Fire accuracy with a few other LMGs, but it’s the only new LMG to also have access to Advanced Laser Sight. When used with ALS, Maw gains Hip Fire accuracy comparable to a stock carbine, which is impressive for an LMG.

Unstable Ammunition is available, which increases projectile size making shots easier to hit at the cost of reducing Headshot Damage Multiplier to 1.2x. When coupled with ALS and UA, Maw has potentially the best Hip Fire among LMGs. 

Vented Power Core rail attachment is available, which removes Long Reload penalty at the cost of increasing Recoil Angle by 5 degrees. Not recommended.

Cross-Faction LMGs

These LMGs can be used by all factions. If you purchase them with Daybreak Cash, they will be available on all your characters, regardless of faction. They have white tracers. 

NS-15M2

DAMAGE	143 @ 10m – 125 @ 65m
RATE OF FIRE	625 RPM
VELOCITY	600 m/s
AMMO	55 / 275
RELOAD TIME	2.15 sec / 2.5 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 799

NS-15M2 is basically an LMG variant of NS-11A Assault Rifle. It features the best Hip Fire accuracy and ADS Moving Accuracy, a fast reload and short Equip Time. Most importantly, it’s the only LMG with 75% ADS Speed. 

Its recoil isn’t the best, but still one of the easiest to control, and it has only one tier of damage degradation, similar to Long Range LMGs.

NS-15M2’s only disadvantage is the lowest raw damage output among all LMGs, and fairly small magazine. 

NS-15M2 is wildly popular among good players, who can compensate for low damage output with good headshot accuracy. 

NS-15M2 has a ton of cosmetic variants, including NS-15M1. Differences between them are purely cosmetic. 

NSX Naginata

DAMAGE	150 @ 10m – 125 @ 65m
RATE OF FIRE	659 RPM
VELOCITY	490 m/s
AMMO	90 / 450
RELOAD TIME	3.2 sec / 4.4 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 799

NSX Naginata is unique. Its defining feature is that while remaining still, your Cone of Fire will not bloom past a certain point. In other words, while standing still, you can fire at full auto almost without losing accuracy. 

While normally standing still in a firefight isn’t a good idea, there is an advanced trick you can employ. 

Normal weapons have to stop firing to let their Bloomed CoF to recover. Naginata, on the other hand, can use movement to “reset the burst”.

You fire the Naginata while moving, as you would with any other LMG, but when your CoF Blooms too much, you simply stand still for a moment, and that will reset your CoF, even if you keep firing the whole time.

You don’t have to stand still for long either. Simply releasing all your movement keys for a moment will do the trick. 

Overall, Naginata is the only LMG that can truly sustain fire without losing accuracy. Other Nagainata’s traits include good damage model, decent reload speed and excellent Horizontal Recoil and Recoil Angle Properties. 

Now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room.

Naginata has gigantic, absolutely mindblowingly horrible Vertical Recoil. It is so bad that even with Compensator Naginata has more Vertical Recoil per Shot than infamous Gauss SAW. And due to higher RoF than SAW, Vertical Recoil per Second is through the roof. 

This makes Naginata difficult to control, effectively making it terrible at its intended role of application. Other downsides include low projectile velocity. 

It’s worth noting that NSX Naginata does not count towards LMG directives, and instead counts for Nanite Exports directive.

You can learn more about Naginata in this Highly Technical Weapon Guide.

Auraxium LMGs

These prestige variants of starting LMGs have a cosmetic auraxium shader, as well as unique combination of attachments or special mechanics. You cannot modify any attachments, except Scopes.

The only way to obtain one of these LMGs is to complete the auraxium level of LMG Directives, by getting auraxium medals (1160 kills) with 5 LMGs.

Keep in mind that not everything classified as “LMG” counts for these directives, so make sure to check your directives tab.

T9A “Butcher”

T9A “Butcher” is the variant of the starting T9 CARV, and features slightly higher Rate of Fire and 50% larger magazine, as well as marginally better Hip Fire accuracy. Butcher has the highest raw DPS among all LMGs. 

Butcher’s downsides come from inability to mount the Forward Grip or a barrel attachment. 

Overall, Butcher is a bullet hose with terrible accuracy and a redundant amount of ammunition, almost a TR weapon meme.

NC6A GODSAW

GODSAW is a variant of the starting Gauss SAW. Its main feature is a secondary Armor Piercing firemode, which changes GODSAW’s Damage Resist Type from Type 2 – Small Arms to Type 4 – Heavy Machine Gun. This lets the GODSAW damage even heavily armored vehicles.

However, in Armor Piercing firemode GODSAW will deal less damage to infantry, so you have to remember to use the right mode for the right job. The firemode indicator near the ammo counter will show which firemode you’re in:

GODSAW has other differences from Gauss SAW: 

• Massively higher Projectile Velocity.
• Minimum Damage Range extended by 20m. This lets GODSAW deal marginally more damage at range. 
• Smaller magazine, but more than 2 second faster reload. 
• Marginally better Hip Fire accuracy.
• Lower Vertical Recoil and Horizontal Recoil, as if GODSAW had some form of Compensator and Forward Grip. Gauss SAW with Advanced Forward Grip and Compensator has slightly less Horizontal Recoil and more Vertical Recoil. 
• GODSAW has the same Equip Time as Gauss SAW with AFG.

Overall, for most intents and purposes, GODSAW is a direct upgrade over Gauss SAW, but faces many similar issues, like being somewhat lackluster in close quarters. 

Betelgeuse 54-A

Betelgeuse 54-A, also known as “Beetle Juice”, is a variant of the starting Orion. Instead of conventional ammunition, Betelgeuse uses the Heat Mechanic, which effectively gives you unlimited amount of spare ammunition. 

Betelgeuse also has 0.25 seconds longer Equip Time.

Overall, Betelgeuse is an interesting and popular weapon, but suffers from strong recoil and poor accuracy, and it cannot even mount a Forward Grip to improve the situation.

Heat Mechanics

Heat Capacity: 1000
Heat Per Shot: 20
Heat Recovery Delay: 0.5 sec
Heat Recovery Rate: 240 per sec
Overheat Penalty: 3.28 sec

Firing the weapon accumulates Heat. When you stop firing, after Heat Recovery Delay, the weapon will start cooling down, at Heat Recovery Rate. If you overheat the weapon, instead of Heat Recovery Delay, you will suffer the Overheat Penalty.

Betelgeuse can fire 50 shots before overheating. This is confirmed by in-game testing. It takes 4.58 seconds to recover heat from 49 shots, and 7.44 sec if you overheat the weapon. 

Betelgeuse will cool down even when not equipped, which makes it very convenient for Heavy Assaults: you can engage an enemy, and then switch to a sidearm or Rocket Launcher, and Betelgeuse will be fully “reloaded” by the time you equip it back again. 

Yumi is an excellent weapon for medium and long range combat, and it gives a huge advantage when firing first, more so than any other automatic weapon. But the burst delay makes the weapon a little bad in direct confrontation, especially if the enemy engages you first in close quarters. 

Playing with Yumi is like playing with any slow and accurate ranged Assault Rifle – you will have to stick to cover, be ready to disengage if you get shot and avoid rushing head-first.

Using the Yumi is the hard way to teach a player to look for good engagements; the strict requirement on accuracy and firing delay will force the user to always aim down sights and aim properly before opening fire. 

On the other hand, Yumi is a weapon that plays itself. Unlike other burst weapons, which are basically automatic weapons in disguise, Yumi doesn’t allow any Cone of Fire management, and barely requires recoil compensation. 

Yumi is predominantly a medium+ range support weapon. If you ever wanted a designated marksman rifle for a medic – this is it. 

Yumi was released in underpowered state, and was significantly buffed in Apr 27th, 2017 patch and Oct 19th, 2017 patch, and now that this weapon is actually viable, let’s take a deeper look. 

Stats

Mechanics

After you press the trigger, there is a 0.25 second firing delay. Then it takes a 0.24 seconds to fire off a 5 round burst, with 60 ms refire time between shots. For comparison, AF-4 Cyclone has 92 ms refire time. 

As with a semi-auto weapon, you can queue the next burst right after you start charging the current burst. Click-release-click-hold until the next burst starts charging. This technique is explained in detail here. 

If you press the trigger without Aiming Down Sights, you will not be able to Aim Down Sights until the weapon finishes firing.

Similarly, if you press the trigger while ADSing, you will not be able to leave ADS, even if you jump. This is actually one of the biggest turn-offs of this weapon, because when you click to fire, you essentially commit your next 0.55 seconds to firing, and this can be a problem if you get attacked by another enemy during this time. 

Melee Combo

Yumi’s fixed burstfire mode gives it an interesting mechanical quirk. You can click to start charging the burst, and then perform a quick melee attack while the weapon is firing. This makes Yumi surprisingly scary in close quarters, because even if only 4 out of 5 shots hit, a knife strike will still reliably kill standard infantry through nanoweave. 

Learn more here.

Damage

Rate of Fire during a burst: 1000 RPM
DPS during a burst: 2783 to 2083 depending on distance.

Overall Rate of Fire: ~545 RPM
Overall DPS: 1516 to 1135, depending on distance.

Yumi fires off the burst at the highest rate of fire among all primary weapons, and therefore has the highest non-shotgun DPS. Burst delay significantly reduces overall rate of fire, reducing overall DPS to be on the level of a 167 @ 550 RPM weapon. 

With perfect accuracy and bodyshots, Yumi will require two bursts against a full health target. Heavy Assaults will require an extra burst at most. It is possible to one-burst a target if several shots hit the head.

Overall, assuming good, but not perfect accuracy, you should expect 2-3 burst kills against standard enemies, and 3-4 bursts against Heavy Assaults.

Finally, one burst + one quick knife swing will reliably kill standard infantry, though it’s not an easy combo to hit against an aware player. 

Recoil

Yumi is the only weapon to feature a zero First Shot Recoil Multiplier, meaning it has no vertical recoil for the first shot. The first shot is still subjected to Horizontal Recoil, though. 

Yumi has one of the lowest values for Vertical Recoil, though extremely high rate of fire still creates a noticeable vertical pull during the burst. You can’t start compensating recoil on reaction, because the burst will be over before you can react.

Yumi has very little Horizontal Recoil for its damage profile, and a negligible recoil angle to the right. 

Recoil Recovery finishes before you can start the next burst. 

Accuracy

ADS CoFs: 0.03 / 0.15 / 0.03 / 0.15 / 0.05

Yumi has very small Cones of Fire in all stances, and reduced Cone of Fire Bloom. Most 167 damage weapons have CoF Bloom of 0.06. 

It’s worth noting that Yumi doesn’t get any bonus accuracy for crouching.

Overall, it’s safe to say that Yumi features one of the longest effective ranges among Assault Rifles. And even ranged monsters like Reaper DMR cannot compete with Yumi’s moving accuracy and low Bloom.

Hip CoFs: 2 / 2.25 / 2.5 / 3 / 0.12

Yumi has standard hip fire accuracy for an assault rifle. It can be surprisingly effective in a pinch, but don’t expect any miracles, especially if you use Compensator. 

Attachments

Optics

Yumi has access to a variety of reflex scopes from 1x to 3.4x, and HS/NV scope. As always, the choice will depend only on your personal preference.

A low magnification scope makes it feel like the weapon has no recoil at all, and it allows a wider field of view, which can be crucial while you are busy tunnel visioning in one direction and firing off several bursts – Yumi has a long exposure time. 

On the other hand, a higher magnification scope gives a clearer sight of the target, allowing for more deliberate accuracy. It can also help identify targets at longer ranges before you even open fire. 

When in doubt – start with 2x Reflex, and see whether you need more or less magnification.

Barrel

Yumi has access to Flash Suppressor and Compensator. Both are viable, depending on playstyle and intended application.

• Flash Suppressor will make you less noticeable, which is crucial in ranged combat. 
• Compensator will increase ranged accuracy and make it easier to get headshots. 

Rail

Yumi has access to Extended Mags (+5 rounds), Forward Grip, Darklight Flashlight and Underbarrel Smoke and Grenade Launchers.

Yumi is a rare case of a ranged weapon where Forward Grip is not mandatory. Yumi already has very little horizontal recoil, and at ranges where you would benefit from the Forward Grip, Yumi already gets weaker due to Cone of Fire Bloom and damage degradation.

Yumi’s underbarrel attachments are similar to those of other weapons.

Underbarrel Grenade Launcher offers a great way to increase utility, versatility and firepower. It can damage vehicles, finish off players behind cover, and even OHK if you manage to get a direct hit. UBGL was never a bad attachment to have. It has just two problems: it is usually available on crappy weapons, or weapons that greatly benefit from other rail attachments.

Yumi doesn’t have any of those problems, so it is a prime candidate for using UBGL. 

Ammo

Yumi has access to SPA and HVA. 

SPA is better within 35m and gives maximum benefit of +1.8% damage at 15m.

HVA is better at 35m+ and gives maximum benefit of +6.4% damage at 90m. 

If you’re interested in a more in-depth analysis of ammo types, /u/DrSwov has a reddit post with TTK numbers against different targets.

Recommended Attachments

There are many viable attachment combinations with Yumi. If you know what you’re doing, you should be able to easily figure out the best build for yourself. 

If you need some help to get started, here is an example of a cookie-cutter build:

• 2x Reflex
• Flash Suppressor
• High Velocity Ammo
• Underbarrel Grenade Launcher
• Battle Hardened Implant

The goal behind this loadout is to give you the most versatility and combat options, without being overly specialized in any particular area.

Gameplay Tips

NSX Yumi is way more versatile than it may seem on the first look. The burst mechanic spices things up a bit, but you quickly get used to it, and for most intents and purposes, you simply get a gun that shoots half the time, and charges up the other half. 

Use the burst delay to your advantage, and take aim properly while the gun is charging up. 

Yumi has surprisingly decent performance from the hip, but you should still invest in a powerful sidearm for close encounters, and get comfortable with it. If you get engaged while healing or reviving, the sidearm will be your go-to weapon, not the Yumi.

Being unable to fire single shots is definitely limiting, because you can’t tap-fire snipe engies behind turrets or deployables. 

Yumi is excellent at range out of the box, without any performance-enhancing attachments, so it can be used with any attachment combination and still be viable.

The burst mechanic certainly gives advantage to firing first, but it’s not like you automatically lose if you get engaged on. Dodging enemy fire and hip firing, or ADSing and going for headshots are both viable ways of fighting back, depending on situation. 

Don’t spend too much time firing at targets at super long range, you’re unlikely to kill them before they make it to cover, and every moment you spend outside cover increases the chances of getting sniped. 

In extreme close quarters, consider switching to a sidearm, if you’re good with it. You can also “pre charge” a burst as you round the corner, though it requires good timing, and you have to already know where the enemy is. 

Conclusion

Yumi is an interesting and worthy addition, both to NSX lineup and Assault Rifles in general. Not everyone will like it, but everyone can use it. Unlike most other NSX weapons, Yumi doesn’t have a steep skill requirement.

• Give Yumi to a PS2 newbie with some FPS experience, and he will be able to participate in ranged combat, even though he knows nothing about CoF and recoil management.
• Give Yumi to a hardened veteran with excellent accuracy, and most enemies will die before they realize they’re getting damaged. 

Yumi is a welcome respite from super-niche weapons, though the delayed burst mechanic   seems a little out of place on Medic, and would make more sense on Light Assault or Infiltrator, in my opinion.

If you’re thinking about purchasing the Yumi, it is strongly recommended you trial it, and use it in actual combat for the whole 30 minutes. 

Answering critique

The whole premise of Yumi being a “garbage” weapon is based on a 0.25 second burst delay, which is not a big deal, unless you get shot as soon as the engagement starts. This just means Yumi user has to be a little more thoughtful about engagements he’s taking, nothing more.

Ignoring the burst delay, Yumi is basically an incredibly accurate 167 @ 550 AR with nearly no recoil and automatic CoF reset. I wouldn’t say that’s bad.

Adding Yumi into Weapon Simulator

If you want to add NSX Yumi into my Weapon Simulator, add this string to the end of the Stats.csv file, which you can open with Windows Notepad:

804246,NSX Yumi,NS,Assault Rifle,167,10,125,90,1,60,1,0.48s / 0.56s / 0.56s,580,-,30,210,3550,2755,0.5,0.12,0.05,2,1.5,2.5,5,2,0.03,0.03,0.15,0.15,5,5,0.29,0.12,0.12,0.4,0,16,Auto,0
804246,NSX Yumi SPA,NS,Assault Rifle,167,15,125,90,1,60,1,0.48s / 0.56s / 0.56s,551,-,30,210,3550,2755,0.5,0.12,0.05,2,1.5,2.5,5,2,0.03,0.03,0.15,0.15,5,5,0.29,0.12,0.12,0.4,0,16,Auto,0
804246,NSX Yumi HVA,NS,Assault Rifle,167,8,125,110,1,60,1,0.48s / 0.56s / 0.56s,609,-,30,210,3550,2755,0.5,0.12,0.05,2,1.5,2.5,5,2,0.03,0.03,0.15,0.15,5,5,0.29,0.12,0.12,0.4,0,16,Auto,0

Keep in mind that it won’t properly simulate Yumi’s burst mechanics.

It was one of the first three released SMGs, and remained relatively unchanged for a long time. During that time it had enjoyed booming popularity and hype of being the best SMG in the game.

Only recently Cyclone faced an adjustment in recoil statistics, and perhaps now it’s a good time to look into this phenomenon. Was Cyclone really that good, and is it still? What’s the reason for so much hype? Let’s dig in!

Stats

Headshot Damage Multiplier: 2 Minimap Detect Range: 40 ADS Movespeed Multiplier: 0.75

Damage output

SPA is a no-brainer attachment for all SMGs, so before talking about damage, let’s adjust for SPA:

Maximum Damage Range: 6m -> 11m
Projectile Velocity: 360 m/s -> 324 m/s

Note: in this table, I’ve skipped the 112 damage tier at 36-37m. 

As expected from an SMG, Cyclone can deliver superb performance at close range, and capable of a scary 3 headshot kill, which takes only 0.184 seconds. 

However, due to 4 tiers of damage degradation, Cyclone rapidly loses effectiveness as range increases. Cyclone remains usable at 30-40m, depending on attachments, but cannot compete with traditional automatic weapons further than that. 

Higher damage per shot does give Cyclone an advantage over other SMGs in ranged combat, where high damage per shot is generally desirable. 

It’s worth noting that Cyclone has largest damage per magazine out of all 1st generation SMGs, and the biggest benefit from Extended Mags, as well as nice Short Reload.

Rate of Fire

Cyclone has relatively low rate of fire for an SMG. That can be a disadvantage in close quarters, reducing the consistency of damage output, as explained in greater detail here.

However, lower RoF has an interesting interaction with Cyclone’s weird horizontal recoil, making it more stable on average. More on that below.

Cone of Fire and Bloom

Hip Accuracy w/ ALS: 0.6 / 0.75 / 0.6 / 0.9

As with all SMGs, Cyclone has the same ADS accuracy in all stances. In other words, staying stationary or crouching does not provide an accuracy boost, and this limits Cyclone’s effective range. All SMGs have the same CoF Bloom for both ADSing and Hip Firing. 

This goes with the theme of a mobile weapon: you’re given an incentive to move as much as possible and utilize the 75% ADS movement speed or full movement speed while hip firing.

All SMGs enjoy the best hip fire accuracy among all primary weapons, and access to Advanced Laser Sight allows you to improve it even further. 

It’s worth noting that 125 damage SMGs have the bloom of 143 damage weapons, so they bloom more per point of damage done. Unlike them, Cyclone has the same bloom as other 167 damage weapons, so it can sustain fire more effectively. More details here.

This contributes to Cyclone being better at range than some other SMGs, and combined with other mentioned factors makes Cyclone one of the best hip fire weapons in the game.

Why good hip fire is important?

There is a detailed explanation of this in my Gunplay Guide, but let’s quickly go over it. 

Hip firing is underrated in PlanetSide 2. On paper, it seems simple: ADSing gives more accuracy, and more accuracy is better, right? Well, not always.

In close quarters, ADSing can give you too much accuracy. It provides you with a tight stream of bullets, and an enemy can take just half a sidestep to dodge the entire stream.

ADSing also has a lot of disadvantages: it takes time, slows you down and reduces your field of vision.

Hip firing gives you a spray of bullets, and if at least part of Cone of Fire overlaps with enemy hitbox, you’re likely to deal at least some damage.

It’s easier to avoid a laser pointer than a flashlight. Take a look at this comparison:

A slight crosshair movement leads to all shots completely missing in ADS mode, and only slight coverage reduction with hip fire. 

While obviously you want to maximize your damage, sometimes it means giving up a portion of damage output to prevent giving up all of it.

Most players will have much easier time spraying enemies from the hip and doing consistent damage, while being able to move fast and dodge enemy fire. 

The higher the Rate of Fire, the more consistent will be the damage distribution over Cone of Fire area, and this is where Cyclone is a bit lacking compared to other SMGs.

However, an SMG with ALS may face the same issue of being too accurate even when firing from the hip, and that makes SMGs harder to use than other CQC automatic weapons. 

For most weapons, ADSing for headshots provides the fastest theoretical time to kill.

But SMGs with ALS can hip fire for headshots within 10m, shaving off the time it takes to aim down sights, and that is what makes them so powerful in CQC. 

This is also one of Cyclone’s strong points, as it has that mentioned quick 3 headshot kill, though it takes a skilled user to perform that consistently.

Recoil and how it was changed

This is the part of Cyclone’s statistics that was adjusted in recent patch.

The maximum horizontal recoil and horizontal recoil tolerance were raised. But Cyclone’s minimum horizontal recoil remains low. 

This means that Cyclone will have a bit higher average horizontal recoil per shot, and potentially has a chance to snap out of control with 3 kicks in the same direction, but it is statistically unlikely, especially considering Cyclone’s low RoF.

On average, Cyclone will still remain more stable than Armistice or Eridani. 

The nerfs have considerably raised Cyclone’s vertical recoil per second, but it still remains controllable when compared to bigger guns.

Of course, NS-7 PDW will still be more capable at range, but it won’t perform as well in close quarters.

Effective Range

Cyclone is deadly within 11m and effective within 23m. And with Advanced Laser Sight, it can effectively hip fire over a large portion of that range bracket.

It’s still usable within 30-40m, depending on attachments, target type and player skill.

Just keep in mind that Cyclone is an SMG, and will suffer obvious disadvantages when going against bigger guns at medium+ range, though 75% ADS movement speed can help reduce the gap.

Attachments

1x Reflex makes for an easy scope choice, since Cyclone is not effective at ranges that would warrant higher magnification. 

SPA is also a no-brainer attachment for all SMGs. 

Rail and Barrel attachments are not so straightforward, and all of them can be viable for certain playstyles. 

The “MLG” players with excellent aiming skill might prefer Forward Grip + Compensator combo, and ADS for headshots at all times.

The main purpose of this setup is to increase headshot accuracy in 10-20m range bracket, and overall effective range will be improved a little.

This combination will seem completely bewildering to most people and for a good reason. Personally, I’d never use this combination as well. But I see this working for select few exceptional players.

Flash Suppressor makes an okay Barrel slot filler, especially at night. 

Suppressor will reduce the effective range, and it’s not so useful on infiltrators, since cloaking sounds will direct enemies to your position anyway. But it could work on a cocky Light Assault build.

Extended Mags vs. ALS comes down to playstyle.

If you’re careful about your engagements and mind the Long Reload, ALS will give you excellent dueling potential. You’ll have to always engage enemies one by one, though.

Extended Mags will make Cyclone a bit more general-purpose than strict 1v1 CQC fights.

You will have to ADS more often, but have the ability to engage more than  one enemy at a time, won’t go through Long Reload as often, and be able to take out beefier targets outside optimal range.

Playstyle

You can find some guidelines on how to use an SMG here.

Truth Behind the Myth

Cyclone is often called “the best”. Be it “the best SMG for NC infiltrators” or “best SMG overall” and even “best weapon in the game, period”.

Why does it receive such praise and is it deserved? To find the answer, we have to look at the bigger picture.

If you don’t mind reading a wall of text, /u/Quinnocent gives an excellent explanation here. 

Weak Competition

Compared to other 1st generation SMGs, Cyclone is indeed too good. You may even say “overpowered”.

Cyclone has a great combination of all the important stats:

• better hip fire than Armistice
• better DPS than Eridani
• noticeably longer effective range
• higher damage per magazine
• potentially fastest time to kill with headshots

Basically, Cyclone can perform nearly as well in close quarters as other 1st gen SMGs while being better at range, and it performs even better in skilled hands.

Lack of clear disadvantages

Cyclone’s disadvantages are statistical and not easily perceivable by players.

1) Low Rate of Fire means that statistically Cyclone is less consistent when spraying in close quarters, and loses more TTK as range increases.

An excerpt from the Weapon Mechanics Guide:

…let’s compare two SMGs:
AF-4 Cyclone: 167 @ 6m – 100 @ 46m / 652 RoF
SMG-46 Armistice: 125 @ 6m – 84 @ 42m / 896 RoF

They both have similar DPS and effective engagement ranges. At 6m, they have the same TTK of 0.47. However, when crossing the bullet damage threshold from 6m to 7m, Armistice’s TTK will increase to 0.54, and Cyclone’s TTK will increase to 0.56.

They both will need one additional bullet to kill, but Armistice fires those bullets at a much faster rate, so it’s a less of a problem for that weapon.

This determines how much of a penalty is inflicted by using Suppressor, and generally for engaging the target outside the maximum damage range.

2) Less consistent horizontal recoil. Sometimes Cyclone can get out of hand and kick more than others. But on average it will perform better.

3) Higher vertical recoil per second than for other SMGs, but still very controllable.

While Cyclone has ~35% more vertical recoil per second than other SMGs, this disadvantage can be safely ignored, because Cyclone’s vertical recoil is still very mild when compared to larger primary weapons.

Specifics of TTK Calculations

Cyclone is often praised for the best headshot time to kill. But where does it come from?

Let’s compare 1st gen SMGs:

As we can see, the difference between their Damage Per Second is minimal. The big disparity in headshot TTK has to do with how Time to Kill is calculated:

TTK = (BTK - 1) / ( RoF / 60)
or
TTK = (BTK - 1) * Refire Rate

The Bullets-to-Kill is reduced by one, because there is always one fewer Refire Times between shots.

Spread fingers of one hand before you. You’ll see five fingers (hopefully), and four gaps between them. Fingers are bullets, and gaps are Refire Times. 

The reason why Cyclone’s TTK is so short is because there are only two gaps between the three shots.

However, the longest Refire Time means Cyclone receives bigger penalty for missing.

Let’s take a look at how number change if the user misses 50% of shots:

Now they are only 0.01 or 0.02 seconds apart. The difference will continue to diminish as amount of shots increases.

To summarize, Cyclone can offer better performance in ideal circumstances, but will face greater punishment outside them. 

 “Most PlanetSide 2 battles are CQC”

This is another popular statement, which creates the logic of “Cyclone is strong in CQC, so it’s the best weapon overall”. 

The problem with the statement “most PS2 battles are CQC” – it’s not specific enough.

Some PS2 players enjoy playing for the objective, they are competitive, and will try to capture as much territory as possible. Often they’re organized and even use voice comms.

A lot of objectives, such as capture points and generators, are located indoors. 

And from that point of view, majority of their battles is indeed fought in close quarters. Especially if they often use Galaxy drops to bypass enemy defenses and the medium-long range part of battle, and drop straight on point. 

Often these players are most vocal in community. So naturally they will put greater value into a weapon like Cyclone. 

Just keep in mind that’s not the only way to PlanetSide 2, as long as there is no incentive to play for the objective, any playstyle is valid.

Cyclone Heavies

Most other New Conglomerate classes already had powerful automatic weapons for CQC, but this wasn’t the case for Heavy Assaults.

Cyclone became the first automatic CQC weapon, available to NC HA. Suddenly they had a high DPS weapon with excellent hip fire. 

In contrast with slow-firing, average DPS unwieldy LMGs, Cyclone does feel like a godsend. 

“Cyclone Heavies” became a thing. They are able to dominate close quarters fights against LMGs of enemies, while remaining competitive at 20-30m, which can’t be said about other factions’ SMGs.

This is the biggest contributor to Cyclone hype.

Crowd mentality

Say something often enough and it becomes the truth. A lot of people praised Cyclone for reasons above, and other people started repeating it. At some point Cyclone’s hype became a self-sustaining effect: people praise it because people praise it.

This issue is only made worse by certain vocal community members that make a point to repeat just how overpowered the Cyclone is whenever it is mentioned.  

Closing thoughts

Cyclone was and still is overpowered when compared to other SMGs.

The recoil nerfs were not enough to tone down its effective range, they merely made it less consistent.

Other SMGs do certain things better: Armistice is better for CQC spraying and NS-7 is better at range. 

But only Cyclone does it all sufficiently well, and gives opportunity for skill to shine, which arguably makes it the best SMG overall.

That said, I would rather see other SMGs buffed to Cyclone’s level than Cyclone nerfed further. SMGs overall are a fairly weak class, and could use some buffs across the board.

The guide is now concluded. Special thanks to /u/HansStahlfaust for suggesting the topic, as well as to /u/Mustarde, /u/EclecticDreck and /u/CryoXVS whose feedback shaped this guide.

• Dark orange links to other guides or anchors within this guide
• Purple links to videos in pop-up viewboxes
• Blue links to images in pop-up viewboxes

Intro

Sniper Rifles are long range primary weapons, exclusive to Infiltrators. Most Sniper Rifles fit into one of these two categories:

Semi Auto Sniper Rifles (SASR). These fast firing rifles can take rapid follow-up shots, but require two headshots to kill most enemies.

Bolt Action Sniper Rifles (BASR). These rifles are much more powerful, and can potentially kill in one headshot, but they need to be rechambered between shots, which significantly reduces overall rate of fire.

Do not be confused by SAS-R, which is an NC BASR. 

While all Sniper Rifles are fully capable of killing enemies with bodyshots, it often takes too long, giving the enemy a lot of time to take cover, and for enemy snipers to countersnipe you. Firing several shots in a row also broadcasts your position to other nearby enemies. 

So both Sniper Rifle types focus on getting headshots, and killing enemies with as few shots as possible. 

By default, TR and VS infiltrators use 99SV and VA39 Spectre semi auto rifles respectively, NC infiltrators use NC-14 Bolt Driver. 

Similarly to Shotguns, differences between Sniper Rifles of different factions are mostly cosmetic, with the exception of Empire Specific and Semi Auto sniper rifles.

Compared to other precision weapons, like Scout and Battle Rifles, Sniper Rifles deal more damage per shot, but have bad moving accuracy, and in most cases require the user to be stationary while shooting.

Sniper Rifle Mechanics

Sniper Rifles follow the same Weapon Mechanics as other weapons.

Scope Sway

Rifles with 6x-12x magnification scopes have Scope Sway; whenever you Aim Down Sights, your crosshair will float around a certain area. 

All Sniper Rifles with sway have the same amount of Scope Sway. As far as we know, it is constant, across all scopes and all situations. Naturally, higher magnification scopes will magnify Scope Sway, the same way they magnify recoil. 

Holding Breath

Players can hold “Hold Breath” key (default “shift”) to almost completely suppress Scope Sway. Target Focus Implant can increase the amount of time you can Hold Breath.

Additionally, “long range” Semi Auto Sniper Rifles have access to a free Ballistics Computer attachment, which completely removes Sway on all scopes.

Bullet Drop

Bullets in PlanetSide 2 are affected by Gravity:

• Most primary weapons: 11.25
• Sniper Rifles: 7.5 (33% less)
• VS Semi Auto Sniper Rifles and Phaseshift: 0

Ballistic Table

Ballistic Table helps to compensate for bullet drop while doing long range sniping, especially with a Suppressor. 

A ballistic table contains the distance to the target, and a number of mildots that you have to raise your aim by in order to compensate for drop.

Here’s an (outdated) example table for Suppressed RAMS .50 using 10X scope. 

This table also includes the number of mildots in a full-height infantry target. You can use it to measure the distance to the target, or you can use Sweeper HUD implant for that purpose.

You can go to VR Training, write a ballistic table on a piece of paper and then pin it to the monitor with a sticker.

Ballistic Crosshair Overlay

This is an alternative to a Ballistic Table. This example crosshair is configured for:

• 6x zoom and 550 m/s projectile velocity Sniper Rifles, such as Long Range Semi-Auto Sniper Rifles and Tier 2 Bolt Action Rifles.
• 1920 x 1080 resolution.
• Vertical FoV of 74 degrees.

Markings on the left show the height of standard infantry target at 200m and 250m. Use them to measure distance to the target, and then use the couples of dots below the crosshair to compensate for bullet drop. Video demonstration. Download link.

There are no markings for closer range, because within 150m these rifles are mostly point and click. This makes Ballistic Crosshair Overlay mostly pointless, because most of the “useful” sniping is done within that distance.

To use it you will have to install Recursion Stat Tracker with a Crosshair Overlay module. In case you’re wondering, this is completely legit and you will not get banned for using it.

This particular example is mostly just proof of concept. It will not work for players with other Vertical FoV or resolution, or for a rifle with a different Zoom or Projectile Velocity. 

If you’d like to use a Ballistic Crosshair Overlay, you would probably have to create your own, using a bit of Photoshop and a few screenshots.

Field of View

Having the right FoV settings is especially important for snipers.

• With lower FoV, enemies will occupy more space on your screen, making it easier to land headshots at long range.
• WIth higher FoV, you will see more of the game world on your screen, which can allow for better situational awareness in CQC sniping.

Increased Headshot Damage Multiplier

Weapons usually deal increased damage when hitting the head:

• Most primary weapons: 2x
• Bolt Action Sniper Rifles: 2.1x
• Phaseshift in “bolt action” mode: 2.2x

Increased Fire Detect Range

When you fire an unsuppressed weapon, your position is highlighted as a dot on the minimap of all enemies within this Fire Detect Range:

• Most primary weapons: 40m.
• Sniper Rifles: 100m.
• Directive Sniper Rifles: 150m.
• TRAP-M1: 40m

Increased Tracer Visibility

Sniper Rifles have more visible tracers than other firearms. They are thicker, and linger for longer. 

Increased Scope In Time

Scope In Time is the time it takes for a weapon to transition from Hip Firing to Aiming Down Sights. 

• Most primary weapons: 0.15 seconds
• Rifles with 6x-12x magnification scopes: 0.3 seconds.
• “Close range” sniper rifles that use 1x-4x scopes: 0.2 seconds.

Additionally, while scoping into high magnification overlay scopes, you will have a temporary blackout, and there will be a short animation with crosshair moving in. Overall, it takes about extra 30-50ms. 

These values refer only to weapon animation, Cone of Fire Mechanics are a separate issue.

Additional Forward Grip Benefit

In addition to its usual effects, Forward Grip reduces Vertical Recoil by 15% for all Sniper Rifles, except TRAP-M1.  Forward Grip bears a 0.1 second Equip Time penalty for all Sniper Rifles.

Semi Auto Sniper Rifles

VS Semi Auto Sniper Rifles do not have bullet drop.

Long Range

99SV and Spectre are the starting weapons for TR and VS Infiltrators, respectively.

Unlock cost: 325  or 250 

Bullets to Kill

• BS = Bodyshot
• HS = Headshot
• X + 1 = X Headshots + 1 Bodyshot

To boil this information down to a memorable form:

Semi Auto Rifles kill infantry in 2 headshots at all ranges, and in 1 headshot and 1 bodyshot within ~100m. Heavy Assaults require an extra headshot.

Close Range

Bullets to Kill

• BS = Bodyshot
• HS = Headshot
• X + 1 = X Headshots + 1 Bodyshot

To boil this information down to a memorable form:

Semi Auto Rifles kill infantry in 2 headshots at all ranges, and in 1 headshot and 1 bodyshot within ~50m. Heavy Assaults require an extra headshot.

SASR Mechanics

Tap Firing Issues

Tap Firing refers to the technique of firing single shots while letting the crosshair fully recenter before each shot.

Given proper timing, Tap Firing provides good accuracy and optimal damage output. Weapon’s affinity for Tap Firing is determined by its Recentering Speed. 

Good Tap Firing skills are generally important for using any semi-auto weapon, but Semi Auto Sniper Rifles also have a big and unique issue related to overzealous Tap Firing. 

SARS are among the few weapons with negative Recoil Recovery Delay, and they fully Recenter before the Refire Time is over – before you can take another shot. Especially if you use them with a Forward Grip, which reduces Vertical Recoil for sniper rifles, and thus reduces the time the weapon needs to recover recoil. 

However, unlike Recoil, Cone of Fire does not start recovering until Refire Time is over. 

So if you fire as soon as you can, you will fire before Cone of Fire recovers, and you will be more likely to miss.

For both SASR, recoil recovery finishes before CoF recovery starts, even without Forward Grip. One could argue that Forward Grip provides an extra moment to correct the crosshair placement between shots, but the difference of ~0.02 seconds is imperceptible to the eye.

Effectively, Forward Grips is useless for SASR.

These issues are less apparent for “long range” SASR, as they reset CoF very quickly.

Bolt Action Sniper Rifles

VS Bolt Action Rifles have bullet drop.

Each faction has a large selection of Bolt Action Rifles. They all have slightly different stats, with main differences in reload time, velocity, bolt chamber time, and the distance at which they can kill an enemy in one headshot.

Bolt Action Rifles are identical between factions.

BASR Damage Comparison

Tier 1 – Close Range

Tier 2 – Medium Range

Comparatively low projectile velocity will require you to deliberately compensate for projectile drop when going for targets outside 150m.

Bolt Driver is the starting Infiltrator weapon for NC.

Unlock Cost: 325  or 250 

Tier 2 – Long Range

Tier 3 – Extreme Range

When sniping targets at 250m+, take an extra second to properly Hold Breath and compensate for Scope Sway, because at those ranges even suppressed Scope Sway can mess with your crosshair placement.

Unlock cost: 1000  or 699 

 BASR Mechanics

Bodyshots

BASR can kill full Nanoweave infantry with 2x Bodyshots within:

• Tier 1: 73m
• Tier 2: 44m
• Tier 3: 107m

So if the target is being particularly evasive, and you can’t land a headshot, it may be better to go for easier bodyshots.

Melee Combo

All BASR can reliably kill a standard infantry unit with a melee combo, and it can be an effective way of disposing enemies that managed to close the distance with you. 

An enemy with full Nanoweave + Aux. Shield will be able to survive a melee combo from a Tier 2 BASR, but it should be a rare combination.

Try to develop a habit of equipping a sidearm right after a melee combo. Recovering and rechambering a BASR after a melee combo is going to take more than two seconds, and it’s better to do that after you make sure there are no enemies around.

Alternatively, you can use this trick to quick melee after a shot during the chamber animation.

Sidearm Combo

When faced with an enemy at close range, it’s a common technique to land an “easy” bodyshot, and then finish off the enemy with a sidearm.

Bolt Action Chamber Time

The Bolt Chamber Time shown on in-game weapon stat sheet doesn’t tell the whole story. You can learn more about it here, or just use the values provided in this guide. 

Straight Pull Bolt

Normally, you can’t rechamber your rifle while Aiming Down Sights, and you have to always leave ADS to let rechamber animation begin. You will not be able to ADS during rechambering.

Straight Pull Bolt attachment allows you to start rechambering the rifle as soon as Refire Time is over, and enables you to enter and leave ADS at any time during rechambering. 

VS version of this attachment is called Supercooled Coil. 

This significantly increases your effective Rate of Fire, as you don’t have to sit through Scope In Time after each shot. However, this can potentially lead to developing bad habits, such as tunnel visioning, so remember to often break ADS during rechambering to take a look around.

Quick-scoping

Normally, a Bolt Action Rifle with a 6x+ scope is a liability at a distance between 3m and 6m. Hip fire is still too bad, and high magnification makes it very inconvenient to ADS, not to mention that ADSing itself takes more than 0.3 seconds.

The standard procedure is to close the distance and go for a melee combo, or a hip fire headshot at nearly melee range, but it’s not always possible. Equipping a sidearm also takes half a second, and you might be dead by then.

Quick-scoping gives you another combat option in that situation. It relies on the fact that Cone of Fire Reduction starts as soon as you begin ADSing, and takes roughly as long. So by the time you would fully complete ADS animation, you would have 100% accuracy. However, you don’t need 100% accuracy to hit a shot on a target within 3-5m.

A skilled player with impeccable timing can fire an “accurate enough” shots during ADS animation, before the crosshair becomes visible.

To perform this trick you have to fire about ~0.2 seconds after you start Aiming Down Sights. You can release ADS key right after you click fire. 

• This trick benefits a lot from having Crosshair Overlay.

The optimal amount of time to be holding ADS before firing depends on whether you’re going for a headshot or a bodyshot. Headshots require tighter CoF, so you have to give it more time to shrink. 

Another factor is whether you were moving or stationary when you started ADSing. If you were standing still, your hip fire CoF was a bit smaller, so it would take a bit less time to reduce to the size you need.

Quick-scoping is not advised when going for a headshot on a full health enemy player.  This has a lot of potential to fail, and even when done in 100% optimal way, you’re shaving off roughly a tenth of a second.

Quick-scoping is much more viable when going for a bodyshot to finish off an already wounded enemy. Then you don’t have to hold ADS for nearly as long to get an accurate enough shot, and you have much more margin for error.

You can see Mustarde doing a bit of quick scoping in this video. 

Empire Specific Sniper Rifles

TRAP-M1

TRAP-M1 is classified as a Sniper Rifle, but functionally it is a burst fire Scout Rifle. TRAP has two fire modes: 3 round and 2 round bursts. 

2x burst has less recoil and CoF Bloom, and is intended for longer ranges than 3x burst. As other sniper rifles, TRAP has poor hip fire. 

TRAP-M1 spent a lot of time in underpowered state, so it accumulated a lot bad faith with the community, often being called a “trap purchase”. However, the weapon has received a trickle of buffs over the years, and now is in a pretty good shape. 

Taking advantage of full rate of fire takes a bit of getting used to, but allows for a surprisingly high damage output even with bodyshots. The unusual damage model of 184 – 167 makes this weapon very consistent over range, and you can always switch to 2x burst mode when you need accuracy over firepower.

AF-8 RailJack

One of the few true railguns in NC arsenal, Railjack is the hardest hitting bolt action rifle, and has the highest projectile velocity of any infantry weapon in the game.

As always, there’s a catch: Railjack has a 0.2 second firing delay between trigger pull and the actual shot, which makes it somewhat tricky to use, because you still need to adjust aim for target movement during those 0.2 seconds.

If we include firing delay into bullet travel time, a bullet from EM4 Longshot will reach the target within 552m faster than a bullet from Railjack. So in order to benefit from its higher velocity, you have to be compensating for target movement during the fire delay. Otherwise, Longshot is objectively a better weapon.

Tip: you can bind “Fire” to your keyboard, so you can fire the Railjack without having to click the mouse. This should make it easier to keep tracking the target with the mouse during those 0.2 seconds.

Due to firing delay, RailJack is the easiest rifle to quick-scope with. With other rifles, you need to have very precise timing. RailJack’s firing delay does it for you. Simply click ADS, then immediately click fire, and your shot will have a nearly perfect accuracy, without having to ADS all the way.

This is excellenty demonstrated in this video.

Phaseshift VX-S

Embracing adaptability and versatility, Phaseshift can switch between “semi auto” and “bolt action” fire modes, though in reality the “bolt action” mode is just a more powerful semi auto mode. 

In semi-auto fire mode, Phaseshift has similar performance to a TR / NC “long range” SASR, though it can fire only 6 shots before overheating. 

In “bolt action” fire mode, Phaseshift has much more recoil, but kills standard infantry in one headshot within ~257m, and you can make two back to back shots, potentially killing two targets under a second (example).

It is highly recommended to use Phaseshift with a Forward Grip, as it reduces the high Vertical Recoil of “bolt action” mode.

Both fire modes don’t have any bullet drop, which effectively makes Phaseshift the only OHK-capable weapon without bullet drop. This makes it an interesting choice for a Suppressor, which reduces velocity to 467 m/s and OHK Range to ~240m.

Phaseshift also uses heat mechanic instead of ammunition. It doesn’t require reloading, and effectively has infinite ammo, but it needs to cool down between shots. Mechanics:

Firing accumulates heat. The amount of accumulated Heat Per Shot depends on the fire mode. When you stop firing, after a Heat Recovery Delay, the weapon starts bleeding off the heat at a Heat Recovery Rate. 

There is only so much heat the weapon can accumulate at once, equal to Heat Capacity. If you overheat your weapon, the weapon will suffer an Overheat Penalty before it can start cooling down, and you will not be able to fire again until the weapon fully cools down.

Directive Sniper Rifles

Cross-faction Rifles

NSX Daimyo

DIRECT DAMAGE	225 @ 10m – 175 @ 350m
RATE OF FIRE	180 RPM
VELOCITY	600 m/s
AMMO	3 / 30
RELOAD TIME	2.2 sec / 3 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 799

NSX Daimyo is a rather unique semi auto sniper rifle. It deals low damage to body, but thanks to Headshot Damage Multiplier of 5x, it is capable of killing infantry in one headshot within 180m.

Landing a headshot is pretty much the only way to kill with this weapon; it simply doesn’t have enough damage per mag to kill even one infantryman with bodyshots. 

On the other hand, if you can land headshots, Daimyo lets you take 3-4 potentially lethal shots in a period of time where a BASR would be able to make 2 shots at most. Daimyo has the most immediate killing potential of any sniper rifle.

However, even if you are capable of consistently landing headshots on multiple enemies back to back, there are other considerations:

• Daimyo cannot kill deployables in one shot.
• Leveraging Daimyo’s advantage over a bolt action rifle means firing several shots without recloaking inbetween, which is potentially dangerous.
• Daimyo has more projectile drop than other sniper rifles with the same velocity. This is intentional.

Daimyo is most effective in the range bracket between 20m and 100m, and it directly competes with Tier 1 “Close Range” BASR. Compared to them, Daimyo has a set of other disadvantages.

• Tier 1 BASR can kill NMG / Adrenaline HAs within 22m. Daimyo cannot kill any shielded Heavy Assault in one shot. 
• An accidental bodyshot with a BASR can be often converted to a kill with a second bodyshot. Daimyo is limited to headshots as the only option.
• When suddenly confronted by an enemy at extremely close range, a Tier 1 BASR can go for a bodyshot, and then finish off the enemy with a quick melee strike or a few sidearm shots. With the Daimyo it’s either headshot or I should have already had my pistol out. (c) AnuErebus

The weird combination of relatively high velocity and strong bullet drop is often brought up as Daimyo’s greatest downside, but at the moment it’s not clear whether this amount of drop is intentional, because based on its stats, it should have exactly the same drop and velocity as Tier 3 BASR.

While Daimyo can be spammed more or less effectively, perhaps you should treat it simply as a rifle that lets you take another shot if you miss. You still should recloak often for the sake of survivability. 

Due to inconvenient drop, Daimyo is most effective when you are fighting against enemies on flat ground, so you don’t have to adjust for drop against every new target. Like other NSX weapons, Daimyo seems to be especially effective in one specific scenario, and mediocre in all other scenarios. It’s an interesting and unusual, polarizing weapon, but if you’re looking for tried and true, consider using a Tier 1 BASR instead.

In addition to the standard Darklight Flashlight, Daimyo has access to a couple of other rail attachments:

Anti Materiel Rifles

NS-AM7 Archer

DIRECT DAMAGE	400 @ 25m – 200 @ 200m
INDIRECT DAMAGE	100 @ 1m – 25 @ 3m
TIME BETWEEN SHOTS	1.5 + 0.25 = 1.75 sec
VELOCITY	525 m/s
AMMO	5 / 30
RELOAD TIME	3.0 sec / 4.25 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 799

Archer is a special rifle, available only to Engineers. It is weak against infantry, but capable of dealing high damage to MAXes and minor damage to armored vehicles. If Archer’s bullet travels more than 25m, it will deal splash damage in a small area. 

Archer has surprisingly good Hip Fire accuracy, which can be useful against targets at close range. Archer also has 0.75x ADS Movement Speed Multiplier.

Since archer takes up the primary weapon slot, and it’s not effective against infantry, Archer Engineers have to rely on sidearms for infantry combat.

You can use the Toolbox to calculate Archer’s damage to different vehicles.

NS-AM8 Shortbow

NS-AM8 Shorbow is one of the possible item rewards for winning a Critical Mass Alert, this is the only way to obtain it. You must already own NS-AM7 Archer in order to be eligible for this loot reward.

Shortbow is a variant of the NS-AM7 Archer with the following differences:

• Smaller magazine.
• Faster reload.
• Uses 1x or 2x optics.
• Has shorter Equip and Unequip Times, as well as access to Comfort Grip.

The latter would be the main reason to use Shortbow over Archer; it’s a weapon that you quickly pull out to deal with a MAX at close range, and then just as quickly put back.

Gameplay Tips

This video by Wrel does an excellent job of covering basics of Sniping.

A bit more advanced video by Cyrious Gaming.

Sniping seems very simple on the surface. And indeed, there is nothing particularly hard about using a Bolt Action Rifle to headshot a stationary enemy within 100m. Hold Breath, point and click, collect certs.

However, this shallow approach won’t get you very far. Bad snipers constantly get counter sniped, and struggle to kill anyone important, and are generally useless to their faction.

Choosing a Position

This topic is well-covered in Wrel’s video above, but to re-iterate, you want to find a flanking position to a mass of enemy players. 

You need a piece of cover that you can hide behind while reloading and recharging cloak. This can be a rock, a tree, a hill, a pile of boxes, etc. 

Ideally, you want to be on the high ground, as it makes you less noticeable, harder to reach, and gives you a better view. 

Getting into a good position might require some Parkour skills or a Wraith Flash. A disposable  Valkyrie or Ejection Seat ESF are also popular ways of getting into a position.

Looking for Targets

In real life snipers, always work in pairs, and have a partner to designate targets for them. In Planetside, you’re on your own. Here are some places where you can find targets to snipe:

• Near spawns – Sunderers, spawn tubes. Do not shoot. Freshly respawned players have invincibility, and even if you kill, they’re gonna respawn a few seconds later anyway.
• Choke points – enemies involved in a cover-based firefight with your allies near any door, corridor, bridge, narrow passing. Even between player made structures and parked vehicles.
• Cover – places where the enemy hides, repairs, heals, goes AFK, has tea parties. That includes vehicles running for cover. If they are running – that means repair. That means mostly stationary Engineer heads.
• Windows – easy targets since they have to stay still to shoot through a window.
• Landing pads – favorite spots for Engineers behind turrets and snipers.
• Phalanx Turrets – Engineers like to repair them and snipers like to hide around them. Fun fact: At certain distance turrets don’t render so you can shoot through them. It’s a bug exploit. Don’t make it your life goal.
• Trees, Rocks, Corners – Think of the best places you would hide if you were going to snipe.
• Terminals – Do not hesitate to shoot the heads before they disappear in the vehicle.
• Enemy Explosives – People like to leave mines in weird places.

– H_Q_

Being Useful

Obviously, you won’t be contesting any points while sniping from a hill. As a Sniper, your power lies in the ability to kill any infantry target within hundreds of meters. So that’s what you must be doing: thinning out enemy numbers by killing enemies that your allies can’t reach.

Especially:

• Counter-snipe enemy snipers. Pay attention to their tracers and try to catch them out of cloak.
• Assassinate enemy Medics and Engineers behind turrets.
• Interrupt Heavy Assaults who are lining up Rocket Launcher shots.
• Harass enemy Light Assaults, who are trying to flank from high ground.
• Snipe enemy deployables, such as Shield Recharging Fields and Spawn Beacons.

Even distracting enemies and forcing them to take cover against you is a form of oppression, and can be enough to turn the tides in your favor.

Pay constant and conscious attention to what you are doing and how effective you are. If you’re sitting among allies, and just snipe whoever shows their face, then you’re not solving the chokepoint, you are the chokepoint. 

Rhythm

Sniping is all about the rhythm:

1. Cloak and move out of cover
2. Pre-aim at a target
3. Hold Breath
4. Correct Aim and Decloak
5. Stand still and shoot to kill
6. Cloak and Move, while taking a look at the Minimap and around your character.
7. Repeat.

Enemy snipers are by far the biggest threat to you. To avoid getting counter-sniped, you have to get in the rhythm. You only want to be decloaked and stationary for as long as it takes to fire off a shot.

You have to be stationary while shooting, because Sniper Rifles have poor moving accuracy, and will struggle to hit a headshot on an enemy outside 20m.

Right after a shot, you want to cloak and move, even if just a little bit. If you don’t move, an enemy sniper might just send a shot to where he last seen your head, and snipe you out of cloak. 

Make sure to always move a few meters in a random direction. An experienced or a lucky sniper might adjust for your movement, and snipe you out of cloak even after you moved (!).

Protecting Flanks

Remember to take a look around once in a while, and pay attention to the minimap. After enemy snipers, your second biggest threat is enemy Light Assaults, who can and will hunt you down.

Don’t let them catch you off guard. If you see an enemy approaching, and he’s too close to be sniped, you can still get an advantage: cloak and crouchmove into a better position, and open fire with your sidearm on enemy’s back.

Always keep an ear out and listen. 

Most of snipers play like they are AFK, looking down the scope. They can be spotted/taunted, I can cloak and activate a power knife multiple times without them paying any attention.

– Mad_2012

Be careful about spotting enemies. Your voice will give away your position, making you much easier to find if someone’s already looking for you.

EMP Combo

You can throw an EMP to about 40 meters out, and affected standard infantry will die from one SASR headshot or one BASR bodyshot.

Sidearm Love

Being comfortable with your sidearm of choice really pays off for a sniper. It will be your go-to weapon in most close quarters situations, and you really should invest your skill and resources into it.

You may want to steal a page or two from Stalkers’ book.

Hold Breath Management

It is highly recommended to use Target Focus implant while sniping, as it trivializes Hold Breath Management, and gives you much more breathing room while lining up shots.

When using a Bolt Action Rifle, remember to release Hold Breath key while the weapon is rechambering. This way you can squeeze in several shots even without Target Focus implant. 

Muscle Memory

“Muscle memory” refers to leading moving targets and compensating for bullet drop on the subconscious level, without having to think about it. This ability develops naturally, but it takes a while. 

The velocity difference between Sniper Rifles is enough to throw off your muscle memory, so if you are serious about sniping, it is highly recommended to stick with one rifle and one scope, unless you’re doing Directives.

Drag-shooting

See: Drag Shots.

Close Quarters Sniping

Refer to this guide by Davregis.

Sniper’s Loadout

Hunter Cloaking vs NAC

Hunter Cloaking is the default choice, as it guarantees a lot of uptime, gives you freedom of movement when moving into a sniping nest, and has a quick recharge. 

Nano Armor Cloaking has been used in the past by some very successful infiltrators, as it significantly increases survival chances in a sniping duel, and almost removes any chance of being sniped out of cloak. 

However, short duration and long recharge would make NAC impractical for most players.

Recon Device vs Motion Spotter

Recon Device if you want to support your allies with Recon from a safe distance. However, it runs out of darts quickly, and massively benefits from running Ammo Printer implant. It also requires quite a lot of upgrades to become truly useful.

Motion Spotter if you want to protect yourself from being flanked. Great longevity and effectiveness even at lower ranks.

Suit Slot

Flak Armor can be surprisingly useful, as it is not uncommon for snipers to come under vehicle fire.

Nanoweave Armor. Gives you an edge in case you get flanked. Increases your survival chances in ranged duels against automatic weapons and non-infiltrator enemies.  Mostly useful for Close and Medium range sniping.

Advanced Shield Capacitor. Reduces downtime if you get injured. Arguable usefulness, because a headshot from an enemy sniper will kill you even if you’re at full health, and if you take a bodyshot, you will take some health damage as well, and would have to eat a Med Kit just to benefit from ASC. 

And as a Sniper, you should always have free access to a piece of cover to let you regenerate shields in peace.

Adrenaline Pump. Makes you faster while getting into position, but does nothing for you once you arrive.

Ammunition Belt. Can be useful for experienced snipers, who legitimately run out of ammo once they find a good position. Ammo Printer Implant makes this obsolete, though.

Utility Slot

Normally you would run Med Kits, but AP Mines can also be useful in certain situations. If your sniping nest has limited approach paths, you can place mines to protect your flanks.

While doing a bit more aggressive infiltrating, VS and NC mines can be combined with EMP Grenades for devastating multikills.

Implants

Recommended

• Battle Hardened is crucial when sniping from amidst allies, you cannot afford to miss critical shots due to screenshake. 
• Target Focus. Enough said about it.

Honorable Mentions

• Ammo Printer. Solves ammo issues, and provides a steady supply of Recon Darts and Motion Spotters.
• Regeneration.  A convenient way of restoring health if you’re not running Med Kits.
• Catlike 5. Invaluable in getting to good positions, and makes it easier to escape or fight back if you get flanked.