Hey who's autistic enough to have figured out whats the best caliber for an assault rifle?
I'm glad you asked. The way I see things AR = burst fire. Every single AR feat is related to burst fire, so it stands to reason that synergy with burst fire will be the main criteria for choosing your AR. Unlike pistols, caliber isn't the only thing that determines your Assault Rifle's damage output and AP cost. Your choice of frame and the rapid reloader upgrade (RR) will also impact the AP cost for firing your weapon. It should also be noted that adrenaline shots give you 20 extra AP, for a total of 70. And since adrenaline shots in Underrail are more common than STDs in Africa, it makes perfect sense to plan your build around those 70 AP, not the vanilla 50. When you consider all these things plus the fact that burst fire costs three times the AP needed for a regular shot, we reach the numbers in this table I made and was just waiting for an opportunity to share with the bros ITT:
Highlighted in blue are the combinations that allow for double burst firing. There is little doubt that being able to burst fire twice without relying on Gun Rush procs trumps whatever advantage the alternative might offer. So our choices boil down to:
7.62 Marauder with the rapid reloader upgrade: since Hornet Frames are rare as hell, you'll probably end up crafting one of these at some point. Compared to the Hornet frame, the Marauder lacks the 10% bonus to burst fire accuracy but makes up for it with 10% extra critical damage.
7.62 Hornet with the rapid reloader upgrade: the lowest you can go in terms of AR AP costs. Burst firing this weapon twice will cost you 54 AP, which is 4 AP too much for a non-buffed character. Frankly, if you wanna go 7.62 Hornet, use the upgrade slot for something else. Rapid reloader is a bit of a waste in this case.
7.62 Hornet without the rapid reloader upgrade: I never tested this combination. This might be THE optimal AR, since it can burst fire twice by default, allowing you to use a SMART module AND an anatomically-aware scope for maximum DPT.
8.6 Hornet with rapid reloader upgrade: this is the combination my AR guy is using right now. The higher damage of the 8.6 caliber combined with that juicy 10% bonus to burst fire accuracy AND the oh-so-indispensable SMART module resulted in a weapon that allowed me to effortlessly send Carnifex to hell. For those of you who might be interested, here is a picture of my AR:
It was assembled with the following components:
- Hornet Frame - 112 quality
- 8.6 Barrel
- SMART module - 111 quality
- Rapid reloader
The crafting requirements are 97 Mechanics and 81 Electronics. It should be noted that SMART is the only reason why we need that much electronics but the investment is well worth it. As I said many times before ITT, SMART is mandatory for ranged characters, since both burst fire and aimed shot are considered "special attacks". My SMART module is literally boosting my damage by 50%. You can't compare that with either 50% extra critical damage or 10% extra critical chance.
Choosing SMART is simply...smarter!
ALSO, I'm 99% certain that the bonus provided by SMART modules from guns stacks with the bonus provided by SMART lenses from goggles. But since goggles give a much smaller bonus than modules, I'm thinking seeker lens might be superior DPT-wise, depending on what else is affecting your criticals. But then again, SMART bonus is guaranteed, whereas criticals are less reliable.
Final thoughts:
- Huszar frames are crap. Requiring 7 STR instead of 6 is a disadvantage though usually a moot point since you're going for the Full Auto feat anyway. What breaks the deal is the fact that the Huszar frame has a 5% PENALTY to burst fire accuracy. Looking at the table above, we also realise that not a single combination involving the Huszar frame is capable of burst firing twice. All things considered, the Huszar is IMO the worst AR frame in the game.
- Although Chimera frames are also incapable of burst firing twice, they have higher critical damage bonus (130%) and slightly reduced base critical chance (5% instead of the usual 7%). I believe a burst-critical build around this particular frame is very much possible.
- No combination of frame and barrel results in 9mm burst firing twice. That's a shame because 9mm special bullets are better IMO than their 7.62 and 8.6 counterparts. Upfront damage is always better since we wanna dispatch everyone with a single burst.
- Focus Stim has amazing synergy with AR burst fire since the 15% increase applies to the entire burst, thus resulting in a pretty noticeable DPT increase. With my rifle you can pop Focus Stim and burst fire twice for exactly 70 AP. See you in hell, Carnifex.
- As an AR commando you should be buying all the ammo that the store has in stock. Preferably you should buy all the ammo for all three AR calibers AND their special bullets. Trust me, burst firing everyone and his dog (literally, since there are guard dogs in this game :D) is a VERY ammo intensive business.
- Speaking of ammo, you might wanna vary your choice of AR caliber from time to time. That's the reason why I chose the 8.6 Hornet instead of 7.62 on the screenshot above. By the time I finally found a high-quality Hornet frame my stock of 7.62 bullets was completely depleted by the 7.62 Rapid Smart Marauder rifle I was using before. Heck, if you're not constantly visiting weapon stores you might end up depleting your reserves of BOTH calibers, forcing you to use a 9mm rifle. In that case, Chimera is the best choice because of the extra damage on criticals.
Well, that's it, guys. I hope the info was useful!
