AK-74 is strong but there is some problems that you might not realize at first, its base accuracy is hardly better than the AK47, and it has no Extended Barrel or Foregrip attachment. Be careful when giving it to someone that doesn't have 85+ MRK, for those people the FAL and maybe the AUG is the better choice. Also for those who are concerned about wasting parts for repair, remember that repairing items that are above 80% condition costs no parts, so make it a habit to repair items regularly.
Thanks for the repair tip. I just auto fill, so I never noticed that 80% up didn't require parts, then again after having my machine gunner jam at the beginning of a ambush that I thought was perfect, I became religious about repairing.lol
This is a good selection though the main problem is always going to be ammo especially if you use machine guns regularly. It's always a good idea to keep guns in reserve that use .44, 5.56 and even 9mm for those tight moments.
Thankfully not a problem anymore with the Bobby Rays gunshop update. I'm currently sitting on around 3000 rounda of 7.62x51 and 2000 rounds of 5.56 and 7.62x39. AP ammo is at around 500 for the main calibres. Money is so abundant towards mid game that I just order all the ammo and parts when Bobby Ray restocks
I think there is a decent argument against the AK-74: When you have access to AP ammunition, there is no difference between Light or Medium penetration. With AP ammo, both ends up penetrating Heavy armor. And in that case, the higher aiming bonus of other weapons makes other weapons superior. In general, I think that armor penetration is overrated. Legion soldiers rarely wear more than light armor. In the late game, a lot of enemies wear gas masks, making their heads really vulnerable. And what do you need for headshots? A good aiming bonus.
Despite playing on higher diffeculty. I do enjoy some roleplaying. I tend to give soviet weapons to easter bloc mercs, while nato weapons to mercs from the west.
The Minimi machine gun with a shortened barrel only costs 3 ap to fire. It also has better aiming (very accurate with mods) and can be used with a run and gun playstyle as well as stationary overwatch. It also has a huge ammo count before reload. Put this gun in the hands of Ivan and you will believe it is the best gun in the game. Ivan has a passive that returns 3 AP when he kills a target, this gun shoots enough bullets and highly accurate even on the run so Ivan won't have trouble chain killing enemies with it. He will practically not be limited by his AP and only by how many bullets left before he has to reload, but the Minimi can hold an insanely huge amount of bullets. Ivan could probably solo the game using the Minimi.
Yes, a short-barrel modded minimi would be 2 ap cost for a merc that has heavy weapons perk. I wouldn't use point blank or cqc, because even with the shortened barrel the range is still going to be 26. I still like this gun the most on Ivan compared to any of the heavy weapons mercs, because it's low enough to refund the entire ap cost of firing it if he kills the target. Even adding 1 level of aiming would be only a net loss of 1 ap after kill, 2 if it's raining. The downsides of overusing this weapon will cause it to jam quickly at about 65% durability and the huge amounts of ammo it eats. It will be quickly overused having that kind of ap efficiency, using up durability and ammo before you realize how much is gone. Without a steady supply of gunpowder and parts to keep crafting 5.56 ammo, it's not easy to sustain the ammo supply needed if it's being overused every mission. @@meanmanturbo
Regarding heavy weapons it's pretty simple: Just use all of them As ammo isn't as abundant as your usual bullet, there's no benefit in specifically using only one kind of heavy weapon but each kind has it's specific ups and downs based on the situation: MGL - Grenade for people who can't even throw a rock further then a yard and great for support, underbarrels bigger brother RPG - Big Boom for close to mid range assault mercs or for making door ways for those if non are given prior Mortar - Sniper doesn't have a LOS? No need for a LOS
I actually think the auto-5 is the best shotgun. With a short barrel it can deal 26 damage with 3ap - that's often enough to kill weaker enemies in one shot when you factor in flanking/crit/other damage bonuses; almost all enemies die to a two shot. Use breacher ammo to negate armor. This flexibility makes it better than the jackhammer imo, also you don't get the burst fire accuracy debuff. Taking extra shots also gives you more use of the shotgun free move perk. Its 100% superior to the m1014, the extra range and aim bonus that gun has are kinda pointless since you should always be aiming to get within 4 tiles of your target to get the 20% point blank aiming bonus when using any shotgun.
Yeah this clearly speaks for the gun. I just didn't want to put it spoiler wise in. But since I love to pick up the northernmost mine first after Ernie, it's just a nice "coincidence" to have the Dragunovs living up there.
I agree on most things except the machine guns. If you have free movement, the minimi is best. I can shoot it for 2ap whereas the RPK is 3ap per shot. If your marksman is high enough it doesn't matter. Plus running it with double intercept makes machine guns or sniper rifles just ridiculous. I am currently running my solo run with the double intercept sniper/machine gun build.
@Ic0nGaming penetration isn't an issue. 2 bursts 4ap and nearly any armor is broken anyways. Plus using light armor in cover my free movement is more than most mercs can move in a round.
Try the Minimi out on Ivan. I know he doesn't have the heavy/mg perk, but he gains back 3ap on kill, and the Minimi costs only 3ap to fire on Ivan. He also has innately high dex and marksmanship to never miss a target unless they're behind hard cover. In a lot of situations where the enemies are out in the open, he can clear the entire field of enemies with the Minimi never running out of AP or having to reload.
Same here - agree with most of your choices but the snipers. In my opinion the best one is the M82, using .50 caliber rounds and is even better than the Dragunov, using only one shot for a head kill every time. Haven't missed a shot with that one yet (with good sniper skills, of course).
@@matthiasschafer9023 Snipers are pretty OP so far. The reason I haven't use machine guns yet. But I am still a short way into the game. Also I can't get stealth melee to work consistently. So my tactic 9/10 times is pulling aggro with Fox, killing as much as I can with my silent snipers and as they get closer finish the last ones with assault rifles and Barry's grenades.
Okay, so... love the video, thank you so much for the tips they help me out alot. But I have to say.... You really sounds like Christoph Waltz XD It's uncanny and now I cannot unhear it.
Objection! regarding the SMGs. SMGs are a weird category as you have noted, Commando and AK-SU both use intermediate caliber ammo, which puts them in competition with Assault Rifles, especially if you are not using "drop all". Personally, I'm much more comfortable with arming my point-guy with a silenced short barrel MP5k modded for close quarters specialization and a silenced extended barrel MP5 for mid range options and splurge on the better ammo for them.
no glock 18? 8x4 damge is 32 damage higher than anaconda! and more customisation and more chances to cirt. Also MP5 can be customised to range of 26! and AP ammo for it is cheap to craft. No G36 for assault rifle? Also Minimi is better than the RPK its alot more accurate. AA12, I can kill like 3 guys at a time with this thing if they are bunched together. Heavy weapons, the grenade launcher on a guy with Heavy Weapons perks... you can fire like 4 grenades in one turn. I took out half of the Eagles next with that one guy in one turn. THe rocket launcher is pretty bad, the mortar is amazing against a large amount of enemies
Well, playstyles differ. I avoid Burst-Fire always over sincle shots so Anaconda is way more attractive for me. Also built in Armorpen. But once you put the "best" tag on something, opinions got to differ, cause people solve issues totally different. I appreciate seeing so many new ideas here.
Not sure you quite understand some of the mechanics of the game, some people has issues in the game when they use a non leadership team, due to how heavy the game depended on leadership to reduce travel times, it was campaign breaking. Having to repair, is a negative travel tax.
Oh, honestly i completely disagree with either the categories or your choices. Beside ammo and so on, tje G36 is by far the best assault rifle. If you dont consider ammo and stuff. Otherwise you should really rename the categories 😊 Beside that: thanks for your content.
AK-74 is strong but there is some problems that you might not realize at first, its base accuracy is hardly better than the AK47, and it has no Extended Barrel or Foregrip attachment. Be careful when giving it to someone that doesn't have 85+ MRK, for those people the FAL and maybe the AUG is the better choice.
Also for those who are concerned about wasting parts for repair, remember that repairing items that are above 80% condition costs no parts, so make it a habit to repair items regularly.
Thanks for the repair tip. I just auto fill, so I never noticed that 80% up didn't require parts, then again after having my machine gunner jam at the beginning of a ambush that I thought was perfect, I became religious about repairing.lol
This is a good selection though the main problem is always going to be ammo especially if you use machine guns regularly. It's always a good idea to keep guns in reserve that use .44, 5.56 and even 9mm for those tight moments.
Thankfully not a problem anymore with the Bobby Rays gunshop update. I'm currently sitting on around 3000 rounda of 7.62x51 and 2000 rounds of 5.56 and 7.62x39. AP ammo is at around 500 for the main calibres. Money is so abundant towards mid game that I just order all the ammo and parts when Bobby Ray restocks
I think there is a decent argument against the AK-74: When you have access to AP ammunition, there is no difference between Light or Medium penetration. With AP ammo, both ends up penetrating Heavy armor. And in that case, the higher aiming bonus of other weapons makes other weapons superior.
In general, I think that armor penetration is overrated. Legion soldiers rarely wear more than light armor. In the late game, a lot of enemies wear gas masks, making their heads really vulnerable. And what do you need for headshots? A good aiming bonus.
FN-FAL condition loss is frightening. Even with all the reliability mods. One full auto in the rain costed me about 23% condition loss.
Hm, I tend to rarely use auto or even burst fire. Guess that's why I didn't see it as that big of a disadvantage
Thanks for a good overview. Helpful in planning and thinking about all the potential upgrades and trade-offs.
Despite playing on higher diffeculty. I do enjoy some roleplaying. I tend to give soviet weapons to easter bloc mercs, while nato weapons to mercs from the west.
Haha, that's a nice train of thought!
Dragunov uses 7.62x54 rounds in real life. Here it uses intermediate ammo 7.62x39 like AK. They made it weird :)Burst fire??
That's strange, i think auto fire would be better for the SVU AS (bullpup Dragunov) which allows for automatic fire in real life.
The Minimi machine gun with a shortened barrel only costs 3 ap to fire. It also has better aiming (very accurate with mods) and can be used with a run and gun playstyle as well as stationary overwatch. It also has a huge ammo count before reload.
Put this gun in the hands of Ivan and you will believe it is the best gun in the game. Ivan has a passive that returns 3 AP when he kills a target, this gun shoots enough bullets and highly accurate even on the run so Ivan won't have trouble chain killing enemies with it. He will practically not be limited by his AP and only by how many bullets left before he has to reload, but the Minimi can hold an insanely huge amount of bullets. Ivan could probably solo the game using the Minimi.
with heavy weapons perk that goes down to 2 ap. hmmm heavy weapons point blank build?
Yes, a short-barrel modded minimi would be 2 ap cost for a merc that has heavy weapons perk. I wouldn't use point blank or cqc, because even with the shortened barrel the range is still going to be 26.
I still like this gun the most on Ivan compared to any of the heavy weapons mercs, because it's low enough to refund the entire ap cost of firing it if he kills the target. Even adding 1 level of aiming would be only a net loss of 1 ap after kill, 2 if it's raining.
The downsides of overusing this weapon will cause it to jam quickly at about 65% durability and the huge amounts of ammo it eats. It will be quickly overused having that kind of ap efficiency, using up durability and ammo before you realize how much is gone. Without a steady supply of gunpowder and parts to keep crafting 5.56 ammo, it's not easy to sustain the ammo supply needed if it's being overused every mission. @@meanmanturbo
Regarding heavy weapons it's pretty simple:
Just use all of them
As ammo isn't as abundant as your usual bullet, there's no benefit in specifically using only one kind of heavy weapon but each kind has it's specific ups and downs based on the situation:
MGL - Grenade for people who can't even throw a rock further then a yard and great for support, underbarrels bigger brother
RPG - Big Boom for close to mid range assault mercs or for making door ways for those if non are given prior
Mortar - Sniper doesn't have a LOS? No need for a LOS
I actually think the auto-5 is the best shotgun. With a short barrel it can deal 26 damage with 3ap - that's often enough to kill weaker enemies in one shot when you factor in flanking/crit/other damage bonuses; almost all enemies die to a two shot. Use breacher ammo to negate armor. This flexibility makes it better than the jackhammer imo, also you don't get the burst fire accuracy debuff. Taking extra shots also gives you more use of the shotgun free move perk.
Its 100% superior to the m1014, the extra range and aim bonus that gun has are kinda pointless since you should always be aiming to get within 4 tiles of your target to get the 20% point blank aiming bonus when using any shotgun.
Auto-5 actually has more range than the m1014.
Dragunov is super good since you can obtain it and it's ap ammo right after the first island. And you can repurchase it every a few days
Yeah this clearly speaks for the gun. I just didn't want to put it spoiler wise in. But since I love to pick up the northernmost mine first after Ernie, it's just a nice "coincidence" to have the Dragunovs living up there.
I agree on most things except the machine guns. If you have free movement, the minimi is best. I can shoot it for 2ap whereas the RPK is 3ap per shot. If your marksman is high enough it doesn't matter. Plus running it with double intercept makes machine guns or sniper rifles just ridiculous. I am currently running my solo run with the double intercept sniper/machine gun build.
Thanks! I haven't put too much experimentation into the Minimi, I assumed the lack or armor pen could be an issue. Thanks for clearing this out!
@Ic0nGaming penetration isn't an issue. 2 bursts 4ap and nearly any armor is broken anyways. Plus using light armor in cover my free movement is more than most mercs can move in a round.
Try the Minimi out on Ivan. I know he doesn't have the heavy/mg perk, but he gains back 3ap on kill, and the Minimi costs only 3ap to fire on Ivan. He also has innately high dex and marksmanship to never miss a target unless they're behind hard cover. In a lot of situations where the enemies are out in the open, he can clear the entire field of enemies with the Minimi never running out of AP or having to reload.
I agree with you on basically all choices except the machine guns as I don't use them yet.
Same here - agree with most of your choices but the snipers. In my opinion the best one is the M82, using .50 caliber rounds and is even better than the Dragunov, using only one shot for a head kill every time. Haven't missed a shot with that one yet (with good sniper skills, of course).
@@matthiasschafer9023 Snipers are pretty OP so far. The reason I haven't use machine guns yet. But I am still a short way into the game. Also I can't get stealth melee to work consistently. So my tactic 9/10 times is pulling aggro with Fox, killing as much as I can with my silent snipers and as they get closer finish the last ones with assault rifles and Barry's grenades.
Okay, so... love the video, thank you so much for the tips they help me out alot. But I have to say.... You really sounds like Christoph Waltz XD It's uncanny and now I cannot unhear it.
Thanx for the content. Just learnt that Draga gives bursts. Going to try. Greetings from moscow
The RPD cam be suppressed and that kept it in the conversation for me
personally FN FAL is the best of AR，but cost a lot to use
Also Winchester sniper is pretty good for being .44 user, it is very cheap to modify and has a very high accuracy
Yeah, I think I failed in communicating the FAL's drawback there, but I think the same about the weapons firepower.
Objection! regarding the SMGs.
SMGs are a weird category as you have noted, Commando and AK-SU both use intermediate caliber ammo, which puts them in competition with Assault Rifles, especially if you are not using "drop all".
Personally, I'm much more comfortable with arming my point-guy with a silenced short barrel MP5k modded for close quarters specialization and a silenced extended barrel MP5 for mid range options and splurge on the better ammo for them.
4:27 The AUG isnt bad either, it has the best range of all assault rifles but lower damage output.
Do mercs need any special skills to handle heavy weapons (rocket launchers) well?
you have such an amazing voice
no glock 18? 8x4 damge is 32 damage higher than anaconda! and more customisation and more chances to cirt. Also MP5 can be customised to range of 26! and AP ammo for it is cheap to craft. No G36 for assault rifle? Also Minimi is better than the RPK its alot more accurate. AA12, I can kill like 3 guys at a time with this thing if they are bunched together. Heavy weapons, the grenade launcher on a guy with Heavy Weapons perks... you can fire like 4 grenades in one turn. I took out half of the Eagles next with that one guy in one turn. THe rocket launcher is pretty bad, the mortar is amazing against a large amount of enemies
Well, playstyles differ. I avoid Burst-Fire always over sincle shots so Anaconda is way more attractive for me. Also built in Armorpen.
But once you put the "best" tag on something, opinions got to differ, cause people solve issues totally different. I appreciate seeing so many new ideas here.
Why you say the RPG is bad ? I use the RPG with Fauda regularly, she kills with it like 3 to 4 enemies in the same time.
Don't forget Viki damage bonus for upgraded guns making dual glocks insanely good.
Not sure you quite understand some of the mechanics of the game, some people has issues in the game when they use a non leadership team, due to how heavy the game depended on leadership to reduce travel times, it was campaign breaking. Having to repair, is a negative travel tax.
I don't think it'll slow you that tremendously but w/e
Oh, honestly i completely disagree with either the categories or your choices. Beside ammo and so on, tje G36 is by far the best assault rifle. If you dont consider ammo and stuff. Otherwise you should really rename the categories 😊
Beside that: thanks for your content.
Hm, I didn't like the G36 low damage per bullet. But hey, opinions differ and I've already learned a lot of new perspectives from the comment section.
@@Ic0nGaming thats true mate. Anyway, keep doing your thing. I enjoy it 😉
OMG - why Dragunov is so cool in this game. In real life it sucks.