Assault rifle

"The 7.62x51mm assault rifle is designed for close-quarter combat, utilizing a shortened barrel and 'bullpup' design for increased maneuverability. An additional underhand 20mm HE launcher increases the rifle's effectiveness against a variety of targets."

- description of Assault Rifle

The 7.62mm assault rifle is a weapon in Deus Ex. The full name of the weapon is ZHL-U1953, as shown on both the butt of the rifle and wall-mounted blueprints.

Background
The 7.62mm assault rifle is the standard weapon of many armies and paramilitary forces throughout the world. UNATCO seemingly uses the assault rifle as its standard rifle.

Mechanics
The assault rifle fires in bursts of five 7.62mm bullets, 3 damage each, for a total of 15 damage per burst – barely above single shot from the pistol (14 damage), and has a total damage per second of 30. The low damage value does not scale well at the Trained and Advanced skill levels because damage bonuses are rounded down to the nearest integer; the damage bonuses are supposed to be 20% and 50% for Trained and Advanced, respectively, but because of the rounding error, these percentages are actually 0% and 33%.

The assault rifle's alternate ammunition, 20mm HE, is a grenade that is especially useful if you do not have a GEP gun. Each round has a large explosive radius, so it is especially effective against groups of enemies and destructible objects. However, it is rare, and because the grenade's trajectory is parabolic, the user must aim up to launch it farther.

Recoil is very high at the Untrained skill level, with each burst causing the view to pitch up approximately 10°. The view pitches up approximately 5° at Trained, and 0° at Advanced and Master.

Tactics

 * Always aim for the head. The huge headshot multiplier (8x) will make each shot much more powerful than simply hitting the body. Two quick bursts from the gun can take down any common trooper if most of the shots hit the head.
 * Weapon mods can make the assault rifle much more useful. Recoil mods can help negate its recoil, range mods can boost its range to the point where it can be effective for nearly any range, the silencer mod makes it handy for taking out a lone enemy without causing nearby enemies to hear gunfire, and reload mods help decrease its lengthy default reload times.
 * Getting to Advanced Rifle level will make the assault rifle much more useful because it will negate most of the gun's recoil. With some Range mods and one or two Recoil mods, it can be quite effective at sniping.
 * Master Rifle skill is very useful for run and gun players because it makes the gun 100% accurate, no matter if the player is moving or not. Getting to Master will also make it even better for sniping.
 * The assault rifle is prone to ammunition problems because of its low damage output per magazine. In addition, only 1 to 5 bullets are rewarded when searching the body of a character who was wielding an assault rifle. For these reasons, the assault rifle should generally be complemented with another rifle-type weapon such as a shotgun or the sniper rifle.
 * The Targeting aug is a great supplement for assault rifle users. Not only does it make the gun more accurate, it makes it do more damage as well. Headshots with a level four Targeting aug on and Master Rifle skill can do 44.688 damage per hit.
 * In the late game, the assault rifle's 20mm HE grenades are very useful for taking out the large groups of enemies and powerful foes the player faces. A good idea is to save up grenades until Paris is reached because stronger enemies will be more common and enemies will appear in larger groups than before.
 * The 20mm HE grenades are great for taking out robots. Multiple weak robots can be taken down with one grenade, while a Page Delta-2 Peacebringer can be destroyed with one shot.

Locations

 * Liberty Island, killing or knocking out the UNATCO troop that appears after you find Leo Gold at the Statue of Liberty.
 * On the body of any MJ12 soldier in the New York City sewers.
 * In Hell's Kitchen, used by UNATCO troopers.
 * Hong Kong, used by the Chinese military police.
 * In various places after the capture by Gunther Hermann, used by the UNATCO and Majestic 12 troops.

Trivia

 * The gun's ammo is 7.62x51mm. However, the real-world 7.62x51mm NATO is generally not used in weapons as compact as this assault rifle.

Gallery
Karabinek szturmowy