M404 Heavy Rifle

The M404 Heavy Rifle is a weapon in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Background[]

The M404 Heavy Rifle is a 5.56mm multi-barrel machine gun with high rate of fire, employing Gatling-style rotating barrels, manufactured by Mustang Arms Ad-Tech Ltd.

Characteristics[]

A powerful support weapon, the M404 Heavy Rifle fulfills the role of light machine gun in the game, providing more power, greater ammunition capacity and a greater rate of fire than the other automatic weapons, the FR-27 and TMP-18. The weapon uses special 5.56x45mm rounds, and utilises a "Flüssig Kühl- Effekt" (liquid cooling effect) to increase barrel cooling. In spite of this, the weapon can still overheat, at which point it becomes inert until the barrels can cool down. The weapon has a short spin-up time before firing.

The M404 can accept the Laser Sight mod, and a special mod which increases cooling and so delays overheating. By default the weapon is extremely inaccurate, and benefits immeasurably from the Recoil Reduction and Aim Stabilizer Augmentations; with these plus a Laser Sight, it becomes a pinpoint-accurate support weapon. The M404 has no iron sights and without a Laser Sight the player can only aim with a very broad crosshair.

The M404's ammunition is the largest in the game at 3x2 slots, though each instance of an ammunition box holds up to 200 rounds; this large ammunition means that a potential user should invest in inventory upgrades. The M404 features a high-capacity helical magazine underneath the barrel cluster holding a default 100 rounds, with mods increasing this by 25 rounds each. The default reload is time-consuming, meaning the M404 also benefits greatly from Reload Speed mods.

Locations[]

The weapon first appears in Hengsha, in the hands of Belltower Associates Heavy Troopers during their attack on the Alice Garden Pods. (After this event Heavy Troopers and their Heavy Rifles become a common sight in the game)
Heavy Rifles are carried by every "Heavy" type enemy. These include Harvesters, Belltower, and SpecOps.
Narhari Kahn wields one in his office in Tai Yong Medical's HQ if he survived the attack on Alice Garden Pods.
One can be found in the Tai Yong Medical helipad room, behind some crates on the right side of the room.
One can be found in a Picus Communications storage room (code: 0068) just before you get on the funicular.
One can be found in a storage room before the boss battle with Yelena Fedorova.
Another can be found during the boss fight, laying on a box along the edge of the wall.
Jacob White carries one when you encounter him during the side mission: Smash the State.
Michael Zelazny carries one when you encounter him during the side mission: Talion A.D.
Two can be found aboard the Hei Zhen Zhu inside a locked room on level -1 of the aft section.

Combat Statistics[]

Damage / Round: 4 (upgradable to 7)
Rate of Fire: 7 (upgradable to 10)
Magazine: 100 rounds (upgradeable to 200, 25-round increments)

Upgrades[]

Laser Sight
Cooler (eliminates overheating)
Standard upgrades

Notes[]

The Heavy Rifle fills up 2 x 6 (12) slots of inventory.
The Heavy Rifle sells for 1250 Credits at vendors.

The weapons model has the Kaiga Ltd brand markings, despite ingame text saying it is manufactured by Mustang Arms.
The game refers to the M404 as a "battle rifle". This is typically a term used for selective-fire weapons resembling assault rifles but using a full-sized rifle round rather than an intermediate round. The M404 is actually a support weapon using an intermediate round, making it a light machine gun.
A glitch allows this weapon's reload animation to cancel, while still reloading a fresh magazine, by tapping the cover button near a wall during reload animation.

Behind the Scenes[]

The M404 has changed drastically since the first concept art. At first it was produced by Kaiga Limited and was a "chainsaw grip" minigun, with the final version being a more conventionally laid out weapon with a stock and pistol grip, as well as a partial shroud around the barrels. The reason for this change is unclear, but is likely to have something to do with weapon-holding animations; it is hard to imagine a way for the original design to be blind-fired, for example. Enemy troops will hold the rifle as if it still has the chainsaw grip regardless.
- The final design of the M404 lacks front sights and the rear sight appears to have been flipped down, which is tactically detrimental, as a weapon capable of rapid firing using this configuration requires aiming sights to land shots accurately. It could be, however, that this weapon was meant to lay suppressing fire while fired from the hip, as seen when used by Belltower heavy troops, thus eliminating the need for aiming.
The rear half of the Heavy Rifle was likely inspired by the famous M60 light machine gun, most notably the pistol grip and cheek rest. Also the M404's carry handle looks similar to the M60's. The only difference is that it is chambered for 5.56x45 mm NATO rounds instead of the M60's 7.62x51 mm NATO rounds.