Combat Rifle/parts

Combat Rifles fall into two families, differentiated mostly by their magazines: combat rifles proper, sometimes called burst-fire combat rifles, and machine guns (sometimes called support machine guns) capable of fully automatic fire. Operationally, the two families differ strongly. Combat rifles have smaller magazines that reload more quickly, firing a short burst of shots with each fire command, while machine guns have larger magazines that reload more slowly, firing continuously. Other magazines, the two families share most parts, though certain accessories are specific to one or the other, and there are also certain family-specific bodies, sights, and stocks.

Different parts will influence different attributes of the weapon.

A combat rifle's name derives from the body, stock, and magazine parts present on the weapon.

Body
The body of a combat rifle is usually easy to identify, since the model name declares it straightforwardly.

Burst-fire combat rifles and support machine guns have different baseline bodies. Any combat rifle with is burst-fire, while any with  is a machine gun. The other three bodies are common to both models.

Stock
The stock is completely specified within the weapon's model number. For unique weapons without a model number, the stock is easily distinguishable in profile.

Burst-fire combat rifles and support machine guns have different baseline stocks. Any combat rifle with is burst-fire, while any with  is a machine gun. The other three bodies are common to both models. Burst-fire combat rifles may also be stockless, with in the stock position, though machine guns must always have a stock.

The stock affects both overall weapon stability (recoil reduction), accuracy and reload speed.

Note that the weapon's model number is a function of both its stock model number (listed here) as well as its magazine model number.

Magazine
The magazine is specified within the weapon's model number. For unique weapons without a model number, they're mostly easily distinguished by the weapon's ammo capacity. Burst-fire combat rifles and support machine guns use completely different magazines. Any combat rifle with, , or is burst-fire, while all others are machine guns.

Primarily, the magazine specifies the number of rounds of ammunition carried by the combat rifle; beyond that, it influences weapon damage and reload speed, and can affect rate of fire and the weapon's tech level as well.

Note that the weapon's model number is a function of both its magazine model number (listed here) as well as its stock model number.

Burst-fire
All burst-fire combat rifles have an ammunition capacity of 6, 12, or 18, determined solely by the magazine part.

Support Machine Guns
Support machine guns will have different ammunition capacities depending on the manufacturer, the material grade, and the magazine part. Vladof and Torgue weapons start at 24, Atlas at 27, and S&S start at 33, with Atlas and S&S offering further increases with increases in material grade.

Barrel
While combat rifle barrels do not affect the weapon's model number, they are easy to distinguish visually from their overall length and the profile of the flash suppressor or shroud at the end of the barrel.

Burst-fire combat rifles and support machine guns have different baseline barrels. Any combat rifle with is burst-fire, while any with  is a machine gun. The other three bodies are common to both models.

Barrels strongly affect the weapon's damage and accuracy, and can influence recoil reduction and weapon tech level as well.

Sight
Combat rifle sights are easily distinguished by the zoom statistic published on the weapon's gun card. They have little further effect on the weapon's attributes.

Burst-fire combat rifles and support machine guns use completely different sets of sights, though the visuals resemble one another in some cases.

Burst-fire combat rifles
All burst-fire combat rifles have some form of sight.

Support machine guns
A support machine gun frequently appears without a sight at all,.

Accessory
Unlike other parts, the accessory part does not have a consistent effect on a weapon's attributes: some accessories boost tech, some alter recoil, some increase damage. Some accessories grant a special property to the weapon, Elemental Damage, beyond mere attribute modification; furthermore, almost all accessories make their weapon eligible for a special name prefix or title describing the weapon's altered behavior, such as "Frantic" or "Intense."

Most accessories are easy to differentiate visually. They always appear under the barrel, immediately in front of the foremost weapon grip.

An accessory may or may not be present on any given combat rifle, and no more than a single accessory may be present, which is why the game will never spawn, for example, a legendary Frantic Ogre.

While the elemental and Deathly accessories are common to both families of combat rifles, the rest are specific to one or the other.

Elemental accessories
There are four different elemental accessories, ,, , and , corresponding to the four different varieties of Elemental Damage. Each glow in the color corresponding to their element, making them easily identifiable. Elemental accessories grant shots fired from the combat rifle elemental properties, imposing a -40% damage penalty in exchange, and grant an increase to the weapon's overall tech level.

The accessories of the legendary Draco and Ogre each resemble an ordinary elemental accessory, but appear only on support machine guns.

A combat rifle with an elemental accessory is eligible for various elemental prefixes, depending on the weapon's element and net tech level.

Deathly accessory
The Deathly accessory grants a combat rifle a 20% damage bonus and -25% recoil reduction, but exacts a -25% accuracy regeneration penalty in exchange.

A weapon with the Deathly accessory is eligible for the Deathly prefix. If it is a machine gun, it may be eligible for the Mauler title.

Intense accessory
The Intense accessory grants a burst-fire combat rifle a 50% bonus to critical hit damage, along with a +2 tech bonus, -15% spread bonus, and -40% bonuses to minimum and maximum accuracy, making the weapon more able to place critical hits reliably.

A weapon with the Intense accessory is eligible for the Intense prefix.

Frantic accessory
The Frantic accessory grants a machine gun a 30% increase in its rate of fire, along with a -60% bonus to reload speed.

A weapon with the Frantic accessory is eligible for the Frantic prefix, and may be eligible for the Havoc title as well.

Shattering accessory
The Shattering accessory grants a machine gun a 30% damage bonus, along with a -60% bonus to reload speed. Unlike its manual-action counterpart, it neither grants a tech increase nor imposes a recoil penalty.

A weapon with the Shattering accessory is eligible for the Shattering prefix, and may be eligible for the Mauler title as well.

No accessory
The part serves as a placeholder for a weapon with conventional behavior, nothing more. A combat rifle with this non-part will have no accessory visible beneath the barrel.

Naming
Other than unique drops, a sniper rifle name consists of the name of its body, a model number comprising stock and magazine, a possible manufacturer-specific material code, a prefix derived from its attributes or accessory, and a title.

Two families of sniper rifles use different bodies and magazines, and so are easily distinguishable by name.

Body name
The first element of the combat rifle name is a simple function of its body part. To recap:

Model number
The model number consists of the sum of the number codes for the weapon's stock and magazine. Weapons with both or higher and any of the enhanced magazines-- ,, , or -- have this model number further multiplied by 10, denoting their premium quality.

Burst-fire combat rifles
The two magazines and  share the same numeric part code, 0, but will yield different model numbers on weapons of sufficient stock quality.

The magazine of the legendary Raven has its own number code, 28. Ravens will have a model number of 28, 38, 580, 680, or 780, depending on the stock of the weapon.

Support machine guns
The magazine of the legendary Revolution has its own number code, 60, giving Revolutions model numbers of 100, 1000, or 1100.

Material code
Material codes are common to all weapons. See Material Grade for more info.

Prefix
The prefix is determined either by the weapon's overall attributes, its accessory, or possibly its material grade. Attribute prefixes may further bias the weapon's attributes.

Title
The title is determined either from the weapon's overall attributes, its accessory, or a legendary part. If the weapon does not qualify for any of these, its title defaults to "Rifle" or "Machine Gun."

Other resources

 * The Gearcalc tool, whose mechanics research made the precise data on this page possible
 * For an alternate specification of every combat rifle part's contribution to the whole, see http://blmodding.wikidot.com/combat-rifle and http://blmodding.wikidot.com/support-machinegun
 * Part Spotter's Guide presents visuals of every part