Submachine Gun

Submachine Guns, also known as SMGs, are rapid-fire weapons. They tend to have high fire rates, low damage, easily exhausted magazines, and quick reload times. SMGs are also some the most varied weapons in the game.

General SMG Strategy
SMGs are categorized by their typically high firing rate, average accuracy (with exceptions in either direction) and quick reloading time. They do roughly the same amount of damage as auto Pistols per shot, and serve as the middle ground between Pistols and Combat Rifles. SMGs typically suffer from very poor recoil handling when fired from the hip and for this reason short, controlled bursts of fire tend to yield better results than a sustained spray and aiming down the sights is always recommended.

SMGs tend to be the favored weapons of Bandits and intuitively enough, all Bandits except for Bruisers tend to fall quickly in the face of SMGs when used at medium-close to close range. With their high rate of fire they tend to cause flinching. SMGs are passable against Skags, Scythids, and Psychos. However, given the limited effective magazine, low per-hit damage, and inability to project accurate sustained fire non-elemental SMGs should not be used against Crimson Lance of any type, Badass enemies, Spiderants, or anything that requires multiple critical strikes to take down.

When looking for a good SMG quite a few things have to be looked for - firepower, accuracy, scope, and a toss-up between either reload speed or recoil reduction. Firepower is self explanatory, as is accuracy; one wants to hit hard and actually hit what is being targeted. Scopes should be considered essential because of the recoil handling SMGs suffer from when firing without aiming, and iron sights can be annoyingly inaccurate compared to a dot-sight. Iron sights make it more diffcult to know when to pause between bursts, because even while aiming recoil reduction is still a factor, manifesting itself as an up-and-down sway of the target veiw. Reload speed is important for SMGs because a player is going to be reloading often due to the low damage rating and high rate of fire, and less time spent reloading is more time spent having a useful weapon. Recoil reduction isn't quite as important as reload speed, but its nice enough to have that it warrants looking out for as recoil reduction allows for longer, accurate bursts of fire.

Maliwan Incendiary, Corrosive and Explosive SMGs make for some of the better elemental weapons in the game, with their high rate of fire and trigger-pool potential. Otherwise, they are mediocre weapons to have elemental effects upon as most if not all elemental weapons suffer from a reduced baseline damage rating to balance out the elemental trigger potential.

Special SMG Strategy
Thumper SMGs have a very slow fire rate and increased damage. They are also more accurate than normal SMGs, but unless actually specified in the item card, suffer from the same amount of poor recoil handling during sustained fire as normal SMGs - displaying a large spray-zone after about eight shots. Sighting a Thumper will eliminate this effect, and if a model can be found with a scope, then the weapon is essentially a light, slow-firing, ultimately accurate machinegun-style Combat Rifle. They should still be treated like regular SMGs in terms of what falls quickly in the face of a Thumper and what doesn't, with the exception of Spiderants, who can be disoriented and then quickly finished off by the comparatively heavy per-bullet strike delivered. Thumpers with recoil reduction, like those made by Dahl do not suffer from the recoil handling problem even when fired from the hip, allowing for effective run-and-gun tactics. Thumpers can also be useful for conserving ammo, since they won't chew through ammo nearly as fast as other SMGs like the Anarchy.

The Anarchy class fire a spray of four projectiles per shot at the expense of two rounds from the magazine. This effect essentially turns the SMG into a highspeed Shotgun able to throw up a "wall of flak." The reduced accuracy is offset by incredible damage and critical potential when used at point blank range, but it's worth noting that even Anarchy SMGs benefit from short, controlled, bursts and sighting the weapon. This concentrates the spread and increases the likelihood of critical hits. Because of the short bursts an Anarchy should be treated like a Shotgun in terms of what to use it against.

Maliwan Hellfires are arguably the best elemental weapons in the game. Their high fire rate combined with the 100% igniting chance can quickly stack up the elemental effect which can be devastating on almost any enemy. This ability to hose down enemies with fire make for a superb weapon to use against Skags, nearly every form of Bandit, all Badass Bandits, every stripe of Crimson Lance including the Badasses, and Rakk. Hellfires should not be used against an enemy with heavy shields like Guardians and Turrets, or enemies that are resistant to Incendiary damage such as Spiderants, Scythid, or any of the fire elemental Badass creatures.

Class Info

 * Lilith, while being the elemental specialist, has class mods specifically tailored to make the most use out of SMGs than any other class, providing extreme damage and either elemental trigger chance or excessively high ammo regeneration. In addition, other class mods and skills for the Siren can increase elemental baseline damage, elemental trigger damage, elemental trigger chance, regular damage, accuracy, critical strike damage, and even bullet speed. Strangely, Sirens might not find much use if they equip a Hellfire, as the weapon already has a powerful 100% trigger chance.
 * Roland, being the general gun specialist can make extremely effective use out of the SMG in all its forms with skills and class mods that increase damage, recoil reduction, rate of fire, magazine size, and ammo regeneration. Soldiers can also make brutal use out of Maliwan Shock SMGs, turning these otherwise mediocre weapons into some of the more entertaining weapons in the game.
 * Brick is all about Explosive weapons, if it goes boom, then he'll make it go boom bigger and Maliwan Explosive SMGs are some of the best popguns in the game. He can increase the chance for a triggered blast, increase the baseline damage of explosive SMGs, and cause the limited area-of-effect thrown out by a triggered explosion to do more damage. The Berserker can also up some general stats like damage, and most importantly reload speed and recoil reduction together.
 * Mordecai can find some good use out of SMGs, especially Maliwan Corossive SMGs. His skills and class mods can increase accuracy, critical strike damage, can allow SMGs to bypass shields, and can even decrease the amount of time needed between bursts to regain lost accuracy to recoil.

Varieties

 * SMG - Balanced.
 * Stinger - Increased fire rate.
 * Thumper - Increased damage, low fire rate.
 * Bruiser - Increased damage.
 * Anarchy - 4 bullets per shot, uses 2 ammo.
 * Bone Shredder - Unique drop from Bone Head.
 * The Spy - Unique quest reward from King Tossing.
 * Typhoon - Unique drop from Typhon. The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC only

Pearlescent: Manufacturer:
 * Legendary:
 * Dahl Wildcat "The ultimate close quarters feline." - Very large magazine, low accuracy.
 * Hyperion Bitch "Smack 'em." - Increased critical damage. Prefixes cause amusing names.
 * Maliwan Hellfire "We don't need no water..." - 100% chance to ignite enemy.
 * Tediore Savior "Hallelujah" - Ammo regeneration.
 * Torgue Gasher "Tear it up" - 3 round burst.
 * Maliwan Tsunami "Flee the wave" - Bullets ricochet and deal both shock and corrosive damage.
 * Dahl - recoil reduction - Camouflage parts
 * Hyperion - high accuracy - Red parts
 * Maliwan - very high elemental damage - Blue parts
 * Tediore - fast reloads - Grey parts
 * Torgue - kind of balanced - Black parts
 * Gearbox - special and rare - Pink, Gold, Yellow parts