tips for using the M41A

[sw4gbag]

i use the M37 almost every round, I suck ass with the M41A, what are some tips to get better with the M41A?

[DefinitelyAlone0309]

Practice tracking and predicting with your clicks. Also, trigger discipline and all that applies double here.

Currently, the best M41 loadout right now is BC/RDS/VGrip or Agrip. AGrip allows better chasing potential, and VGrip gives you better damage, since it tightens your burst spread to nothing.

[JennerH]

The bare m41a with no attachments is good enough, but dont be afraid to experiment with loadouts. Use burst fire when fighting xenos and semi when taking out eggs and face huggers.

Trigger discipline, avoiding moving while shooting (it makes you less accurate) and taking advantage of your UGL if you have one are important, and attempt to get your hands on AP magazines. Try putting the rifle on your back rather than your suit slot, if you die and get defibbed you wont lose your rifle when they strip your armor, and it looks cool.

Putting your rifle on your back also allows you to mag harness a shotgun to your armor as a backup, or have a pistol holster with your magazine belt, ect.

My favorite rifle loadout is a RDS for extra accuracy and a UGL loaded with 2 HEDPs for a quick stun and crowd clearing.

[Sulaboy]

I'd like to consider myself pretty good with the M41A.

I usually use a rail flashlight, and the UGL with 2 HEDP grenades. The rail flashlight is important for it's additional light range because the pulse rifle is strongest at range, and the UGL allows for a great stun along with the utility of destroying some structure of whatever it is launched at.

I'd also suggest getting macros for to switch between semi, and burst because they both have their strong points. An activate attachment macro is also a good idea to quickly switch to your UGL or whatever underbarrel you decided on (believe it or not they all are useful in some way).

As for shooting, you need to learn to predict your target's movements if your firing at range. If they aren't running straight at you you'll need to lead them. If your target is closing at you on a straight away firing a burst at them will usually result in a good hit, when fighting some of the faster Xenos try to lure them into a straight way where you can easily hit these bursts. Bursts can also give you more lenient leads on moving targets because they might move through the burst, but you'll be going through more ammo, and have a longer pause between attempts unlike semi automatic

To deal with wield delay I make sure to keep my weapon wielded at most time I'm expecting combat to be a possibility.

The pulse rifle is the standard marines best bet for a long ranged firearm. Use your range to your advantage. Against the aliens this means keeping distance from them while firing. If you can stay out of the area an alien can hit you then you'll safely be able to shoot that alien. You have more range than sentinels, and fighting spitters can be very similar to shooting at another person with a rifle. Ambush castes can be dangerous because of their speed, but if you try to keep your distance you have a better chance at avoiding their pounces. It is also a good idea to save the AP mags you may have until you see an alien worth spending them on. Save them for high armor targets and some of the T3s.

The best thing you can do to get better with a rifle is to learn the firing lanes, and use them to your advantage. Learn how to position yourself with your allies to avoid FF, standing side by side with another marine allows you to shoot anything infront of you without hitting the marine to the side of you, just be mindful of their movements. Some of the firing lanes allow you to hit aliens who believe they're behind cover which is always a good thing.

Keep in mind that you might not be racking up kills, but by getting hits on Xenos you're still putting pressure on them. Forcing a Xeno to heal might be what it takes to give you the opportunity to win an engagement. You can also hit fleeing Xenos from offscreen if you predict where they're heading or if you use a motion detector on your belt. Xenos may also fall into crit offscreen, you may need to push forward to actually secure the kill.

TL;DR Study the firing lines, and try to position yourself in ways that make it easier to hit the enemy. Make sure to use your range to your advantage.

[JennerH]

Sulaboy said it better, and using macros with the pulse rifle will really help boost your combat effectiveness.

I use my mouse's side buttons, but you can use space bar and other buttons to achieve the same thing:


Remember that you can alt-click your rifle to toggle safety for clearing weeds and such, really helps with FF

[Arbs]

Its pretty sinple. Lets start by making a small evaluation on the rifle’s pros and cons.

Pros are that it has a sustained fire ability and rather decent DPS than alternatives. Ammo cariety, always try to get your hands on AP magazines to really hurt xenos.

Cons is that it takes multiple bursts to score a kill and instant damage is not high.

So what you have to do in this case is to engage from range and dont be affraid to attempt hitting something that’s off screen.

That being said, it is important to keep your distance from the xenos. A range of 4-7 tiles of distance is excellent for the rifle. And at the same time make use of your supression ability. Position yourself in such a way to line up your targets in your firing line. (for ex. shooting though corners ir down hallway entrances)

If you’re going to use the UGL make sure to load it with 2 HEDP grenades. They are excellent to stun xenos and allow for a follow up kill, or simply great to destroy sticky resin/weeds or eggs.

[Sulaboy]

Another thing, play with sound on preferably a headset. You'll be able to hear the hit sound if you hit something offscreen which is always good to know. There are different strategies for fighting the different castes as well. If you have any questions I'd be willing to answer them.

[edgardo]

Don't.

PS: try to always shoot on the xenos sprites if they are down, it will 100% hit on them

PS: Use mag a mag harness and a Masterkey to have the best loadout for a m41a

[Madventurer]

When using the M41A, the important thing to remember is that you're either Jack of All Trades, Master of None, or you can specialize into some aspects, both with the usage of attachments.

Also, don't bother with the awesome over-the-top attachments, the best ones are those with low benefits and negligible downsides, such as Suppressor, Extended Barrel and Angled Grip.

[JennerH]

When using the M41A, the important thing to remember is that you're either Jack of All Trades, Master of None, or you can specialize into some aspects, both with the usage of attachments.

Also, don't bother with the awesome over-the-top attachments, the best ones are those with low benefits and negligible downsides, such as Suppressor, Extended Barrel and Angled Grip.

I'd personally avoid any barrel attachments besides a barrel charger if you can help it, because the minimal amount of accuracy increase isnt worth the damage loss of a ext barrel or a suppressor

[Avalanchee]

EB is absolutely useless.

Avoid 'Sniper builds'
Avoid 'One hand builds'

Go with a Masterkey/UGL/V-Grip/A-Grip + BC/Bayo + Reddot/Railflash.

[Steelpoint]

One semi-common build I've seen being used by certain Marines (usually specs or SLs) is: Vertical Grip + Red Dot Sight + Barrel Charger

The concept here is that you maintain decent accuracy at range and gain a big damage boost from the BC. Keeping with good trigger discipline and aiming on your part it can prove effective.

Otherwise just go with a low key attachment build. Rail-Light is usually a good pick and Masterkey 'MIGHT' be useful from time to time in CQC (but I'd just take a backup Shotgun). Main issue I find with the UGL is that the grenades take ten years to detonate and a half-competent target will withdraw, the best times to use a UGL is to block a possible escape route and hope the enemy risks running through the grenade to escape and catching it.

As others have noted, AP mags really make a big difference in damage output, save em for strong Xenos (or when there's plenty of ammo boxes around)

[Boersgard]

UBL is great if you've got enough grenades to use it, and know how to use them.

Masterkey and UB Incinerator are great in particular because xenos can't tell you've got them. It's easier to bait one into buckshot range when he sees you with an M41 in your hands instead of a shotgun. This is the actual low-key benefit of the underbarrel attachments. Flamer is similar but I find it a pain in the ass to refuel in practice.

[sw4gbag]

Sulaboy said it better, and using macros with the pulse rifle will really help boost your combat effectiveness.

I use my mouse's side buttons, but you can use space bar and other buttons to achieve the same thing:


Remember that you can alt-click your rifle to toggle safety for clearing weeds and such, really helps with FF

How do you bind keys to your mouse? I’ve tried before by using the find key setting on the macro setup but it doesn’t seem to work.

Is there a key that has to be manually entered like Mouse3 or 4?
Also thank you everyone else for all your replies

[Nimiety]

1) No one ever expects the UGL smoke/training grenade, DDoS their brain in one easy step
2) Suppressor makes your offscreen bullets hit like daddy does
3) Scopes can be prety good for training trigger discipline and leading
4) co/xo/so focus order turns rifles into laser guns

[Kineem]

Learn how firing lanes work if you haven't already. Pretty obvious.

Sniper loadouts are worthless because you don't deal enough damage to do anything, one handed loadouts were nerfed into the ground after gyro was nerfed, accuracy loadouts are worthless because the pulse rifle is already accurate enough to shoot anything on screen without any accuracy increasing attachments. The UGL is useful in specific situations but I prefer taking the AG over it due to the fact that it's completely useless once you run out of HEDP. Bayonet doesn't seriously impact accuracy and is a good grab if you cannot take anything else, the rail light is one of the strongest attachments in game due to the sheer increase in situational awareness that it provides, masterkey is good for catching aliens offguard with a sudden pointblank and has literally zero firing delay between switching away from the attachment and back to the rifle, meaning you can PB and then instantly fire a burst of AP into the stunned xeno, magnetic harness is useful for obvious reasons.

Get a macro to switch firing modes. Single fire and burst fire are both useful. Good riflemen will regularly switch between firing modes to use them in appropriate situations. Single fire is for avoiding FF, conserving ammunition when you want to spray down a hallway, and for landing shots on aliens that are running side to side (making it impossible for more than one bullet to hit them if you have to lead your shots). Burst fire is for shredding aliens if you have a clear shot or for tearing down resin structures. Play with the firing modes a bit, get a good feel for when they're useful. You'll learn to switch modes regularly with enough practice. C is my unique action key, V is my activate underbarrel attachment key, and B is my toggle firing mode key.

Don't shoot at xenos near your teammates unless you're certain the shot's clear. Common sense. Good xeno players will use your squadmates as mobile cover while they're slashing them to death and attempt to bait you into firing at them. Just because a guy has fallen down doesn't always mean they'll stay down; neuro and lurker pounces are deadly both because of the stun and because of the FF potential. Different castes and different ages stun for different amounts of time, lurkers and runners included.

Go to requisitions, get your order from req, then order items from your vendor. You can get five AP magazines if you ask the RO for two mags and vend three for yourself. AP magazines are mandatory if you want to kill anything past the first ten minutes of deployment. Load a regular M41A magazine into the gun as your first mag as you won't likely fight anything heavily armored until later in the round, make sure to save your empty AP magazines in the case of event an SL carrying an ammo box rolls up or the RO sends down a crate with AP rounds. Only drop the empty mags if it's clear the RO is bald and has no plans to get AP mags or AP rounds. If you're running low on ammunition, check the belts of permakilled marines for their AP mags.

Damage falloff is an existing mechanic and impacts your combat potential. You have range with the pulse rifle but getting up close and personal to aliens not only means that you will deal more damage to them but also means you are more likely to land your bursts because you don't need to lead your shots as much. Understand this and play it aggressively when the situation permits, and fire at range when you cannot. Keep in mind that the shotgun will almost always outperform the pulse rifle in a sustained close quarters environment.

If the situation permits, use walls as cover from neurotoxin castes and peek out to shoot. Aim for sentinels, spitters, and praetorians because neurotoxin is an absolute bitch and critting or killing them means shotgunners have an easier time killing the other xeno castes.

Clicking behind an alien will make you shoot at that tile and hit anything in between you and that tile while clicking on the alien will makes all rounds go towards the alien. Clicking on an alien while you're burst firing will make your rounds attempt to hit the alien you've targeted instead of attempting to hit the tile you've clicked on, which can help you maintain accuracy on an alien at close range attempting to dodge your burst.

[KingKire]

Sniper load out m41a:
Scope, Burstfire, Barrel charger or extended barrel.

If you have a scope, you need burstfire. 2 shots at long range every 2 seconds is garbage. 4 shots every 2 seconds is alright dps. If you have a barrel charger, you can use normal ammo and do okay dps. If you dont have a BC, your gonna need to use some AP ammo or Extended mags, because your gonna need to pour out alot of accurate fire to compensate.

DO NOT PUT ON THE STOCK. the stock is garbage. The stock is garbage...


let me remind you THE STOCK IS GRABASS-BAGE!!! GARBAGE

the slowdown is horrible, the recoil reduction only matters if your using the m41a one handed (Which is horrible, no good, shoot your buddy in the back) or if your using the BC (which is horrible, no good, slower than your walmart shoppers handicart on low batteries carrying a two ton Tamantha to her daily bigboy's cup of low-carb extra bigguy food)

[DefinitelyAlone0309]

Sniper loadout is useless. Xeno is all about taking small bits of damage and healing them back for free. You need massive burst damage or constant massive DPS or you don't kill the xeno. Also, with Scope+BFA+BC, you can't even hit shit half your max range, and your burst spread will be mega ass.

[KingKire]

the whole point of the scope is to lay down DPS when nobody else can... the only xeno that can see past the screen edge is the boiler, everyone else has to come within 5 tiles of a player. use that 25 extra tiles of range to keep putting out damage.

[Kineem]

the whole point of the scope is to lay down DPS when nobody else can... the only xeno that can see past the screen edge is the boiler, everyone else has to come within 5 tiles of a player. use that 25 extra tiles of range to keep putting out damage.

you literally cannot hit anything with a BC BFA gun if it doesn't have a stock on it

you will be too inaccurate and that's assuming the shot doesn't go completely wild because of spread

[KingKire]

you literally cannot hit anything with a BC BFA gun if it doesn't have a stock on it

you will be too inaccurate and that's assuming the shot doesn't go completely wild because of spread

You can hit any of the spitter caste, you can hit drones, and you can hit anyone whos standing still or laying down. You dont need to snipe a runner moving mach 6 between cover, you need to shoot the drone trying to come closer to plant walls and weeds near your lines.

Grab a BC, grab a scope, grab a burstfire. It doesnt matter if you miss half your shots, the BC will make 2 normal shots count as 1 AP bullet. which means you dont need AP ammo, since you'll be going through a literal ton of ammo in the process. if you get a fat boiler, you can be sure 3 or 4 BC shots will land, and thats the only target you really need to maxamize firepower as quick as possible.

[DefinitelyAlone0309]

Or you just grab that BC and combine it with RDS+Agrip and actually do some work regardless of AP.

[KingKire]

Or you just grab that BC and combine it with RDS+Agrip and actually do some work regardless of AP.

Sir, this is a wendy's...

Anywho. Sniper loadout is Scope, burstfire, BC/Extended barrel if you wanna go sniping, otherwise go standard attachments.

[Kineem]

You can hit any of the spitter caste, you can hit drones, and you can hit anyone whos standing still or laying down. You dont need to snipe a runner moving mach 6 between cover, you need to shoot the drone trying to come closer to plant walls and weeds near your lines.

Grab a BC, grab a scope, grab a burstfire. It doesnt matter if you miss half your shots, the BC will make 2 normal shots count as 1 AP bullet. which means you dont need AP ammo, since you'll be going through a literal ton of ammo in the process. if you get a fat boiler, you can be sure 3 or 4 BC shots will land, and thats the only target you really need to maxamize firepower as quick as possible.

no, man, you can't hit literally any of those targets because you only have a 10-20% chance to hit any of them since you're stacking accuracy reducing, spread increasing attachments and attempting to shoot something over ten tiles away. while doing this you are also simultaneously preventing marines from pushing forward into the aliens lest they catch your bullets in their back. you're actually hindering your teammates far more than you're helping them.

even with a BC and BFA, assuming you can hit anything, damage falloff as a mechanic literally kills your chances of doing any decent damage, and even if it did anything to the boiler you're shooting, it's braindead easy to just stand in front of a boiler as xeno to tank the pathetic little rifle rounds that you're shooting at them anyway. Let the sniper spec do all the sniping.

[xXen0zS1ay3rXx]

M41A tip #1, use the shotgun