M39 Submachine gun AKA useless peashooter

[Steve_Rhino]

For me, the M39 can be useful some of the time.
As a marine engineer defending the FoB, a Carrier kept lobbing over Huggers.
With the smg, I didn't need to whip out and equip it. Just press where the hugger landed and shot it. Other marines with the pulse rifles not ready to fire wasn't as fast.
That said, as an engineer with limited carry space, the M39 was nice. 120 rounds instead of 96 or 19 shells was a nice addition. Just suppression fire to scare off T1s and killing any huggers wanting to jump

[jalen earl]

I carry an smg when medic not for killing but suppressing attacks as its when im crossing between tfort to FOB dragging patients most t1-t2 pull back a bit if im just hailing bursts off in their general direction.

Though it does piss me off massively if im playing smartgunner 7th in line for RO and miss a barrel charger because someone wanted one for his smg

[Crab_Spider]

I carry an smg when medic not for killing but suppressing attacks as its when im crossing between tfort to FOB dragging patients most t1-t2 pull back a bit if im just hailing bursts off in their general direction.

Though it does piss me off massively if im playing smartgunner 7th in line for RO and miss a barrel charger because someone wanted one for his smg

You shouldn't be taking a BC period. Neither should the guy who asked for one while you were 7th in line.

[juliansl]

You shouldn't be taking a BC period. Neither should the guy who asked for one while you were 7th in line.

Smartgunners should definitely take barrel chargers, who do you think needs barrel chargers more than smartgunners?

[Steelpoint]

A Barrel Charger significantly decreases the rate of fire of a Smartgun.

I have no idea if a BC increases or decreases the overall DPS of a Smartgun.

[Rataca100]

I used to like them before you had to dual hand them. But i used to only carry it when i was support. I tried it as late join CE and as i got dragged into the defensive line i ended up having to take the attachments off and take a rifle from a corpse and load up on those mags.

[Zilenan91]

A Barrel Charger significantly decreases the rate of fire of a Smartgun.

I have no idea if a BC increases or decreases the overall DPS of a Smartgun.

BC on a smartgun makes them overpowered in my experience. Unless they've been stealthnerfed.

Saw three smartgunners sticking together with BC smartguns and there was nothing the entire alien team could do. They did fucking ridiculous damage, still had great firerate on burst, and never missed. One of them shooting at the Elite Empress took out half her health in about 4 seconds or so and she died shortly after. I died in two bursts over about a second and a half as an Elite Spitter, and a Carrier and a T1 died in one burst each. Shit's broke yo

[jalen earl]

You shouldn't be taking a BC period. Neither should the guy who asked for one while you were 7th in line.

Who else needs one then? Would figure giving the support gunner a bigger punch is a good thing.

Just painful seeing them wasted on a inaccurate sidearm

[Rataca100]

Dont have this problem with a Bren gun, just saying.

[Jeser]

Want to add one thing. Today I SADARed mature runner with HE rocket, it fell, I started shooting it with SMG. I shot 3 bursts, nearly half missed, then switched to single fire and shot 5 more rounds. It was dragged away and it didn't die since I didn't see it's corpse when we pushed that area.

BC on a smartgun makes them overpowered in my experience. Unless they've been stealthnerfed.

Saw three smartgunners sticking together with BC smartguns and there was nothing the entire alien team could do. They did fucking ridiculous damage, still had great firerate on burst, and never missed. One of them shooting at the Elite Empress took out half her health in about 4 seconds or so and she died shortly after. I died in two bursts over about a second and a half as an Elite Spitter, and a Carrier and a T1 died in one burst each. Shit's broke yo

I effectively neutralized two smartgunners yesterday by hitting Acid glob between them. One died and one was captured by other aliens. Also I saw two smartgunners memed by one elite spitter. People just need to git gud.

[Symbiosis]

BC on a smartgun makes them overpowered in my experience. Unless they've been stealthnerfed.

Saw three smartgunners sticking together with BC smartguns and there was nothing the entire alien team could do. They did fucking ridiculous damage, still had great firerate on burst, and never missed. One of them shooting at the Elite Empress took out half her health in about 4 seconds or so and she died shortly after. I died in two bursts over about a second and a half as an Elite Spitter, and a Carrier and a T1 died in one burst each. Shit's broke yo

Protip: Warding and Meme Screech. If the Smartgunners are up front, which they often are, they are vulnerable to being killed just like any other Marine. Also, Crushers.

[Steelpoint]

If you're gonna use a SMG, get a foregrip and AP mags.

On the Smartgun, I heard the BC ruins the accuracy as well.

[Heckenshutze]

BC increases damage at the exchange of accuracy and firing rate.

AP smg is very very good.

[caleeb101]

Who else needs one then? Would figure giving the support gunner a bigger punch is a good thing.

Just painful seeing them wasted on a inaccurate sidearm

So true. When I see a standard asking for a BC and the CT -actually- going to hand them one, I want to shoot them in the skull. Yes, that includes both of them.

[Cactos]

I rarely use the SMG, but from the experiences I've had with it, I've learned a few things. The SMG can and will decimate T1s and the drone evolution tree (excluding evolved queens). I feel a red dot sight is really nice to have on this thing, because if you are getting in the well placed shots you need, you'll kill what you need dead.

A thing you should keep in mind whenever you DO decide to grab the M39 is that it doesn't offer as much as the pulse rifle or shotgun does, but it has it's own advantages, as well as it's own disadvantages. If you learn your way around the disadvantages (stay away from those damned rhinos), this thing can save you or an ally's ass.

All in all, if used correctly, the M39 is really fun to have, even if you prefer something like a gyro buckshotty.

[Steelpoint]

I tried using an SMG as a SADAR Specialist a day ago.

I modified the SMG with a Red Dot Sight and an Extended Barrel, and I used Armour Piercing magazine rounds.

The weapon seemed ok to use. However, the fact that for some reason you can't holster a SMG in its holster if it has a forward grip attached, and that you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get AP smg ammo, made me feel like it simply take a helluva a lot of effort to make the SMG viable when you can just do better with stock M41A, even if you have to juggle it a bit by holding it in your hands.

Perhaps if the SMG Holsters were more common issue, the foreward grip did not block placing it in a holster, and the SMG AP mags were not locked behind a hacked vendor, the weapon would be more viable as a more flexible primary weapon.

[Kesserline]

Just saying, I ask for BC as Spec Sniper.

Sniper Rifle with Gyro for fast hunting of targets (load incendiary and run behind a hunter/runner/drone/sentinel/spitter).

Pulse Rifle with RDS, FG, and BC. It gives you a great weapon for not over-using your sniper ammos, good at suppressing, really accurate and with a good DPS on small AND big target (especially against ravager to avoid wasting my incendiary sniper ammos on them). Even if I exchange my BC for an EB if my smartgunner can't have his BC.

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In my honest opinion, Smartgunners should use BFA instead of BC. The loss of accuracy and firerate of the BC makes the smartguner less reliable than a 5 bullets burst at nearly-point blank of a xenos. People tend to forget that accuracy makes the bullet LAND ON THE TARGET if you fire in the GOOD direction. Have you never had the message "a bullet narrowly missed you" ? That is accuracy coming into account. And smartgunners need accuracy because they do not care about FF, so they need about being accurate to make damage.

Concerning the SMG, it's a good support weapon, makes you still fast, but if you do not get some attachments (the best would be 2 RDS, 2 EB, 2 BFAS, buy you are over consuming attachments at this rate) you'll lack accuracy and lands in the "SUPPRESSION" instead of the "ELIMINATION".

Suppression is good for support roles, because they don't give a shit about killing. They only care about protecting (Engineers and Medic).
Elimination is for the rest, from the PFC to the Spec, through the SG.

[jalen earl]

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In my honest opinion, Smartgunners should use BFA instead of BC. The loss of accuracy and firerate of the BC makes the smartguner less reliable than a 5 bullets burst at nearly-point blank of a xenos. People tend to forget that accuracy makes the bullet LAND ON THE TARGET if you fire in the GOOD direction. Have you never had the message "a bullet narrowly missed you" ? That is accuracy coming into account. And smartgunners need accuracy because they do not care about FF, so they need about being accurate to make damage.

Im mixed about BFA great for in tight spots and great for quick pushes but at the same time you really need good supply lines or someone to backpack your spare powerpack otherwise youll burn out fast on a long siege assault seeing as you are going through ammo almost double the rate.

[Rataca100]

Take back my previous comment, SMG's are pretty useful if you cant micro the shotty. Just dont get a fore grip/extended barrel on them. :P

[Vibraphone]

Meme question here:

M39 or BFA M4A3?

[thatguyfromlife]

Meme question here:

M39 or BFA M4A3?

My god a BFA on a M4A3. How have I never tried this. I need to try this meme load out soon.

[Crab_Spider]

My god a BFA on a M4A3. How have I never tried this. I need to try this meme load out soon.

I killed a runner with it. Its decent

[MrJJJ]

In heavy experience of using the Smartgun with the BC for months upon months, its not as bad as some say it is, infact its preety damn good.

Yes, some shots will not go straight, yes the fire-rate is slightly reduced, but the damage you get extra from it is fairly good, fire-rate without the BC while is a bit better, its not really that worth it, especially if xenos are emitting warding, you are DEFINITELY going to wish you had BC at those moments, you need to output a good DPS, and BC does exactly that. It gives you more extra damage that helps fight tougher xenos or warding, still a preety damn good fire-rate, and good accuracy onpar with a forward grip M41A, i rarely miss with it in critical situations, i even hit things often off-screen most of the time.

BFA is only good if you are in somewhere tight, it still fucks your fire-rate and accuracy, and doesn't offer much greater DPS compared to just BC alone, and if you miss, well buddy you are screwing yourself badly.

Just don't do BC and BFA unless you are like, in SD and being boarded, at that point just why not.

Also we going offtopic, but eh.

[PhinksJinxs]

I guess if your a poor shot and you're mostly in the back of the line when the fight begins, you don't deal as much damage to your fellow marines.

[Arbs]

M39 is okay. Its mostly a support weapon rather than your main weapon so to say.

For examle an M39 is great as a secondary weapon for a Smartgunner, Flamer trooper and perhaps medics/engineers who need one of their hands free. (Although most medics would prefer a gyro+mag harness shotgun, and why would you use the smg as an engie if you can carry a rifle)

The PMC variant M39/2 is great though, slaughters xenos like every other day. What makes that variant great?

Three things that make the PMC M39/2 good:
-Increased rate of fire (more firepower)
-increased accuracy (good chance of hitting your target)
-Makes use of AP ammo

Keeping that in mind, while we cannot identicaly recreate that on the normal M39 we can try to get closer to it through attachments.

Pros and conns of the normal M39:
+Higher rate of fire than rifle.
+Can be fired one handed
+Allows you to move faster
+Carrier more rounds per clip

-Low accuracy
-Low damage
-Low penetration against bigger xenos
-Ammo not as easy to find in the field

But the issue id concern myself most with the M39 is the accuracy.

Granted, the M39 can send a ton of rounds down range but most of them wont hit. Thats why i recomend getting at least an RDS (personally i prefer RDS+EB on burst fire) or you can go QF+EB if you feel like sacrifying a bit of damage over a buff in fire rate.

You can also ask the RO for extended or AP mags. (Squad engies can hack prep vendors for ap mags as well) AP will prove useful when hitting T-3s and T-2s (just do NOT go shooting the crusher’s front with it. It wont penetrate and youll be wasting ammo).

What to put on M39:
RDS (extra accuracy - increases chances of hitting)
QF + EB (increased rate of fire, EB compensates for the accuracy loss at the cost of a wee bit damage. Less damage per shot but increased firpower)
RDS + EB (wont miss a shot, recomend using this one on burst fire)
Rail flashlight (probably most underrated attachment. The rail flashlight will give you a bigger radius of light on your surroundings. Its pretty useful when moving in in dark areas. Mount this when no attachments are available)
Supressor - (Also a good alternative to the EB, but not my first choice)

What NOT to put on an M39:
BFA - (spreads too much, wont hit crap and likely to FF marines. Okay to scare away small xenos in point blank range, again something a shotgun would rather excel at)
BC - (too precious to be wasted on an SMG. Wont make a big difference due to the SMG’s generaly low damage per round. Will also mess up your accuracy which is already low. Dont do this.)
GRIP - (Stop. Just stop and get a rifle. Putting a grip on an M39 just makes no sense.)