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Thread: How to be competent at rifleman, a guide for the new.

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    How to be competent at rifleman, a guide for the new.

    Note: This guide is made by someone who is decent at the game and plays often enough, and is up to date as of July third, 2022.
    This is not going to teach you how to play the game, just how to go from bad to good once you already do, if you need to learn how to play I recommend you mhelp ingame or look for a SEA to teach you.
    Most of this is subject to change as the game gets updated and I try more things.

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    Now, onto the important part, the actual guide:

    Part One: Equipment
    You want to know what equipment is good?
    Well, the first thing to get out of the way that a lot of other guides say is shotgun is the king of CM; this quite simply is not true and has not been true since early 2019, while the M37 is still very good in CQC, having just an M37 makes you almost a non-threat for anything other than ambushers(and if you are using flechette(which you should never use in the M37) a non-issue even for them, it is my recommendation, that unless you are playing Corpsman or taking a second weapon, to not take solely the M37, while its still good, its too situational.

    Now, onto the actual equipment section now that ramble is out of the way.
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    Armor: You have 4(5 if an RTO tosses out M4 armor) options: light, medium, heavy, and B12. Light is light armor; faster but less armored; and is the best suited for chasing and backline combat, while on defense and frontlining it is worse than the others. Medium is a mix between light and heavy; decently armored and decently fast, but not to the level of heavy or light respectively; it is best when you don't know what exactly you'll be doing during the round or a mobile frontline, as its good enough for everything and has an extra armor slot for whatever you choose to put in it. Heavy is the heavy armor; slow but heavily armored; and is best suited to defense and a static frontline, as you move too slow to do much of anything chasing/backline wise and a moving front means you are more of an obstacle than anything. B12 is medium armor speed with a bit better armor in most things, its a direct upgrade to medium but is limited; being able to be aquired by squad leads as standard armor or other roles for vendor points(a steep amount too), I personally don't take it due to the point cost and my usage of light nigh always, but it IS a good choice either way. And finally, M4 armor: being able to be bought by SLs and as standard armor for RTOs, it is medium speed with a bit better armor and 4 armor slots meaning it is a better version of medium armor and B12, but it is very limited being only acquirable by SLs spending 30+ points in their vendor or RTOs handing it out but is arguably the best due to just the number of features it has. Overall, all the armor types are situational with different choices depending on how you want to play.
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    Weapon:
    This is the interesting part, there are four primary weapons, three secondary weapons, seven portable restricted weapons, and two static restricted weapons.
    Going through all the portable weapons, restricted included,
    M41A MK2: The all-rounder, the basic weapon, the movie gun; it is the only gun that can do everything, a jack of all trades and master of a few. It can fit every attachment except BFA and B8, is accurate, does good damage, and can be wielded and fired fast for chasing(doubly so with agrip). It has 3 magazine types, standard, EXT, and AP: EXT is a direct upgrade to standard with an extra 20 rounds per magazine, AP has much better AP at the cost of 10 damage, but for most castes standard ammo is still better. Attachment wise: It can fit almost every attachment with a few being the meta ones, which are: agrip/underbarrel shotgun, barrel charger/underbarrel shotgun, magharn/reflex sight/rail-light; all of these work with the only real choice being barrel charger/extended barrel being specced for a burst for BC and semi spam for EB. Overall, MK2 is probably the best weapon due to the complete versatility it has; being useful in every possible situation.

    L42: The IFF plinker, the chaser, the marksman rifle; it is a sidegrade to the MK2, doing an extra 10~ damage but with 15 less shots in a magazine and less attachment options(though it has a unique one), and having absolutely 0 falloff. Its magazine types are: standard and AP, being roughly the same as M41 with an extra 10~ damage for each type(ammo is actually interchangeable between M41 and L42 though the magazines are not). Attachments having a meta of: no stock, bayonet/EB, S6/raillight/B8, lasersight/underbarrel-flashlight. It has 3 real playstyles, chasing as L42 with no stock has no wield slow so you can keep firing while chasing a xeno(ls/ubf-EB/bayo-mh/rf/reflex), marskman rifle with a scope for shooting xenos at range(BE AWARE OF FF); not very good(bipod/ls/ubf-S4/S8-EB-stock), and the most popular, IFF plinking(B8-LS/UBF-EB/bayo) for frontline IFF support to help shoot a xeno without risking yourself due to the bullets going through people. Overall its really good, though not quite as versatile as MK2.

    M39: The other chaser; it has large magazines and no wield slow, but does less damage than MK2 and its burst isn't quite that good, kind of a downgrade to L42 in the chasing aspect, best attachments are fullstock/collapsiblestock-mh/S6-bayo/EB-ls/agrip, magazine types are normal, EXT, and AP, AP being decent but having quite low damage at only 28~, magazines hold 48 for standard/AP and 72 for EXT.

    M37: The shotgun, lil slugga or cuckshot; 9+1 storage, 3 ammo types: buckshot, flechette, slugs, the 3 types changing how the M37 plays entirely. Buckshot being high damage low AP decent stun, best for stunning and doing burst damage to a xeno and to allow others to finish it off. flechette which is decent damage high AP no stun, not really the best in M37 due to low fire rate, and slugs which are decent damage decent AP good stun, best for stun-locking small xenos, doesn't do much to bigger ones, attachment wise the M37 can fit a lot, but has 2 real options for most builds. cuckshotter: agrip/underbarrelflash-bayo/EB-mh/rail-light, use buckshot and use the shotgun to counter ambushers and small xenos on front. lil slugga: slugs, EB/bayo, S6/S5, stock/nostock, agrip/vgrip, shoot slugs at xenos and stunlock them, don't get to close or you'll die due to low DPS though.

    MOU: The other shotgun, t3 chunker, slugga; break action, 3 rounds fit in, no delay between shots, fits slugs or flech, due to massive fire-rate flech is really good in it, slugs also can fully stunlock xenos due to fire-rate. 1 build for it that works for flech and slugs: stock/nostock, bayo, mh/raillight/reflex, flech is best used to demolish the health of a T3 due to high AP and decent damage, slugs are best used to stunlock xenos into marines.

    Flamer: A literal flamethrower; while it has good damage it blocks marines HARD, you need to take extinguishers(mini or normal) and use your UBE, flamer also needs a secondary weapon as while damage is good its not enough to put down a xeno alone, I use flamer often enough but this guide and yt channel have vids on actual expert flamer use, although they are a bit outdated the flamer is still generally the same: //showthrea...-flame-pathing and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-h...qGQJOknZPGIlgg

    HPR: SUPPRESSING FIRE!!!!!, MK2.5; 300 and 200 round drums(standard and holo respectively), does a slight bit less damage than M41(40 from 43) but has a lot more rounds in a magazine and with a bipod active has IFF, holotargetting give the hit xenomorph a 1% damage buff per shot up to 10%, attachment loadouts are bipod-mharn/S6 and vgrip/agrip-bc/naked-S6/mharn for IFF suppressing fire and Mk2.5. An important thing to note is bipod gives an accuracy, fire rate buff, AND IFF when active on HPR so its really good with it.

    SU-6 Smartpistol: It has IFF, 14 round magazine, 25 AP, and 25 damage, its decent at its role of IFF support, not much reason to use it over other weapons though. I've no real experience with it but from what I can tell, BC-S6-BFA seems to be the meta attachments for it.

    M41A MK1: The ACTUAL movie gun, upgraded MK2; 95 round magazine, all AP, 33.5 damage, 40 AP, and a standard 5 round GL with no IFF(a benefit if using AGMs); its basically an MK2 with a way bigger magazine that has only AP and 1 extra round per burst, and can fit any MK2 magazine in case you want non-AP full power rounds, although it can't fit nearly the amount of attachments as MK2 the advantages make up for it. Use it like an Mk2 that isn't QUITE as good at chasing, but is better at bursts(excepting BC Mk2) and with way bigger mags, and has a UGL that can get a perfect AGM-F hit on xenos moving away from you. Attachment meta is MK1UGL/UBS-bayo-mharn/raillight.

    VP78: The hand-cannon; 14+1 squashhead pistol bullets doing 45 damage 30 AP, with a slow fire-rate, use burst mode and put BC-S6-LS on it to make it truely a hand-cannon doing an amazing amount of damage on a full burst.

    M79 Grenade Launcher: The vietnam grenade launcher; 1 round grenade launcher, has IFF, can fit any type of grenade including the M15s and large custom grenades standard GL cannot, and baton slugs. In most circumstances you're better off using an MK1 or Mk2 UGL as the sole grenade slot isn't the best, but the extra versatility from baton slugs and large grenades make it good, don't bother with starshell or hornet shells most of the time, replace those with HEDPs/M15s/AGMs

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    Part Two: Macros
    A few basic macros for you, you can add some of your own design using https://cm-ss13.com/wiki/Macros_and_Hotkeys
    Pickup: Pick-up M41A-pulse-rifle-MK2\nPick-up M41A-pulse-rifle\nPick-up M37A2-pump-shotgun\nPick-up L42A-battle-rifle\nPick-up M39-Submachinegun\nPick-up MOU53-break-action-shotgun\nPick-up M240A1-incinerator-unit\nPick-up MK221-tactical-shotgun\nPick-up Type-80-bayonet\nPick-up M8-cartridge-bayonet\nPick-up M5-'Night-Raider'-bayonet\nPick-up M11-throwing-knife
    Specialist Activation One(Scout cloak/sniper cloak): specialist-activation-one
    Shotgun Pumping/cocking guns: unique-action

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    General Tips
    1. Don't go alone.
    2. Don't go with only bad players, its basically the same as being alone.
    3. I see this a lot; if a pred attacks you, aim hand/foot, load AP, and FIGHT BACK, that is your only chance, even if you die it may spare you because you tried to fight back.
    4. AP ammo isn't always an upgrade, standard does more damage for a lot of castes, even some with armor, the wiki has stats on how armor effects bullet damage at https://cm-ss13.com/wiki/Marine_Equipment#USCM_Weapons
    5. AP ammo isn't always bad, even if standard does more damage; AP is always good enough to kill or at the very least scare off every caste if you put enough bullets into it.
    6. Being directly on the frontline when queen is coming is bad, you want to be in the back to run in after screech and start shooting xenos dragging marines off.
    7. Marines are often your greatest enemy; their bullets hurt, a lot.
    8. You can check if someone is perma without a medhud via right-clicking next to them and clicking check-status.
    9. The tips for CPR exist in the chat-bar, read them.
    10. Don't drag people without their gear, you almost always have a spare hand for their gun which is more important than the armor.
    11. Specs are useless without their weapon.
    12. A higher rank doesn't always equate to a higher usefulness.
    13. Roleplay is fun, CM isn't just a TDM.
    14. Don't try and PB warriors who just lunged someone.
    15. Read tip 1 and 2 again.
    16. You will be made fun of if you salt a lot, its a fact of life.
    17. Young queens are a free queen kill if you don't let them tackle you.
    18. Hive-diving has a lower-limit of 2 people and upper limit of 5 people to be able to succeed.
    19. Playtime does not equal skill, or even experience.
    20. The aim of the game is to have fun, not to win.
    21. Forum Tip: In case you couldn't tell there's a lot of spam bots, don't click the links.
    Last edited by CaptainCamo; 07-03-2022 at 09:25 PM. Reason: Messed up something.

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