Assault Rifle

The Assault Rifle is a small arms weapon used by the Korean People's Army, People's Liberation Army of China, Venezuelan Army and other factions in Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
In Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, the Assault Rifle is the primary firearm used by Chinese and North Korean soldiers, being the standard infantry rifle of both nations, in addition to its occasional use by members of the Russian Mafia. It is the most common weapon encountered throughout the game. The Assault Rifle is a 58-year-old design by 2005, and shows its age in comparison to more precision-based and modern weapons, falling short of other weapons in the game in terms of accuracy, rate-of-fire, and ammunition capacity.

The Assault Rifle is a solid weapon in any combat situation; its status as the most common firearm in the game means ammunition is never far away, and it makes up for unremarkable accuracy with its solid firepower. The Executive Operations Reference Desk file on this weapon describes the Assault Rifle as: "Good stopping power, moderate accuracy, very loud." The real-life AK/AK-M is a famously noisy weapon, owing to its powerful 7.62x39mm cartridge, and use of an Assault Rifle will easily alert enemies to the player's presence.



The Assault Rifle is the ideal weapon for players who prefer to engage their enemies from medium to short range, as the weapon itself is somewhat inaccurate over long distances. The most can be gotten out of its accuracy at range while on the move by firing in short bursts, as its full automatic fire is meant for and only effective at short range. Crouching means the Mercenary shoots slower, almost at a semi-automatic rate, and accuracy is increased accordingly.

The Assault Rifle can be found in the Chinese and North Korean Supply Drops, correctly named in the description as the Type 56 and Type 58 respectively, and is the standard firearm of the Chinese and North Korean armed forces. Though nearly all of the Assault Rifles in the game will be of either Chinese or North Korean manufacture, there is no appearance difference and the Type 56 and Type 58 both appear in the game as the same weapon. The higher rate of fire of the Type 56, for instance (650 rounds per minute versus the usual 600) doesn't appear in-game if one gets the Chinese Supply Drop containing a Type 56, nor does a captured or NK Supply Drop-bought Type 58 have the longer-than-average barrel featured on North Korea's Kalashnikov rifle.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames


In Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, the Assault Rifle is the standard-issue weapon of the VZ and PLAV but is also less commonly used by the Pirates. In this game, two versions exist, one based on the AKM (used by the Venezuelan Army, PLAV and Pirates) and the other based on the AK-103 (used exclusively by the VZ). The only differences between them are the AK-103's slightly longer barrel, black polymer furniture, and the merc stores less reserve mags (the exact amount depends on the character). Since the AK-103 and AKM have the same name, it means that they are interchangeable ammo wise. After Solano's takeover, the VZ fully converts to using AK-103.

The Assault Rifle is the second or third most powerful automatic weapon (the most powerful automatic weapon is the PDW and the SMG has slightly more power). It can kill a VZ regular in four shots to the body but it has poor accuracy. The Assault Rifle is best used at close range and will miss very often at medium ranges. It will be slightly more accurate when the player is aiming down the sights, not moving and shooting in bursts.

The AKM variant can be obtained in the VZ and PLAV supply drops. Most PLAV soldiers, all pre-takeover regular VZ troops and some Pirates are armed with the AK-47 variant of the Assault Rifle. The AK-103 variant is extremely common after Solano's takeover and during the first half of the game that it is almost impossible to run out of Assault Rifle ammunition (unless the player is deliberately trying to do so).

The Assault Rifle is not a poor weapon, but its potential for high damage is fairly limited due to the lack of accuracy and slower fire rate. After the Allies and China invade, more advanced weapons will be commonly available for the player to use against the increasing number of infantry with higher health.

Mercenaries 2 Mobile
The Assault Rifle also appears in Mercenaries 2 Mobile, and it is one of the most common weapons in the game, since it can be found in every mission. It is used mainly by the VZ and PLAV in this game as well. It is the starting weapon of the player at the beginning of the campaign. In this game it is considered a primary weapon, meaning that if picked up it goes in the first weapon slot, it has unlimited bullets in the reserve, and it will shoot automatically when there are enemies nearby, unless the player is crouched behind sandbag piles. In this game the weapon has only 4 bullets in the magazine, but it recharges automatically as soon as it empties. The weapon does considerably low damage, but can be more effective from the distance when compared to the shotgun.

Real Life

 * In Mercenaries 2 the Assault Rifle is the AKM - a modernised version of the AK-47, while AK-103 serves as the real-life basis for the modernised, all-black Assault Rifle variant in Mercenaries 2.
 * Within Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, two variants of the AK appear, though they both are simply labeled Assault Rifle and show no difference between them: the Chinese Type 56, and the North Korean Type 58, both of which are local copies of the original AKM. The Assault Rifle in the first game is identical no matter what supply drop or on-the-ground source the Mercenary gets it from.

Trivia

 * Interestingly, the Assault Rifle makes a different sound in Playground of Destruction when AI characters fire it versus when the player fires it.
 * The Assault Rifle is the standard infantry rifle of two out of five factions in Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, those being the People's Liberation Army (China) and the Korean People's Army (North Korea), making it by far the most widely-used and most easily-obtained firearm in the game.