Silenced Submachine Gun

"Full auto... beautiful."

- Bill

"This shit will even up the score."

- Nick

The Silenced Submachine Gun is a Submachine Gun variant in Left 4 Dead 2. It features a sound suppressor with a flashlight attached to it with cable ties, a 50-round magazine and 650 rounds of ammo reserve. Together with the Chrome Shotgun, Pump Shotgun, and Submachine Gun, it is one of the standard weapons issued to players at the start of a campaign.

The Silenced Submachine Gun has a high rate of fire and greater stopping power than the normal Submachine Gun, in exchange for a higher bullet spread. Common Infected will drop almost instantly when hit with a short burst and it makes short work of weak Special Infected. While it's not very powerful against Tanks, this weapon shoots fast enough and may be a powerful Tier 1 Weapon that can take it down with some extra help (such as other players using this weapon too, and the Tank's large size makes its inaccuracy less of a problem). The Silenced Submachine Gun damage fall off is it loses 16% damage per 500 Hammer units and after 900 Hammer units it suffers significantly greater damage fall off. It has a max range of 2200 Hammer units.

It is deadly in close quarters and its accuracy at medium ranges is impressive―if the player is prepared to aim carefully and squeeze off short bursts. Adventurous players may care to retain it for a while in preference to switching it out for the first Tier 2 weapon encountered during a campaign due to the weapon's exceptional damage per second, as well as the exceptionally high total damage potential for a tier 1 weapon, thanks to the high ammo pool, which is far superior to higher tier weapons like the M16, and helps avoid running out of ammo. Laser sights, when attached, make the Silenced Submachine Gun stunningly effective, as it effectively makes the weapon much easier to aim.

Tactics

 * Players should fire in short bursts to conserve ammunition and accuracy. This weapon will burn through ammo to little effect otherwise (players should get into the habit of "burst firing", firing a short string of shots by gentle and quick pressure on the fire control button, then quickly switching targets and repeating the treatment). However, if you are near an ammo pile, ignore this tip, since you won't have ammo problems. Several other fast-firing weapons such as the M16 and the Combat Rifle also have this problem.
 * For the best accuracy at medium ranges, players should take careful aim―even going into a crouch to engage, e.g. a Smoker on a roof line or a horde of Common Infected on the far side of a car park. Long-range targets should be ignored, as they will simply waste ammo.
 * The Silenced Submachine Gun tears through Hordes efficiently.
 * A Magnum or dual P220 Pistols work well with a Silenced Submachine Gun. The Magnum option gives the player a useful long-range secondary weapon to pick off Special Infected, while Dual Pistols can engage a wide variety of routine targets, thereby saving the Silenced Submachine Gun for emergencies. Any melee weapon is also a good option as a primary weapon to save ammo.
 * Laser sights transform the Silenced Submachine Gun's accuracy. Precision long-range shooting is now possible, and Special Infected can be engaged with total confidence.
 * Incendiary and Explosive Ammunition do not benefit the Silenced Submachine Gun as much as they do the normal Submachine Gun on account of its lower accuracy at medium ranges; however, these classes of ammo are deadly in this weapon at short ranges.
 * Until members of a co-op team have acquired Tier 2 rifles, the Silenced Submachine Gun confers a medium-range-combat capability that cannot be provided by the shorter-legged Pump Shotgun alone, as well as a capacity to deal damage unmatched by even some Tier 2 rifles.
 * The silencer on the Silenced Submachine Gun is cosmetic, since its "stealth" capability has no gameplay effect: Common Infected are still attracted to its gunfire, despite the Silencer. However, this is not an attempt to increase weapon variants, because it and the Submachine Gun were two totally different weapons—an Ingram MAC-10 and an UZI have similar looks and they are both SMGs.

Pros

 * High fire rate and DPS.
 * Large ammo reserve and magazine.
 * If using burst fire, it is not too hard to conserve ammo.
 * Extremely common and useful for the early rounds.
 * Very high total damage potential, greatly superior to some tier 2 weapons, arguably better than some options due to this.

Cons

 * Low accuracy.
 * Damage is lower than most rifles.
 * Burns through ammo quickly.

Trivia

 * The Silenced Submachine Gun is modeled after the MAC-10 (chambered in .45 ACP), with a suppressor attached. However, most players will still call it a "Silenced Uzi" or "Uzi" due to the fact that the two guns almost look identical.
 * The MAC-10 comes with a removable, retractable stock that is visible and retracted on the back of the Silenced Submachine Gun. In real life, this could be extended to brace against the shoulder, providing support and absorbing recoil to improve accuracy. It is unknown why the Survivors choose not to make use of this accessory.
 * There is no commonly available 50-round magazine for the MAC-10, though real-life modifications do allow this. Despite this, the in-game MAC-10 is modeled with a 30-round mag.
 * Despite most weapons being based on guns from Counter-Strike: Source, the Silenced Submachine Gun has higher damage and lower accuracy as opposed to suppressed weapons in Counter-Strike being more accurate and weaker.
 * It is less accurate than the Submachine Gun, which is a sign that subsonic rounds are being used, subsonic ammo has reduced initial velocity, which naturally has a negative impact on the weapon's effective range and long distance accuracy. The use of subsonic rounds is likely to compliment the silencer, given that subsonic rounds are quieter than supersonic rounds.
 * This could mean that the weapon uses .45 ACP rounds, which are noticeably subsonic and are the native chambering of the real-life MAC-10.
 * According to Valve commentary, the Silenced Submachine Gun comes from the criminal underground, which could explain its suppressor, cable ties and the extended magazine, all of which are custom modifications.
 * Due to the relative ease in mounting these modifications, this could also explain its appearance in Whittaker's Shop.
 * It is referred to as a Machine Pistol in Whitaker's Gun Shop, and as well as in some other games.
 * The Silenced Submachine Gun was rated 10th in the Left 4 Dead 2 Top 10 FTW (For The Win) Weapons on Machinima.
 * Before PC-exclusive September 2020 update for Left 4 Dead 2, it is shown at the reload animation that the Silenced SMG is depicted as closed bolt (it's correct since civilian copies are closed bolt so full auto conversions are harder) but after that it's depicted a open bolt like the original MAC-10. Either the closed bolt MAC got converted by the criminal underground to full auto or it's accidentally depicted as closed bolt.
 * Unlike the Submachine Gun's flashlight, the Silenced Submachine Gun's flashlight is attached to the suppressor via cable ties. This arrangement has no gameplay effect.
 * In early gameplay videos, the Silenced Submachine Gun used animations from Left 4 Dead Submachine Gun. Its damage, accuracy, rate of fire, and so on appear to have been carried over from the earlier game, too, which by then, the weapon's purpose is to increase weapon variants until the stats were changed.
 * Despite E3 videos showing the fabric strap moving when a user runs or turns (like the rag on a Molotov), the strap doesn't seem to move at all and the Survivors do not use it.
 * The static strap was fixed in The Last Stand Update.
 * It appears logical to think that the Silenced Submachine Gun is more powerful than the Submachine Gun because it uses a different type of ammunition: the real-life MAC-10 can be loaded both with 9x19 Parabellum ammunition and with more powerful .45 ACP, while the Uzi uses 9x19mm Parabellum ammo (versions exist in .45 ACP too, but only take rare 16-round magazines). However, the MAC-10 has a slower firing speed if it's used with .45 ACP ammo, and as the in-game Silenced Submachine Gun has a slower fire rate than the Submachine Gun, it's probably chambered for the .45 round.
 * Due to its unconventional and highly illegal origins, it is possible that this weapon fires custom-made low velocity cartridges. If so, this would reduce the weapon's stopping power relative to conventional commercial ammunition in the same caliber. This weapon relies on the slow and heavy .45 ACP round fired from a 5.7 inch barrel as compared to the Uzi's 10.2 inch barrel chambered for the lighter and faster 9mm Parabellum cartridge.
 * If the campaigns are played chronologically, this is the first primary weapon players encounter, as it is always found on the floor of the burning room outside the elevator in "The Hotel".
 * The MAC-10 in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is almost identical to Silenced Submachine Gun but without its attachments.
 * The strap on the MAC-10 which acts as a makeshift foregrip is correctly used as one in Global Offensive, while it is ignored by the survivors in Left 4 Dead 2 due to its animations reusing those for the Uzi.