M16 Assault Rifle

''This article is about the M-16 Assault Rifle. For other Assault Rifles, see AK-47 or Combat Rifle.''

"An assault rifle; This shit's gettin' more like 'Nam every second."

- Bill

"Taking the rifle!"

- Rochelle

The Assault Rifle in Left 4 Dead or M-16 Assault Rifle in Left 4 Dead 2, is a Tier 2 automatic rifle. It features a 50-round magazine with 360 rounds in reserve. The Assault Rifle's damage fall off is it loses 3% damage per 500 units and after 1500 units it suffers significantly greater damage fall off. It has a max range of 3000 units.

In summary, the Assault Rifle offers a balanced accuracy, fast reload, and general adaptability compared to other rifles in its tier.

The M16 is used by Bill, Louis, Nick, and Rochelle (as well as Zoey in the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead 2).

Tactics
In Left 4 Dead, the Assault Rifle is the most flexible and capable weapon available. Whether it is clearing a room, mopping up, engaging a Horde or sniping a distant Special Infected, the Assault Rifle will carry it off. It does have some shortcomings, but these are relatively minor and do not affect gameplay very much.

However, in Left 4 Dead 2, the standard Assault Rifle faces strong direct competition from alternative weapons (e.g. the AK-47, and even the tier 1 Silenced SMG) and players need to make their choices with a finer understanding of each weapon's pros and cons.

The Assault Rifle has five main advantages: On the downside, the Assault Rifle has a few potential shortcomings: Tactically, since the Assault Rifle normally only needs two or three shots to do its job and the recoil generated by full-auto firing degrades accuracy at mid to long ranges, burst firing or "headhunting" is highly recommended. Players using the M16 will face ammo conversation concerns more often compared to other weapons, both in general, and particularly following tank fights, due to the higher amount of bullets required for general purpose fighting compared to other weapons. The secret of firing short bursts (or even single shots) is to apply only a very quick and light pressure on the fire control button. If the player has trouble conserving ammunition, try to use a secondary weapon against Common infected, and use Assault Rifle against Special Infected, Hordes and the Tank.
 * Its projectile is capable of penetrating multiple targets (which is a maximum of two Common Infected, also the same for the Combat Rifle, AK-47, Dual Pistols and Desert Eagle)
 * It has a high rate of fire which, together with its longer range relative to the shotgun family, make it a very potent weapon against Tanks.
 * It has the ability to fire on full auto (by holding down the fire control button) and to let off fast double-taps and short bursts (by applying light pressure to the fire controller).
 * It has a large magazine backed up by a generous reserve ammo allowance.
 * It has a tight cone of fire (limited shot dispersion) meaning that it is safer to use than a shotgun when firing near other Survivors.
 * It is easy to waste ammo if a player adopts the habit of firing on full auto at all times. In co-op play this can be risky since a full-auto team member can become a liability, due to that person's repeated ammo shortages.
 * On higher difficulties, the Assault Rifle's killing power is diluted relative to other weapons so that it requires at least three hits to take down a Common Infected.
 * The overall damage that the Assault Rifle is capable of doing is drastically lower compared to other weapons in its tier, and even extends to being inferior compared to tier 1 weapons like the silenced SMG in terms of sheer total damage dealing potential over time, due to a much lower damage per bullet compared to weapons in its same tier, and a much lower ammo pool compared to the tier 1 submachine gun-type weapons.

Burst firing involves firing a short two- to five-round burst at individual targets before shifting aim and repeating the treatment. This is excellent when shooting at medium and long ranges (e.g. sniping a Smoker's head just above a distant roof line) and is effective on most difficulty settings except for Expert (wherein targets are more resilient). With burst firing, a player knows that after firing five or six bursts the magazine is about half-empty and is getting due for reload, something that is hard to gauge firing on full-auto.

"Headhunting" with the Assault Rifle takes advantage of its accuracy and the fact that Common Infected all have the same physical height. Firing at the heads of a Horde decimates their ranks quickly. (A variation, "Leg Chopping" works in much the same way: a crouching player aims low for their legs.)

With a team of four player-controlled Survivors in a finale, it is a good idea to have two players with Auto Shotguns and Assault Rifles respectively. Position the team in a closet or facing a choke point. The two shotgunners crouch in front while the two with Assault Rifles stand behind them and fire over their heads. When the Tank arrives, the team breaks up to engage and reform once it is dispatched. (Note that this tactic is less effective in Left 4 Dead 2, as the Director may spawn a Spitter (or a Charger in choke points like a hallway) to prevent Survivors from staying in one place for too long.)

Pros

 * High accuracy, rate of fire, magazine size and reserve.
 * Extremely versatile.
 * Fast reload of 2.2 seconds, being the fastest-reloading primary weapon in the game.
 * Extremely common.

Cons

 * Low damage, both per bullet and for overall total damage possible without resupplying.
 * Doesn't excel in any particular situation.
 * Burns through ammo at a high rate.
 * Hard to fire single-shots.
 * Struggles at higher difficulties; takes three or more shots to kill Common Infected at Advanced and above, which also further amplifies its existing ammo consumption problems.

Left 4 Dead 2
The Assault Rifle returns in Left 4 Dead 2, but has some new animations along with a new name: the "M-16 Assault Rifle". Compared with the other two base rifles (the AK-47 and the Combat Rifle), it is the "middle of the road" assault rifle variant in terms of capacity, with the highest rate of fire and reload speed, and the lowest damage per shot. This makes it very versatile and effective for both mid-long range headhunting or full-auto room clearing.

Behind the Scenes
Early screenshots show that the Assault Rifle lacked text on its left side at one time.

When the Assault Rifle was drawn in early versions of the game, the character would pull the charging handle as soon as they took the gun out. The sound for this animation is still played when the Assault Rifle is drawn out in the final version of the game.

The Assault Rifle was based on Counter-Strike M4A1 assault rifle. Its "price" in the gun's weapon file is the same as the M4A1's, and it references the M4A1 in its "animation" listing. Its firing sounds are slightly modified versions of the sounds used for the M4A1. This is because in real life, the M4A1 is essentially a shorter M16.

It had a different reload animation as well. After replacing the magazine, the player would both pull the charging handle and hit the bolt catch.

Gallery
Штурмовая винтовка