M-96 Mattock

The M-96 Mattock Heavy Rifle is an assault rifle in Mass Effect 2.

In-Game Description
Medium-range, semi-automatic rifle effective against armor, shields, and barriers. Upgrades the Avenger assault rifle.

The Mattock is a semi-automatic hybrid weapon with an assault rifle's low heat production and a sniper rifle's punch. Though it does not have a sniper rifle's precision scope, marksmen favor its increased power over that of an assault rifle to bring down hardened targets. Its lack of a full-auto setting is advertised as a feature rather than a shortcoming since it curbs a soldier's tendency to spray inaccurate fire under stress.

Acquisition
Available through purchase of the Firepower Pack DLC.

Squad Use
This weapon can be used by Garrus, Grunt, Legion, Samara/Morinth, and Zaeed. Squad members are even more effective with the Mattock than they are with the Vindicator making it the most powerful assault rifle in the hands of an ally.

Player Notes

 * This weapon is by far the most powerful weapon in the game when used by a soldier with the Adrenaline Rush powers. This is because the weapon has the unique property of no minimum time between shots, even while using a time dilation effect (which normally reduces the RoF and compensates for the reduction with damage bonus).  This gives it an effectively unlimited rate of fire, restricted only by how fast you can pull the trigger.  Even without a custom modified controller, a skilled player can empty the entire clip with little difficulty in one usage of either Adrenaline Rush power.  With weapon upgrades and ammo powers, this gives the M-96 Mattock a higher dps than every other weapon in the game save the M-920 Cain or any weapon attack that instantly kills the target (such as sniper head shot attacks).  It is completely broken!  It can be used to destroy boss enemies like the gunship in the archangel recruitment mission in less than 10 seconds, before the gunship would move away and additional Blue Suns mercenaries would add to the fight.
 * On the battlefield, the M-96 Mattock fills a tactical role similar to that of the M-15 Vindicator or an M-97 Viper, functioning as a high accuracy semi-automatic battle rifle with a smaller ammo reserve but strong armor-piercing capabilities. As it lacks fully automatic fire, it is not recommended for close-range fighting against large waves of attackers, especially Husks.
 * Even though it doesn't work well with Husks, using Adrenaline Rush or Hardened Adrenaline Rush, fixes the problem. Simply shooting Husks in lower area of the body while using Adrenaline Rush or Hardened Adrenaline Rush instantly kills them.
 * The entire clip can be emptied during the course of a use of Adrenaline Rush or Hardened Adrenaline Rush, making it a good alternative to the Vindicator for a Soldier. Although the entire clip cannot be emptied during the course of a single Heightened Adrenaline Rush, the higher weapon damage bonus granted by Heightened Adrenaline Rush (+140% as opposed to +100%) aids in conserving the Mattock's limited ammo reserve.
 * The M-96 Mattock can shell out more damage over the course of one Adrenaline Rush than any other weapon, making it the most effective weapon when used in that mode.
 * With all six possible assault rifle damage upgrades, the penetration upgrade, a Kuwashii Visor equipped, and Heightened Adrenaline Rush active, the M-96 Mattock will inflict approximately 180 damage to an enemy with a headshot. This is double the base damage of the M-97 Viper with no upgrades. Adding Armor Piercing Ammo, Warp Ammo or Inferno Ammo can increase this value to nearly 220 damage per headshot, which is comparable to a round from the M-92 Mantis.
 * The Mattock has a noticeablely higher chance of disabling geth when it is used with Disruptor Ammo.
 * Shooting an unprotected opponent in the head will cause them to momentarily be stunned and jerk their head backwards a bit potentially spoiling your aim (especially outside of Adrenaline Rush). An excellent way to compensate for this is to use a technique called the double tap (which is actually a real world technique); basically it involves firing the Mattock twice in very rapid succession resulting in two direct hits the target's head before it moves enough to throw off the player's aim. With enough damage upgrades, an appropriate type of ammunition and enough practice this tactic will kill any unprotected low level enemy in very short order.

Trivia

 * The Mattock was balanced differently from other assault rifles. The rifle does very high damage per shot, but offsets this by significantly limiting the ammo available, forcing players to make each shot count.
 * A Mattock is a hand tool similar to a pickaxe, that was often used by infantry as a form of improvised pole-arm during the Middle Ages.
 * Like the Vindicator, the Mattock fires on full-auto during cutscenes despite being semi-automatic.
 * There is a bug in which Grunt will not fire the Mattock. This can be corrected by swapping his weapon to shotguns and then back to assault rifles.