M-96 Mattock

The M-96 Mattock Heavy Rifle is an assault rifle in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.

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.

Player Notes

 * 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 designated marksman 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 (unless when using Adrenaline Rush or Hardened Adrenaline Rush).
 * The entire magazine of the weapon can be emptied during the course of an Adrenaline Rush, Hardened Adrenaline Rush or Heightened Adrenaline Rush, making it a good alternative to the Vindicator for a Soldier.
 * 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.
 * 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 to 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.
 * For a Soldier with a high level Adrenaline Rush, a full clip from a Mattock with Armor Piercing Ammo destroy a gunship.

Description
Medium-range, semi-automatic rifle. The Mattock is a hybrid weapon with an assault rifle's low heat production and a sniper rifle's punch. 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 as it curbs a soldier's tendency to spray inaccurate fire under stress.

Acquisition

 * Single-player: TBA
 * Multiplayer: Randomly rewarded by purchasing a multiplayer item pack.

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.
 * The M-55 Argus is a variant of the Mattock.