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 can destroy a gunship.
 * Another sound tactic is to use the Mattock (preferably combined with an Adrenaline Rush) to score easy headshots against enemies at close range. This is especially effective on lower difficulty levels, where even dangerous enemies like Heavies typically lack protection. This can become a lifesaver for Soldiers who have used up their Shotgun ammunition.

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: Grissom Academy: Emergency Evacuation: On a couch before reaching Seanne Bellarmine and sometimes in the security room unlocked by David Archer, if he was rescued in Overlord. (Purchasable from Kassa Fabrication if missed during mission.)
 * Multiplayer: Randomly rewarded by purchasing an item pack.

Player Notes

 * Single-player
 * The Mattock's main advantage is its highly accurate and damaging semi-automatic fire, making it very useful for pinpoint (headshot) shooting at medium to long range where it can neutralize most enemies with less than one clip. When equipped with a scope, it is versatile enough to serve as a main or even sole weapon under almost any circumstances.
 * Although the Mattock is a semi-automatic rifle, it has very little delay between shots, allowing it to be fired almost as quickly as the user can pull the trigger.
 * The Mattock is very versatile and can be wielded as a main weapon, or even sole weapon, in almost any circumstance. However, this will expose its biggest performance weakness: close range against multiple enemies. While it does have sufficient damage to kill in one shot, a squad of enemies can cause real problems due to its low capacity and its semi-automatic nature. Thus it is advisable to carry an alternative weapon such as a submachine gun to keep the low weight and offset your close-range shortcomings.


 * Multiplayer
 * Another problem with the Mattock is its weight. Despite it being lower than the M-76 Revenant, it is still quite heavy. This can make it difficult for those who need to use powers frequently to be combat effective. Despite this, it is lighter than an M-13 Raptor sniper rifle, at the cost of accuracy and rate of fire. The Raptor also has a scope equipped by default, freeing up space for another mod. Players may wish to take these factors into consideration when choosing either rifle, based on their playing style.
 * Higher weapon ranks, combined with certain power evolutions on Krogan Soldiers, Krogan Sentinels and Drell Vanguards, can still give you +200% power recharge, which makes it a great "lightweight" choice for those classes.
 * The Mattock can utilise a barrel and piercing mod to counter one of the significant weaknesses of this gun: combat ineffectiveness against Guardians, or armor-plated Cannibals. The Ammo mod is also pretty useful, given its high damage and moderate capacity, it can make the Mattock into a very effective battle rifle with a good balance between ammo, damage, range, weight, and accuracy.
 * The Mattock (levels VI+) works very well when paired with a Turian Sentinel who, with the correct power evolutions, can still have a +200% power recharge. This is especially useful against geth, as it allows the player to repeatedly spam Overload (even while wearing Tech Armor) to drain the shields of enemies, and then use the scoped Mattock to headshot them repeatedly.
 * While the Mattock is primarily a medium range weapon, it can be used effectively at close ranges if it has an extended magazine and if the player has a fast trigger finger.
 * Adrenaline Rush turns this already powerful weapon into a deadly combat rifle capable of dealing serious damage to even the biggest of enemies. In the 6.8 seconds given, you can easily squeeze off at least 30 rounds, even more if you are good at reload cancelling and trigger pulling. This allows one to dispose of whole groups of infantry with surprising speed, especially with Piercing and Barrel Mods combined.

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 weapon 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 and Cerberus Harrier are variants of the Mattock.
 * Mass Effect: Infiltrator features a fully automatic version of the rifle known as the M-96 Mattock Auto, complete with a yellow and white Cerberus finish that is identical with other Cerberus weapons. The weapon was later added to Mass Effect 3's multiplayer as the Cerberus Harrier.