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.

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 in the security room unlocked by David Archer, if he was rescued in Overlord. (Also purchasable at Kassa Fabrication if missed during mission.)
 * Multiplayer: Randomly rewarded by purchasing a multiplayer item pack.

Player Notes

 * Unlike the other Assault Rifles, except for the M-99 Saber, Falcon Assault Rifle, and Chakram Launcher, the Mattock is semi-automatic.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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 damage 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.

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 is a variant 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.