Plasma Rifle

The next generation of plasma weapon, the plasma rifle us an effective rapid fire sniper rifle.

The plasma rifle improves considerably on the performance of its predecessor the Plasma Pistol in terms of damage and accuracy. It offers the best snap and auto fire accuracy of all the weapons. While not the highest, it also has 100% aimed accuracy.

The aliens have apparently bought the argument that the Heavy Plasma is better and abandon all other plasma weapons a few months into the invasion. This means that ammunition for the plasma rifle quickly becomes scarce. Once ammunition stockpiles are depleted, Elerium will need to be spent to produce more ammunition for this weapon.

Researching the Plasma Rifle and its clip is one of two options available for initiating the Plasma Beam and consequently Hovertank/Plasma projects.

Stats

Plasma Rifle:

Size: 3 high x 1 wide Weight: 5 TUs: Auto: 36% (Accuracy 55%) Snap: 30% (Accuracy 86%) Aimed: 60% (Accuracy 100%) Manufacturing: $88,000 for parts, 820 Engineer Hours, 1 Alien Alloy Sell Price: $126,600

Plasma Rifle Clip:

Power: 80 Plasma Ammo: 28 Size: 1 high x 1 wide Weight: 3 Manufacturing: $3,000 for parts, 80 Engineer Hours, 2 Elerium Sell Price: $6,290

Recommendations

Although this weapon straddles the middle ground for performance in the plasma weapon family, its increased snapshot accuracy make it a very good rapid-fire rifle for training snipers in actual battle.

A kneeled snapshot allows the shooter to make use of 98.9% of his or her base accuracy level while enjoying the speed of a snapshot, allowing for more attempts that equals to more accumulated experience and improved accuracy for the next mission.

A master marksman will eventually be able to consistently make 100% accurate snapshots with the plasma rifle. Once accuracy reaches or goes beyond 116, the sniper no longer needs to kneel. The sniper can even migrate to the Heavy Plasma and achieve the same level of performance by kneeling.

Usage Notes

The following lists how many times a soldier can fire the gun by shot type continuously in any given round and the remaining percentage of any left over TUs that cannot be spent as a shot.

• Aimed: 1 Shot, 40% Remaining TUs (enough for 1 Snap shot or 1 Auto burst)
• Snap: 3 Shots, 10% Remaining TUs
• Auto: 2 Bursts (6 Shots), 28% Remaining TUs

Tips

• When loaded, weighs as much as a loaded standard Pistol. If a unit for some reason can't move around with a Heavy Plasma, this is an excellent secondary weapon.
• Unless you can achieve 100% accuracy, Aimed shot takes too long for too little of an accuracy boost. Snapshot use is recommended as it will gives you more attempts.