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General Notes
Infantry Health
Infiltrators have 400 shields and 500 health.
LA, Engi, Medic, and HA all have 500 shields and 500 health.
The HA’s Nanite Mesh Generator shield gives 500 additional shields.
Nanoweave Armor ONLY affects the Health value, NOT the shields.
Damage Falloff
This is critical to understanding what ammo does. Almost every weapon in the game has two numbers associated with it for damage. First, maximum damage. For most VS weapons, this is 143@10m, though on some longer-range weapons it’s 167@10m. This means that, at distances of 10 meters or less, you will hit for the full amount of that damage. Second, weapons have a minimum damage. For a Carbine, this is usually 100@115m. This means that, at distances of 115 meters or more, you will do 100 damage. Between the maximum and minimum ranges, damage scales linearly downward.
Damage Levels
Weapons in PS2 do not do an arbitrary amount of damage. Instead, there are specific damage tiers for weapons. For VS, the relevant tiers are: 167, 143, 125, 112, 100, 91. Why these particular numbers? It’s the number of shots needed to kill a full health infantryman. 167 damage is 6 shots, 143 is 7, 125 is 8 shots, etc.
Short and Long Reloads
All weapons have two distinct reload times listed. The first is the "short" reload, and happens whenever you reload the magazine manually while there are still shots remaining by hitting R. The second is the "long" or "dry" reload time, and happens if you fire the weapon until you are completely out of ammo in that magazine. The reload animation will be significantly longer if you allow your magazine to be fully emptied. Always try to reload with at least one shot remaining.
Ammunition Types
Soft-Point Ammo
According to the game descriptions, SP ammo is better for use at close-medium range. What does it actually do? SP Ammo increases the maximum damage range from 10m to 15m, and reduces minimum damage by one tier (eg, minimum 100@115m becomes 91@115m). It also reduces bullet velocity by an unknown amount (which on non-VS weapons, would make bullet drop at long range more of a problem; for us it just means leading targets more).
SP Ammo DOES NOT increase the amount of damage a weapon can do, it just gives you a few extra meters of maximum damage. In actual numbers, SP ammo will do more damage than standard ammo between the distances of 10m and 20m, at which point standard ammo is superior on both damage and travel time. Since each weapon damage tier is tied to a particular number of shots to kill, the practical difference is that a standard Vanu 7-shot kill weapon (143 damage) will continue to be a 7-shot kill to just over 15 meters instead of the normal just over 10 meters. Beyond about 15.1 meters, even though you’re still doing more damage than standard ammo, it’s not enough more to matter – it still takes 8 hits to kill…. Until you get far enough out that it starts to take 9 shots to kill, which it never would have done previously.
Personally, I say give it a miss.
High-Velocity Ammo
HV ammo works by doing three things. First, the downside: your vertical recoil (and vertical recoil ONLY) will be increased by 6-12% (weapon specific). Second, it increases bullet velocity by an unknown amount (probably 10m/s). For VS, this only means a slight reduction in the amount you lead targets. Third, it increases minimum damage range by 10m.
At point blank, this does nothing. At any other range, you will be doing slightly more damage. Considering the shots/kill numbers though, at most ranges this has no tangible effect on your killing power.
Consider the Corvus Assault Rifle. This thing is a long-range machine, with 167@10m max and 125@125m min. This means:
Corvus with stock ammo:
0m-10m: 6 shots
10m-26.5m: 7 shots
>26.5m: 8 shots
Corvus with HV Ammo:
0m-10m: 6 shots
10m-27.9m: 7 shots
>27.9m: 8 shots
Yes. Really. That’s it. Literally it. 1.4m of extra range for the 7-shot-kill mid-range distance. In fairness, note that the shots/kill numbers assume a full-health infantryman. If they’ve already taken damage, it can be very, very slightly more useful (but not really).
Save your certs. The extra recoil ain’t worth it.
Barrel Attachments
Compensator
At the expense of hipfire accuracy and increased muzzle flash, the compensator reduces full-auto VERTICAL recoil by a fairly noticeable margin. On most Vanu weapons, it’s a bit less worth it, but there you go. For some weapons (eg, the Ursa and the Gauss-SAW), this is half of the difference between a highly mediocre weapon and an absolute beast.
The use case for this is firing about 8-10 round bursts at medium-long ranges. Note that it DOES NOT improve your cone of fire, only the center-of-aim point jerking around from recoil. This means that full auto fire will still spray a massive cone, but it will be easier to keep the cone centered where you want it to be.
Worth it? On some guns, yes. If you’re looking to make a medium-long range weapon a little bit more controllable, give it a try. If you’re looking to be able to unload your Flare’s entire magazine and hit 50 shots at 100m, keep dreaming.
Suppressor
Suppressors reduce the noise while firing and prevent you from pinging on the minimap when you fire. As a drawback, it also has a certain amount of damage dropoff at range associated with it (exact amounts are weapon-specific). As an additional drawback, it reduces bullet velocity and increases bullet drop at range. For Vanu, bullet drop is usually a non-issue, but it DOES actually figure in on bolt-actions at extreme range (like 150m+, although it’s trivial to compensate for).
There are exactly three weapons I would recommend a silencer on: pistols, scout rifles, and whatever CQC carbine option your Light Assault uses. All of these are for the same reason: they’re the only weapons you should ever really be using where you want to be playing Metal Gear Solid Vanu.
Flash Suppressor
ALL this does is to hide your muzzle flashes. The only range at which this is even remotely relevant is “extreme.” On sniper rifles, there’s a decent argument for this, as its drawback is an increase in per-shot recoil (eg, full-auto accuracy reduction). On a bolt-action sniper, nobody cares. For night fighting as a sniper, okay, buy the flash suppressor. For everyone else, give it a miss.
Rail Attachments
Laser Sight/Adv Laser Sight
The Laser Sight has exactly one function: it improves your STARTING hipfire cone of fire. It does piss all for controlling recoil or for when you are aiming down the sights. Despite that extremely niche application, it is TOTALLY worth it on weapons such as the VX6-7 or H-V45. In practice, it feels like the difference between only accurate hipfire at 5-10m (without) and accurate hipfire at 10-15m (with adv. Laser), which are both common engagement ranges around larger bases.
If you engage at close ranges and hipfire a lot, these are a massive improvement. And yes, the Advanced version is a similarly big step over the basic version. It’s no coincidence that the best CQC gun is usually the one with the Adv. Laser available.
Note that the red laser IS visible by hostiles and allies alike. You can turn it off by pressing the L key with the weapon equipped. The laser STILL WORKS while off. I will personally shoot anyone I see running around with their laser on. I don’t care how cool you think it looks, it’s visible from a mile away, especially at night.
Foregrip/Adv Foregrip
These attachments work by reducing the full-auto horizontal recoil felt while aiming down the sights. That’s it. They do not assist hipfire, they do not affect cone of fire.
These are totally worth it on longer-range weapons, even those with balanced horizontal recoil. What they will generally do is to condense your shot pattern from a circle into a sort of tall oval shape – conveniently the same shape as a standing person, meaning more shots landed on target. If you combine one of these with a Compensator, you’ll have a weapon with damn near no recoil, especially starting from VS weapons.
Infantry Health
Infiltrators have 400 shields and 500 health.
LA, Engi, Medic, and HA all have 500 shields and 500 health.
The HA’s Nanite Mesh Generator shield gives 500 additional shields.
Nanoweave Armor ONLY affects the Health value, NOT the shields.
Damage Falloff
This is critical to understanding what ammo does. Almost every weapon in the game has two numbers associated with it for damage. First, maximum damage. For most VS weapons, this is 143@10m, though on some longer-range weapons it’s 167@10m. This means that, at distances of 10 meters or less, you will hit for the full amount of that damage. Second, weapons have a minimum damage. For a Carbine, this is usually 100@115m. This means that, at distances of 115 meters or more, you will do 100 damage. Between the maximum and minimum ranges, damage scales linearly downward.
Damage Levels
Weapons in PS2 do not do an arbitrary amount of damage. Instead, there are specific damage tiers for weapons. For VS, the relevant tiers are: 167, 143, 125, 112, 100, 91. Why these particular numbers? It’s the number of shots needed to kill a full health infantryman. 167 damage is 6 shots, 143 is 7, 125 is 8 shots, etc.
Short and Long Reloads
All weapons have two distinct reload times listed. The first is the "short" reload, and happens whenever you reload the magazine manually while there are still shots remaining by hitting R. The second is the "long" or "dry" reload time, and happens if you fire the weapon until you are completely out of ammo in that magazine. The reload animation will be significantly longer if you allow your magazine to be fully emptied. Always try to reload with at least one shot remaining.
Ammunition Types
Soft-Point Ammo
According to the game descriptions, SP ammo is better for use at close-medium range. What does it actually do? SP Ammo increases the maximum damage range from 10m to 15m, and reduces minimum damage by one tier (eg, minimum 100@115m becomes 91@115m). It also reduces bullet velocity by an unknown amount (which on non-VS weapons, would make bullet drop at long range more of a problem; for us it just means leading targets more).
SP Ammo DOES NOT increase the amount of damage a weapon can do, it just gives you a few extra meters of maximum damage. In actual numbers, SP ammo will do more damage than standard ammo between the distances of 10m and 20m, at which point standard ammo is superior on both damage and travel time. Since each weapon damage tier is tied to a particular number of shots to kill, the practical difference is that a standard Vanu 7-shot kill weapon (143 damage) will continue to be a 7-shot kill to just over 15 meters instead of the normal just over 10 meters. Beyond about 15.1 meters, even though you’re still doing more damage than standard ammo, it’s not enough more to matter – it still takes 8 hits to kill…. Until you get far enough out that it starts to take 9 shots to kill, which it never would have done previously.
Personally, I say give it a miss.
High-Velocity Ammo
HV ammo works by doing three things. First, the downside: your vertical recoil (and vertical recoil ONLY) will be increased by 6-12% (weapon specific). Second, it increases bullet velocity by an unknown amount (probably 10m/s). For VS, this only means a slight reduction in the amount you lead targets. Third, it increases minimum damage range by 10m.
At point blank, this does nothing. At any other range, you will be doing slightly more damage. Considering the shots/kill numbers though, at most ranges this has no tangible effect on your killing power.
Consider the Corvus Assault Rifle. This thing is a long-range machine, with 167@10m max and 125@125m min. This means:
Corvus with stock ammo:
0m-10m: 6 shots
10m-26.5m: 7 shots
>26.5m: 8 shots
Corvus with HV Ammo:
0m-10m: 6 shots
10m-27.9m: 7 shots
>27.9m: 8 shots
Yes. Really. That’s it. Literally it. 1.4m of extra range for the 7-shot-kill mid-range distance. In fairness, note that the shots/kill numbers assume a full-health infantryman. If they’ve already taken damage, it can be very, very slightly more useful (but not really).
Save your certs. The extra recoil ain’t worth it.
Barrel Attachments
Compensator
At the expense of hipfire accuracy and increased muzzle flash, the compensator reduces full-auto VERTICAL recoil by a fairly noticeable margin. On most Vanu weapons, it’s a bit less worth it, but there you go. For some weapons (eg, the Ursa and the Gauss-SAW), this is half of the difference between a highly mediocre weapon and an absolute beast.
The use case for this is firing about 8-10 round bursts at medium-long ranges. Note that it DOES NOT improve your cone of fire, only the center-of-aim point jerking around from recoil. This means that full auto fire will still spray a massive cone, but it will be easier to keep the cone centered where you want it to be.
Worth it? On some guns, yes. If you’re looking to make a medium-long range weapon a little bit more controllable, give it a try. If you’re looking to be able to unload your Flare’s entire magazine and hit 50 shots at 100m, keep dreaming.
Suppressor
Suppressors reduce the noise while firing and prevent you from pinging on the minimap when you fire. As a drawback, it also has a certain amount of damage dropoff at range associated with it (exact amounts are weapon-specific). As an additional drawback, it reduces bullet velocity and increases bullet drop at range. For Vanu, bullet drop is usually a non-issue, but it DOES actually figure in on bolt-actions at extreme range (like 150m+, although it’s trivial to compensate for).
There are exactly three weapons I would recommend a silencer on: pistols, scout rifles, and whatever CQC carbine option your Light Assault uses. All of these are for the same reason: they’re the only weapons you should ever really be using where you want to be playing Metal Gear Solid Vanu.
Flash Suppressor
ALL this does is to hide your muzzle flashes. The only range at which this is even remotely relevant is “extreme.” On sniper rifles, there’s a decent argument for this, as its drawback is an increase in per-shot recoil (eg, full-auto accuracy reduction). On a bolt-action sniper, nobody cares. For night fighting as a sniper, okay, buy the flash suppressor. For everyone else, give it a miss.
Rail Attachments
Laser Sight/Adv Laser Sight
The Laser Sight has exactly one function: it improves your STARTING hipfire cone of fire. It does piss all for controlling recoil or for when you are aiming down the sights. Despite that extremely niche application, it is TOTALLY worth it on weapons such as the VX6-7 or H-V45. In practice, it feels like the difference between only accurate hipfire at 5-10m (without) and accurate hipfire at 10-15m (with adv. Laser), which are both common engagement ranges around larger bases.
If you engage at close ranges and hipfire a lot, these are a massive improvement. And yes, the Advanced version is a similarly big step over the basic version. It’s no coincidence that the best CQC gun is usually the one with the Adv. Laser available.
Note that the red laser IS visible by hostiles and allies alike. You can turn it off by pressing the L key with the weapon equipped. The laser STILL WORKS while off. I will personally shoot anyone I see running around with their laser on. I don’t care how cool you think it looks, it’s visible from a mile away, especially at night.
Foregrip/Adv Foregrip
These attachments work by reducing the full-auto horizontal recoil felt while aiming down the sights. That’s it. They do not assist hipfire, they do not affect cone of fire.
These are totally worth it on longer-range weapons, even those with balanced horizontal recoil. What they will generally do is to condense your shot pattern from a circle into a sort of tall oval shape – conveniently the same shape as a standing person, meaning more shots landed on target. If you combine one of these with a Compensator, you’ll have a weapon with damn near no recoil, especially starting from VS weapons.
