Battle Rifle

Overview

 * This weapon is unlocked at rank 5.
 * The explosions deal damage according to the distance of the target from the center of the explosion, dealing maximum damage to the primary target hit and in the center of explosion and less the further from it.
 * Fire modes
 * Primary fire
 * The primary fire shoots a round that explodes on impact.
 * The secondary fire shoots out a timed explosive, that deals a large amount of damage. The explosive detonates after 5 seconds, though damaging the explosives can detonate them for full damage. It is possible to set off the timed explosives with any weapon, but due to their small size, using explosive damage is the easiest way to do this. Examples of explosive damage include the REX, Rocket Tower, Assault Rifle' s secondary fire, AR-Mines, and both Battle Rifle's primary and secondary attacks.
 * A timed explosive consumes 2 of the magazine's 5 rounds, meaning that a maximum of 3 timed explosives can be used per magazine.
 * Unlike the Assault Rifle's secondary fire, the Battle Rifle's timed explosives are fired at high velocity, meaning that gravity has a much lower impact on the trajectory. Also, instead of exploding on impact with enemies, they will simply bounce off.
 * The weapon's explosive projectiles have knockback
 * Lumes suffer this knockback and are slightly displaced every shot, which can often be even observed relatively easily if the player hits a lume from close with. This can sometimes make them switch targets or change direction, e.g. melee-attacking lumes that have started to attack the core might start to attack the player instead if the knockback is big enough.
 * The player can perform rocket jumping and accidentally displace self by using primary fire very close to a target or solid obstacle. Secondary fire displaces the player just if he is close to the timed explosives when they are triggered. Simultaneously jumping and using the primary fire straight downwards is sufficient for a rather high jump. Adding one or two timed explosives underneath you before doing this will allow you to jump even higher. The highest rocket jump without the aid of another player is achieved using three timed explosives and REX's primary fire.
 * The explosive rounds can displace other players and friendly AI (Explorer conscripts, Simo units & G-2 Companions), which can lead to both positive and negative results (like using the weapon to put an Explorer Conscript in a better position, or pushing a teammate to an unwanted place like to aggressive lumes or out of bounds). The primary fire is a lot stronger in this direction, while the secondary fire produces some displacement just if the player/friendly AI is close when the timed explosives are triggered.
 * The Battle Rifle doesn't change the crosshair and keeps high accuracy if used for constant firing, similarly to the Sniper rifle (although if the Sniper rifle is used along with Tactical juxtaposition, this leads to high recoil, unlike the Battle rifle's solid aim).

Notes & tactics

 * When using the weapon in coop, the player should be wary for players & friendly AI in the direction of firing. When a player is hit by the primary fire of another player, for him this visually appears as a sharp, sudden displacement, which might lead to confusion and sometimes can be confused with connection issues since the affected player often cannot orientate for the source of the event. The secondary fire would provoke less confusion, particularly due to the clear explosive sound, which is not apparent if being hit by primary fire.
 * While the primary fire can hit weakspots, it has some more difficulty doing it, since the projectile is large and is more likely to hit bigger weakspots than smaller ones for crit damage. It can hit Bobble Heads and Fiskeplaske's vulnerable parts if aimed properly, but smaller weakspots such as these on Walkers, Walker Warriors and Spore Pods are very difficult to hit accurately, unlike the weapons with smaller projectiles, and aimed explosive rounds are more likely to hit the rest of the body for non-crit damage.
 * The secondary fire can be used tactically, e.g. putting some timed explosives on the ground and when lumes pass through them or amass, the damage dealt can be very high, especially if it is combined with some other fire, like detonating with the Plasma rilfe's secondary fire.
 * The secondary fire of the Ballista can trigger timed explosive only by the fired projectile, similarly to its primary fire. The area-of effect cannot trigger the explosion.
 * Using 4 times the primary fire and pushing secondary with the last shot can lead to some more DPS if done properly at the right moment (if lumes are guaranteed to suffer the timed explosive's damage). In fact, one of the possible ways to use this weapon is to randomly switch between the fire modes, depending on the scenario. The secondary fire can deal more damage to groups of lumes, even though it cannot hit weakspots.
 * Jumpers might stop into a position instead of continuing with the jumping if the primary fire has hit them in the proper moment, although this is extremely tricky and rare to encounter.
 * Lumes that have just spawned from their spawn point sometimes might not move if they have been hit by a knockback-projectile. One somewhat funny sample is the wave with Screamer Matriarchs in the last game map (8-4: The Last Stand) - The primary fire might displace them backwards, rendering them "unwilling" to enter the maze.
 * Using the weapon with Hip Fire is double-edged, since the primary fire can deal some more weakspot damage without this perk.