Assault rifle

The assault rifle is a moderately heavy, automatic ranged weapon in RimWorld which fires 3-shot bursts of rounds which deal a moderate amount of damage each; a slightly shorter delay between each shot; a moderate time between bursts; slightly longer range and moderate overall accuracy.

Acquisition

Assault rifles can be crafted with skill level 6 at a machining table once the precision rifling research has been completed; with 60 steel, 7 components and 40,000 ticks (11.11 mins) of work. Assault rifles can also be purchased from outlander and orbital combat suppliers, outlander settlements, or from raider drops:

Raider Kind	Chance	Average Quality	Health
Mercenary Gunner	9.17%	Normal	70-320%
Elite Mercenary	53.37%	Normal	100%
Ancient Soldier	10.81%	Normal	100%

Analysis

The assault rifle is somewhat middle-of-the-road in many aspects, with the exception of a decent range - the longest range out of all multi-shot firearms (barring the single-use triple rocket launcher), but not as long as the bolt-action rifle's. Unlike more specialized weapons such as the LMG and bolt-action rifle, the assault rifle is more of a jack-of-all trades; master of none. Interestingly, as a result, the assault rifle's biggest strength which in turn sets it apart from other weapons really is just its versatility. Single-target damage output is respectable: consistently higher than the LMG's, though lower than the heavy SMG's until beyond short distance.

Given its respectable rate-of-fire and somewhat consistent accuracy profile, the assault rifle is a somewhat skill-friendly weapon, though it's advisable to use cheaper weapons for inexperienced shooters such as the machine pistol.

The only real thing that the assault rifle lacks is stopping power, only being high enough to stagger smaller creatures such as tortoises and boomrats. Production is also quite expensive, and you won't see raiders use assault rifles until the midgame.

The assault rifle can be used to effect in virtually any use case, whether in close-quarters or on the field - though slightly weaker as a support weapon due to its low stopping power. Hunting is also a viable option with the assault rifle due to its moderate per-shot damage and decent range. This makes it possibly be the best all-round ranged weapon of the mid-late game.

Against an unarmored human, an assault rifle can kill with 4 hits to the torso, 3 hits to the head or neck, or 1 hit to the brain; cripple or destroy limbs in 3 hits; and cripple or destroy eyes and digits with a single hit. It'll generally take around 6 hits (~9.3 seconds average) to incapacitate that human from pain shock.

Melee Combat

Tool	Attack	Damage Type	Power	AP	Cooldown	Likelihood	Base DPS
Overall	-	-	9	13%	2.00s	-	4.50
Stock	Blunt	Blunt	9	13%	2.00s	50.00%	4.50
Barrel	Blunt	Blunt	9	13%	2.00s	25.00%	4.50
Barrel	Poke	Blunt	9	13%	2.00s	25.00%	4.50

Quality Table

Quality	Beauty	Deterioration Rate	Market Value	Accuracy (close)	Accuracy (short)	Accuracy (medium)	Accuracy (long)	Damage	Armor Penetration	Melee Damage Per Second	Melee Armor Penetration
Awful	-3	4/day	$240	48%	56%	52%	44%	10	15%	3.6	11%
Poor	-3	3/day	$360	54%	63%	58%	50%	11	16%	4.05	12%
Normal	-3	2/day	$480	60%	70%	65%	55%	11	16%	4.5	13%
Good	-3	1.6/day	$600	66%	77%	72%	60%	11	16%	4.95	15%
Excellent	-3	1.2/day	$725	72%	84%	78%	66%	11	16%	5.4	16%
Masterwork	-3	0.6/day	$1205	81%	94%	88%	74%	14	21%	6.53	20%
Legendary	-3	0.2/day	$2410	90%	100%	98%	83%	16	25%	7.42	22%

Graphs

The graphs assume a normal quality assault rifle against an adult human that's out in the open in clear weather. For DPS, projectile speed has also been factored into the equation, with the weighting based on the base amount of attacks that it'll take to put the aforementioned target into pain shock.