Every assault rifle, priced and gated
The other tier lists rank on speed, and the better ones put a price beside it. None of them tells you when you can hold the thing: on the two biggest, the words “unlock” and “level” do not appear against a single weapon. That is half an answer — a rifle you cannot equip for another thirty levels is not a recommendation. This table carries all three: what it kills in, what it costs, and what gate stands in front of it.
| Rifle, and its gate | Price | Dmg / RPM | Unarmoured | Level 4 vest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FALAssault 35 | $6,500 | 60 / 650 | 92 ms2 shots | 369 ms5 shots |
| M4Assault 20 | $2,800 | 28 / 800 | 225 ms4 shots | 750 ms11 shots |
| T-21Open from the start | $600 | 28 / 750 | 240 ms4 shots | 800 ms11 shots |
| Bushmaster M17SOpen from the start | Free | 28 / 700 | 257 ms4 shots | 857 ms11 shots |
| A-91Open from the start | Free | 28 / 700 | 257 ms4 shots | 857 ms11 shots |
| KH-2002Open from the start | Free | 28 / 700 | 257 ms4 shots | 857 ms11 shots |
| AK74Assault 3 | $1,600 | 26 / 650 | 277 ms4 shots | 923 ms11 shots |
| GalilAssault 10 | $2,200 | 28 / 650 | 277 ms4 shots | 923 ms11 shots |
The free rifles are the story
Bushmaster M17S, A-91 and KH-2002 cost nothing, need no unlock, and all three carry the same profile: 28 damage at 700 rounds a minute, 4 shots to kill, 257 ms.
Now put money against that. The AK74 at $1,600 takes 277 ms — slower than free, because its 26 damage still needs 4 shots and it fires more slowly. The Galil at $2,200 lands on the same 277 ms. Two rifles, $3,800 between them, and neither kills faster than the rifle the game gives you.
One site's ranked list of assault rifles puts the AK74 second and the Galil third, above all three free rifles, with no damage or fire-rate figures on the page to support it. On the figures its own neighbours publish, that order is upside down. We would rather show the numbers and be corrected than rank by feel.
What is actually worth buying
- T-21, $600, no gate. 240 ms, the fastest rifle you can hold in your first match, and 6% of the seed. If you buy one rifle before you have levels, buy this.
- M4, $2,800, Assault 20. 225 ms, 32 ms clear of the free rifles and 52 ms clear of the AK74. Worth it once the level is there and the wallet can lose it, not before.
- FAL, $6,500, Assault 35. The only assault rifle that leaves the 28-damage plateau: 60 damage, 2 shots, 92 ms. It costs 65% of the starting balance, and you lose it the same way you lose a free one.
Armour decides more than the rifle does
Against a Level 4 vest every 28-damage rifle in the table needs 11 shots — free ones, the AK74, the Galil and the $2,800 M4 alike. The FAL needs 5. It also publishes the vest model: a vest takes a fixed share off every torso hit, 30% at Level 1 rising to 65% at Level 4.
So the question is not which rifle is fastest on an unarmoured target. It is whether you own something that still works against armour. Spending $2,200 on a sidegrade does nothing there; the $6,500 rifle is a different weapon.
A cheaper gun outside the class
The Super-45 submachine gun costs $2,600 — less than the M4 — and models at 150 ms, faster than every assault rifle except the FAL. The catch is the gate: Medic 35. If you play Medic, the best "rifle" for the money is not a rifle.
The recruit discount cuts the wrong things
Below Wardog 9 all vendor gear is half price, so the M4 lands at $1,400 and the FAL at $3,250 — but both are gated at Assault 20 and Assault 35, which you will not reach while the discount lasts. In practice the discount buys armour, equipment and vehicles, not rifles: the rifles you can hold that early are free or $600 anyway.
What these numbers do not cover
TTK = (shots to kill − 1) × 60 / RPM against a 100-health target. It counts nothing else: no recoil, no attachments, no damage falloff, no magazine size, no hit registration.
Seven weapons on our price list have no published damage at all: MP43, M500, Compound Bow, 9K333 Verba, RPG-7, MAAWS, MGL-40. Every shotgun, the bow and every launcher sit in that gap, which is why no honest tier list should rank them.
Season 1 moved no assault-rifle price. BULKHEAD's changelog of 9 September lists its economy changes line by line, and the rifles are not among them — the prices above are the current ones.