Assault Rifle (Fallout 4)

The assault rifle is a weapon in Fallout 4.

Background
Fed from a side-mounted magazine, this assault rifle has anti-aircraft style sights and interchangeable barrels and magazines. It includes a charging handle on the right fashioned out of wood. A common sight in the Commonwealth, this assault rifle is used by higher-ranking raiders, Gunners officers and some super mutants.

Characteristics
The assault rifle starts off semi-automatic but can be modded or found with an automatic receiver at the expense of a hefty damage reduction. A regular, semi-automatic assault rifle with all of the highest level mods equipped deals around 99 damage assuming the Sole Survivor has all of the Rifleman perks. This damage can be increased by finding a legendary variant with the mighty/powerful prefix. The weapon is heavy for an assault rifle, weighing 13.1 pounds (5.9 kg) unmodified with a short barrel, and when modified can weigh as much as 26 pounds.

The assault rifle has low recoil and good accuracy (even when fitted with an automatic receiver), both of which are excellent handling traits for sustained automatic fire, though the weapon can burn through ammo rapidly; this can be compounded by the relative scarcity of 5.56mm rounds at lower levels that can be looted from enemies without the Scrounger perk.

Any modification requires heavy investment in the Gun Nut perk, and some investment in the Science! perk for its advanced optical sights. However, after reaching a high level, modified assault rifles may appear as loot.

Locations

 * Carried by many raiders, Gunners and super mutants once the player character reaches approximately level 25.
 * Can be purchased from the following vendors:
 * KL-E-0 at Kill or Be Killed in Goodneighbor.
 * Arturo Rodriguez at Commonwealth Weaponry in Diamond City.
 * Myrna at Diamond City Surplus in Diamond City.
 * Cricket throughout the Commonwealth and at Bunker Hill.
 * Proctor Teagan on the Prydwen
 * Ronnie Shaw at the Castle after Old Guns is completed.
 * One can be found next to a door control terminal in the lowest level of the Massachusetts State House, outside the area where a mirelurk queen spawns.
 * One can be found next to the Expert locked terminal in the National Guard recruitment office on top of a container.
 * One is carried by Captain Maria at Parsons State Insane Asylum.
 * Another is carried by Edward Deegan, an employee of the Cabot family.
 * One can be found inside the crashed vertibird at Coast Guard Pier (may require the use of explosives to get into reachable range).
 * One can be found in Kendall Hospital, on a table next to a lit lantern in the raider area above the deathclaw.
 * Carried and sold by Allen Lee in Far Harbor.
 * Sold at the Nuka-Cade for 10100 Nuka-Cade tickets (items rotate every couple of days).

Behind the scenes

 * The assault rifle is referred to as a machine gun in its Nifskope models, stemming from the fact that, during Fallout 4's development, the assault rifle was one of the first weapons created, and was originally called a "machine gun" before the weapon crafting system was developed.
 * The "Army, Atom Cats, Gunners and Vault-Tec Weapon Paint Job" and "Brotherhood of Steel, Institute, Railroad, Minutemen Weapon Paint Job" Creation Club bundles, created by community modder Skidabaa in collaboration with Bethesda, identify this weapon as the M199 assault rifle mentioned in Fallout 3. The name can be seen when the "drum magazine" modification is applied to the weapon while one of the relevant paints is applied.