Unlocking Attachments And Ranking Up Weapons
Weapon attachments are unlocked only by kills and battlepacks. Each 10 kills will unlock a new attachment, until you’ve unlocked all the standard attachments for the weapon. After that, you’ll unlock Weapon Battlepacks every 50 kills, until you get all of those. Weapon Battlepacks will contain all of the alternative attachments available for that weapon, plus other random items, so you always unlock everything for your favorite gun simply by shooting and killing with it. Other Battlepacks can also contain weapon attachments, but you can’t control what weapon and attachment you will get.
The earliest attachments available for most weapons tend to be the most useful. That’s good, you don’t have to wait long before you get things that make it easier to use your chosen weapon.
Weapon classes are ranked up only by points earned from firing the weapon. This includes kills, of course, but also assists, suppression, and any bonus points (head shots, avenger, comeback, etc.) earned from a kill. XP Boosts also increase weapon class XP. Ranking up in general comes easier when you know what things give you extra points, but for weapons it truly comes down to simply using the weapon to kill the enemy.
Sniper Rifles have a special kill bonus, the Marksman award for a head shot kill at 50 or more meters. The longer the range, the higher the bonus score. The Marksman Ribbon requires 250 meter head shots (but you can also score it with cumulative shots above 50 meters — 5 50 meter shots would count). These reward the difficult long range shots, and can make it a little easier to rank up Sniper rifles because you tend to fire far fewer shots than with most other weapons per game.
I won’t go over each individual attachment in detail, but I will cover some quick categories which are most helpful to learn.
Barrel Attachments
Suppressors: There is one generic model and three others, one for each nationality. All work exactly the same way. This gives you three times the chance to score one from a Battlepack for a given weapon. They stop your weapon fire from making you appear on the map due to reduced sound. The weapon loses bullet velocity (to around 300m/s), and there is a 20% increase in spread for fire when hip firing while standing still.
The other barrel attachments range from simple to complex effects.
Flash Hider: Reduces the muzzle flash, both for your and your enemies. No other combat effect.
Compensator: 25% less horizontal recoil, 33% more shot spread (less accuracy).
Muzzle Brake: 10% less vertical (upward) recoil, 12.5% more shot spread.
Heavy Barrel: 30% more vertical (upward) recoil. 50% less starting spread, 7.5% less spread increase, 16.7% less moving spread penalty. Overall, improves accuracy considerably at the cost of much more recoil.
Underbarrel Attachments
Underbarrel Grips: There are six of these, but only three types. Three are standard unlocks, the others are obtained from Battlepacks.
Stubby Grip, Potato Grip: Reduces the automatic fire accuracy penalty by 15%, that is, 15% less spread increase per shot. Note that these are often paired with the barrel attachments which affect accuracy as compensation.
Ergo Grip, Vertical Grip: Reduces the moving fire accuracy penalty by 50%.
Angled Grip, Folding Grip: 33% less first shot recoil multiplier.
You are likely to choose one of these, depending on how you plan to use that weapon. Help accuracy, moving fire, or recoil?
There are two other underbarrel options: The Underslung Rail for some Assault Rifles, of use if you use either the Grenade Launcher or M26 Shotguns to speed up switching to them. Or the Bipod, which offers much lower recoil and greater accuracy when deployed, but locks you into a fixed position.
Sniper Rifles don’t use this category, but give you the choice between the Bipod and the Straight Pull Bolt, which gives you the ability to reload without having to quit aiming down the sights (and zooming your view out).
Accessories
Laser Sight accessories: All have the exact same game effect, 25% less hip fire spread unless standing and moving, when it reduces spread 33%. The color and pattern may affect visibility to the enemy, and how effectively the beam can blind them, but has no effect on weapon accuracy. Note that the laser beam can be visible at a long range and thus give your presence away. You can switch it off, then switch it on immediately when in combat and gain its benefits. The laser beam will mark exactly where your gun barrel is aimed at, which makes accurate hip fire much easier.
Optics, Lights, and other attachments don’t affect weapon performance. The effects of those are fairly straightforward. Flashlights give light for you, make you easier to see, and can blind enemies. The Tactical Light can be turned on and off, while the Laser/Light Combo switches between the two.
The Magnifier (2X) can be used on most guns with 1X Close Range Optics. It allows a higher zoom as an alternative.
Sniper Rifles get some special accessories.
Variable Zoom (14X). Adds a 14X magnification as an alternative for any Long Range Optic. Cannot be used with shorter range optics.
Rangefinder. Adds a built in rangefinder which will show the range to target, both on the attachment and in the scope when aiming down the sights.
Optics
The standard optics fall into two types of close range optics and two of medium range.
Red Dot Sights: US Reflex, RU Kobra, CN Coyote. 1x with simple red marker for the aiming point. Fast and easy to use.
Holographic Sights: US Holo, RU PK-A, CN HD-33. 1x with open lit ring for aiming point. Good for seeing the target at moderate ranges.
3.4X Fast Medium Range Sights: US M145, RU PK-A, CN PRISMA. Moderate magnification for medium range shooting.
4X Medium Range Sights: US ACOG, RU PSO-1, CN JGM-4. Highest magnification medium range sight.
All guns also have Iron Sights — the built in metal sight on the barrel. The accessory Canted Iron Sights gives any gun the option to use an unmagnified iron sight, a useful choice combined with a long range sight which isn’t as useful at short range.
There are two night vision sights available for most guns from Battlepacks:
IRNV 1X Green Infrared Night Vision
FLIR 2X Black And White Infrared for longer range.
Sniper Rifles are the only weapons which get Long Range Optics:
CN CL6x (6x), RU PKS-07 (7x), US Rifle Scope (8x) — the standard sniper optics.
Ballistic (40x) – a very long range scope available as a later unlock
Hunter (20x) – another long range scope available from Battlepacks.
Note that with all of these, the Variable Zoom (14X) attachment offers an alternate zoom, but with the same scope design for reticle marks.
Configuration Choices
Many attachments work well together, and you should always consider how your chosen attachments will interact.
The Angle Grip and Heavy Barrel work well together, reducing the first shot recoil penalty without reducing the accuracy gained with the Heavy barrel. The Stubby Grip not only compensates for the Muzzle Brake penalty, but retains some of its base accuracy advantage. It also balances the Compensator penalty well, especially for weapons with high, unruly horizontal recoil, reducing the accuracy loss while also reducing recoil. The Laser Sight And Ergo Grip work well together to improve moving and hip fire accuracy.
Overall, Battlefield 4 offers a huge range of customization options for your weapons. While changing appearance won’t affect how the weapon performs in battle, it is a nice touch to personalize your weapon. All weapons can have a choice of paint, and will be decorated with your custom emblem once you’ve chosen it.
