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The M-96 Mattock is an assault rifle in Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, and Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Mass Effect 2[]

Description[]

Medium-range, semi-automatic rifle effective against armor, shields, and barriers. Upgrades the Avenger assault rifle.

The Mattock is a semi-automatic hybrid weapon with an assault rifle's low heat production and a sniper rifle's punch. Though it does not have a sniper rifle's precision scope, marksmen favor its increased power over that of an assault rifle to bring down hardened targets. Its lack of a full-auto setting is advertised as a feature rather than a shortcoming since it curbs a soldier's tendency to spray inaccurate fire under stress.

Acquisition[]

Available through purchase of the Firepower Pack DLC. An e-mail from the Illusive Man appears if the weapon was obtained in this manner.

Mattock Heavy Rifle

Shepard,

Miranda has been working with EDI on crunching battle telemetry numbers, and EDI had an interesting thought. She suggested we may be overlooking older, proven technologies in an effort to provide you with the state of art. Normally I wouldn't give much credence to the idea, but when an AI criticizes you for loving high-tech, it gives one pause to consider.

With that in mind, I delivered a few heavy rifles, the Mattocks, to the Normandy. They've been modified for thermal clips, but the rest of the rifle should be the old, reliable gun that colonist militias have been using for decades. Good hunting.

In the Legendary Edition, it may be purchased from Kenn's Salvage on Omega.

Squad Use[]

This weapon can be used by Garrus, Grunt, Legion, Samara/Morinth, and Zaeed.

Player Notes[]

  • The M-96 Mattock fills a tactical role similar to that of the M-15 Vindicator or M-97 Viper, functioning as a high accuracy semi-automatic designated marksman rifle .
  • The Mattock has a fairly low ammunition reserve, so good ammo management is important when deciding where it's safe to rely heavily on this weapon.
  • Charging a lone enemy and rapidly unloading most of the clip at close range with an ammo power is an effective assassination tactic for the Vanguard as long as the target dies and Shepard is able to get back into cover afterwards.
  • This weapon shines in the hands of the Soldier as its unique rate of fire being "as fast as you can pull the trigger" makes it ideal to use during Adrenaline Rush. An entire magazine can be emptied during the course of one Adrenaline Rush, doing extreme damage to one or many targets before the effect wears off. This is especially true if landing headshots during Heightened Adrenaline Rush.
  • A headshot on an unprotected opponent may cause them to stagger and jerk their head backwards, potentially spoiling Shepard's aim. An excellent way to compensate for this is to fire the Mattock twice in rapid succession, resulting in two direct hits to the target's head before it moves.
  • The Mattock works well with Cryo Ammo as it can reliably trigger the freezing effect with a single shot.

Mass Effect 3[]

Description[]

Medium-range, semi-automatic rifle. The Mattock is a hybrid weapon with an assault rifle's low heat production and a sniper rifle's punch. Marksmen favor its increased power over that of an assault rifle to bring down hardened targets. Its lack of a full-auto setting is advertised as a feature rather than a shortcoming as it curbs a soldier's tendency to spray inaccurate fire under stress.

Acquisition[]

Single-player

The M-96 Mattock can be found during the mission Grissom Academy: Emergency Evacuation, on a couch before reaching Seanne Bellarmine. A second upgrade can sometimes be found in the security room unlocked by David Archer, if he was rescued in Overlord. It is also purchasable from Kassa Fabrication post-mission if it was missed.

Multiplayer

Weapons are randomly rewarded through purchases of item packs. The M-96 Mattock is categorized as uncommon and requires no multiplayer expansion packs.

Player Notes[]

General
  • The Mattock's main advantage is its highly accurate and damaging semi-automatic fire, making it very useful for shooting at medium range where it can neutralize most infantry enemies with less than one clip, especially if headshots are landed consistently. Firing from cover can make the weapon precise enough for long range shooting without any scope mod required.
  • Although the Mattock is a semi-automatic rifle, it has very little delay between shots, allowing it to be fired almost as quickly as the user can pull the trigger.
  • The Mattock is a moderately powerful assault rifle, definitely an upgrade in damage over the lighter fully automatic models like the M-8 Avenger, Geth Pulse Rifle, and Phaeston, but not reaching the punch of the much higher-end (but heavier) weapons in the class like the Cerberus Harrier, Particle Rifle, or M-99 Saber.
  • Despite the in-game description, the only sniper rifles comparable to the Mattock are the assault rifle hybrid M-13 Raptor and its fully automatic cousin, the M-90 Indra. The Mattock has less damage potential than either, lacks a built-in scope for pinpoint long range accuracy, and is heavier. The one advantage it does have is the ability to deal with threats at close range without the need to fire while scoped to avoid the "hip firing" penalties to accuracy and damage that most sniper rifles suffer.
  • Even though it does more damage per bullet than many assault rifles, the Mattock will not be very effective against armored foes unless their armor is weakened significantly by powers like Warp or Cryo Blast, a piercing mod is equipped, or anti-armor ammo augmentations are used.
  • The Mattock is not quite as effective at triggering the secondary effects of certain ammo powers, like Cryo Ammo's freeze, as it was in Mass Effect 2.

Single-player
  • The Mattock is a poor choice for squadmates as they do not take advantage of its full rate of fire.

Mass Effect: Andromeda[]

Description[]

The M-96 Mattock's increased power is favored by marksmen looking to bring down hardened targets. Its lack of an automatic setting was originally advertised as a feature rather than a shortcoming as it curbs a user's tendency to spray inaccurate fire under stress.

Features[]

The Mattock suffered an issue that prevented it from reaching its stated rate of fire. Fixing it made the weapon too powerful, so to compensate its damage per round was lowered while its max ammo was increased. However, its last balance update drastically increased its damage as well as its clip size.

Strategies[]

Stats[]

Singleplayer
Rank Damage Rate of Fire Max Clip Size Max Ammo Accuracy Weight
I 54 405 20 160 60 25
II 58 405 20 164 65 24
III 62 405 20 169 67 22
IV 65 405 20 173 69 21
V 69 405 20 178 70 19
VI 73 405 20 182 72 18
VII 77 405 20 187 73 17
VIII 81 405 20 191 74 15
IX 85 405 20 196 74 14
X 88 405 20 200 75 13

Multiplayer
Rank Damage Rate of Fire Max Clip Size Max Ammo Accuracy Weight
I 90 405 20 160 60 25
II 93 405 20 164 65 24
III 95 405 20 169 67 22
IV 98 405 20 173 69 21
V 100 405 20 178 70 19
VI 103 405 20 182 72 18
VII 106 405 20 187 73 17
VIII 108 405 20 191 74 15
IX 111 405 20 196 74 14
X 113 405 20 200 75 13

Development[]

Rank Rd icon milkyway orange Blueprint Unlocked Omni-gel canister icon Omni-Gel Canister Iron icon Iron Fluorite icon Fluorite Element zero icon Element Zero MEA Augmentation Slot For Tables Augmentation Slots
I Level 1 20 80 40 10 0
II Level 6 20 90 40 10 2
III Level 11 20 100 50 10 2
IV Level 21 30 110 50 10 2
V Level 31 30 130 60 20 2
VI Level 41 30 140 70 20 2
VII Level 51 30 145 70 20 2
VIII Level 61 40 150 70 20 2
IX Level 71 40 155 70 20 2
X Level 81 40 160 80 20 2
Total N/A 300 1260 600 160 N/A

Trivia[]

  • The Mattock was balanced differently from other assault rifles. The rifle does very high damage per shot, but offsets this by significantly limiting the ammo available, forcing players to make each shot count.[1]
  • A Mattock is a hand tool similar to a pickaxe that was often used by infantry as a form of improvised weapon during the Middle Ages.
  • Like the M-15 Vindicator, the Mattock fires on full-auto during cutscenes despite being semi-automatic.
  • Like the Vindicator and Avenger, the Mattock's integrated scope was removed from its model in Mass Effect 3, likely to avoid looking redundant if the player adds a scope mod. In game, this does not affect its (unmodded) accuracy.
  • There is a bug in which Grunt will not fire the Mattock. This can be corrected by swapping his weapon to shotguns and then back to assault rifles.
  • The M-55 Argus, the Cerberus Harrier and L-89 Halberd are variants of the Mattock.
  • Mass Effect: Infiltrator features a fully automatic version of the rifle known as the M-96 Mattock Auto, complete with a yellow and white Cerberus finish that is identical with other Cerberus weapons. The weapon was later added to Mass Effect 3 as the Cerberus Harrier. Unlike its Mass Effect 3 counterpart, the M-96 Mattock Auto in the mobile game will generate heat instead of using thermal clips.

References[]

  1. Christina Norman's blog Secrets of the Firepower Pack
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