M-96 Mattock

The M-96 Mattock Heavy Rifle is an assault rifle in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.

Mass Effect 2

M-96 Mattock
General Stats
Type	Assault Rifle
Location	N/A: Firepower Pack
Accuracy	High
Recoil	Low
Fire Mode	Semi-Auto
Fire Rate	750 RPM
Ammo Per Clip	16
Damage & Bonus Multipliers
Base	50.4
Armor	×1.3
Shields	×1.2
Barrier	×1.2
Spare Ammo Capacity
Default	64
Armor Pack	70
Upgraded	N/A
Both	N/A
Pickup Amount (Min - Max)	11 - 26

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.

Squad Use

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

E-Mail from the Illusive Man

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.

Player Notes

• On the battlefield, the M-96 Mattock fills a tactical role similar to that of the M-15 Vindicator or an M-97 Viper, functioning as a high accuracy semi-automatic designated marksman rifle with a smaller ammo reserve but strong armor-piercing capabilities. As it lacks fully automatic fire, it is not recommended for close-range fighting against large waves of attackers, especially Husks (unless when using Adrenaline Rush or Hardened Adrenaline Rush).
• The Mattock, when used with a Heavy Charge-upgraded Biotic Charge, a handful of damage upgrades and an ammo ability (Preferably Incendiary Ammo), can be utilised by Charging a lone enemy and rapidly unloading most of the clip into their face at close range, which makes for an incredibly effective assassination tactic, provided the player is adept enough with Charge to get back into cover afterwards. This tactic is especially effective against Harbinger-Possessed Collectors, who can often spell doom for any Vanguard unlucky enough to get within close range of them. Avoid attempting this on a Scion, however, as getting anywhere near one on any of the higher difficulties is rarely advisable given their powerful Armor reserves and close range Biotic blast attack.
• The entire magazine of the weapon can be emptied during the course of an Adrenaline Rush, Hardened Adrenaline Rush or Heightened Adrenaline Rush, making it a good alternative to the Vindicator for a Soldier.
• With all six possible assault rifle damage upgrades, the penetration upgrade, a Kuwashii Visor equipped, and Heightened Adrenaline Rush active, the M-96 Mattock will inflict approximately 180 damage to an enemy with a headshot. This is double the base damage of the M-97 Viper with no upgrades. Adding Armor Piercing Ammo, Warp Ammo or Incendiary Ammo can increase this value to nearly 220 damage per headshot, which is comparable to a round from the M-92 Mantis.
• Shooting an unprotected opponent in the head will cause them to momentarily be stunned and jerk their head backwards a bit potentially spoiling your aim (especially outside of Adrenaline Rush). An excellent way to compensate for this is to use a technique called the double tap (which is actually a real world technique); basically, it involves firing the Mattock twice in very rapid succession, resulting in two direct hits to the target's head before it moves enough to throw off the player's aim. With enough damage upgrades, an appropriate type of ammunition and enough practice, this tactic will kill any unprotected low-level enemy in very short order.
• For a Soldier with a high level Adrenaline Rush, a full clip from a Mattock with Armor Piercing Ammo can destroy a gunship.
• Another sound tactic is to use the Mattock (preferably combined with an Adrenaline Rush) to score easy headshots against enemies at close range. This is especially effective on lower difficulty levels, where even dangerous enemies like Heavies typically lack protection. This can become a lifesaver for Soldiers who have used up their Shotgun ammunition.

Mass Effect 3

• Single-player
• Multiplayer

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.
• 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 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 and Cerberus Harrier 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.

See also

• Assault Rifles