Weird Weapons and Winning Tactics: The Velox 5.7 Carbine Chassis:

So, we got a new weapon attachment for one of the pistols with the season 4 week 6 update. This one is rather interesting and I've actually had a lot of fun with it. So, I thought I would share it. The Velox 5.7 Carbine conversion barrel is going to be hard for a lot of players to place out of the gate. On paper it looks strong, but in practice it can feel frustrating to use. The reality is that Treyarc took it really safe with this converstion and did something practical but fair. They basically turned the Velox into the Ryden 45 SMG with this conversion barrel.

There are some differences, but they have the same rate of fire, the same shots to kill to the body, the same ranges. Also their handling is all within a frame or two of reaction time and a .2 meters of mobility. So, we know it's properly balanced with the game's meta. Whether the weapon is good or not really comes down to your playstyle and whether you like having an SMG in your secondary slot. The second question also comes in at if I want the Ryden 45 in my secondary slot why not just run overkill. Well, running the Velox 5.7 Carbine leaves your wild cart slot free for something else. So, it's worth taking a look at, especially if you don't like pistols.

The Gun:

The Velox 5.7 Carbine conversion fires at 909 RPM. It's a 5 shot kill out to 18 meters, 7 to 28 and 8 after that. Out to 12 meters it can kill in 4 shots with one head shot. It can kill in 6 shots from 18 to 28 meters with one head shot as well. This is an improvement over the Ryden 45, mostly because you don't have a headshot damage barrel available. The recoil kicks straight up making it easy to control. However, the low damge at range can be a liability, needing 7 or 8 shots to kill drains the small magazine quickly. Handling is aout middle of the pack for an SMG in game. It takes .215 seconds to ADS by default and the hipfire is wider to be in line with the SMG catagory it's trying to compete with. Mobility remains quite good in the movement speed department. However, it's slower than a pistol by default.

Adding the Velox 5.7 Carbine barrel opens up a whole slew of new attachments to the weapon. For example a normal pistol just has akimbo in the stock department. However, you now have the normal compliment of SMG stocks including the ADS strafe speed one which can allow you to strafe faster than the base pistol while ADS. You also unlock access to the normal selection of underbarrel grips that offer you several nice recoil mitigation options. So, it adds a lot of veristily to the weapon and pushes it into a new role.

However, there are some major weaknesses that this kit leaves you to contend with. The first is that takes up one of your slots. So, you now have basically the ryden 45 but you are down an attachment and don't have any barrel attachments open to help with range or velocity. The second major problem is you are stuck with the pistols defualt 15 round magazine. There are the normal 18 and 24 rounds extended available. But, these are still 40% and 20% of the Ryden's defualt 30 round magazine. Reloads are unchanged from the defualt pistol. However, you do still start with the 7 rounds of ammuntion by defualt compared to the SMG's 3 to 4 mags depending on magazine selection. The Velox 5.7 Carbine does have better recoil than the ryden though, so there is that.

The Build:

Setting up a kit around using this as your primar weapon is rather foolish. After all the Ryden 45 is a better weapon with better capactiy and more flexibility. The Velox 5.7 Carbine is a great little gun, but you are best employing it in the right context to get the most out of it. It can be a fun standalone if you just want to try it out. But, it best serves in a composite setup which is really what Treyarc designed it to fill. Basically, you want to use it in an overkill build, but use the Velox 5.7 Carbine instead of a secondary SMG. This gives you a powerful primary weapon, and a more than servicable fall back in your secondary slot. However, you don't have to over use your wild card for overkill leaving it free for something else. The Velox 5.7 Carbine will out perfor most pistol assuming it's in your hands and you use it at the right ranges. But, it also handles slower than a side arm. So, you have to swap to it prememptively.

Mostly you want to pair it with a LMG, Marksman rifle, Sniper rifle, or an Assualt rifle thats specifically setup for mid to long range. You can use your primary from combat positions or on the move when you are fighting at 20 meter's plus distances. Then you want to swap to the Velox 5.7 Carbine when you are going to be in closer combat or on the move. It's a lot better up close than one of the bolt action snipers, a burst marksman, or one of the slow handling LMGs on the move. If you like playing a 2 gun style this is a fantastic option. I'll set up an example below.

Primary Weapon: Midrange LMG, AR, Sniper or Marksman rifle

Secondary Weapon: Velox 5.7

Attachments: Velox 5.7 Carbine barrel, Supressor, EMT3 Agile Laser, 18 or 24 round mag, +1

Perk 2: Fast hands

So, this is a little more scant than most of my write ups on a setup for a gun. But, again the Velox 5.7 Carbine is a secondary SMG on an overkill kit without overkill. So, your tier 1 and 3 perks, equipment, wild card and field upgrades should all be setup around your primary weapon. The Velox 5.7 Carbine is meant to be something you swap to when you need to change locations, fight in closer quarters or exhaust all your primar weapons ammo. The swap speed is slowed quite a bit. This is still faster than swapping to an overkill SMG, but it takes around .8 to .9 seconds on most primaries. So, fast hands helps to alleviate that quite a bit and let's you reload a little faster. You have a small mag, so anything you can do to help that is worth considering.

The attachments optimize the weapon's effectiveness in the role it best suits. Obviously we need the conversion barrel. Likewise, with a 5 shot kill 15 bullets doesn't cut it so. Either go to the 18 or 24 round magazine. The 24 can handle 2 opponents up close, but slows your reload and handling slightly. Like most SMG builds the silencer keeps you off the radar. There is a huge difference comparing a 5 to 7 shot kill with a small magazine weapon. The Agile laser extends our 5 shot kill range a few meters. This leaves you with one attachment slot to finish out the weapon however you want. The recoil is very controllable so you likely don't need to go there. As long as you are staying within 20 meters that is. If you plan to fight out further that's where your primary weapon comes into play.

There are a couple of good choices for your last attachment. Quickdraw can get you down to .16 seconds for your ADS. Rapid fire can speed up your lethality a little. The ADS strafe speed stock can make you strafe faster than the pistol could before the conversion kit. The iron sights are cluttered, so an optic could also be a sensible offering. If you need something to help with the recoil the underbarrel and recoil springs are all repsent. If you want more than one you can drop the silencer and go loud. It's a great little weapon if you need an SMG but don't want to run overkill. Outside of that role, it's not particlarly strong. It holds it's own just fine up close, but there are better speciliazed options for that role.