The Answer

"Inquiring sentients want to know. Advanced SAW with slightly slower rate of fire, but each projectile has a proximity-fused high explosive warhead."

- In-game description

The Answer is a special variant of the M739 Light Machine Gun that appears in Halo 5: Guardians as a Rare REQ variant of the SAW. Its chassis is identical to that of the regular M739 except with a predominantly white color scheme broken up by crimson and green stripes, as well as a falcon emblem in front of the drum magazine.

Background
The Answer, a named variant of the M739 LMG, comes equipped with armor-piercing high-explosive (APHE) rounds that each have a proximity airburst fuse and a blast radius of 3 meters (10 feet). This also results in a lower rate of fire.

In October 2558, Fireteam Osiris, during their mission to reunite with Blue Team, came upon two copies of the weapon, one by a crashed D79-TC Pelican, in an area immediately before the entrance to the Gateway's courtyard. The weapon was later added into the 's War Games simulations for use by Spartan-IVs.

Halo 5: Guardians
The Answer is the last of the three special weapons that can be found in the campaign mission Genesis. It is found in a pair in the area just before the Gateway's courtyard, one by a crashed Pelican on the left and the other sitting on a set of UNSC crates on the right.

A Rare Level 6 REQ that grants 100 REQ Points when sold, The Answer operates exactly identically to a normal SAW except that each round it fires is an armor-piercing high-explosive warhead with a proximity airburst fuse and minimal, if any, range drop off. In addition, it has less vertical recoil than the normal SAW and drastically reduced reticle bloom even when fired in full-auto mode at the cost of a reduced fire rate of only 450 RPM. Despite its reduced firing rate, The Answer is the fastest-killing fully automatic weapon in Halo 5: Guardians, as it can wipe out a full shield, full health Spartan in 0.667 seconds with only 5 rounds and wreak havoc on other enemy forces, even the Warden Eternal, making it even more effective than the ONI Chaingun Turret, which kills a Spartan in 0.7 seconds but is plagued with the problem of restrictive mobility like with other detached turrets. In addition, it is also effective at destroying vehicles, taking down a normal Warthog in 30 rounds and a Mantis in 47 rounds. When paired with a Damage Boost, players wielding The Answer can wreak havoc on everything from ground troops to light aircraft and even some Legendary or Mythic Warzone bosses. Unusually, The Answer has a maximum spare clip count of 3.5 (= 252 reserve rounds) even though all other weapons in the game have a maximum spare clip count that is a whole number.

Changes from the M739 Light Machine Gun

 * Fires armor-piercing high-explosive rounds with a proximity airburst fuse, resulting in increased overall damage.
 * Lower rate of fire.
 * Maximum total round count increased from 288 to 324 (+12.5%).
 * Reduced vertical recoil and heavily reduced reticle bloom.

List of appearances

 * Halo 5: Guardians