Z-250 lightrifle

The Z-250 Directed Energy Engagement Weapon, also known as the LightRifle, is a Forerunner energy channel weapon.

Service history
The LightRifle is a precision weapon originally used during the human-Forerunner wars. Warrior-Servant marksmen utilized them in large sieges on human redoubts. The weapon served well against humans' particle rifles. The Ur-Didact's Promethean Knight units encountered on Requiem and on Installation 03 utilized the Z-250.

Design details
It is a scoped, mid-range to long-range weapon that normally fires a three-shot burst or a powerful concentrated semi-automatic shot which consumes three units when zoomed in. It holds 36 units per magazine however this provides 12 shots. It fires luminescent orange hardlight rounds. Functionally, the weapon employs componential particle acceleration to fire beams of hard light particles at a high speed and accuracy. . Using the diffused combination of particle acceleration and hardened photonic matter, it fires fast and accurate beams which are capable of dropping individual enemies in a few well placed shots.

The rifle possesses an angular design and metallic casing. It features a stock, a firing grip, a stabilizing firing grip, a scope and a light mass channel. It appears to be held together, at least partly, by energy fields as indicated by its self-assembly process and floating sights. Orange lights are present while the weapon is self-assembling and throughout the casing once assembly is complete; there is also a column of orange-colored energy that runs through the light mass channel. Hard light highlights stream along the sides of the weapon while it is fired. The sight through the scope is tinted orange and is approximately a 3x zoom. It features integrated targeting optics.

Gameplay
The rifle is essentially a mix between the Battle Rifle and the DMR in that it possesses the three-round burst of the BR while not scoped-in and the single-shot fire of the DMR when scoped in. While its burst-fire function isn't as potent as that of the Battle Rifle's, its semi-automatic fire is more powerful than that of the DMR's, thus outclassing the two while zoomed in, especially from a distance. However, it is slightly hindered by a slower firing rate compared to the two other weapons making it critical that the shots land and result in a headshot. While the time to kill of the unscoped mode is higher to both human weapons, the scoped mode has an inferior time to kill. At the maximum red reticle range, the LightRifle can easily overpower a DMR or a BR. While it is not as suitable for close ranges, an extremely skilled user can utilize both firing modes to achieve a lower kill time than its human-counterparts. Because of its hard light bullets, the weapon is slightly stronger on shields than the DMR or Battle Rifle.

While unscoped, three shots are required to leave an opponent vulnerable to a single lethal mêlée. Two shots of the single fire mode are required to achieve the same effect. The magazine has two different displays in the HUD: 36 small rounds for unscoped mode and 12 rounds for scoped.

Trivia

 * The Lightrifle was originally conceptualized as the Binary Rifle in the preliminary phase of development.
 * Curiously, some Sangheili warriors in Spartan Ops are seen wielding the weapon, as well as the Scattershot. It is assumed that the taboo on using human weaponry observed during the Human-Covenant War does not extend to Forerunner weaponry, perhaps because of the Covenant's veneration of Forerunners and their technology, or that this particular group of Elites (as part of Jul 'Mdama's Covenant faction) does not share either taboo.
 * The weapon's fire rate was updated during the 'turbo update', making it different in campaign and multiplayer.
 * The Lightrifle is the only weapon in the Halo series whose fire mode can be changed in-game (via scoping or un-scoping).

List of appearances

 * Scanned
 * Halo 4
 * Spartan Ops
 * Halo: Escalation