BR55 battle rifle

The BR55 Battle Rifle is a United Nations Space Command infantry service rifle, which uses a bullpup configuration. A newer version, the BR55HB SR Battle Rifle has been recently been introduced.

Summary
The BR55 Battle Rifle is a bullpup UNSC rifle. It fires a larger bullet than an Assault rifle, giving more power but also more recoil. Because of the difficult handling when firing fully-automatic, the BR55 is restricted to three-round bursts. It is already in service by 2525.The M6D pistol in Halo: Combat Evolved was changed into this Battle Rifle, although the power of the Battle Rifle was reduced compared to the M6D, as was its firepower.

Its biggest problem lies in its magazine size combined with the burst fire, giving only 12 bursts before reloading. Also, the Battle Rifle is slightly effective at close ranges.

Advantages
Designated the BR55 Battle Rifle, it has reasonably high power, a decent rate of fire, and high accuracy with a 2x magnification scope; it can be used to deliver three-shot-bursts accurately from medium-to-long range. In Campaign, the Battle Rifle is useful against just about any infantry units at medium and, sometimes, semi-long range. In multiplayer, three bursts bring down standard shields, while one headshot results in death if the shields are down. It is also a decent anti-sniper weapon or suppressive weapon.

Disadvantages
At longer ranges, it is necessary to minimize strafing movements when firing to avoid "splintering" the shot grouping too much. Since each "shot" is really a three-round-burst, certain movements can break up your shot's grouping and greatly reduce accuracy. This also affects accuracy when firing from a moving vehicle such as a Warthog (especially when firing at a 90 degree angle from the vehicle's heading).

The Battle Rifle is NOT effective at close ranges, nor is it effective against Elites due to the slow rate of fire. Each bullet also acts as a tracer which gives away the shooter's position. Also, the range is limited: if a sniper rifle's reticule isn't red when you're aiming at an enemy, the battle rifle won't hit the target.

Compared to the M6D
There is a lot of argument on what weapon is better, the Battle rifle, or the M6D.

Based on the facts and spec, the M6D is a better weapon than the Battle Rifle. The M6D takes 1 less shot to kill, AND it has a higher rate of fire meaning that it kills MUCH faster than the Battle Rifle. They both have a 2X scope.

The Battle Rifle, M6D, and the M6C Magnum all do the same damage to an unshielded foe. The M6D does the most damage of the 3 to a shielded enemy, and the M6C Magnum and Battle Rifle do equal damage to a shielded foe.

The Battle rifle fires rounds stronger than the SMG in 3 shot bursts, but there is a pause between every shot, therefore the M6C Magnum and the Battle rifle kills equally fast, however Dual Magnums top a Battle Rifle in effectiveness. (More on this below)

Compared to the M6C Magnum
Many think that the Battle Rifle would "own" a M6C Magnum outright, anytime, this is sort of true. The Battle Rifle fires rounds that are weaker than a Magnum; however they are similar to it. For each shot the Battle Rifle does, the M6C would have done 3. The Battle Rifle takes 4 bursts to the head to kill (12 shots) and the M6C takes 9, after the update, 12. The Magnum is ALOT more effective than a Battle Rifle against flesh, killing faster.

Here is a comparison:

The pre-update M6C Magnum is able to kill as fast or as faster than a Battle Rifle at almost any range, and Dual pre-update Magnums kill WAY faster than a Battle Rifle does.

Think about it this way: the pre-update magnum takes 9 headshots to kill, the Magnum has a VERY fast rate of fire, and by the time the Magnum gets in 9 shots, the Battle Rifle will only be on its 3rd bursts, and it takes 4 bursts for a Battle Rifle to kill.

The auto-updated (required to play on Xbox Live) Magnum does not kill as fast as a Battle Rifle does, however if you pull the trigger very fast, it can kill faster than a Battle Rifle if at very close range, due to significantly less range than the midranged BR. Since the updated Magnum takes 13 headshots to kill, for every Battle Rifle shot the Magnum can pull off approximatley 2-4; However Dual updated Magnums kill faster than the Battle Rifle if at close range.

In conclusion, the M6C Magnum is inferior in performance to a Battle Rifle, but it can kill even faster than a Battle Rifle if at very close range, and the Magnum wielder is significantly more skilled than the BR user, especially if he has Duals. A single pre-update Magnum can kill faster than a Battle Rifle, same with Dual Pre-update Magnums, an Updated single Magnum won't kill as fast as a Battle Rifle unless you factore in superior player skill, melee, and grenades. Dual Updated Magnums kill faster than the Battle Rifle at Close range, at Medium or Semi-long ranges a Battle Rifle is going to win.

Compared to the MA5B
Compared to the MA5B the BR55 is far superior at mid and long ranges though slightly outclassed at short range. The BR55 is much more accurate, powerful and effective however at short ranges its burst fire is a liability.

Tactics for Covenant
Grunts are slow and clumsy; you can go for an easy headshot or pin them down with bullets until they fall.
 * Grunt:

Ineffective at long and medium ranges, as the bullets bounce straight off an Energy Shield. This is a useful tactic. When confronted by a Jackal with its shield in defense position, fire a well-placed shot in its hand, and, as it flinches, get in a headshot.
 * Jackal:

At medium range, the rifle is an effective anti-sniper weapon, giving cover fire or suppression against those annoying snipers. Be careful you don't get sniped as you stand in the open though, and be sure the Jackal doesn't recover and fire off a shot. This is extremely important for Legendary battles.
 * Jackal Sniper:

The Elite's energy shield is a great defense to the Battle Rifle. A basic Minor Elite takes almost half a clip of ammo to take its shields down, though when they are down, they are a soft target for a headshot, if you have the ammo left. Try to keep the rifle leveled at its head, and keep firing till it falls dead, it may take a while.
 * Elite:

You can kill a Brute with 3-4 headshots, as the first 2 shots will take off the helmet, then the next two put out the monster's lights. Chest shots are NOT effective at all.
 * Brute:

Dodge behind them, and fire as many bursts as possible into their back before they turn around. Be careful when fighting an enraged Hunter, as they can backhand you and kill you with a single strike.
 * Hunter:

The Battle Rifle is not effective against drones; they can be a difficult target when flying, so just keep spraying. Headshots are also hard, as the Drones hunch over, making a discernible head difficult.
 * Drone:

Influence
The BR55 is largely based on the French standard issue FAMAS assault rifle, and also has features resembling the US Army's prototype XM8 rifles. Other weapons to perhaps influence its design are the SA80 and Steyr AUG because of their bull pup and scope layouts.



Appearances
The Battle Rifle was not featured in Halo 1 but was created for Halo 2, though it makes its first in-universe chronological appearance in Halo: First Strike. It was designed to replace the Pistol from the original game; this was because the developers felt that the pistol was overbalanced for a weapon of such a small size (and just in general, as compared to the other weapons in the game).

The "BR" was originally designed by Bungie to fire single shots in semi-automatic rates of fire, but the idea was apparently used for the Covenant Carbine instead.

Another idea the developers were working on was a three bullet minimum per burst and full auto that resulted from holding the trigger. Zoomed in, the rifle only shot a single bullet. However, these features were ultimately scrapped in favor of the more simplistic design that was used in the final version of Halo 2.

The Battle Rifle will be returning in Halo 3. The screenshot below shows that the "new" Battle Rifle, or BR55HB SR Battle Rifle has a longer barrel, a modified carrying handle, the scope resembles the modern-day Trijicon ACOG, and there is now a trigger guard over the trigger, a feature lacking in the Halo 2 Battle Rifle

Ammo
It is interesting to note the ammo used for the Battle Rifle. It uses a new 9.5mm x 40 Experimental Round. The 7.62mm x 51 round is a moderately large round used on the MA5B and on modern day marksman rifles and machine guns. The 7.62mm already has a history of having too much recoil because of the bullet's size which made it hard to fire fully-automatically in assault rifles. Having a bigger bullet that is almost 2 mm wider would make recoil worse. Due to this theory, it would make sense to say that future technology might have some role in countering these effects. It could be safe to say also that due to the Battle Rifle's bullpup design, it could counter the recoil effects.

However, the 9.5x40mm ammunition used for the BR55 has less powder in each cartridge than the 7.62x51mm rounds used in the MA assault rifles. So despite having a large bullet diameter, the decrease in powder for each round would actually cause less recoil, making it very tolerable. A burst setting on the rifle would also reduce recoil, preventing the user from spraying a target with high-caliber ammunition, possible causing uncomfortable physical effects such as mild bruising and so on.

The size of the ammo would also have a problem fitting in a 36-round magazine of the current Battle Rifle. If a Heckler Koch G3 (which is chambered in 7.62mm x 51) has a standard magazine count of 20 and be the size that it is, it would be hard to see a bullet much thicker than the 7.62mm fit inside of a magazine of the Battle Rifle's size and with a capacity of 36 rounds. Again, this might have something to do with future UNSC weapon technology. This is a continuous pattern with UNSC assault rifles as a similar instance occurred with the MA5B. The MA5B has a magazine of 60 rounds chambered in the 7.62mm x 51 with a rather "small" magazine size, which looks to be smaller than the Battle Rifle's magazine. With the bullpup configuration of the battle rifle and advances in material mechanics it may be possable that the magazine may be a triple stack as appossed to the common double stack of today, easily explaning the short mag length. On Youtube there is a certain video of Halo 3 that shows a Battle Rifle with an M45 Grenade Launcher along with the Spiker, Sniper Rifle, and MA5C.

Fully Loaded Battle Rifle?
On the Level Quarantine Zone (Level) in Halo 2, the player can find a Battle Rifle from a dead UNSC soldier that, when reloaded, can have a total of 236 rounds of ammo total. A few players have speculated that this is the "full" combat load for the Battle Rifle, as the player can normally carry only 108 rounds.

Glitches
The Battle Rifle may be used in several glitches. Although they can be used with all weapons, the BXR weapons glitch allows a user to melee, cancel the animation, and then fire, by tapping B (melee), X right afterwards, and then R (the right trigger/gun). This causes an instant kill to a shielded opponent (Elite in campaign or opponent in matchmaking).

Another glitch is the RRX, also known as the double-shot. When you press R (the right trigger)twice without pausing followed by pressing the X button right after the pressing of the second R, instead of firing a three-round burst followed by a pause, it fires six bullets without pausing, simulating automatic fire. After successfully pulling off the glitch, your weapon reloads but without any reloading animation. The drawback with the glitch originally was that once you did the double shot, you were reloading the weapon and therefore could not interrupt it and start firing the weapon again to perform another double shot. However this was solved by tapping the Y button twice to switch your weapon and to quickly switch back to your battle rifle, which interrupted the reloading procedure and you, could thus start double-shooting again. It takes four bursts from the battle rifle to the head to kill a target, so successfully tapping RRXYYRRX while accurately firing gave you the ability to kill an opponent quickly, but it is very difficult to master.

There is also the RRYB, an instant kill glitch where you press the right trigger twice, immediately followed by pressing Y (which switched to your other weapon) followed by pressing B (melee) all while running towards your target. It is essentially a BXR but in reverse and you fire two shots instead of one.

Constant fire - This glitch is not easy to perform, but not hard either. The player must not have host connection of the party else it doesn't work. First, fire one bullet of the BR, next throw a grenade straight away, and then tap reload twice or three times quickly before resuming firing, constantly. If it works you should be able to fire all your ammo without reloading. (RLXX(X)RRRR)

Trivia

 * Its reticule resembles the symbol of the Zodiac Killer.
 * On the side of the Battle Rifle, (opposite side to the bolt) there are three Chinese symbols. Some people have stated that it may mean "The Monkey King".
 * This weapon was first introduced in Eric Nylund's Halo: First Strike novel. It was noted that this rifle had "a longer barrel and stock, with a cut down muzzle shroud.", "A scope was mounted on an optics railing along the top of the rifle". Spartan 043 (Will) once commented on the rifle: "Auto zoom, nice."
 * The Halo 3 Battle Rifle is called the BR55HB SR Battle Rifle. Which the "HB" most likely stands for "Heavy Barrel".
 * The Battle Rifle was originally named the HA871.

Character Compatibility

 * Elites
 * Spartans
 * Marines
 * Brutes (High Charity level, only on Legendary, though this is very rare.)
 * Drones (have animation but not used)
 * Jackals
 * Flood Combat Form (Human)
 * Flood Combat Form (Elite)