Military Engines are the primary components in creating basic ballistic weaponry in Dead Space 3. Military Engines are common, cheap to produce but offers the widest selection of weapons if the required tips are available.
Of all tools available, Military Engines are the second most ammo-efficient tools, one full 20 stacks of Universal Ammo only yield less shots than a Flamethrower. 2 to 3 full rows of Universal Ammo clips provides ammunition counts numbering in thousands.
Design Details
A military weapon used by S.C.A.F. forces.
Versatile range-configured weapons, large magazines, uses universal ammo, overall effective against all forms of enemies. Can be used as a Lower Tool and an Upper Tool.
Attachable Tips
Heavy Frame:
- Default Tip [Carbine]: Creates a durable semi-automatic rifle. Holds 17 rounds.
- Compressor [Assault Rifle]: Creates a fully automatic rifle with spread fire. Holds 25 rounds.
- Conic Dispersal [ Shotgun ]: Creates a reliable shotgun. In addition to damage, it also has a knockback effect. Holds 7 rounds.
- Directed Suspension Field [Galvanizer]: Produces a burst-fire submachine gun. It fires in 4-shot bursts. Holds 30 rounds.
- Precision Tip [ Seeker Rifle ]: Creates a rifle with sniper-like precision. Holds 3 rounds.
- Rail Accelerator [ Bullpup Rifle ]: Creates a fully-automatic rifle with deadly precision. Holds 20 rounds.
- Repeater [ Pulse Rifle ]: Creates a fully automatic Pulse Rifle. Holds 25 rounds.
- EL1 Rapido Tip [EL1 Rapido]: Produces the EL1 Rapido submachine gun. Similar to the Directed Suspension Field, but with a larger magazine. Only available via the Slim Jim promotion. Holds 50 rounds.
- Evangelizer Directed Ejection Field [Evangelizer Carbine]: The same as the Default Tip but with more damage and a much larger magazine. Only available with the Witness the Truth Pack DLC. Holds 30 rounds.
- Evangelizer Conic Dispersal [Evangelizer Shotgun]: The same as the Conic Dispersal Tip, but with a slightly faster rate of fire and a larger magazine size. Only available with the Witness the Truth Pack DLC. Holds 10 rounds.
- Marauder Repeater [Marauder Pulse Rifle]: Similar to the Repeater Tip, but with a significantly larger magazine size. Only available with the Marauder Pack DLC. Holds 40 rounds.
- Sharpshooter Tip [Sharpshooter Seeker Rifle]: Similar to the Precision Tip. Creates a slow firing, high-damage rifle. It has long range and high accuracy. Only available with the Sharpshooter Pack DLC. Holds 3 rounds.
Compact Frame:
- Default Tip [ Submachine Gun ]: Creates a rapid-fire compact sub-machine gun. Holds 20 rounds.
- Compact Directed Ejection Field [ Revolver ]: Creates a powerful revolver. Holds 6 rounds.
- EG-900 SMG Tip: Similar to the Default Tip but with a higher rate of fire and a different skin. Holds 20 rounds. Available as a pre-order from Gamestop and now also also available as DLC.
Weapon Description
Basic ballistic weapons, used to create basic military weapons such as seeker sniper rifles, rifles, pistols, SMGs or shotguns. All rifle sized variants have a large charging handle located on the left hand side of weapon's receiver and use detachable box magazines located behind the upper accessory rail directly above the weapon's pistol grip. Most use cartridge based ammunition as shell casings can clearly seen being ejected from the weapon whilst firing, the shotgun and the revolver being notable exceptions to this.
Trivia
- Contrary to previous games and popular belief, ballistic weapons crafted from Military Engines fares extremely well against Necromorphs, even with body shots. Their high damage output, manageable accuracy combined with large magazine capacity makes them one of the most efficient weapons when combating Necromorphs, if not the best.
- Military Engines can be fitted with the most number of tips in the game. Their number of DLC tips is also the largest.
- Despite Classic mode removing any non-Classic weapon from play, the player is still given a Bullpup Rifle (Military Engine + Rail Accelerator tip) at the beginning of the Prologue.
- This (these if playing on co-op) is the only non-Classic weapon available to the player throughout Classic mode, not counting DLCs. It is also removed from the player's inventory upon completion of the Prologue chapter.
- The Bullpup Rifle (Rail Accelerator-tipped Military Engine) is one of the most common weapons seen in the hands of NPCs, mostly John Carver, who uses the same rifle throughout the game, and most Circle soldiers.
- If playing on Co-op, the Carver player immediately receives a Bullpup Rifle at the beginning of the game, which gives him a slight edge over the Isaac player.
- An unupgraded Precision-tipped Military Engine offers the damage output and stopping power of a charged Contact Beam shot.
- A Rail Accelerator-tipped Military Engine is called a bullpup rifle. A weapon is a "bullpup" when the magazine and loading systems are placed behind the trigger group. This is strange, as ALL Heavy-Framed Military Engines are configured the same way (magazine behind trigger), regardless of tip.
- The position of the magazine well and firing system of Military Engines, however, is positioned directly on top of the trigger group, making them not quite in a bullpup configuration, technically speaking.