Breakdown of All Machine Guns

ALL CREDIT FOR THIS GUIDE GOES TO u/Mercules904

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A couple things to note:

• I will add recommended Perks to the guns which can be purchased from Vendors. These do NOT account for any drops you get with random rolls, and only take into account the Perks the weapons are sold with.
  
• Machine Guns are divided up into Impact sub-classes.
  
• All Pros and Cons are determined by comparing weapons within the same class, not by all weapons in general.
  
• Field Choke, Linear Compensator, Accurized Ballistics all increase the damage per bullet by 2.5%. Aggressive Ballistics increases it by 5%. Soft Ballistics decreases it by 2.5%.
  
• I'll give a final recommendation for each Impact sub-class.
  
• Times-to-kill are figured using a Max-Armor Guardian (not including the effects of The Ram).
  

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Legendary Machine Guns


Very High-Impact - Barrel Perks do not affect either crit or body TtK.


Bane of the Taken - Available from the Prison of Elders.

• Time-to-Kill: 0.40s (3 crit shots), 0.60s (4 body shots)
  
• Rate of Fire: 59
  
• Impact: 61 (73 damage per crit shot, 58 damage per body shot)
  
• Range: 30
  
• Stability: 22
  
• Reload Speed: 31
  
• Mag Size: 23
  
• Aim Assist: 29
  

High-Impact - All Barrel Perks which increase Impact decrease the body TtK to 0.50s (4 body shots).


THE SWARM - Available from the Vanguard Packages.

• Time-to-Kill: 0.50s (4 crit shots), 0.66s (5 body shots)
  
• Rate of Fire: 66
  
• Impact: 53 (61 damage per crit shot, 49 damage per body shot)
  
• Range: 15
  
• Stability: 60
  
• Reload Speed: 26
  
• Mag Size: 35
  
• Aim Assist: 74
  

Ruin Wake - Available from the Crucible Quartermaster. Recommended Perks: Field Choke, Counterbalance, High Caliber Rounds, Rangefinder.

• Time-to-Kill: 0.50s (4 crit shots), 0.66s (5 body shots)
  
• Rate of Fire: 66
  
• Impact: 53 (61 damage per crit shot, 49 damage per body shot)
  
• Range: 15
  
• Stability: 60
  
• Reload Speed: 39
  
• Mag Size: 31
  
• Aim Assist: 67
  

Objection IV - Available from the New Monarchy Representative. Recommended Perks: Field Choke, Counterbalance, High Caliber Rounds, Rangefinder.

• Time-to-Kill: 0.50s (4 crit shots), 0.66s (5 body shots)
  
• Rate of Fire: 66
  
• Impact: 53 (61 damage per crit shot, 49 damage per body shot)
  
• Range: 20
  
• Stability: 51
  
• Reload Speed: 33
  
• Mag Size: 35
  
• Aim Assist: 65
  

The Unseeing Eye - Available from the Trials of Osiris. Recommended Perks: Field Choke, Zen Moment, Field Scout, Spray and Play.

• Time-to-Kill: 0.50s (4 crit shots), 0.66s (5 body shots)
  
• Rate of Fire: 66
  
• Impact: 53 (61 damage per crit shot, 49 damage per body shot)
  
• Range: 24
  
• Stability: 46
  
• Reload Speed: 26
  
• Mag Size: 32
  
• Aim Assist: 60
  

Quillim's Terminus - Available from the King's Fall Raid. Recommended Perks: Accurized Ballistics, Cocoon, Extended Mag, Army of One.

• Time-to-Kill: 0.50s (4 crit shots), 0.66s (5 body shots)
  
• Rate of Fire: 66
  
• Impact: 53 (61 damage per crit shot, 49 damage per body shot)
  
• Range: 15
  
• Stability: 60
  
• Reload Speed: 16
  
• Mag Size: 31
  
• Aim Assist: 65
  

Bretomart's Stand - Available from the Iron Banner.

• Time-to-Kill: 0.50s (4 crit shots), 0.66s (5 body shots)
  
• Rate of Fire: 66
  
• Impact: 53 (61 damage per crit shot, 49 damage per body shot)
  
• Range: 15
  
• Stability: 60
  
• Reload Speed: 26
  
• Mag Size: 35
  
• Aim Assist: 74
  

Mid-Impact - All Barrel Perks which increase Impact decrease the crit TtK to 0.40s (4 crit shots) and the body TtK to 0.50s (5 body shots).


Zombie Apocalypse WF47 - Available from Crucible Packages.

• Time-to-Kill: 0.53 (5 crit shots), 0.66s (6 body shots)
  
• Rate of Fire: 77
  
• Impact: 37 (49 damage per crit shot, 39 damage per body shot)
  
• Range: 27
  
• Stability: 46
  
• Reload Speed: 34
  
• Mag Size: 43
  
• Aim Assist: 50
  

Baron's Ambition - Available from the Fallen S.A.B.E.R. Strike.

• Time-to-Kill: 0.53 (5 crit shots), 0.66s (6 body shots)
  
• Rate of Fire: 77
  
• Impact: 37 (49 damage per crit shot, 39 damage per body shot)
  
• Range: 26
  
• Stability: 50
  
• Reload Speed: 33
  
• Mag Size: 44
  
• Aim Assist: 52
  

Low-Impact - Barrel Perks which increase Impact have no effect on TtK, but Soft Ballistics can increase the body TtK to 0.70s (8 body shots).


The Variable - Available from the Future War Cult Representative. Recommended Perks: Linear Compensator, Hip Fire, Speed Reload, Army of One.

• Time-to-Kill: 0.50s (6 crit shots), 0.60s (7 body shots)
  
• Rate of Fire: 88
  
• Impact: 29 (37 damage per crit shot, 29 damage per body shot)
  
• Range: 18
  
• Stability: 50
  
• Reload Speed: 30
  
• Mag Size: 52
  
• Aim Assist: 51
  

Very Low-Impact - Barrel Perks which increase Impact have no effect on TtK, but Soft Ballistics can increase the crit TtK to 0.53s (9 crit shots) and the body TtK to 0.67s (11 body shots).


Diluvian 10/4x - Available from the Vanguard Quartermaster. Recommended Perks: Aggressive Ballistics, Eye of the Storm, Reinforced Barrel, Persistence.

• Time-to-Kill: 0.46s (8 crit shots), 0.60s (10 body shots)
  
• Rate of Fire: 100
  
• Impact: 25 (25 damage per crit shot, 20 damage per body shot)
  
• Range: 10
  
• Stability: 30
  
• Reload Speed: 37
  
• Mag Size: 74
  
• Aim Assist: 70
  

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Exotic Machine Guns


Super Good Advice - Available from random drops or Legacy Engram. Recommended Perks: Smooth Ballistics, Crowd Control, Hand Loaded, Super Good Advice.

• Time-to-Kill: 0.50s (6 crit shots), 0.60s (7 body shots)
  
• Rate of Fire: 88
  
• Impact: 29 (37 damage per crit shot, 29 damage per body shot)
  
• Range: 14
  
• Stability: 41
  
• Reload Speed: 22
  
• Mag Size: 58
  
• Aim Assist: 30
  

Thunderlord - Available from random drops or Legacy Engrams. Recommended Perks: Accurized Ballistics, Feeding Frenzy, Field Scout (switch to Perfect Balance after you pick up ammo), Lightning Rounds.

• Time-to-Kill: 0.50s (4 crit shots), 0.50s (4 body shots)
  
• Rate of Fire: 66
  
• Impact: 53 (62 damage per crit shot, 50 damage per body shot)
  
• Range: 32
  
• Stability: 51
  
• Reload Speed: 46
  
• Mag Size: 49
  
• Aim Assist: 90
  

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If I had to make recommendations for each Impact sub-class, they would be as follows:

• Very High-Impact - Bane of the Taken with Perks that enhance Stability.
  
• High-Impact - I would recommend any Machine Gun in this sub-class. They're all good choices, and the ability to not have to aim for headshots and retain the same Time-to-Kill is very valuable. The Vendor sold versions of both Ruin Wake and Objection IV are quite good, and the Perk sets for the Raid and ToO machine guns are very complementary of each weapon's positives and negatives (Cocoon canceling out the slow reload of Qullim's, Zen Moment and Spray and Play helping The Unseeing Eye). Bretomart's Stand also has strong base stats, and will do well with most rolls, the redone Year 1 THE SWARM is basically the exact same with a new (or old, depending on how you look at it) paint job. You can't go wrong with any of these choices.
  
• Mid-Impact - Baron's Ambition with Perks that enhance Impact (to decrease both the crit and body shot Times-to-Kill) and Range primarily (to extend the distance at which you can achieve Optimal TtK), and then Stability if possible. This is a very good gun, I would highly recommend it. Zombie Apocalypse WF47 is also very good, again with perks that primarily enhance Impact and Range, and Stability as a secondary. I would strongly recommend this class of Machine Guns.
  
• Low-Impact - The Variable with the Recommended Perks. I wouldn't really suggest a Machine Gun in this class.
  
• Very Low-Impact - I wouldn't recommend this Impact sub-class.
  
• Exotic - Thunderlord with the Recommended Perks.