M16A1

Overview

M16A1 is an extremely unique AR who is geared toward tanking rather than attacking.

M16A1’s two main unique features is that she can equip Armor Plates (which typically only SGs can do), and that she has two Doll Equipment slots. Along with her Skill -- the only Stun Grenade possessed by an AR -- M16A1 was made to tank. Moreover, M16A1 is a unique tank in that she’s the only unit capable of hybrid tanking: she can both Evasion tank and Armor tank. Against enemies in lower chapters, M16A1 is able to tank on par with many of the best tanks. As the difficulty of stages progresses, however, M16A1’s HP is too low to allow her to tank properly. Therefore, M16A1 usually only sees ideal usage while tanking in corpse dragging runs of 4-3 Emergency and 0-2.

Strengths

Can Equip Armor

M16A1’s specialty is being able to equip Armor Plates, which synergizes well with her Evasion and helps her absorb shots from weaker enemies.

Two Doll Equipment Slots

As she possesses two Doll Equipment slots, M16A1 can equip both T4 Exos and Armor Plates. This allows her to be a hybrid tank.

Weaknesses

AR HP

As M16A1 is an AR, she has inherently less health than SMGs and therefore has a harder time tanking against more difficult foes.

Full Analysis

M16A1’s uses are completely different compared to others of her class, meaning that she must be utilized in a way unlike other ARs.

The fundamental difference between M16A1 and other ARs is that she serves as a tank rather than an offensive unit. This is mostly due to the fact that, M16A1 can equip Armor Plates -- being the only non-SG unit that can do so. In addition, she has two Doll Equipment slots, which allows her to equip both an Exoskeleton and Armor Plates. Because of this, she is the only unit that can hybrid tank -- SGs don’t have high enough Evasion to dodge tank, while other units simply can’t equip Armor Plates to armor tank. Finally, M16A1’s defensive Skill, the only AR Stun Grenade, further helps to solidify her status as a tank. All these qualities together result in M16A1’s intended use being clear -- though her effectiveness at this purpose is arguable.  

Although M16A1 was made to tank, her tanking capabilities are questionable. In earlier chapters, M16A1 can certainly perform as one of the best tanks. Her Evasion is high enough to dodge most of the enemies’ shots, and her Armor Plates can absorb most of the damage when she does get hit. In addition, as M16A1 is still an AR, she deals much more damage than the average SMG, although she still deals far less damage than the average AR. In later chapters, however, M16A1 becomes decidedly worse at her job. As she has no base Armor stat, she has a harder time absorbing damage from enemies who have higher Damage stats. In addition, M16A1’s Evasion is too low to reliably dodge attacks coming from bosses, and her Skill doesn’t work against them either. Plus, her status as an AR means that her HP is lacking for a tank -- M16A1 has 121 HP per Dummy, while the SMG with the lowest HP, FMG9, has 141 per Dummy. When combined with the fact that her Armor and Evasion aren’t high enough to consistently tank against more difficult foes, M16A1’s effectiveness does drop off fairly significantly.  Another fatal flaw of M16A1 is that despite being designed as a tank, she still gives buffs to SMGs. Therefore, by using M16A1 instead of an SMG or HG, the entire Echelon loses out on a potential buff. Overall and because of these limitations, M16A1 is hard to use in practical battles due to her hybrid tanking not being particularly effective in later stages along with her lack of buff utility.

M16A1 does have one particular area that she excels in, however, and that is in corpse dragging runs -- more information on which can be found in our optimized leveling guide here. The basic idea of corpse dragging is that only one damage dealer is resupplied in order to save as many resources as possible -- therefore, the Skill of the tank does not activate, meaning that only raw statlines matter. As corpse dragging is mostly done on lower difficulty stages that one damage dealer can clear on their own, M16A1 performs as one of the best tanks while corpse dragging. In the two most popular corpse dragging maps, 4-3 Emergency and 0-2, the enemies are weak enough to allow M16A1’s hybrid tanking kit to work effectively. M16A1, however, has a definite advantage over other tanks while corpse dragging; compared to SGs, M16A1 costs almost three times less Resources to repair, allowing for even more Resource efficiency. Thanks to all this, M16A1 is practically required to corpse drag 0-2 -- Evasion tanking alone isn’t enough to sustain against the hordes of enemies in 0-2, while using SGs is too Resource-costly to be efficient. It is these qualities that make M16A1 practically a requirement for optimal corpse dragging.

In summary, M16A1 is an incredibly unique AR who possesses very distinct usages compared to other units. Though she definitely isn’t the best choice for every situation, she still offers up enough useful qualities to be potentially worth the cost of leveling her.

Team Options

M14

WA2000

Lee-Enfield

M4A1

M4 SOPMOD II

ST AR-15

HK416

FAL

G11

M16A1 is unique in that she doesn’t have clear-cut team options. As her main usage is in corpse dragging, she can be used with anyone that needs leveling, whether that be an HG, AR, RF, SMG, MG or SG.

Strong ARs or RFs

While corpse dragging 4-3 Emergency, M16A1 can be used with any strong damage-dealer. WA-2000, Lee Enfield, M14, M4A1, or ST AR-15 are good choices to be paired with her.

Grenade ARs

While corpse dragging 0-2, M16A1’s team options are a bit less flexible. Grenade ARs such as SOPMOD, HK416, and FAL should be used with her, or G11 can be used instead.

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