The Art of Warfare Blogs: TAW Blogs

Let us start by taking a look at the numbers we have  presented in front of us (all numbers are provided by Symthic.com). Here we are going to concentrate on the numbers that indicate the amount of recoil a weapon has, highlighted within the red ring:

In this case we have chosen the AEK-971, the highly-competitive, Russian assault rifle.

What does all these numbers mean?!

The numbers (starting from the top) tell us:

• 0.38 —The amount of vertical (upwards) pull for each shot, measured in degrees
• 0.15—The about of left horizontal (sideways) pull for each shot, measured in degrees
• 0.4—The about of right horizontal (sideways) pull for each shot, measured in degrees
• 18—How fast the weapon "recovers" after each shot measured in degrees per second
• 1st 3 x—The amount that the recoil numbers (0.38 0.15 0.4) gets multiplied by on the first shot of each burst

Using the numbers

So, now that we know what the numbers mean, we can start using them to help us control recoil of a certain weapon. For the AEK-971, consider that:

• The horizontal numbers do not offset each other. The AEK-971's right recoil is stronger than the left; thus. (If a gun had 0.2 left and 0.2 right, the side-to-side recoil would offset each other, and you would not need to compensate for that.)

• The vertical pull is almost equal to the right recoil (0.4).

The effect of how your bullets travel without any compensation is illustrated in the picture below:

This means that you'll need to pull your mouse down and to the left at roughly the same rate, illustrated in the picture below:

If you do this correctly, you should get a tight bullet spread with little deviation:

Recoil control is done by feel and practice (using different attachments for a given map / game mode and play style). Stats are important to understand how certain attachments affect a weapon. For example, if you know the AEK-971 has a strong horizontal recoil and a high-rate of fire, using a grip that helps with both horizontal recoil and hip fire may be a good option. Controlling recoil should not be something you think about, you just do it. It should be a natural part of pressing the left mouse button and is, as many other things within FPS games, something that we call "muscle memory." A good tip is to go into Battlefield 4's training mode, get out your favorite rifle and shoot the nearest wall in the same spot over and over again (by pulling the mouse in the correct direction and bursting 3-5 bursts).

With practice, you'll soon learn that you will be able to control any weapon in the game.