MG42

The MG42, is a heavy machine gun featured in all World War II era Call of Duty installments.

Call of Duty and Call of Duty: United Offensive
The MG42 is a mounted weapon that can be found hanging from various areas in the game, in singleplayer and multiplayer. It can't overheat, so just hold down the fire button. It doesn't have great accuracy, but the sheer amount of bullets it puts in the air easily compensates for that, deterring even the most hardened attacker.

In United Offense, it can be found mounted on Axis vehicles. Be careful, these can overheat, so it is best to fire in short bursts.

Tanks can dispose of MG42 gunners with their cannon. However, that is a waste of ammo, since the tank-user's machine-gunner could take the enemy down just as fast without having to use the cannon.

Call of Duty: Finest Hour
The MG42 is found often in mounted-only form and rarely as a weapon that the player can carry. However, it has horrid recoil if the player doesn't fire it prone and with a bipod. In a pinch it can be used in crouch as the recoil is reduced slightly. Mounted versions can use their iron sights, the first version to do so. The portable version can only be fired from the hip, and the sights can only be used if the bipod is in use.

Call of Duty 2
Exactly like how they are in Call of Duty with a new appearance and same rate of fire. "Spray and pray" is a common tactic that any player will use. Due to the aggressive Germans counter-attack, an MG-42 is the safer option that the player could have.

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
MG42s are found only in mounted form throughout the game and automatically are aimed through a rear V-notch sight without a front sight to be seen. By holding down the aim button, the player can zoom in their view, though they still look through the V-notch sight in the same manner.

Call of Duty: Roads to Victory
In Call of Duty: Roads to Victory, the MG42 frequently appears in all three campaigns. It is only found in deployed position, and doesn't appear to overheat or have an ammo limit.

Singleplayer
Exactly like in Call of Duty 2, however firing for prolonged periods of time will cause it to overheat. Since there are vehicles in this game, the player can eliminate MG42 gunners with a cannon blast. It is aimed purely with the rear V-notch sight in the same manner that Call of Duty 2: Big Red One has MG42's aim. Also, the MG42 is in almost every level. However, in single player, the MG42 is rarely useful. The only levels that the character has to use the MG's are: "The Crossroads" and "The Corridor of Death". The MG42 has an extremely high rate of fire.

Multiplayer
In multiplayer, they are equipped on Axis vehicles (ie: Kubelwagens and Panzer IVs).

Singleplayer
The MG42 is often found mounted on walls, or found with a bipod. It holds more ammo than its multiplayer counterpart and is often extremely useful due to its ability to fire a large amount of bullets and that it only takes at least 2-3 shots of any weapon to down an enemy in singleplayer. Many of these can be found in the level Their Land, Their Blood, which is helpful when navigating the trenches. Picking up the FG42 in the beginning of the level and then picking up the MG42 makes the level a whole lot easier. In singleplayer, mounted MG42s can be found in Vendetta, Their Land, Their Blood, Heart of the Reich, and Downfall. Deployable ones can only be found in Their Land, Their Blood, and Ring of Steel.

The bipod allows the weapon to be mounted with better accuracy and less recoil, as such the weapon is usually mounted somewhere on a wall in the Soviet Red Army Campaign missions.

Multiplayer
In multiplayer the MG42 is unlocked at level 33 and has decent damage and a high rate of fire. It is very similar to the M249 SAW from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, as they do the same damage and have almost the exact same rate of fire, with the MG42 firing a bit faster. Like the Browning M1919, the MG42 holds a relatively large cylindrical drum magazine containing 50 rounds although its high rate of fire quickly drains ammunition, which can be a problem as, characteristic of most machine guns in Call of Duty, it has a reasonably slow reload time. It can be used effectively at long range, and recoil is not too much of a problem unless shooting from a distance. As with many machine guns, it is common that one would burst fire when attacked at long range. When fitted with a bipod, it can provide very effective covering fire when mounted on cover.

This weapon is often compared to the Browning M1919, with the MG42's advantages being a higher ROF and a quicker reload time, but the Browning's strengths being higher attack power and same movement speed as if one had a SMG for primary weapon. Overall, the MG42 will do more damage per second but the Browning M1919 will last much longer.

The MG42 is finished reloading once the drum is reattached to the gun, so double tapping the weapon switch button afterwards effectively cuts the reload time in half, eliminating the need for Sleight of Hand. This tactic is known as reload canceling.

Combining Stopping Power with the MG42 will give the player a weapon that 3-shot kills any target not using Juggernaut or Second Chance perks (4 if the enemies are using the perks) and isn't behind cover. Double Tap has an interesting effect as this raises the rounds per minute to rival even the PPSh-41 (actually very slightly higher than the PPSh-41), in this scenario, the player will very quickly run out of ammunition due to the sheer rate of fire, thus Bandolier is recommended to mitigate this, but the player can very quickly take out groups of enemies due to the rate of fire and damage of each bullet (30), with each enemy needing 4-6 bullets to kill (all areas taken into account). A strategy that was once used frequently was to equip two or three players with the MG42 with Bandolier, Double Tap, and Deep Impact on Headquarters. Working together, the group could easily eliminate all hiding in the HQ room.

The MG42 is a fantastic weapon to use in Hardcore game modes, where it gives one hit kills at an incredibly high rate of fire except on Juggernaut users and through any cover, allowing almost any 2nd tier perk to be used except Stopping Power as it has no effect apart from canceling Juggernaut.

Nazi Zombies
The MG42 appears in all Nazi Zombie maps. It can only be obtained in the Mystery Box. It is widely considered to be one of the best weapons available, due to it's high ROF, large ammo reserve, attack power and large magazine. But because of its high ROF, after a few levels, the player will need to get a new gun or get a max ammo power up. The MG42 can tear apart entire lines of Zombies before having to reload. It's also very effective against Hellhounds.

When Pack-a-Punched it becomes the "Barracuda FU-A11", and gets an increase in head shot damage, a higher ROF, and more held ammo. Many players believe FU-A11 means: "Fuck You All".

Call of Duty: World at War (DS)
The MG-42 is different from it's console counter-parts, it is more accurate and has a slower rate of fire than the console versions. It also uses an ammo box like the M249 SAW. It is absent from multi-player and can be found in the British and Russian Campaign.

Call of Duty

 * The MG42 is the first gun fired in the Call of Duty series. They are fired on the player during the training course at Camp Toccoa. Captain Foley will alert the player, "Those are live rounds."

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One

 * Interestingly, in Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, every usable mounted MG42 has a unique serial number on the top of the barrel.

Call of Duty 3
The MG42 in Call of Duty 3 appears to have a serial number and a Nazi mark and a extreme rate of fire.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

 * The MG42 appears in Call of Duty 4's weapon files, along with its Call of Duty 2 textures. It appears on the levels The Bog, Sins of the Father and can be found outside Charlie Don't Surf. Although this could be the NATO equivalent the MG3.

Call of Duty: World at War

 * The MG42 in World at War is capable of ripping off limbs and heads.
 * In Their Land, Their Blood a German soldier can be seen hipfiring an MG42.
 * Like the Browning M1919, the MG42 has no magazine in third person perspective.
 * In single player or co-op campaign, the MG42 has a 125 round drum, while in Multiplayer it has a 50 round drum.
 * The MG42 has the fastest reload time for HMGs, in singleplayer and Nazi Zombies.
 * In both single player and multiplayer mode, when the MG-42 is mounted, one bullet fire would be equal to a three bullet burst fire. This applies to the other mountable machine guns as well.

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MG-42 gameplay on the Wii version of World at War