Volk (weapon)

"Full-auto energy rifle. Deploys a best-in-class stopping power at a low, dependable fire rate."

- In-game description.

The Volk (referred to as AKE in the game files) is an energy assault rifle in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. It boasts the best damage of all the assault rifles, but it possesses a less-than-stellar cyclic fire rate. The Volk seems to be made out of spare parts of the AK-47, with wires, batteries, an energy muzzle and a polymer stock being attached to the weapon, while the wooden handguard and pistol grip and profile remain the same.

Campaign
The Volk is part of the recommended loadout for the mission Operation Port Armor, where it comes with a Trojan Sight and a Foregrip.

When all side missions are completed, the Volk unlocks the Volk Marksman upgrade, which increases the damage output per round with the disadvantage of the weapon being switched to a semi-auto firing mode. Interestingly, this effect can be bypassed with the Slide Rail attachment.

Multiplayer
The Volk is unlocked at level 42, being the last Assault Rifle that can be unlocked.

The Volk is a high damage-per-bullet assault rifle, best comparing to the HVR and R3K. The Volk is a three hit kill. Damage linearly decreases until where the Volk will deal thirty damage, taking four hits to kill. This is offset by the Volk being the slowest firing automatic gun in the game, excluding any variants, at 468 RPM.

The Volk is quite inaccurate at a range, allowing the Foregrip to maintain a use when engaging enemies at a distance. Its iron sights are quite clear, however the player can choose to use an optical attachment for bolstering mid-long range performance, such as a Reflex or an ELO sight attachment. The Volk's handling traits are quite poor for assault rifles, as its switch speeds, aim time and movement speed are slower than other assault rifles. It is also worthy to note the hipfire spread on the Volk is larger than other weapons in the category.

In terms of optical attachments, the Reflex sight is a viable choice on the Volk, as the front post is folded down when aiming. The ELO sight also poses as a viable choice, as the lack of obstruction from sight frames allow for a larger field of view than average. It is ill-advised to use Trojan, Thermal or Scout Hybrid sights on the Volk unless paired with a Foregrip, due to the large amounts of view kick, gun kick and ranged recoil. The Scout Hybrid can be of some use, seeing as it is an ELO sight paired with a long ranged sight, so it can be sometimes effective to just leave the sight in ELO mode. The Trojan can be of some use, but it is the sight least suited to long range combat, and therefore, shouldn't always be the first optic a Volk user selects. The Thermal sight completely negates view kick, making the Volk more effective at a middle to long range with the foregrip. The VMC sight is a interesting, but effective choice on the Volk. It almost completely negates view kick ( it stacks with foregrip, making the recoil reduction insane), and adds a great deal of center speed. Because the Volk fires slowly, the increased center speed is more effective, and since this only applies when in long-range mode, it would make sense to leave the benefits of the VMC sight to longer ranges.

In terms of other attachments, the Foregrip maintains its useful purpose of allowing for better control at distances - although some may argue that the grip doesn't reduce the Volk's gunkick, making it somewhat ineffective. The Quickdraw attachment improves the Volk's slower than average aim time, making the volk much less likely to fail the user in certain situations, and the Faraday Slug allows for a marksman's approach to the Volk by increasing headshot multipliers significantly. The trouble is, the Faraday slug only increases the 3-shot kill range, and doesn't make the Goliath epic variant capable of a 1-headshot kill, similarly to the Sheiva from Black Ops III. At the ranges this attachment is effective, its better off to use the Particle Amp, which shouldn't be super effective either, since the Volk already has a monstrous range. Fusion Mag can be useful in many situations, giving a solution to the Volk's small magazine - although it wont be effective for supressive fire, seeing as the weapon has to not fire for a while for it to come into play. The Suppressor can also feature as a usable attachment, allowing for a stealth alternative if the player wishes to remain hidden - this is even more so due to the Volk's Goliath range - almost best in class. Stock can be a useful attachment, negating the need to aim down sights in the first place in many situations. Ram Servo is mostly pointless, as reflections barely do any lethal damage, and the damage dealt to scorestreaks is useless as other thing such as launchers and equipment are better suited to an anti-scorestreak role.

In terms of variants, the two common variants are Volk - Regulator and the Volk - Deadeye. The former reducing recoil, but only partially. The Stability gun perk can be stacked with the foregrip for an even greater reduction in recoil, albeit not a very useful one (again, courtesy of the gunkick) The Deadeye increases the range of the Volk. This can be overkill at times, as the Volk already has a great range.

The Volk - Vexed is a great mid-range defensive variant of the Volk. The On Point gun perk reduces the ADS time for a larger hipfire spread, and the creeper common gun perk increases the movement speed while crouched, allowing for more effective suppressive fire / usage with the stock attachment. The second Rare variant, the Volk - Greed can be an effective replacement for the Volk - Regulator as its secondary gun perk is Stability. As well, it is an excellent weapon to shoot for the higher streaks with, as the Rare Jackpot gun perk increases the score towards scorestreaks earned by 10% - this can be used in conjunction with Hardline or Combat Focus to get scorestreaks more easily. It may be useful with Persistence, as it antagonises the increased score needed to get scorestreaks, as that is one of the trait's main weaknesses (not to mention scorestreaks can only be attained once).

The Legendary Volk - Aftermath is an interesting weapon - one catered to a balanced Offense / Defense build - the two traits go hand in hand. The Legendary trait is Hitman, allowing for an incredible reduction of time needed to acquire a payload, although one has to kill the entire enemy team with it for this to work (this persists through lives) - the more "expensive" payloads such as the Eraser can benefit greatly from this gun perk. The common gun perk Stockpile removes one of the Volk's minor issues - it increases the amount of ammo in the reserves as well as in each magazine. This is helpful when tackling large groups of enemies - as the Legendary traits intends.

The first Epic variant, the Volk - Goliath completely changes the weapon - a great weapon at mid range. It has a lower fire rate, but compensates for this with much more damage - allowing for 2 shot kills. So despite the very low firecap as a Semi - Automatic weapon, calculated TTK isn't harmed very much. The Volk - Goliath makes up for this in 3 areas. Firstly, it is very unique - it is the only semi-automatic assault rifle when not including the M1 Garand. Secondly, the weapon has reduced recoil, being much more controllable at range. Finally, the weapon has the focus gun perk, meaning a great reduction to idle sway, making the Volk much more accurate at range. The downsides are a lower fire rate, becoming a Semi - Automatic weapon with a higher skill cap than a normal Volk, and the Magazine Capacity is also halved. In practical terms, this doesn't really matter, as the Semi - Auto nature of the Goliath means improved ammo consumption - although with perfect accuracy and ammo usage, the previous Volk Variants can get 2 more kills than the Goliath. It is interesting to note the Volk - Goliath also recieves some visual changes. Firstly, the Iron Sights are no longer "Iron Optics", in that there is no longer a glowing dot above a U shape - there are now iron sights similar to the Original AK-47. As well, the charging handle is longer, with a rectangular piece stretching from the mid of the handle to the end. The magazines are no longer partly clear, with the magazines - as well as the entire gun - being completely synthetic. Finally, the most notable change is the Volk - Goliath sports a stunning black camo, engulfing the entirety of the gun.

The second Epic variant of the Volk is the Volk - Corruption. It has the same Sharpshooter common gun perk as the Deadeye variant, but the weapon's Epic trait is the Mo'Money gun perk, where extra XP towards ranks is recieved. Actions such as regular kills will award the "Mo'Money" medal (similar to One-Shot kills), and it is interesting to note that kills with this gun causes the enemy players to have money bills fly from them. In terms of physical appearance, this variant also changes drastically from the standard Volk. Most notably, the gun sports a clean Green paint and plates and synthetic black across the entire weapon. For example, the magazines now look more similar to an AK-12's magazines. Another notable thing is that the Corruption variant's stock is folded to the side.

In a February quartermaster update, the Volk's quatermaster collection only variant, the Corruption, was moved to the Prototype Lab, allowing players to finally use salvage to acquire this once quite rare variant.

The March 10th, 2017 patch updated the Volk to have increased range. As such, the effectiveness of a Suppressor on the Volk has been increased, due to the range reducing effects of a Suppressor being less prominent.

Optics

 * Reflex - Unlocked at weapon level 1.
 * Scout Hybrid - Unlocked at weapon level 4.
 * Trojan - Unlocked at weapon level 7
 * VMC - Unlocked at weapon level 9.
 * Thermal - Unlocked at weapon level 11.
 * ELO - Unlocked at weapon level 14.

Other

 * Foregrip - Unlocked at weapon level 2.
 * Quickdraw - Unlocked at weapon level 3.
 * Fusion Mag - Unlocked at weapon level 5.
 * Suppressor - Unlocked at weapon level 6.
 * Particle Amp - Unlocked at weapon level 8.
 * Stock - Unlocked at weapon level 10.
 * Laser Sight - Unlocked at weapon level 12.
 * Ram Servo - Unlocked at weapon level 13.
 * Faraday Slug- Unlocked at weapon level 15.

Zombies
The Volk can be bought off the wall for $1,500 in Zombies in Spaceland, Rave in the Redwoods, Shaolin Shuffle and Attack of the Radioactive Thing. The Volk is a highly dependable assault rifle, both easy to obtain and useful for carrying into higher rounds, especially with attachments. It is unlocked for customization at level 16.

The weapon's highest drawback is its accuracy, as the iron sights are often useless due to the relatively high recoil and muzzle flash. Even without the Faraday Slug, the Volk has a high headshot bonus, making the attachment debatable to use. Grip is a necessity, as it helps counteract the recoil to prevent missed shots. Suppressor can be effective, reducing the Muzzle flash and noise of the gun drastically, while the reduced range is very unnoticeable. It can be found in multiple locations around maps such as Zombies in Spaceland, meaning that Ammo isn't very hard to come by either.

When upgraded via the Pack-a-Punch Machine, the Volk becomes the Shock Therapy, gaining increased damage, a larger magazine, and more reserve ammo. After upgrading the Pack-a-Punch Machine, the Shock Therapy can be upgraded (double pack-a-punched) to the Electric Boogie for $10,000. This further increases damage, magazine size, and reserve ammo.

Locations

 * Zombies in Spaceland - To the left of the portal in the Journey into Space area, as well as to the left of the DJ Booth in Polar Peak.
 * Rave in the Redwoods - On the wooden walkway between the Mess Hall and Camper Cabin, to the right of the doorway leading to Racin' Stripes and in the bunk room across from Tuff 'Nuff.
 * Shaolin Shuffle - On a crate in the park area, next to the fountain by Deadeye Dewdrops.
 * Attack of the Radioactive Thing - On a picnic table in the Campground area, close to the hill that leads to the main road.

Trivia

 * The Volk comes equipped with an unusable Parabolic Microphone.