AE4

"Fully automatic directed energy weapon."

- In-game description

The AE4 is a directed energy assault rifle in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The AE4 and its variants were released on December 11th (in early access) for Season Pass owners on Xbox One and Xbox 360 and was released on January 13th, 2015 for the other Season Pass owners on other platforms. The weapon will be a part of the first download content pack for Advanced Warfare named Havoc available on January 27th, 2015 on Xbox platforms.

Multiplayer
The AE4 is a very high damage weapon, usually killing in three shots up close, or four shots at a distance. Its long range damage is the highest of all Assault Rifles in the game. Its range is decent, which is about twice the range of the BAL-27. Headshots give a bonus of 1.15x, allowing for a three shot kill with the minimum damage.

The AE4 is a very accurate weapon. The recoil is low, and the sight is clean. However, the exact point of impact is actually where the two bars intersect, and is not at the tip of the vertical bar, meaning players might unintentionally aim above their target. This is not applied on the Xbox 360 and PS3, as the sight is correctly aligned (thus, bizarrely, making the iron sights different on the Xbox 360 and PS3 than the next gen consoles).

The AE4's biggest weakness is its abysmally slow rate of fire; 500 RPM, and the Widowmaker variant lowers it as well. Additionally, the AE4 is incapable of surface penetration, and therefore cannot shoot through objects; this really offsets its high damage. Furthermore, the shot limit is fairly low before the AE4 overheats, at 16 bullets; using a Heat Sink raises this to 21 bullets. Using the Widowmaker variant reduces the shot limit by two with and without the Heat Sink.

The biggest strength of the AE4 is its accuracy. A very high accuracy plays well with the damage output it has, allowing players to easily land hard-hitting shots. As well, the AE4 is always a one-shot kill in Hardcore except on players using Exo Stim. Another strength is that it has unlimited ammo, making Scavenger utterly useless.

There are few attachments for the AE4, limited to optical attachments, the Foregrip, Stock, the Parabolic Microphone, and the Heat Sink. Out of these attachments, it is recommended to use an optical attachment to get a visible hit point, and the Heat Sink to raise the shot count before overheating.

A bonus variant is also given to the player if they purchase the DLC or get it from the Season Pass, known as the Widowmaker. The Widowmaker increases it's accuracy by one bar but decreases its time it can be fired for by two shots.

Exo Zombies
The AE4 will also be appearing in Exo Zombies. Unlike its multiplayer counterpart, it doesn't have unlimited ammo.

Attachments

 * Red Dot Sight
 * Hybrid Sight
 * Auto Focus Sight
 * Target Enhancer
 * Thermal Scope
 * ACOG Scope
 * Foregrip
 * Stock
 * Quickdraw Grip
 * Parabolic Microphone
 * Heat Sink

Supply Drop Variants

 * Supernova
 * Macroshock
 * Equinox
 * Vaporizer
 * Vortex
 * Void [Professional] (Range +2, Overheat Time -2 )
 * Shocker [Elite] (Overheat Time +3, Accuracy -1 , Damage -2 )
 * Gigawatt [Elite] (Damage +1, Mobility +2 , Handling -2 , Range -1 )
 * Tranquilizer [Elite] (Damage  +2, Overheat Time -3 )
 * Widowmaker [Bonus] (Accuracy  +1, Overheat Time  -1 ) (Blue Beam)
 * Venom [Bonus] (Mobility +2, Range -2  )

Trivia

 * The AE4's iron sights, specifically the central bar, vary in size on different consoles. On the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game, the AE4's central post is significantly smaller, and the true point of impact is where the two horizontal bars intersect. On the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions however, the bar is much larger and is correctly aligned.
 * The promo image for the default AE4 has a different back sight. This can be seen on other variants of the AE4.
 * Also, the promo image for the Widowmaker variant lacks the back sights.