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The subject of this article appears in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare The subject of this artcile appears in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Exo Zombies The subject of this article appears in Call of Duty: Vanguard The subject of this article appeared in Zombies mode The subject of this article appears in Call of Duty: Warzone


The EM1 (ElectroMagnetic-1) is a directed-energy weapon featured in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Call of Duty: Vanguard.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare[]

"Constant beam of directed energy. No ammunition but can overheat."
— In-game description.

Campaign[]

The EM1 is a starting weapon in the levels "Fission" and "Throttle". It is also found multiple times in the mission "Crash", and is briefly seen in the armory showcase in "Atlas".

Specifications[]

  • Designer: Atlas
  • Weight: 17.4 lbs
  • Barrel length: 29.1 inches
  • Action: Wave-type particle accelerator
  • Features: Beam absorption reduction

Multiplayer[]

The EM1 is permanently unlocked for the player.

The EM1 is a very low damage per bullet weapon. At any range shorter than 25.6 meters, the EM1 will deal 18 damage, netting a six shot kill, or a two shot kill in Hardcore game modes. At any range between 25.6 meters and 37.5 meters, the EM1 will deal 15 damage, netting a seven shot kill, or a two shot kill in Hardcore game modes. At any range past 37.5 meters, the EM1 will deal 12 damage, resulting in an eight shot kill, or a three shot kill in Hardcore game modes. This damage profile is the worst in the game, and as such, players will find themselves needing to place a lot of shots on target to kill single enemies. It should also be noted that the EM1 lacks any body multipliers, and is completely incapable of penetrating surfaces with its ammunition (although its ammunition can be used to break windows).

One of the EM1's defining characteristics is its fire rate. The EM1 will fire at 1200 RPM, one of the highest rates of fire in the game. This makes the EM1 a bit more forgiving of a weapon in the time-to-kill department, as while its time-to-kill is poor, missing shots has less penalty than with other weapons. As well, due to the EM1's superior hip-fire accuracy, this can make the EM1 questionably effective in close quarters combat. Players with a very fast trigger finger can tap fire the EM1 with almost no recoil, allowing the player to shred through targets with ease.

The EM1 has a bit of an accuracy caveat. The iron sights are extremely clean, but the EM1 will kick very heavily in a diagonal bias when holding down the trigger, making recoil compensation somewhat difficult if not burst-firing. This can make the EM1 exceptionally annoying to use at a distance, coupled with its horrible damage per shot.

The EM1 has mix-matched handling traits. The user will move at 84% of the base speed, it will take a lethargic 450 milliseconds to aim down the sights, and, if the weapon is forced to cool down, it takes very long to cool down, taking at least five seconds to cool down the entire weapon. However, the EM1 has a very powerful handling trait: its hip-fire spread. Its hip-fire spread is exceptionally tight, and is only rivaled by the XMG in terms of hip-fire accuracy. The hip-fire spread is so tight that it can actually prove to be very accurate while hip-firing out to medium range, where most other weapons in its class would demand aiming down the sights to retain accurate fire.

The EM1's defining characteristic is its ammunition properties. Instead of using conventional ammunition, the EM1 is battery powered, and has an almost unlimited supply of ammo. However, if enough heat builds up in the battery, the EM1 will cease firing, and will be automatically cooled down. Idling will reduce the heat level the EM1 is at, and as such, briefly pausing to cool down the EM1 will generally serve more effective than manually cooling it down and completely ceasing to fire. The EM1 is capable of firing for four and a half seconds if consistently holding down the trigger.

The EM1 has a bizarre set of attachments at its disposal, as several attachments are absent, and the Heat Sink is available for use. The optical attachments bar the Thermal Scope are available for usage on the EM1, but unless they're being used for a long range role, the regular iron sights should serve just fine for the EM1.

The Foregrip can serve to be exceptionally useful if using the EM1 at medium to long ranges, as recoil is much more tame with it than without it. The Stock can be useful for a mobile marksman, as it allows more mobile users to retain mobility while keeping track over longer sightlines. However, at medium range, the player might be better off just hip-firing. The Quickdraw Grip can also prove to be a good attachment if playing aggressively at long ranges, where the player can be ready to fire in a quicker timeframe; however, the effect is questionable, as the speed of the aim down sights time is almost on par with the default aim down sights speed of an Assault Rifle, but with a 25 millisecond difference in favor of the EM1.

The Tracker can prove devastatingly effective on the EM1, as its nature makes it so almost all enemies that escape the user's grasp can be grazed by the EM1, leaving them painted on the mini-map, allowing the player to get a lot of assist points, and helping teammates accomplish more kills. The Parabolic Microphone also helps more mobile users, as suppressed weapons fire will be detected on the mini-map if the EM1 is currently in use, making it so unaware, stealth soldiers can be sitting ducks ready to be killed by the player.

The Heat Sink will increase the heat capacity the battery of the EM1 has, making it so the weapon will need more heat to build up in order to overheat. This essentially acts like Extended Mags on the EM1, and as such, can prove to be very effective, as it is almost purely beneficial.

The EM1 has some good variants to offer. The Pwner will increase the six shot kill range to 37.5 meters, and the EM1 Pwner will have an infinite seven shot kill range. As well, the EM1 will aim down the sights in 405 milliseconds instead of 450 milliseconds. However, the Pwner will overheat 10% faster, will have 10% extra recoil per shot, and has a 10% larger hip-fire spread. The three downsides are all very small in their effects, and as such, they are outweighed by the upsides of the Pwner. The LEL is similar, as it may not have a 37.5 meter six shot kill range or a faster aim, but still has an infinite seven shot kill range, while only having 10% extra recoil, and none of the other downsides.

The Sweet Dreams has an integrated Target Enhancer and has 10% less recoil per shot, making the EM1 much more competitive at medium range engagements. However, the Sweet Dreams will overheat 10% more quickly, making it so the Sweet Dreams may have more trouble with serial engagements than the default EM1.

The Dimension decreases the aim down sights speed to 405 milliseconds without any other effect. Although the Dimension has very little upside to speak of, it has no downside to speak of, either, making the Dimension a pure bonus variant.

The Polar Vortex will tighten the hip-fire spread by 20%, and will decrease the overheat speed by 10%, making the Polar Vortex much more competent for close quarter skirmishes, being less likely to overheat, and retaining more accuracy in such engagements. However, the Polar Vortex will aim down the sight in a game-worst 540 milliseconds, making it place the player in more danger while aiming down the sights. However, should the player stick to close quarters, where they won't need to aim down the sights, the Polar Vortex can figuratively serve to be a pure-bonus variant.

Exo Survival[]

It also appears in Exo Survival. It costs 1 upgrade point, and is a default weapon of the Heavy Exo class. The regular EM1 is also used by enemy Beamers and the Pwner variant is used by Heavy Beamers.

Depending on the player's playstyle and preferences, it can be an effective weapon or not be. It has infinite ammo, but can still overheat, has low mobility, and low damage. The mobility problem is also stacked with the problems of low mobility and few abilities, which are problems that come with the Heavy Exo class. However, these problems can be fixed if the player uses the Light Exo or Specialist Exo classes and waits until they get the Weapons Free perk, then buy the EM1.

Exo Zombies[]

The EM1 appears in Exo Zombies. It is available via the 3D Printer. Unlike its campaign and Multiplayer counterpart, the EM1 does not have unlimited ammo. The ammo is gauged by percentage, similar to a Ripped Energy Turret. However, this means that the EM1 will never overheat.

The EM1 can be a bit frustrating to use, as its ammunition cannot shoot through multiple zombies, making it problematic for getting points while training. As well, it moves at a very slow rate, making the player easy to outrun.The EM1 is very weak, often requiring several seconds of fire to eliminate a few zombies. At the same time, however, the EM1 can be very easy to use, as the player does not need to worry about reloading ever with the EM1, and can simply go about by hip-firing, as the hip-fire accuracy is superb. Due to the EM1's properties, Exo Soldier seems like an almost thematic pairing for the EM1, as it plays to the EM1's hip-firing strength by tightening the hip-fire box, while alleviating some of the burden the EM1 has with being so heavy. Exo Reload also serves functionally useless on the EM1, so the weapon can serve very useful to players that do not wish to get the perk (per the rules of a challenge, or the like).

Atttachments[]

Supply Drop Variants[]

Name Rarity Advantages Disadvantages Notes
Dimension Enlisted ADS Time −10% Blue Beam
LEL Enlisted Damage: 18-15-15 Viewkick +10% Blue Beam
Magnified Enlisted Range: 1024-1725 Hipspread +10% Blue Beam
M-Coil Enlisted Viewkick −10% Damage: 18-15-9 Blue Beam
The Last Laugh Professional Viewkick −15% Overheat time −15% Yellow Beam
Sweet Dreams Professional Viewkick −10% Overheat time −10% Integrated Target Enhancer
Yellow Beam
The End Professional Range: 1024-2025 Hipspread +10%
Viewkick +10%
Yellow Beam
Polar Vortex Elite Overheat time +10%
Hipspread −20%
ADS Time +30% Green Beam
Pwner Elite Damage: 18-18-15
ADS Time −10%
Overheat time −10%
Hipspread +10%
Viewkick +10%
Purple Beam
Royalty Elite Overheat time +10%
Hipspread −20%
Range: 1126-1650
ADS Time +30% Green Beam
Vera Permanent (Unlocked at 300 kills) Overheat time +10%
Range: 1024-1725
Damage: 18-12-9 Yellow Beam
Quantum Advanced Arsenal Pack Brass Bullet camo
Red Beam

Gallery[]

For attachment images, see EM1/Attachments.
For camouflage images, see EM1/Camouflage.
For variants images, see EM1/Variants.

Call of Duty: Vanguard[]

"A prototype energy rifle effective at long range and highly customizable."
— In-game description

The EM1 returns in Call of Duty: Vanguard as the EX1. It was added as part of the Season Five update.

Overview[]

Zombies[]

The EX1 can be brought into any map via Create-A-Class, at Loadout rarity. When upgraded via the Pack-a-Punch Machine, it becomes the EX1000.

Attachments[]

Muzzle[]

Barrel[]

Optic[]

  • Monocular Reflector
  • MK 3 Mod. 2 Sunfilter
  • LVL-X IS
  • ZF41 7.0x Telescopic
  • MK. 8 Reflector
  • MK.3 Reflector
  • G16 2.5x
  • Saturn 1.35x Lens
  • 1913 Variable 4-8X
  • Slate Reflector
  • Nydar Model 47
  • MK 3 Sunfilter
  • Type 99 10.0X Telescopic
  • ZC2 1.35x Lens
  • ZF4 3.5x Rifle Scope
  • M38/Slate 2.5x Custom
  • MK.12 Night Vision
  • 1229/Slate 3.25x Custom
  • MK 18 Sunfilter
  • Goblet Is
  • M19 4.0X Flip
  • Type 97 5X Telescopic

Stock[]

Underbarrel[]

  • Low Temp Laser
  • SMLE Pistol Grip
  • Ion Hand Stop
  • Carver Foregrip

Magazine[]

  • PWN Quick Current Battery
  • DIM X-Circuit Battery
  • Royal-PV Cell Reserve Battery
  • Quantum High Voltage Battery

Rear Grip[]

Proficiency[]

Kit[]

Blueprints[]

Blueprint Image Rarity How to Obtain
Circuit Core Circuit Core Card Vanguard Legendary Battle Pass Season Five Tier 100
Noclip Noclip Card Vanguard Ultra Tracer Pack: Call of Duty 8-Bit Warfare Mastercraft Bundle
Sepulchral Sepulchral Card Vanguard Legendary Tracer Pack: Pestilence's Host Weapons of the Apocalypse Mastercraft Bundle
Supercritical Supercritical Card Vanguard Epic Battle Pass Season Five Tier 5

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare[]

  • The EM1 - Quantum variant was listed as an "Enlisted" gun after a patch, even though it is a permanent unlock. It was later fixed.
  • On some variants, there appears to be three visible small blue canisters with the word "Cryocorp" written on them.
  • In Exo Zombies, the overheating sound can be heard while firing, despite the weapon never overheating.

Call of Duty: Vanguard[]

  • The "Noclip" blueprint has the frame rate on its animations significantly lowered, in keeping with its 8-bit theme.
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