KN-44

"Full-auto assault rifle. Fast fire rate with moderate recoil."

— In-game description

The KN-44 (known as the ARAK in the alpha build and ARK-7 in the beta) is an assault rifle featured in Call of Duty: Black Ops III and its prequel comic. It has moderate rate of fire, moderate recoil and a fast reload time. It is unlocked by default at the start.

Campaign

The KN-44 appears as the signature weapon for all factions, such as the 54 Immortals and Egyptian Army. In addition, the assault rifle appears in every mission. It is available after "New World" for The Player in the armory, and is the first Field Ops Kit for "In Darkness". It is the signature weapon for Jacob Hendricks, John Taylor, and Zeyad Khalil.

Report

The KN-44 is a widely manufactured military grade production of the KN weapon platform. The KN-44 is fast and easy to produce, making it ubiquitous amongst armies worldwide with a need to quickly arm large numbers of riflemen.

The KN weapon design affords production plants their choice of quality of parts, meaning that even though all KN-44 parts are interchangable, there is no guarantee any two KN-44 rifles around the world will perform the same. Since there is no standard, the designation "KN-44" is typically given to any rifle of military issue fitting the KN pattern.' The KN-44 is highly customizable, and its standard pattern offers a good balance of stopping power, performance at range, and rate of fire. A properly built KN-44 with the right modifications can easily meet the performance demands of the modern infantryman.

Specifications

Ammo: 7.62x39mm, 5.45x39mm
Length: 880mm
Weight: 3.05 kg
Barrel: 415mm
Production Years: 2062–Present
Country of Origin: Russia

Multiplayer

The KN-44 is unlocked by default at all times.

The KN-44 is a moderate damage per bullet weapon. At any range short of around eighteen meters, the KN-44 will deal forty damage, taking three hits to kill. At any range between about eighteen meters and fifty meters, the KN-44 will deal thirty damage, taking four hits to kill. At any range past fifty meters, the KN-44 will deal 29 damage, still taking four hits to kill, but now dealing a two hit kill in Hardcore game modes. The KN-44's range is fairly good in the grand scheme, but its range isn't good in the face of other assault rifles, such as the Man-O-War. By default, the KN-44's headshot multiplier is only useful in Hardcore game modes, where the KN-44 can get a one headshot kill at any range. The KN-44 has decent penetration power.

The KN-44's rate of fire is good for an Assault rifle, but poor in the grand picture. The KN-44 fires in a fully automatic configuration, and will fire at 625 RPM. As a fully automatic assault rifle, only the HVK-30 bests this fire rate. It may be above average as an assault rifle in this regard, but all SMG's can match or best this fire rate.

The KN-44's accuracy is unimpressive. The iron sights are clean, but the KN-44 has omni-directional recoil, kicking upwards and to the sides almost equally in velocity. The KN-44's centerspeed is average, at 1500. This makes counteracting the recoil profile problematic, as the kick is unpredictable, and the centerspeed isn't stellar. As well, the KN-44 by default has the highest amount of idle sway in the assault rifle category, and one of the highest amounts of idle sway in the game. Only the Vesper and SVG-100 have more idle sway by default. This idle sway, combined with the unpredictable recoil profile, makes the user somewhat dependent on luck to be accurate.

The KN-44's handling characteristics are fairly average for an Assault Rifle. It permits the user to move at 95% the base speed, 90% when firing the KN-44 while not aiming, and 38% when aiming the KN-44. The KN-44 has a moderately sized hip-fire spread and aims down the sights in 380 milliseconds. The KN-44 reloads fairly quickly as an Assault Rifle, taking 2.03 seconds to reload the KN-44, or 2.8 seconds if the KN-44 is empty. In either case, it'll be taking 1.4 seconds to Reload Cancel the weapon. The animation speed is above average as an assault rifle, but the reload cancel speed is per the norm.

The KN-44 has the usual thirty round magazine for an Assault Rifle, and spawning in with four magazines total, or 120 rounds by default.

The KN-44 has the usual assortment of Assault Rifle attachments available to it. The optical attachments bar the Recon Sight are fairly pointless on the KN-44. The Recon Sight will increase the KN-44's zoom level while aiming, increase the KN-44's centerspeed to 1575, and reduce idle sway by ninety percent, making the KN-44 much more accurate by almost fully eliminating idle sway. The Grip can help somewhat in reducing the KN-44's recoil also, but will not help improve overall accuracy as much as the Recon Sight.

The KN-44 takes exception from other Assault Rifles with the Long Barrel and Suppressor attachments. Long Barrel will grant the KN-44 only 13% longer range values, and the Suppressor will grant the KN-44 only 30% shorter range values. This makes the Suppressor an overall stronger attachment on the KN-44, having lesser penalty and giving stealth bonuses.

Both the Quickdraw Grip and the Stock both help improve on the KN-44's handling characteristics by reducing the aim down sights time to 266 milliseconds and increasing the strafe speed to 68% while aiming (but reducing to 57% while firing and aiming). These attachments give great tangible benefits to the KN-44, and the player can't go wrong with choosing these attachments.

The Laser Sight will reduce the KN-44's hip-fire radius by a considerable amount, allowing the KN-44 to be very accurate from the hip.

FMJ allows the KN-44 to pierce through cover with greater efficiency. This makes the KN-44 quite powerful at shooting through light cover and moderately thick cover.

Fast Mag and Extended Mags both help the KN-44 in regards to reloading. Fast Mag will decrease the KN-44's reload times, with a reload cancel time of 0.77 seconds at all times. This makes the KN-44 reload considerably faster. Bear in mind, however, that the KN-44 will have one of the slowest first reloads of all Assault Rifles with Fast Mag. Extended Mags increases the KN-44's magazine capacity to 42 rounds and the KN-44's starting ammo loadout will increase to 168 rounds.

High Caliber is a powerful attachment on the KN-44, increasing the headshot multiplier to 1.6x over 1.1x. This makes headshots reduce the amount of shots to kill by one in core game modes. However, this effect is unnecessary in Hardcore game modes, with 1.1x being sufficient to guarantee a one headshot kill at any range.

Rapid Fire is fairly poor on the KN-44, only increasing the fire rate to 666 RPM, a poor upgrade over the KN-44's 625 RPM. Due to the small tangible benefit, it is within usual interest to avoid the attachment.

Attachments

Reflex (unlocked at weapon level 2)
Quickdraw (unlocked at weapon level 3)
Grip (unlocked at weapon level 4)
Recon (unlocked at weapon level 5)
Suppressor (unlocked at weapon level 6)
High Caliber (unlocked at weapon level 7)
Varix 3 (unlocked at weapon level 8)
Stock (unlocked at weapon level 9)
BOA 3 (unlocked at weapon level 10)
Laser Sight (unlocked at weapon level 11)
FMJ (unlocked at weapon level 12)
Thermal (unlocked at weapon level 13)
Fast Mags (unlocked at weapon level 14)
Extended Mag (unlocked at weapon level 15)
ELO (unlocked at weapon level 16)
Long Barrel (unlocked at weapon level 17)
Rapid Fire (unlocked at weapon level 18)

Zombies

The KN-44 was first seen in Zombies during the Shadows of Evil reveal trailer, where it was Pack-a-Punched.

The KN-44 appears as a wall weapon at several points throughout the map. When upgraded via the Pack-a-Punch Machine, it becomes the Anointed Avenger, with an increased magazine capacity, more reserve ammo, and increased damage.