Z-750 binary rifle

Template:Weapon Infobox The Z-750 Special Application Sniper Rifle^[1], commonly known as the binary rifle, is a Forerunner energy channel weapon.^[2] It is often carried by Promethean Knight Lancers and Crawler Snipes.

Overview

The binary rifle is a weapon used by Forerunner Promethean Knight units and certain types of Crawler units encountered on Requiem. Originally designed to combat the Flood at extremely long ranges, the Z-750 Binary Rifle is equipped with twin, core-mounted particle accelerators which fire ionized particle beams containing jacketed antimatter particles. The incredible power and accuracy of this weapon make it highly lethal, allowing it to neutralize most targets with a single shot, disintegrating the body of the target.^[3] The binary rifle became critically necessary when dealing with large Flood Pure forms.^[4]

Design details

The weapon possesses an angular design and metallic casing. It appears to be held together, at least partly, by energy fields as indicated by its self-assembly process and floating sights. Orange highlights can be seen while the weapon is self-assembling and throughout the casing once assembly is complete; these highlights grow brighter when the weapon is fired. The sight through the scope is tinted orange and has two zoom levels, 5x and 10x. The rifle emits a highly visible orange beam from its barrel when aiming, allowing opponents to trace the user's location.^[2]

Gameplay

The Binary Rifle is capable of destroying most light armored vehicles with one or two direct shots, and even heavy vehicles with only a few more. An excellent anti-personnel weapon, it can instantly kill most infantry without a headshot. On harder difficulties and against higher ranked Sangheili or Promethean Knights it takes a few shots, this still makes it more powerful than other sniper weapons. In addition to this, the weapon has a much higher zoom level than its sniper weapon counterparts, allowing its operator to engage targets from extreme ranges. However, the line of fire created by the scope's laser sight can be seen by every player, thus giving away the location of the user, though an able user can negate this by only aiming with the weapon when they intend to shoot. Additionally, the Binary Rifle has a slow rate of fire (roughly four seconds between shots) and a long reload time (roughly five seconds without Dexterity), leaving the user vulnerable. It holds a low ammunition capacity with a total of four magazines (eight shots) (five with the Ammo upgrade, 10 rounds total). When fired in scope, the Binary Rifle's aiming reticle is 'bumped' in a random direction, making it difficult for snipers to reacquire their target if they miss.

Production notes

An early concept for the Binary Rifle was later repurposed for the creation of the Lightrifle.^[5]
The Binary Rifle was originally named "Attach Beam" during its early development stage. Said weapon is still in the game's files; it looks like an untextured Lightrifle which fires sniper rounds and has the reloading animation of the Sniper Rifle from Halo: Reach. It makes almost no sound when fired. The "Attach Beam" was merely a placeholder until the Binary Rifle was eventually finalized.^[6]

Gallery

Concept art of the Binary Rifle. The concept weapon at the bottom later becomes the Lightrifle.
Profile picture of the Binary Rifle.
HUD Icon of the Binary Rifle.
The ejected power cell of the Z-750 SASR.
The Binary Rifle's disintegrative effects on an infantry.
First-person view of the Binary Rifle through John's HUD.
First-person view of the Binary Rifle.
First person view through the rifle's scope.
A SPARTAN-IV utilizing the gun's scope's zoom functionality.
A render of the binary rifle scope