Rifle

In the actual sense of the word, a "rifle" is a weapon with a spiral grooved barrel that imparts a spin on a projectile to obtain better levels of accuracy than a smoothbore weapon, such as a musket or a shotgun. In the Halo universe sense of the word, a rifle can have several different meanings.

Summary

When regarding human weapons, there are a few forms of the word "rifle" used. An "assault rifle" is a firearm that may or may not be fully-automatic (and may posses a fire selector), that fires a round between a pistol or battle rifle. A "battle rifle" fires a large full-size rifle round and is usually, but not always, semi-automatic and often has a long full-size barrel. A "sniper rifle" can fire various high-caliber ammunition variants, and are almost exclusively semi-automatic. Their goal is to achieve high levels of accuracy and lethality, and have longer ranges than assault or battle rifles.

Regarding Covenant weapons, a "rifle" is used not to describe the technical nature of the weapon itself, but in the role it plays on the battlefield. For example, the plasma pistol and plasma rifle, while similar, are used for two different purposes. A rifle is larger than a pistol, often requiring both hands to use (except while dual-wielding), but is smaller than a heavy weapon, such as the Brute shot or fuel rod cannon. This applies to both the plasma rifle and the beam rifle. The Covenant carbine is also considered a rifle and the spiker can fit into this list as well.

There are currently 30 known rifle variants in the Halo universe.

United Nations Space Command

Assault rifles

Assault rifles are are military service weapons that that fires intermediate rifle cartridge; merging the light machine guns' firepower with the submachine gun's compact design.

MA Series

MA37 Individual Combat Weapon System - The precursor to most variants of the MA series. Featured in Halo: Reach.
MA2B Individual Combat Weapon System - A stripped-down variant of the MA5B assault rifle.
MA3A Individual Combat Weapon System - The precursor to the MA5B assault rifle.
MA5B Individual Combat Weapon System - The most common MA series rifle. Featured in Halo: Combat Evolved.
MA5C Individual Combat Weapon System - Redesigned version of the MA5B rifle. Featured in Halo 3.
MA5D Individual Combat Weapon System - Newest addition to the MA5 series. Featured in Halo 4.
MA5K Carbine - Rare MA series rifle wielded by special operations groups such as the SPARTAN-IIIs.

Battle rifles

Battle rifles are military service weapons that fires a full-power rifle cartridge; providing greater effective range, penetration, and stopping power than assault rifles.

XBR55 Battle Rifle - Halo: Contact Harvest-prototype battle rifle.
BR55 Battle Rifle - Two-handed firearm firing in 3-round bursts. Featured in Halo 2.
BR55HB SR Battle Rifle - An updated version of the BR55. Featured in Halo 3.
BR85HB SR Battle Rifle - Post-war successor to the BR55 series. Featured in Halo 4.

Marksman rifles

Marksman rifles are military service weapons that fires a anti-personnel/magnum-caliber rifle cartridge; used to fill the "marksmanship gap" between the battle rifle and the sniper rifle.

M392 Designated Marksman Rifle - Accurate single-shot, medium-range rifle. Better known as the DMR. Featured in Halo: Reach.
M395 Designated Marksman Rifle - Post-war successor to the M392 DMR. Featured in Halo 4.

Nonlinear rifles

M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle - A shoulder-carried, anti-vehicular, directed laser weapon. Featured in Halo 3, Halo Wars, Halo 3: ODST and Halo Reach. Better known as the Spartan laser.

Recoilless rifles

ARC-920 - A compact-channel linear accelerator carbine which fire high-explosive rounds. Better known as the railgun. Featured in Halo 4.

Sniper rifles

Sniper rifles are military service weapons that fires anti-material/anti-vehicular rifle cartridge; used when accurate, long-range, and lethal force is needed.

Sniper Rifle System 99 Anti-Matériel - Variant of the SRS99C Sniper Rifle. Featured in Halo: Reach.
Sniper Rifle System 99C-S2 Anti-Matériel - Long-range two-handed projectile weapon featured in Halo 2.
Sniper Rifle System 99C-S2 Anti-Matériel B - Variant seen in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx.
Sniper Rifle System 99D-S2 Anti-Matériel - A variant of the SRS99C-S2 AM Sniper Rifle. Featured in Halo 3.
Sniper Rifle System 99-S5 Anti-Matériel - Post-war successor to S2 variants. Featured in Halo 4.
M99 Special Application Scoped Rifle - A wieldable miniaturized Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, used by Avery Junior Johnson in Operation: KALEIDOSCOPE.

Covenant Empire

Projectile

Type-33 Carbine - A one-handed sidearm, with homing crystalline ammunition. Used in a similar fashion to the MA5 series rifles. Better known as the needler.
Type-31 Rifle - A cousin of the needler. Used in a similar fashion to the DMR. Better known as the needler rifle.
Type-25 Carbine A one-handed spike rifle. Used in a similar fashion to the SMG. Better known as the Brute spiker.
Type-51 Carbine A very scaled-down version of the fuel rod cannon. Used in a similar fashion to the battle rifle. Better known as the Covenant carbine.

Particle

Type-50 Sniper Rifle System - Long-range two-handed weapon, primarily used by Jackal Snipers. Better known as the beam rifle.

Plasma

Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle - One-handed plasma-operated weapon typically wielded by Sangheili. Better known as the plasma rifle.
Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle/Jiralhanae variant - Variant of the standard plasma rifle wielded by Brutes. Seen only in Halo 2 and Halo 3: ODST.
Type-51 Directed Energy Rifle/Improved - Two-handed plasma-operated weapon used mostly by Sangheili. Better known as the plasma repeater.
Type-52 Special Applications Rifle - A sniping weapon that fires a continuous beam of magnetically contained plasma. Better known as the focus rifle.

Deleted material

Gravity Rifle - A Halo: Combat Evolved-era Covenant long-range rifle.

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