Are mk2 weapon upgrades really worth it.

[koopdogg]

Ive been grinding I/E and fast tracking research trying to unlock mk2 weapon upgrades (heavy barrel, explosive rounds.) and havent unlocked any of them.

 

Should i keep dumping money into this or are those upgrades not really worth it?

 

(I guess it would be important to add that I dont do much serious pvp only shooting my friends or attackers. I spend my time in heists, contact missions and participating in free roam events.)

Additional questions:

-Will i be at a noticeable disadvantage without the upgrades?

 

-Are there upgrades that are much more of an improvement than others?

 

Thanks for the help.

[IamCourtney]

For PvE, I'd say no, none the mk.II stuff is essential. They are generally better guns but against NPCs, you don't really need more than the basic versions to get the job done. Some of the special ammo can be useful against the buffed up NPCs in Doomsday heist missions but I've had no real trouble handling them with just regular bullets.

 

When it comes to free roam/PvP, any edge you can get is nice to have but again I wouldn't say its an upgrade-or-die situation. Certain things like hollow point rounds in mk.II revolver, explosive slugs at close range or explosive sniper rounds against aircraft can be game changers (especially explosive sniper) but with the incremental performance upgrades you get from the new parts, the difference doesn't really show if you don't PvP often. A good player with a stock weapon can still take on somebody with the fully upgraded mk.II version of the same gun and have a fair chance.

[MC.]

the explosive rounds on the heavy sniper with thermal scope are definitely worth it. ive used this to take down jet griefers, incoming enemy AI cars and other aircrafts from a distance. cars blow up in 1 shot and aircrafts blow up in 2 shots. as for players attacking you, they take 2 shots to kill them if theyre on foot or in car/aircraft. they used to take 1 shot to kill them but it got patched to 2 recently. the thermal scope is very useful as well to scope out enemies taking cover behind objects who may not appear on radar. very useful in the doomsday act iii finale too.

 

other mk ii weapons you may consider worth being are the combat mg with the hollow rounds or full metal jacket mag and the carbine. i just use the extended clip mag for the carbine cause its an improvement over the original and i have no use for the other mags on this rifle since the rounds limit is 20.

 

theres other mk ii weapons that i dont think you have to unlock via research which was added in the latest update. ones worth mentioning are the special carbine mk ii, heavy revolver mk ii, marksman rifle mk ii (sick weapon without the zoom in scope) and the pump shotgun mk ii.

 

the upgrades on all these weapons are most definitely an improvement. you may be at a disadvantage if someone does indeed attack you, seeing as they most likely have those weapons.

Edited December 29, 2017 by MC.

[whywontyoulisten]

http://gtaforums.com/topic/889350-psa-influence-research-item-choice/

[BigStickMama]

Pistol - No

SMG - No

Assault Rifle - No

Carbine Rifle - No

Combat MG - Yes (If you use the Combat MG/play with Aim Assist)

Heavy Sniper - Yes

 

SNS Pistol - No

Heavy Revolver - Yes (If you intent to use Hollow Point special ammunition)

Special Carbine - Yes

Bullpup Rifle - No

Pump Shotgun - Yes (If you intent to use Explosive Slug special ammunition)

Marksman Rifle - Yes

[BLACK DYNAM1TE]

No. I haven't upgraded anything since released and been doing fine as I normally do. When they were first introduced you did see a lot of the mk use in freemode lobby, but its died since then. The limited and expensive ammo that can only be refilled on the MOC/Avenger may be one of the reasons.

 

Explosive Rounds were nerfed with The Doomsday Heist update and now don't kill on first impact. Takes 2-3 shots now.

 

The day I was going to finally upgrade my Heavy Sniper to mk-II they released the Thermal Helmet which was the main point of me upgrading the Sniper. And that's all you really need his the Heavy Sniper and Thermal Helmet to get it done.

[AboveAndBeyoncé]

No. I haven't upgraded anything since released and been doing fine as I normally do. When they were first introduced you did see a lot of the mk use in freemode lobby, but its died since then. The limited and expensive ammo that can only be refilled on the MOC/Avenger may be one of the reasons.

 

Explosive Rounds were nerfed with The Doomsday Heist update and now don't kill on first impact. Takes 2-3 shots now.

 

The day I was going to finally upgrade my Heavy Sniper to mk-II they released the Thermal Helmet which was the main point of me upgrading the Sniper. And that's all you really need his the Heavy Sniper and Thermal Helmet to get it done.

quick off topic question where can I get the thermal helmet, from the clothing store or the Vespucci mask shop?

[IamCourtney]

Clothes store

[Phmiller714]

Obviously

[J-Scott-D]

I'm 100% PVE and I don't think it's worth it if you only use regular ammo. In my opinion, my MK2 Carbine Rifle and MK2 Combat MG actually seem worse when using regular ammo.

[les999]

Heavy sniper Mk2 is a big improvement. The problem is that the original heavy sniper is no longer available once you upgrade and the mk2 requires a trip to your bunker to buy ammo after you use its capacity of 40 (?) bullets.

[Cadtruck]

I upgraded the marksman rifle to be able to use the holographic sight for CQB. Pretty effective and fun to switch up to the single shot rifle. I have the carbine and the combat MG upgraded as well. I however did not spend any money on research and don't think it is worth it just for the weapon upgrades.

[Flyin_Japman]

According to the stats for Mk1 vs Mk2, Mk2 is better in terms of damage, even without the special ammo types. There are a few more customization options, but they are very expensive to someone who rarely breaks $200K without doing missions over and over. I personally love my Mk2 weapons. I have the Pistol, AR, CR, SMG, and Pump upgraded. SMG however...is the bottom of the barrel in terms of overall usage. Despite being stockless, you can't use in in lieu of a Mini SMG or other machine pistol.

[TendouJigoku]

I think that MKII upgrades are necessary since they offer better firepower performance over regular ones.

 

Considering the hefty amount of money you have to spend for each MKII upgrades, I personally don't see the need for another MKII upgrades to weapons that belong in the same category i.e. Special Carbine vs Carbine Rifle since their MKII upgraded stats are almost the same. Better save your money on upgrading other weapons that belong to different category i.e Sniper Rifles, Shotguns or Machine Guns.

 

Just my 2 cents.

Edited February 20, 2018 by TendouJigoku

[FukNRekd]

Agreed. I have one from each main category upgraded.

 

Used them this morning to deliver 5-stop weapons in insurgent pickup and the shorty exploded most vehicles in one shot.

 

The sniper helped with the helis but the chain gun worked better IMO.

[Jimbatron]

The research is generally worth it. The thermal scope on the MK sniper being my favourite and an essential for doing the Avenger setup in a CMM run.

 

I'd recommend leaving your machine on overnight and set to research. Fast tracking is generally more time effective, but research is more cost effective if you are afk/asleep for 6 hours.

[FukNRekd]

The research is generally worth it. The thermal scope on the MK sniper being my favourite and an essential for doing the Avenger setup in a CMM run.

 

I'd recommend leaving your machine on overnight and set to research. Fast tracking is generally more time effective, but research is more cost effective if you are afk/asleep for 6 hours.

Agreed on the thermal scope. That's the last thing I really want so I'll glitch to get that.

 

I've got 23 researched so far. Been letting it research and mfg at night when akf using that method but the Xbox tends to shut off after 3 or 4 hours most times (it's set for 6).

[LordLoff]

Heavy sniper Mk2 is a big improvement. The problem is that the original heavy sniper is no longer available once you upgrade and the mk2 requires a trip to your bunker to buy ammo after you use its capacity of 40 (?) bullets.

If you have the Avenger with weapons workshop you can call it to anywhere in the map and reload - special ammo.means no extended clip, quite a shame

I think that MKII upgrades are necessary since they offer better firepower performance over regular ones.

 

Considering the hefty amount of money you have to spend for each MKII upgrades, I personally don't see the need for another MKII upgrades to weapons that belong in the same category i.e. Special Carbine vs Carbine Rifle since their MKII upgraded stats are almost the same. Better save your money on upgrading other weapons that belong to different category i.e Sniper Rifles, Shotguns or Machine Guns.

 

Just my 2 cents.

Also be carefull if you insert the same ammo type on 2 guns in the same cathegory cause one of the guns will waste the limited ammo for both, a good optio is to put different ammo types if you have 2 guns of the same cathegory on your wheel, so when one of them.is out of ammo the other one is there at full capacity

[FukNRekd]

Good to know about duplicate types. So far I've only upgraded one of each main category so I think I'll stop there.

[TendouJigoku]

Also be carefull if you insert the same ammo type on 2 guns in the same cathegory cause one of the guns will waste the limited ammo for both, a good optio is to put different ammo types if you have 2 guns of the same cathegory on your wheel, so when one of them.is out of ammo the other one is there at full capacity

Correct.

[JAH-MAN]

if you are a low level player you can buy rank locked weapons by upgrading them

[HawkMasterJ]

If I upgrade the Heavy Sniper with explosive rounds is it still possible to use that gun with regular ammo? I use the Heavy Sniper to take out the driver in the I/E Joy Ride source mission before he starts moving. I'm guessing the explosive rounds would cause way too much damage or even blow up the vehicle. Can you swap regular ammo with all MKII upgraded guns?

[MadTitanThanos]

I think that MKII upgrades are necessary since they offer better firepower performance over regular ones.

 

Considering the hefty amount of money you have to spend for each MKII upgrades, I personally don't see the need for another MKII upgrades to weapons that belong in the same category i.e. Special Carbine vs Carbine Rifle since their MKII upgraded stats are almost the same. Better save your money on upgrading other weapons that belong to different category i.e Sniper Rifles, Shotguns or Machine Guns.

 

Just my 2 cents.

Thing is, if I want to pursue these special ammo types I need to spend $8,000,000 + to unlock them. I've done the math. They better be the be-all end-all to spend 8 million dollars before I even spend money on upgrading the guns.

[The Wandering Hunter]

upgrade:

 

combat mg normal ammo, for use vs ai (i see no equal to its power)

any rifle with fmj ammo to deal with bullet proof glass (not that important)

heavy revolver with incindiary ammo is fun but not that good

the explosive shotgun and sniper are overpowered as f*ck. (the sniper got nerfed but it still ragdolls so you can easily hit twice)

the mp5k looks cool but it's pretty sh*t, don't bother.

 

oh and the explosive sniper is great for taking out the drivers of import export cars, you should try it. i'm sure it will go very well for you. bearing in mind that it blows cars up in one hit

Edited April 8, 2018 by The Wandering Hunter

[HawkMasterJ]

Thanks for the info. Figured the explosive rounds would blow up the car since everyone recommends it to take down aircraft. So there's no way to swap out with regular ammo once you upgrade?

[BOOGIEMAN219]

Thanks for the info. Figured the explosive rounds would blow up the car since everyone recommends it to take down aircraft. So there's no way to swap out with regular ammo once you upgrade?

I use the other sniper rifle that you can't upgrade into mk2.

[flexcreator]

So there's no way to swap out with regular ammo once you upgrade?

 

You can't swap it on the move. However, you can change magazines for free (Avenger or MOC) once you purchased them.

Personally, I swap it all the time.

[FukNRekd]

I use explosive rounds in IE. I do it from a distance and it works great. Just like using rockets at follow the kuruma. From a good distance they don't damage the car. (Haven't tried s8nce 1.43 so it might have changed.)

[TendouJigoku]

Thing is, if I want to pursue these special ammo types I need to spend $8,000,000 + to unlock them. I've done the math. They better be the be-all end-all to spend 8 million dollars before I even spend money on upgrading the guns.

The MkII upgrades are worth it but you don't have to buy all upgrades to every weapons as they offer more or less the same upgrade stats to your upgraded weapons in the same category, like I mentioned before.

 

I personally am not the early adopter to every DLCs that R* threw into the game. I bought my bunker and my MkII upgrades during their specific discount week. If you could do the same then I'm pretty sure you can save up some GTA$ for something else.

Edited April 10, 2018 by TendouJigoku

[Black Boxcar in the dark]

I usualy use explosive snipers when someone wants attack me with Deluxo, Opressor or some other flying vehicle which is hard to hit with regular sniper.