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The Maverick M4A1 Carbine, often referred to as the M4, is an assault rifle featured in the Counter-Strike series, exclusive to the Counter-Terrorists. The counterpart for the Terrorists is the CV-47.

In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, it was replaced by the M4A4 but had a successor added in the Arms Deal update as the M4A1-S, taking up the same slot as its replacement.

Overview[]

The M4A1 is a moderately powerful CT assault rifle with a middle-of-the-road price tag at $3100, between the AUG's $3500 and the FAMAS's $2250. It is a very versatile weapon that can be mastered for nearly every situation, making it one of the most popular weapons in the Counter-Strike series.

The M4A1 deals fairly high damage per shot, though not as much as the AK-47 and is unable to instantly kill an armored enemy with a headshot unlike the AK. In contrast however, its recoil is incredibly controllable, and its inaccuracy is very low, giving it more effective range compared to the AK.

Being an assault rifle, its rate of fire is high, higher than the AK-47, making it excellent at close to medium range. It is also lighter than most assault rifles.

The M4A1 is able to be equipped with a silencer, reducing the weapon's noise level. The silencer is not attached when receiving the weapon, and can be manually attached (and detached) by pressing the secondary fire key. In GoldSrc games, the silencer increases damage but also increases damage falloff and reduces accuracy. In Source, the silencer doesn't increase damage and only increases damage falloff.

Bots in Source will randomly attach the silencer, making them quite unpredictable on their approach with the weapon in question.

Properties[]

• Damage

Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
Hitbox Primary Attack Secondary Attack
Unarmored Armored Unarmored Armored
Head 124 86 128 89
Chest & Arm 31 21 32 22
Stomach and Pelvis 38 26 40 27
Leg 23 23 24 24
Red signifies a fatal hit.
Counter-Strike: Source
Hitbox Primary Attack
Unarmored Armored
Head 131 92
Chest & Arm 32 23
Stomach and Pelvis 41 28
Leg 24 24
Red signifies a fatal hit.
Movement speed in hammer units per second
Counter-Strike: Source Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
Running 230 230
Walking 120 120
Crouch walking 78 77

Tactics[]

  • The M4A1 is often the best general-purpose weapon for CTs in buy rounds due to its high effectiveness and cheapness.
  • Due to the low recoil and good rate of fire, the M4A1 can be a deadly weapon against enemy players at close-range. Basically, users can continuously fire this rifle if they are accustomed to the recoil.
    • Eliminating targets is normally easy; just be sure to score headshots and keep firing to finish off assailants.
    • Aim for the chest and spray bullets when encountering an enemy assailant at medium range. This strategy may allow you to score a headshot. Alternatively, fire in bursts and aim for the head.
    • Recoil has slightly increased in Source. Fire in bursts to maintain accuracy.
  • Unlike the CV-47, this rifle is not made to engage enemy players at long range, although it is possible to successfully hit an opponent in the head.
    • For long ranged combat, using a silencer may not be preferable unless enemy is not aware of your position. Firing in short bursts is recommended and avoid engaging snipers unless in close proximity.
  • In the GoldSrc games, equipping the silencer increased the M4A1's damage, at the cost of increased damage falloff and lower accuracy, relegating the rifle to close-range combat.
  • If you plan to use the silencer, be sure to attach it before entering combat, preferably during freeze time.
  • Because of the long length of the silencer, exercise caution when hiding near a corner as the long silencer may poke out of the corner, exposing the player. Point the weapon towards the inside of the corner.

Appearances[]

In the Tour of Duty, the following bots will either use the Maverick M4A1 Carbine as their main weapon or pick it up when discovered:

The Maverick M4A1 Carbine is seen used by Counter-Terrorist NPCs in half of the game's levels. It is still possible to use the silencer, though as enemies will not be fooled by suppressed gunfire, the only advantage is the increased CQC DPS. The M4A1 can be used in the following missions:

  • Counter Terrorist Training: Provided at the weapons counter at the shooting range. Can also be seen behind the weapons counter.
  • Recoil: Provided at start.
  • Building Recon: Shortly after finding the nuke has been taken, the player comes across a squad of SAS engaged in a firefight. When entering the room the squadron is in, there will be a counter on the right-hand side, behind which is the rifle. Another M4A1 can be found in the final area where the boss is fought, but picking it up has no effect it the previous one was picked up.
  • Downed Pilot: In the hidden area with the T-90. The weapon is lost when the player is captured, but another will be on a table outside the cell.
  • Alamo: Provided at start.
  • Rise Hard: Provided at start, lost when captured.
  • Truth in Chaos: Provided at start.
  • Sandstorm: Provided at start.

Achievements[]

Weapon
Maverick M4A1 Carbine Expert Maverick M4A1 Carbine Expert
Kill 1,000 enemy players with the Maverick M4A1 Carbine.

Bugs & Exploits[]

  • Prior to Counter-Strike: Source, the silencer attaching/detaching animation can be skipped by starting the animation and then quickly switching to another weapon before switching back.
  • A rare glitch may occur when picking up the weapon from a player killed while attempting to attach/remove the silencer, in which the new owner would play both animations in an infinite loop, unable to use the weapon.

Trivia[]

  • The sound of removing the suppressor is the sound of attaching the suppressor played in reverse.
  • The M4A1 in the GoldSrc games will always have a suppressor attached in third person perspective, regardless of actual suppression. This is fixed in Counter-Strike: Source.
    • In Counter-Strike, the suppressor is unusually long as compared with its first person model.
  • In the Xbox version of Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, and the Deleted Scenes, the M4A1 drawing animation is faster when suppressed. This, however, does not affect the actual draw time.
  • The M4A1's firing sound (silenced and unsilenced) in Source was reused for the M4A1-S in Global Offensive before the September 28, 2016 update for Global Off, Condition Zero Deleted Scenes, and Xbox.
  • The Counter-Strike: Source suppressed firing sound is re-used for the Cleaner's Carbine in Team Fortress 2 (an unlockable weapon for the Sniper class).
  • The unsuppressed firing sound from Counter-Strike: Source was partly re-used in Left 4 Dead for the Assault Rifle.
  • In some versions of Counter-Strike, the model of the M4A1's fire selector switch is turned to semi-auto, although the weapon fires in full-auto.
  • In Counter-Strike and Source, when the player reloads the M4, the animation has the forward assist pulled back during the reload and draw animation. However, on a real M4A1, the forward assist is actually struck forward after reloading to make sure the bolt is properly seated so the weapon doesn't malfunction.
    • In Condition Zero, Deleted Scenes and Xbox Counter-Strike, the reload and drawing animations feature the correct method; pulling the charging handle.
    • In Counter-Strike, the forward assist is visually depicted being pulled back. However, in Source, the forward assist is static and does not move during the reload animation.
  • Contrasting reality, the reload animation has the player pull out the magazine directly without pressing the mag-release.
    • Interestingly, in Counter-Strike Beta, the mag-release is indeed pressed when reloading, but the charging handle is not pulled.
  • In Counter-Strike: Source, the suppressed M4A1 doesn't have its flash hider fully covered, which in reality would make the suppressor pointless.
  • Before Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the weapon was one of the four to retain its real name (at least partially), the others being the Five-SeveN, MAC-10, and M249.
  • In Counter-Strike and Source, the dust cover over the ejection port only opens when a round is fired and closes immediately afterwards. In reality, it will remain open once the bolt is cycled and has to be closed manually.
  • In Counter-Strike, the M4A1 unrealistically uses the same suppressor as the USP, which is modeled after an actual .45 ACP KAC suppressor.
  • In Counter-Strike, the player forearm is misaligned with the glove and wrist while holding the M4A1.
  • In Counter-Strike, when firing the M4A1, the muzzle flash incorrectly appears in the center of the the gun's third person player model.
  • In Beta 1.0, 200 reserve rounds could be purchased for the M4A1.
  • Also in Beta 1.0, if a player zooms in on the M4A1's scope before a reload, it will remain zoomed in after the reload.[1]
  • In Deleted Scenes, this is one of the four weapons that can be discovered twice in a mission, as the others are the Glock-18, SG 552, and the M3.
  • In Condition Zero, if the first letter of the BOT name of M4A1 is a single number in the 26 letter watch, it will install a muffler for it when using M4A1, and the bot of the dual-number first letter will be vice versa.

Behind the scenes[]

  • The weapon had a usable ACOG scope during the Counter-Strike Beta lasting from Beta 1.1 to Beta 6.5, until the the M4A1 was left with only a silencer.
    • The effect of the ACOG scope is similar to the one found in AUG and Krieg 552.
    • The M4A1 from Beta 2.0 to 6.5 had a silencer and a scope. The silencer was non-detachable (similar to the TMP and MP5-SD), because the MOUSE2 key was used to zoom in.
    • The scope is, however, still featured in the post-6.5 world and player models along with the HUDs and kill icons. The Xbox version introduced new HUD icons, but still had kill icons depicting it with the scope. The Source games correct these errors.
    • The pre-6.5 world and player models, oddly enough, had neither scopes nor suppressors, matching them to the post-6.5 viewmodels.
  • The M4A1 was to appear in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as evidenced by Alpha screenshots. It was replaced by the M4A4 during the Beta.
    • Its playermodel in the Alpha screenshot is the same as in Counter-Strike: Source.
    • The M4A4 was still referred as the M4A1 and in fact had the latter's HUD and kill icons. The game files still refer to the M4A4 as the M4A1.
    • The Beta's sound files featured unused suppressed firing sounds and suppressing/unsuppressing sounds. This suggests that the M4A4 simply reused the M4A1's sound files or that the M4A4 itself was to have a suppressor.
    • Due to popularity and fan-base demand, the weapon was reintroduced as the M4A1-S during the Arms Deal Update, albeit different in many ways.

External links[]

References

  1. [1] Youtube - Counter-Strike Beta 1.1 - Guns Overview
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