SG 553

Overview

“The terrorist-exclusive SG 553 is a premium scoped alternative to the AK-47 for effective long-range engagement.”
―Official description

The SG 553 is a Swiss assault rifle in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive exclusive to the Terrorists. It is the successor to the Krieg 552 in previous Counter-Strike games, having similar performance and the same role as its predecessor. Its Counter-Terrorist counterpart is the AUG.

Overview

The SG 553 is a Swiss-made assault rifle manufactured by Swiss Arms as part of the SG 550 platform introduced in 1990. It is an improved version of the SG 552 assault rifle, with the main difference being an added charging handle. Although the in-game weapon is named SG 553, it is modeled after the SIG556 HOLO, a semi-automatic rifle based on the same platform intended for the civilian market. The SG 556 series has an aluminum lower receiver that accepts STANAG magazines.

In game, the SG 553 serves as the replacement of the Krieg 552 from previous titles. Unlike its predecessor, the SG 553 inflicts more damage and can penetrate through armor flawlessly. Furthermore, the scope now provides a 3x zoom, there is no longer a fire rate penalty for using the scope, and using the scope lowers the recoil significantly. The scope now also provides a HUD overlay of the scope, including an aiming reticle, giving the impression of the player actually aiming down the scope.

It is one of the few guns capable of scoring fatal headshots regardless of armor.

Properties

Hitbox	Primary Attack
Hitbox	Unarmored	Armored
Head	120	120
Chest & Arm	30	30
Stomach	37	37
Leg	22	22
Red signifies a fatal hit.

Advantages

Highest first shot accuracy of any assault rifle
Highest damage per bullet against armored enemies of any assault rifle
100% armor penetration, making headshots fatal even at extreme long range
High firing rate
Short reload time
Scope increases accuracy, reduces recoil while maintaining firing rate
Scope gives a fighting chance against snipers at long range compared to unscoped rifles
Cheaper than most CT rifles (M4, AUG)

Disadvantages

High recoil
Wide spread upon continuous fire
Most expensive assault rifle on the terrorist side
Heaviest assault rifle and slowest movement speed
Scope slows down movement speed considerably

Tactics

Be sure to take advantage of the scope and aim for the head of targets. One headshot is enough to kill regardless if the target is armored or not.
- Although the scope makes it easier to engage enemies at long ranges, the player should check frequently for nearby enemies attempting to flank the player. Avoid using the scope for too long as the blurred peripheral vision can make it easier for enemies to sneak behind.
Only scope in when engaging players at long range; scoping in for close-range combat takes too long, reduces peripheral vision, and reduces turning speed.
Avoid using an entire magazine in one spray. While the first 12-15 bullets are easily controlled if the player has learned the spray pattern, the last 10 bullets of the magazine are very hard to control. A quick firing pause in the middle of the magazine to reset the spray pattern can negate this. The unscoped spray pattern is larger than all other rifles, but with practice, the SG 553 can still spray very accurately and effectively since the spread is the lowest among Terrorist rifles.
When firing unscoped, aim low and to the left while spraying bullets to combat diagonal recoil.
SG 553 can be a good situational choice due to its high damage and armor penetration. However, do note that the SG 553 is more expensive than the AK-47 (which already has damage and armor penetration levels similar to the SG 553), and the extra money saved by buying an AK-47 instead of an SG 553 can be instead used for more useful tactical equipment, such as grenades. Exercise judgement on the current game economics before buying the weapon.

Achievement

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Weapon Specialist

SG 553 Expert
Kill 100 enemies with the SG 553.

Trivia

Before the June 26, 2013 update, the rate of fire would be halved while using optic, to about 360 rpm.
The SG 553 is the only weapon not affected by Kevlar.
Before the CS:GO sound update, the P90, Galil AR, SG 553, and AUG share the same "cocking" or "cycling" sound.
The SG 553 and its predecessor, the Krieg 552, are parts of the SG 550 family. The SG 553 is an improved variant of the SG 552 which has more customization options for its user. However, the SG 553 in-game currently has the lowest movement speed and highest recoil for an assault rifle, possibly to make the game more balanced and competitive.
In real life the SG 553 is rarely used by terrorist organizations, mostly due to its high unit cost.
The optic used by the SG 553 is the Trijicon ACOG (Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight) like its CT counterpart, the AUG A3, but with a different variant giving it a different appearance. It has a 3 times magnification instead of 4 in real life.
In the February 12, 2014 update in Global Offensive, the scoped view was updated from the old scope and crosshair (identical to sniper scopes) to a green dot sight, which is further updated in the February 20, 2014 update in which the scope dot is now tinted using the player’s crosshair color settings.
However, when cl_crosshaircolor_r, cl_crosshaircolor_g and cl_crosshaircolor_b is set to 0 makes red dot while using zoom for SG 553.
Prior to the update, the gun's front iron sight was flipped up in first person view. However, after the update, it was folded down. The reason could mainly be due to possibly obscuring the player's vision when entering the scoped state.
When dropped, the weapon world model still has its ironsight flipped up.
Due to the recoil mechanics of the weapon, the recoil pattern initially (8-10 shots) is up and to the right, unlike most other rifles with a direct upwards initial pattern. This can put off newer users of the weapon, especially when scoped in.
While the SG553 has the same damage drop-off due to range as the AK-47 (2%), it has a higher base damage against armoured enemies. Hence its headshots remain fatal at ranges where the AK-47's aren't (4,512.31 vs. 2,716.24 units). While most official maps don't offer an opportunity to implement this, Canals at its lengthiest offers a shot of 2850 units from 'CT Start' to 'CT Side Lower'.
Oddly, even though the SG 553 uses the same round as the Galil AR, AUG, and both M4 iterations (5.56x45mm NATO), it is still capable of one-shot headshot kill.

Behind the scenes

All of the weapon's files refer to it as the "SG 556" instead of the "SG 553". This was the weapon's alpha name.
- The weapon is in fact actually modeled after the real SG 556 (longer handguard and collapsible stock in comparison to the SG 553 which has a shorter one). However, the real SG 556 is semi-automatic, due to the SG 556 being made for civilian and law enforcement use; while the SG 553 is fully-automatic, like portrayed in-game.
- Its entity (weapon_sg556), models, sounds and textures and HUD icons all refer to it as SG 556.
- Unused announcer clips from the Alpha and the 2011 Beta give the weapon two names: "Krieg 556" and "Sig 556". Both names fit the older games' naming schemes (The SG 550 and SG 552 were refered to as Krieg 550 and Krieg 552 or Sig 550 and Sig 552.)
The weapon's alpha line art purchase icon depicts its scope attached further into the weapon's back.
Although a spiritual successor of the SG 552 (Krieg 552), the latter's icons appear in both the Beta and the released game suggesting that it would have either appeared alongside the SG 553 (initially SG 556) or that the former was a placeholder/predecessor to the latter.

External links

SG 553 at Wikipedia.
SIG SG 550 Civilian variants, including the SG 556 at Wikipedia.