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Hey YouTube, Tasoth Commander here.
Welcome to the next episode of "100 Kills". This one once again deals with a light
machine gun, specifically the Chinese Type 88 LMG. In this video, I will go into what use you
can put this gun to during the first 100 kills you get with it, which range of use it is
suited for, and which less. The main difference between the Type 88 LMG and the
Ultimax-100 I already introduced in this series, is the fact that the Type 88 LMG has a
200 round belt magazine, while the Ultimax has got a "normal" box magazine. The
advantage a belt-fed machine gun offers, is not having to reload that often. However, in
Battlefield 3 and 4 that comes with a disadvantage, which is having worse
accuracy. The Type 88 LMG has an accuracy of 0.3 when aiming down sights, and therefore
is suited mainly for medium range; at long range, it is rather difficult to hit opponents
than when using the Ultimax, for example. At short range, having such a big magazine is
especially advantageous, being able to put multiple enemies without having to reload.
The disadvantage the Type 88 LMG brings to close quarter combat is its bad hip fire. Thus,
you should aim down sights whenever possible. Apart from that, the Type 88 LMG
has a rate of fire of 700 rounds per minute, which is respectable and, in particular, an
improvement compared to Battlefield 3, where it fired 650 rounds per minute.
Otherwise, not much has changed about this weapon in comparison with Battlefield 3. You
could call the damage model ordinary, the maximum damage being 25, the minimum
damage 18. The damage drop off starts at 8 metres and continues on to 65 metres. In
these respects, the Type 88 LMG behaves similarly to other weapons using
5.45 or 5.56 mm ammo, respectively.
Now let's get to the attachments you unlock for this weapon during the first 100 kills you
score using it. These are: The HD-33 holo sight, the magnifier, the muzzle brake, the
stubby grip, the Prisma 3.4x sight, the laser sight, the compensator, the Coyote red dot
sight, the flash light, and the ergo grip.
So which attachments blend well with the Type 88, and which don't?
The first attachment is obvious: For 10 Kills you get the HD-33 holo sight, which is a pretty
decent sight in my opinion, and definitely superior to the iron sights. In the background,
you will see that I used this sight continuously after unlocking it. Due to the 0.3
accuracy of the Type 88 LMG, any sight with more than 1x zoom (plus magnifier) is too
much for this weapon, in my opinion. I personally would not use a 3.4x or 4x sight,
although this depends on playstyle. So if you generally prefer to have higher magnification,
that would be the right choice for you.
So let's get to the accessory slot. I must say, I preferred the magnifier for this slot, as 0.3 is
still a decent accuracy. While I would have found 3.4x to be too much magnification, I
found this 2x magnification for the holo sight to be rather good for this gun. The other
option would, of course, be a flash light with which you can blind enemies in close
quarters. This works well when aiming down sights. That too is the reason why I would not
suggest using a laser sight: This gun's hip fire is extremely inaccurate, and while the
laser sight might improve it a little, I am of the opinion that that is not enough to justify
using it. All it would do is alert enemies of your presence. The blinding effect the
flash light has in dark areas surely counts for more.
The barrel attachments I found to be difficult choices as well. Judging by the numbers, I
would tend to the compensator. Still, I have to say that I ended up using the muzzle brake for
most of the time. It's purely a matter of taste. Actually, the Type 88's vertical recoil is rather
low at 0.28, but with 0.35 to both the left and the right, it is slightly bigger horizontally.
Additionally, this gives it the aggravating property of making it impossible to predict
which direction the gun is going to pull to, making it hard to control. I think you should
try both; at least on paper the compensator does well.
What you will also see in the background is me using the suppressor, which I got through
a battlepack, a lot. This obviously is always good when you don't want to show up on the
minimap. However, usually you won't get it during the first 100 kills with this gun. So if
you haven't got a Battlepack containing a suppressor, it will take you longer until you
get access to it.
With the underbarrel attachment, things become obvious again: The stubby grip is
clearly the first choice for me and, by the way, you only get the ergo grip for you hundredth
kill. And this one would once again improve hip fire which, in my opinion, is no use for
this weapon. In contrast, the decrease of the penalty on automatic fire is very
advantageous for this weapon, and thus I found the stubby grip to be a great choice.
For everyone who likes it, the bipod is a good choice, as machine guns with big magazines
generally harmonize very good with a bipod. It increases your accuracy, enabling you to be
very accurate with sustained fire. So, if you are somebody who likes to kneel or lie
somewhere with a bipod, this obviously is the right choice for you.
So, I don't have a perfectly clear setup suggestion for this gun. I think HD-33 is the
obvious choice for the optic (unless you want to have more zoom), magnifier or flashlight,
barrel attachment totally depends on taste, compensator or muzzle brake -- or even no
barrel attachment at all, improving overall accuracy, which would also fit the stubby
grip. In that slot, you can of course mount the bipod. I believe, the reason I cannot get that
specific this time is associated with me not getting along very well with the Type 88. It is
not an incredibly bad weapon, indeed I had a couple of good rounds using it, but I never
had a lot of fun playing with it. I am always a bit behind when it comes to editing the
footage I compile, so I have played with some other machine guns in the meantime,
especially with the M249 and, well, this would be an example for a gun that is significantly
more fun to play with. With the Ultimax I had more fun than with the Type 88 LMG as well. I
can't say exactly why ... the Type 88 is pretty average in most respects, which tends to be a
good thing, making guns versatile and, as I just said, it's not like I had awful stats when
playing with this gun. But there was something keeping me from getting along
with this gun. In Battlefield 4 in general, there doesn't tend to be a perfect setup for all
situations, as heavy barrel and foregrip used to be for most weapons in Battlefield 3, but
instead the optimal setup being very dependent on the situations you get yourself
into with a certain weapon. For the Type 88 LMG, I did not find a setup that proved
outstanding for the situations I used this weapon in preferentially, or the ones I think it
is made for, respectively, namely fights at medium range, or short range, as long as you
manage to backrage the enemy or at least have time to aim down sights because, as I
said, you can forget firing from the hip. And, well, for these situations, there was nothing
that turned out to be great. The respective setups did not differ a lot, making the
decision so difficult. So I can't give you better advice than: Try out the combinations I
mentioned, see how it goes. As I said, it's not like I found the Type 88 LMG to be a bad
weapon, I got some kills with it ... it's just ... not really my taste. Since this won't
necessarily be true for you, I don't want to say 'Keep you distance from the Type 88 LMG',
but: Try it, try around what attachments you like, and if it maybe is a weapon you can have
fun with. If not, there's enough other ones.
Nonetheless, I hope that there are guys among you who like this gun, because
otherwise, DICE has added it to the game for nothing, as it does not have any properties
which make it and exceptionally good weapon, or which would make the Type 88
LMG fun to play with (at least in my opinion).
So my conclusion appears to be: The Type 88 LMG is a solid weapon for short to medium
range, not outstanding by any means and rather something to just try. But I think there's
other weapons which are so much better in every respect, that I find it difficult to justify
using the Type 88. Specifically, I would like to mention the M249, which I have played a lot,
and also the MG4, which performs very similarly to the M249. Both are similar to the
Type 88 LMG with respects to accuracy, but deal out a lot more damage due to
their higher rate of fire.
Other weapons I will make episodes of "100 Kills" for in the next months, are the
aforementioned M249, the M416, the Ak 5C, the ACW-R, the LSAT, and the RFB. Over the
holidays there will be silence, but for New Year's Eve, I would like to announce a special
edition of "100 Kills", which I will hopefully be able to upload by then. Otherwise it will be up
on New Year's Day. I won't tell you what it will be, but I can already say: Fitting the fireworks
on New Year's Eve, it will deal with fireworks.
The stats I quoted in this video were from symthic.com as usual. I will also link this site
in the video description. And I can only advise you to check out this site, if you're interested
statistics for weapons. You will find almost anything there, including weapon
comparisons. These are really useful, if you're not sure about your gut feelings and want to
compare the numbers to see how certain attachments alter the stats of a gun, perhaps
making a gun better than another, for which this attachment might not be available.
Apart from that, I hope you liked this video and learned something. If that was the case
remember to click the "Like" button, and if you're interested in further videos,
click "Subscribe". Now you can see a couple more kills with the Type 88 LMG,
the final few on my way to the Service Star, and can decide for yourselves, if you're
interested in trying out this gun.
So all that remains for me is wishing you happy holidays. I will disconnect and say:
Until next time!
[KR]: 'So, where's Timo?'
[HE]: 'I was in queue, went for a smoke, then I was still second in queue,
so I thought "*** it".'
[B0]: 'Just say the word and we'll change servers.'
[HE]: 'If you're five guys playing there?'
[KR]: 'There's one by the Diesel engines ...'
[B0]: 'Oach, there's still a lot!'