AR-55

Template:Infobox weapon

The AR-55 is a weapon in Saints Row: The Third.^[1]

Higher grade rifle with upgradable scope.

— Weapon descriptionBroken {{ref}} (outdated style)

Description

I think the upgrade path for the AR-55 is one of the more satisfying and rewarding paths of all of the weapons. Starting as a standard 3 round burst assault rifle and ending up with basically a 5-round burst assault rifle with very little recoil and a highly increased zoom.

— Seth Hawk^[1]

The AR-55 is the standard-issue assault rifle of Steelport's National Guard and SWAT teams. Unlike the K-8 Krukov, the AR-55 is a military-assault rifle, boasting a burst function as opposed to firing on full-auto. This saves ammunition and makes the AR-55 much more accurate than its predecessor, the AR-40 Xtnd. It is easily acquired by salvaging one from SWAT or National Guard units, or it can purchased from Friendly Fire for $10,000 after The Belgian Problem. By default, the assault rifle is fitted with two scopes, a vertical foregrip, weaponlight and fixed carbine stock.

The AR-55's burst-fire makes it more suited towards engaging medium and long-distance targets, in contrast to the full-auto K-8 Krukov, which is more suited towards close-quarters combat. It also boasts the highest per-shot damage of the assault rifles (not including the Viper Laser Rifle when upgraded), making it extremely useful as a marksman rifle when upgraded with a zoom scope.

Unfortunately, all of the above comes at a price - every time the AR-55 fires, it does so with the implicit intention to fire its whole burst, which can be inefficient when dealing with multiple targets. It also has a short downtime between bursts, during which the AR-55 cannot fire at all.

Weapon Breakdown

Pros

Excellent accuracy and range, even with no upgrades
Firepower is quite high.
Zoom Scope when upgraded
Fair-sized magazine
Conserves Ammo With Burst Function

Cons

Lag between bursts
Fires only in bursts, cannot single-fire or auto-fire
Must shoot multiple times for 1 kill.
Poor against multiple targets
Due to the burst function, the only sensible way to kill enemies especially on hardcore is to use cover.
Do not keep this weapon at level 1 on hardcore. On top of that, due to the burst function; it will make fighting with multiple enemies, extremely long and dangerous without tactical thinking.

Weapon Upgrades

Main article: Weapon Upgrades.

Image	Level	Price	Upgrade
File:Rifle ar55 level1.png	1	$10,000	"Higher grade rifle with upgradable scope."
File:Rifle ar55 level1.png	2	$10,000	"Increase burst size."
File:Rifle ar55 level3.png	3	$20,000	"Increase the size of your clips."
File:Rifle ar55 level4.png	4	$40,000	"Sniper scope increases zoom distance. Extended barrel increases damage and reduces recoil."

Trivia

The AR-55 resembles a highly customized AR-15/M4A1 Carbine, with a duck bill flash suppressor, tan Magpul furniture including a CTR stock, PMag, and MIAD pistol grip.
- The AR-55's dust cover opens and closes after each case has been extracted, while firing the M4/AR-15 in real life does open the duct cover when fired, it does not close automatically after each round fired and needs to be closed manually.
- To some degree, it also resembles the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 M4A1 and when fully upgraded, functions similarly to the Marksman from the Resistance franchise.
The second upgrade does not visually alter the rifle, hence the image above only showing three upgrades; they would more correctly be numbered 1/2, 3 and 4.
The AR-55 may be a reference to the BR55 Battle Rifle in Halo 2 and 3, as they both share similar naming conventions, fire in short bursts rather than being fully automatic, and have a scope. The two weapons are otherwise completely different, aesthetically.
Although it has a scope attached by default, it cannot be used until it's upgraded to level 4.
Angel De La Muerte uses this weapon during Return to Steelport and is his weapon of choice when calling him as a homie.
When an NPC picks it up a dropped Level 4 AR-55, it has a laser effect similar to the McManus 2015 .
- When an NPC picks it up a dropped Level 2 AR-55, it fires in bursts of 5 rounds instead of the default 3.
When stunned or knocked down before a burst is completely fired, the AR-55 fires the remaining shots within the burst automatically.
The AR-55 is in PAX Demo for Saints Row IV inside Friendly Fire.Broken {{ref}} (outdated style) Broken {{ref}} (outdated style)