Hornet

The Hornet is a unique sniper rifle in. Formerly the only sniper rifle to be full auto (the RIA 50 was made full auto in the September 23rd, 2015 update), it is to be treated more like a high power assault rifle. Most people consider it to be one of the strongest guns in the game.

Overview
The Hornet is very powerful even without augments and is also fairly uncommon. Just like the description says, it is very mobile, with a low movement penalty.

In fact, the Hornet is the most mobile sniper rifle in the game (since it's made by Shotlite), being more mobile than even some SMGs and pistols, such as the Ronson 45 and Trailblazer. When augmented properly, it can cut down bosses in seconds.

The Hornet is basically a lighter and slightly more powerful bossing version of the Sub-light COM2. However, the ammo for the Hornet is much more expensive, at $640 for 60 rounds. The Hornet is best used as a boss killer while the Sub-light COM2 is best used to rip through hordes of zombies. This becomes more prevalent with the versions of these weapons.

Compared with RIA 50, Hornet surpasses it likely in all of the stats, thus making it a formidable substitute. One notable feature is that Hornet has its Pierce increased by 1 for its RED & BLACK versions while RIA 50 retains its pierce for other versions.

In an update on February 11th, 2015, the Hornet's RPS was changed from 6 rounds to 5. This may make the normal version have the same DPS on a single target as the COM2, but the  and Black version of the Hornet deal more damage per hit than the  and Black versions of the COM2, resulting in a higher DPS in those versions.

Overall, the Hornet can last up to the late games, and is a very powerful weapon. A normal 10*** Hornet could last up to the 90s; however, a Hornet will likely be found before then.

Currently, due to the Faction Warfare update, a 10*** RED Hornet could be purchased in the Armory, the Faction Warfare store. It is not available anymore but may come back as the HIKS S300 stayed.

Trivia

 * The name of this gun may be a reference to aircraft such as:
 * F/A-18 Hornet
 * De Havilland Hornet
 * AGM-64 Hornet
 * The Hornet is a bit of an odd sniper rifle; it has a short barrel and glowing lights, and it fires fully automatically. These features are contrary to the essentials of a sniper rifle:
 * Long barrel for hiding the muzzle flash and improving range.
 * Stealth killing.
 * Taking out only one or two key targets.
 * The more-suitable term for Hornet's category will be Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR). Though it's likely that developers decide to group DMR & Sniper Rifle into one category.
 * The Mobile Hornet has a compensator while it has a possible suppressor on the Flash Hornet.
 * Since it is one of the loudest guns in the game, it's likely that Flash Hornet's suppressor is a compensator as well (if you look closer, you can see some vent holes on it).


 * The Hornet may be based upon the VSS Vintorez sniper rifle. In fact, this is almost a certainty, since they both possess very similar traits:
 * Both are fairly short weapons for their role
 * Both are very light (the Vintorez weighs less than 6 pounds)
 * Both have an integral suppressor
 * Both feature a skeleton stock
 * Both are capable of fully-automatic fire, in spite of their intended role.


 * The Mobile version fires bullet that are white in appearance, similar to the ZCS Wipeout from SAS 3.
 * This gun once was semi-auto and had 20 RPS, which meant that it was immensely powerful when an autoclicker was used with it, especially considering the fact that semi-autos were Overclockable back then. Because of this, NK nerfed it to 6 RPS, before making it full-auto. A couple of changes later, and now we have the 5 RPS full-auto Hornet.
 * The Hornet received an "Easter Edition" around Easter (March 28th) 2016. It was called the Lucky Foot, and replaced the Hornet from strongboxes and crafting. Its description was "Remember sonny, that rabbit's foot didn't save the bunny".
 * The hornet in mobile doesn't have a rank stripes in the variant but in the Flash version has.
 * Similarly to the Sabre, the variant of the weapon (Flash) has two red Chevrons that are also found on Rubicon Industries's armor.