Combat MG

The M249, also known as Advanced MG, is a weapon featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony, and Grand Theft Auto V.

Vice City Stories
In GTA Vice City Stories, the weapon is a powerful, one shot kill gun that holds 100 rounds per magazine, and is capable of knocking down a person when hit (similar to the way shotguns do), but is slightly less effective than the Minigun. Unlike the M60 from GTA Vice City and GTA Liberty City Stories, the M249 has an unique firing and reloading animation, no longer copied from the assault rifle animation.

The M249 is a weapon of choice for several Rampages and is featured during Farewell to Arms.

The Ballad of Gay Tony
The M249 in The Ballad of Gay Tony (referred to as the Advanced MG) is the first machine gun to be featured in the HD Universe. The weapon is placed in the Assault Rifle slot, unlike in GTA Vice City Stories where the M249 would occupy the Heavy Weapons slot.

It has a 200 round magazine capacity and high rate of fire but has less stopping power than the Assault and Carbine Rifles. It is also highly inaccurate, due to the weapon being fired from the hip rather than the shoulder, making headshots difficult. The Advanced MG requires sustained fire to destroy a vehicle, unlike the machine guns from previous games, which can destroy vehicles in just a few rounds. The weapon is best suited for engaging multiple enemies at close to medium ranges. The Advanced MG suffers in long range combat, being outclassed by the other rifles and even the SMGs.

It is first given to Luis in the mission Going Deep for Ray Bulgarin.

Grand Theft Auto V
The Advanced MG makes a comeback in GTA V. Very little is known about it as of yet.

Trivia

 * GTA Vice City Stories features the M249E1 while the one featured in TBoGT is the M249E2 model.
 * Interestingly enough, the Advanced MG will spawn in Deathmatch when weapons are set to Snipers.
 * The Advanced MG has a dark green skull on the front portion of the ammo box.
 * In TBoGT, law enforcement use the Advanced MG to fire at the player from helicopters, instead of the Carbine Rifle as used in GTA IV and TLAD.

Locations

 * GTA Vice City Stories
 * At the InterGlobal Films studio in the first studio directly northwest of the entrance.
 * Spawns at every safehouse after shooting all 99 red balloons.


 * The Ballad of Gay Tony
 * Given to the player in Going Deep.
 * Available from Armando's gun van after said mission for $7,550, plus $400 for each additional magazine.
 * Spawns in the player's safehouse after completing 20 Drug Wars and after completion of Going Deep.

HUD
M249 M249 M249