Grendel

The Grendel is a burst-fire rifle featured in Crysis 2 and Crysis 3.

Specifics (Crysis 2)

The following text is taken from Weapon Focus section of the official Crysis website (now dead):

Grendel:

The Grendel, as its name suggests, is a heavy caliber battle rifle with immense stopping power. Developed by Ukrainian giants Lisunov Arms, the Grendel is the rifle of choice for a designated marksman to boost their effective range and destructive power. It features both semi and burst-fire modes, and its flexible design allows for easy customization to provide both short and ranged combat options.

This versatility combined with its devastating power and pierceability make it perfect for assaulting heavily armored units and enemies behind cover. To add insult to injury, the 6.8mm hollow-point rounds are designed to maximize tissue damage and blood loss, ensuring efficient lethality upon impact.

In recent years the Grendel has been widely adopted by USMC forces, routinely issued alongside the SCAR to provide a greater punch and stopping power over distance.^[1]

Grendels are ideal as a marksman rifle at medium to long ranges in semi-auto fire, where their high firepower more than offsets the slight increase in recoil. Burst fire is powerful at close range, but the lack of full auto fire, the limited fire speed between bursts, and the small magazine can make the user more vulnerable up close than if they were to use weapons such as the SCAR or SCARAB. The Grendel is capable of mounting a wide range of accessories just like its assault rifle counterparts, being configurable for almost any situation, though it cannot mount a silencer (except in multiplayer).

Grendels are particularly useful as all-range weapons against Ceph Troopers and a better option against Ceph in general due to the heightened armor of Ceph units. It first appears next to an ammo cache in a room underneath the elevated roadway on the way to the underground parking garage in the mission "Unsafe Haven".

Tactics

The Grendel has much higher firepower and superior penetration, but less accuracy. and higher recoil than SCAR and SCARAB, making it more effective when engaging Ceph. rather than CELL, as Ceph has higher defense but (usually) less accurate while firing than CELL. As Grendel has high recoil, attaching Assault Scope should enable the player to take advantage of burst mode. If you wish for even more control, use semi-auto mode and aim for weak spots. Ceph can't stand up to this weapon for long.

Stats

Accuracy: 4

Rate of fire: 6

Mobility: 5

Damage: 7

Range: 4

Crysis 3.

The Grendel returns in Crysis 3, with its first appearance in Mission 2: Welcome to the Jungle.

Its penetrative powers were tweaked slightly (cutting through many surfaces and objects that would block the projectiles in Crysis 2), max ammunition increased (120, vs Crysis 2's 72 capacity). and a slew of new mods were introduced, plus some old ones are now compatible. On top of this, the Grendel now has access to special ammo - the 6.8mm armor piercing cartridge that packs enough power to slay even the most heavily armored CELL operative in a single close range shot to the body, while Ceph drop almost instantly from headshots at short range. You can only ever carry 24+1 rounds of this ammunition, so use it wisely. As it's 'special' ammo, it can be refilled at 'special ammo' crates throughout the missions.

Whether you're fighting assorted CELL formations, Ceph, or armored assets (turrets, helicopters, etc.), the Grendel's got your back. The only downside is its lack of specialization.

Attachments

• Reflex Sight
• Assault Scope
• Laser Pointer
• Silencer (multiplayer only)
• Semi-Automatic
• Extended Clip (N. A. Crysis 2 Campaign)
• Grenade Launcher
• Light Shotgun
• Holographic Decoy
• Crysis 3: Match Barrel.
• Crysis 3: Foregrip.
• Crysis 3: Mini-typhoon.
• Crysis 3: Bayonet.
• Crysis 3: sniper scope.
• Crysis 3: muzzle brake.
• Crysis 3: special ammo; 6.8mm armor piercing.

Trivia

• The Grendel is first available to the player in the Crysis 2 mission "Unsafe Haven."
• In multiplayer, the grendel rifle always provides a -15% Armor Mode efficiency reduction, much like the Majestic and Hammer. This means that even a fully armored target will still take 80% damage from the Grendel.
• If the player looks closely at the side towards the rear of the gun just under the tactical rail, he/she can see the lettering "USA ARMY".
• In single player, the Grendel cannot have a silencer, but in multiplayer it can be equipped with one.
• With a silencer attached and single-shot mode selected, the Grendel sounds as if it is not suppressed when fired.
• The Grendel fires tungsten rounds as revealed by Alcatraz in Crysis Legion.
• The Grendel seems to be the Weapon of choice for Leavenworth, a teammate of Alcatraz in the Submarine at the beginning of Crysis 2. Even if he is not seen firing or using it (because he dies after the submarine sinks at the beginning), he has Grendel Magazines in his pouches.
• The Grendel is the only burst-firing weapon in the Crysis 2.
• Like the SCARAB and unlike the SCAR, the iron sights are removed when an optic is attached.
• Visually, the Grendel shares a similar appearance to the Magpul ACR, Magpul Massoud and FN SCAR-H,but non of these weapons seem to have a burst mode.
• The name "Grendel" is a reference to the epic-poem "Beowolf." In the poem, the Grendel is a monster terrorizing Denmark and it is able to carry thirty men at a time (described as part of Cain's clan) it is eventually killed by Beowulf in hand-to-hand combat.
• Grendel is also a reference to the real-world 6.5mm Grendel cartridge, a round designed to compete with the 6.8mm SPC cartridge the Crysis Grendel fires.
• Technically, hollow point rounds are ineffective against hard targets (like armor, vehicles, and exo-skeletons). When hollow point bullets hit soft targets it "mushrooms" inside, causing a bigger and more destructive wound and making it harder to remove.
• In the third game, Grendel is the second most common weapon among CELL operators.

Gallery

The Grendel in Crysis 2

Iron sights

With Reflex Sight

With Assault Scope

With Grenade Launcher

With Light Shotgun

Weapon modifications in Crysis 3.