Optimising loadouts is an important part in shaving milliseconds to reach the next second barrier. There are many stats, visible and hidden, to keep in mind and this guide aims to demystify them, and highlight the ones to keep in mind when planning.

Note: the equipment screen shows stats before doctrines and other buffs are applied. Use Alt + RMB on a trooper in a mission to see their real combat stats across any distance.

Note: XML files containing equipment stat modifiers, attack types etc are located in [game directory]->data. Searching within these files with keywords related to the in-game names will work for most things. Dual role optic will need the keyword 'spectre'.

TL;DR equipment to use

Squad:

Rangers: Basically always superior to CIA in every way, should almost always be superior to SWAT besides really scuffed launcher setups.

Roles:

Assault: Rescuing hostages, using deployables, providing fire support.

Support: Shooting windows, running somewhere the fastest (yes, support has the fastest movement speed) that doesn't need interacting with or killing.

Marksman: Close range obliteration with MK17 LB, the absolute fastest killers under 7 metres whether sprinting or not. Also faster movers than Assault, but not suitable for interactions.

Grenadiers: Sniping groups of far-away enemies and making creative openings.

Equipment:

Generic: High-Cut (speed) or Next-Gen (tanky fire support). Raid III (speed) or SAPI (tanky fire support) or Raid IV/ESAPI (fire support vs armour piercing). Do not take pistols. Do not take consumables if you don't need them. Aim time upgrades on everyone.

Assault: Mk18 w/ Holo/M68 & M855A1 (speed) or URG-I Suppressed w/ Holo/LPVO & M855A1 (fire support). Dynamic Hammer (fastest breach entry for others)/Slap Charge (fastest breach entry for everyone)/Bolt cutter/Wall breach/Launcher or no large deployable (default), all as needed.

Support: LAMG w/ M68 (speed).

Marksman: Mk17 LB w/ ACOG/Dual role & XM1158 (speed).

Grenadier: Mk18 w/ M68 & M855A1 (speed).

Holo has more Aim Time than M68 Red Dot but +5ms ready time. Holo wins in all gunfights, M68 is for more niche purposes. Dual role on Mk17 LB has a wider 0ms Aim Time band than ACOG but 1% less movement speed and +40ms ready time. ACOG is superior where it can get 0ms aim, and should be the first pick for pointmen. LPVOs for Assault should only be considered when the majority of combat, or time-critical combat, is over 20m.

Doctrine:

(Points spent left to right, top down separated in commas)

Handguns: 00, 00, 00, 0 (None)

Rifles: 111, 22, 142, 22 (All)

Support: 22, 10, 11, 0

Elite: 1111, 01

Movement Speed & Turn Speed

(moveSpeedModifierPercent / turnSpeedModifierPercent)

Movement speed can go above the visual cap in the equipment screen. It also increments in steps smaller than the whole blocks. Every item you have equipped will have a movement speed modifier, in percent, that adds together. Despite what the game says, I don't believe movement speed affects aiming speed. Turn speed is a separately modified stat that usually, but not always, correlates to the modification in move speed. It's not as important as movement speed but reducing it isn't recommended (High-Cut with Mandible only negatively modifies turn speed, but the crit resist benefit arguably isn't worth it).

Frag grenades and flashbangs supposedly reduce move speed, however I've never been able to make a movement bar go up or down in the equipment screen with them (implying they're weightless). Smoke grenades supposedly weigh the same yet I'm able to make the movement bars go up and down with them. I would recommend not bringing deployables unless you need them.

It is more efficient for move speed to bring kits than single deployables, if you need 2 or all 3 of the deployables in the kit.

Extra Conditioning adds 10% move and turn speed.

Assault SAWs/Marksmen rank 2 adds 10% move and turn speed (among other buffs) to troopers with held MG/DMR.

MP5 is a worse handling Mk18 despite how it may look.

CIA have overall slower sprint than Rangers due to Doctrine. Potentially equivalent walking speed (doesn't matter). Bump helm is the fastest helm. Undercovers are overall slower than Black Ops.

Change Out & Change In

(changeOutTime / changeInTime)

Hidden stats, Change Out and Change In are incredibly important to keep in mind when performing any interaction. Change Out is the time in milliseconds to put away your weapon (using a deployable, interacting with a hostage, switching weapons). Change In is the time taken to switch to your weapon if it's been put away.

Almost all units have very bad Change stats that can go as high as 1000 (1 second) or more. Ranger Assault troopers have 0ms Change stats for their available rifles by default.

Ready Time & Guard Time

(readyTime / guardTime)

More hidden stats, Ready Time and Guard Time are important to keep in mind for sprint-heavy playstyles. Ready Time is the time to raise your gun when it's lowered (after stopping sprint or bringing it away from a wall). Guard Time is the time to lower your gun (after beginning sprint (?) or beginning to lower it against a wall).

Suppressors will negatively modify Ready Time and Guard Time in return for their benefits. This makes them impractical for sprint-heavy gameplay. A Mk18 or Mk17 LB will perform the best in CQB sprint playstyles.

Aim Time

(minAimTime / maxAimTime)

Probably the most important stat in the game. Aim Time over range can be very confusing in 1.0 DK2, with seemingly random 'sweet spots' in Aim Time that can go all the way down to 0ms. Attack Types have a heavy influence on Aim Time, which, with the release of the incredibly powerful Doctrine Attack Types, leads to these sweet spots and variance in Aim Time across range.

0ms sweet spot examples (with Holo unless specified): Mk18 (13m - 13.7m, 15m - 17.2m), Mk17 LB Dual Role (1.7m - 7m), M4 URG-I Sup (15m - 20m), Mk17 CQC (11m - 11.5m), Mk17 Carbine (12m - 12.8m, 15m - 17.5m), Mk17 Carbine Sup (14m - 18.8m). M4 URGI-I Sup LPVO 1-8x (15m - 25.5m!)

These sweet spots are not overly important unless you need to shave milliseconds or score kills against deadly enemies. Keeping in mind the different available sweet spots can be useful.

In the 1.0 sandbox the suppressed M4 URG-I is pretty much the overall best aiming Assault weapon at any range (although its worse Move Speed and Ready Time compared to Mk18 prevents it being universal), excluding sweet spot differences. It can be swapped out when the situation may call for it, as other weapons may outshine it for a particular sweet spot or firing pattern. Note that the Mk18 keeps up with the URG-I up to 6m.

In situations where you can't reach 0ms aim time (which is most of the time if running Mk18s and other typical weaponry under 10m), adjusting your pathing to reach a lower aim time against your expected target location can help in missions where milliseconds matter (it's not always practical to go out of your way like this, keep in mind you also want to reach LOS of the target as fast as possible).

Remember, use Alt + RMB to gauge distances and Aim Time.

Crit Chance, Damage & Fire rate

This is not something I've looked into much. Since Crit Chance is incredibly free on Rangers, micro-analysing raw damage TTKs per weapon/attack type is unimportant. Crit Chance is fairly self explanatory, although I don't know exactly how crit resistance is factored in (not that important).

What is fairly important is picking the right ammo type for each weapon. Usually there's a single best ammo type and it's the one that gives the most Crit Chance. Ammo types will sometimes modify fire rate, this can be checked with Alt + RMB in mission. 5.56 rifles will tend to prefer M855A1, 7.62 will prefer XM1158, .45ACP will prefer M1153. Fire rate mainly matters in situations where you need to kill multiple enemies in a line with one burst. Ammo is just one part of solving this puzzle, the weapon and its attack type (aim time, burst count) will matter as well.

Armour & Helmet Armour

Also not something I've looked into much. It's very easy to run Raid III on pointmen in 1.0 DK2, sacrificing speed for safety is not much a thing anymore. Non-critical troopers can take whatever armour roughly meets the threat they're facing (Next-Gen Helmet and SAPI, or ESAPI against armour piercing).

Other notes

Best rifles for CIA are AKS74U (move speed + aim), AK105 (aim). Best pistols are G19C or M17. Pistols could be better on paper for sprint playstyle, but both pistols and rifles are terrible because they have no crit, and are slower than Rangers anyway.

Best rifle for SWAT is Vulcan or APC9 (not tested much). Mini Uzi or FAL can work for militia.