L85A3 Weapon Review (& Best Builds)

The L85A3 is one of the assault rifles in Battlefield 6 that comes with the Medium Range tag — it’s not terrible at close range, but it truly shines when you’re trying to beam someone down from 40+ meters away. With low recoil, average fire rate, and a respectable damage profile, the L85A3 is a great pick for players who want to hang back but don’t necessarily want to leave themselves defenseless in CQB.

In this guide, we’ll be reviewing the L85A3 in Battlefield 6, going through the finer details of the weapon as well as some recommended builds for players who want to try it out.

Is The L85A3 Any Good in Battlefield 6?

We placed the L85A3 in the lower half of our best BF6 assault rifles list, though that’s mostly due to how it’s not as effective in close quarters compared to many other weapons, and how it is most effective when used with a specific playstyle. This gun is definitely worth using, but for it to be good relative to the other ARs in BF6, we need to understand what makes it good in the first place.

The L85A3’s slow fire rate is both a blessing and a curse. At 635 RPM, you’re going to get outgunned at close range by the vast majority of other weapons in Battlefield 6. However, this fire rate also lets you stay on target more easily. Thankfully, the L85A3 isn’t as bad as the SOR-556 at close range, and it’s actually quite decent for CQB if you can outplay your opponent or get the drop on them.

Combining the L85A3’s steady fire rate and low recoil results in this gun being able to outperform faster-firing weapons like the M433 in medium-ranged fights. There will be plenty of times when you’ll win a direct one-on-one against players using other assault rifles from +20 meters away, and that’ll mostly be thanks to how easy the L85A3 is to control.

With that being said, the L85A3 works best with a positioning-heavy playstyle. Flank your targets and hit them with accurate fire from the sides or behind. Avoid head-on fights at all costs, unless you’re engaging from a position with good cover and concealment. In cases where you and your opponent are head-glitching or peaking at each other from windows, you have the advantage.

BF6 L85A3 Recoil, Bloom, and TTK

Even the default L85A3 build offers decent performance out of the box. The image above shows an uncontrolled, full-auto mag dump from 20 meters away with a modified (right) and unmodified (left) L85A3. While the base version of the gun has a more noticeable muzzle climb, it’s not that different from the modified one. One thing that deserves to be pointed out, though, is that the first-shot recoil of the unmodded version is significantly higher than the modded version. This means that without attachments, you’ll need to compensate for that sudden kick when burst firing.

The accuracy bloom on the L85A3 is manageable, but the gun becomes horrifyingly inaccurate at its best ranges when firing bursts longer than 5 shots. When shooting at someone from 40-75 meters away, 5-shot bursts are the way to go. For anyone closer than that, you can usually get away with just dumping your entire mag at them.

As for TTK, the L85A3 has the following time-to-kill values:

• >15 meters: 0.28 seconds
• 25–75 meters: 0.37 seconds
• 75+ meters: 0.47 seconds

For comparison’s sake, the TR-7 has a TTK value of 0.16 seconds at the 15-meter range, while the AK4D can kill a player in 0.46 seconds at ranges beyond 75 meters. These values assume that all bullets hit targets to the chest with perfect accuracy at their highest fire rate, and these do not account for muzzle velocity.

Best L85A3 Build in Battlefield 6

The Standard Build is the general purpose setup that works in every scenario. We strongly recommend sticking with the Flash Hider until you get a Suppressor, as it will keep you from getting 3D-spotted when firing in BF6. Suppressors do the same, but with the added benefit of hiding you from the minimap against players who are at least 15 meters away.

For the choice of grip, either Vertical or Stubby grips are the most efficient. We’ve found that the difference between grips is minimal in a practical setting, though the more expensive options tend to provide better recoil reduction. Use the Classic Vertical or Low Profile Stubby grips if you want to reduce the L85A3’s recoil as much as possible.

The Headshot build uses Synthetic Tip ammunition to bump our headshot damage from 20 to 35 at 15–75 meters. This leads to 3-shot kills if you hit headshots, drastically lowering the L85A3’s TTK to a lightning-fast 0.18 seconds.

Based on our testing and practical experience, the 6H64 and Classic Vertical grips have very little effect on the L85A3’s ADS accuracy. For the unaware, the descriptions of these attachments state that they reduce your accuracy when aiming down sights, which sounds bad compared to others that only reduce your ADS accuracy while moving. In practice, there really isn’t much of a difference, and you can still hit targets from 75 meters away with a full 5-shot burst from the L85A3, provided you can control the recoil enough.

The Bipod and various grip pods are also great if you want to lean heavily towards the flank-and-spank playstyle. Your recoil is reduced to virtually nothing when you use a bipod/grip pod, especially if you’re using the Support class with the Fire Support Field Spec. However, if you want to stay mobile, then stick with the other foregrip types.