Recon

The Recon kit is a playable kit in Battlefield 2142, Battlefield: Bad Company, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and its Vietnam expansion, and Battlefield 3. It is the same as the Sniper kit from Battlefield 2, but combines some aspects from the Special Forces kit, such as a presence of a Carbine and C4 Explosives.

Overview
Alongside with the Support and Medic Kits, Recon classes have a very important defensive role. Recons can be equipped with either a sniper rifle or an automatic weapon, alongside with a handgun for close quarters engagements. The main role of recon is spotting enemies from far behind the front-line and giving stealthy covering fire targeting enemy Assaults and Engineers, as well as counter-sniping.

Battlefield 2142
In Battlefield 2142, the Recon is featured as a combination of the Special Ops and Sniper kits of the previous game. The player is able to equip one of two types of sniper rifles or an automatic carbine. The default setup of the Recon class is featured with the basic rifle as well as a handgun, a knife, and grenades. As the player progresses through unlocks, the player will receive RDX Demopaks, APMs, cloaking, and sniper rifle gadgets. The Recon Kit is effective on any map, as the Sniper rifles are excellent for long-range warfare, and the Carbine is excellent when the player finds himself in close quarters, such as Titan corridors.

The Recon class is the only class able to destroy commander assets using RDX, and can make short work of other strategic objects.

Battlefield: Bad Company
"Equipped for long range attacks and spotting the enemy"

- Instruction Manual Description The Recon kit is the base marksman's class, and the only class capable of taking down enemies at safe and extreme distances thanks to the sniper rifle, and laser designator. In ways of self defense the player is also equipped with motion sensors and a pistol, changing depending on the faction.

Sniper rifles allow the player to take down enemies accurately at long distances in a small number of shots. At long range, sniper rifles are at their best, although leading the player's target is necessary if it is moving, and semi-automatic rifles can lose their accuracy at across-map distances, especially the VSS. At close range, snipers deal more damage, bolt-action snipers (M24, SV-98, GOL, M95) can kill in 1 shot, but tracking moving targets can be difficult, and point blank hip-firing can be extremely unreliable.

To take out vehicles, the Recon kit is given the laser designator as an unlockable. These binoculars 'laze' in on a target and after the target has been locked onto, it sends in a remote controlled missile controlled by the player to be guided down to destroy the target or kill enemy infantry nearby. The missile has a considerably large splash damage radius and can destroy any vehicle on impact instantly. Although, it can only be used effectively against extremely slow vehicles like Heavy Tanks, and when being locked onto, a warning siren will go off in the targeted vehicle warning a missile is incoming, allowing the player in the vehicle to escape relatively easily. The binoculars can be difficult to use at close range as well, considering it would be harder to track a moving target and it takes time for the binoculars to lock onto the vehicle.

For self defense, the player is given a sidearm and Motion Sensors. The Motion Sensors, when activated, will show enemy positions within about a 20 meter radius. The Russian and American side arms (MP-443 Grach and M9 Beretta respectively) are weak semi-automatic pistols, taking about 5-8 rounds to kill, but are relatively reliable when in a sticky situation. The MP412 REX is the MEC side arm, being a revolver with 6 bullet capacity taking 2-3 bullets to kill, being slightly better than the other pistols if the player uses it accurately.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2
"Masters of stealth. Recon specializes in sniping tangos, sabotaging vehicles with C4, or calling in mortar strikes via special binoculars."

- Instruction Manual Description In the sequel to Bad Company, the Recon class returns with some changes made compared to the original Bad Company. The Laser Designator has been removed all together, while the Recon is given the choice between C4 and Mortar Strikes; the latter requires unlocking. Recons can now also choose their weapons, not being limited by faction; as well as choosing a low-power sight such as a Red Dot Sight or a 4X Rifle Scope should they choose. Recon players can also choose from several all classweapons, allowing for significant changes to play-styles.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam
The Recon Kit is nearly the same as in the base game. However, the most notable differences are its inclusion of both TNT and mortar designator, at the loss of the motion mines, and the skins which differ more heavily between factions, rather than being an almost universal ghillie suit. The U.S. Recon also has an unusable smoke grenade like the U.S. Engineer, and the Engineer has an unusable claymore and the Recon doesn't.

Battlefield Play4Free
The Recon kit returns in Battlefield Play4Free almost identical to Bad Company 2. Its role is to engage enemy infantry at long range and support their team by spotting enemies and throwing motion sensors. It is equipped with a sniper rifle and several gadgets obtainable via Training customization.

Inventory

 * Combat Knife
 * Pistol (M9 by default)
 * Sniper Rifle (SV-98 by default)/Shotgun
 * Frag Grenade (unlocked via training customization)
 * Motion sensor
 * Claymore (unlocked via training customization)
 * Mortar strike (unlocked via training customization)

Battlefield 3
The Recon kit returns in Battlefield 3, similar to in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, but with considerable changes. The kit is armed with either a bolt-action or semi-automatic sniper rifle, and is also able to equip the all-kit SMGs/PDWs, such as the UMP-45, and all-kit shotguns.

The class also has access to a variety of scouting/stealth related Gadgets, such as the deployable motion sensor, Radio Beacon, and SOFLAM laser designator, with C4 charges and Claymore mines now belonging to the Support Class.

Skilled snipers can earn Marksman bonuses for headshot kills greater than 50 meters away, an award not shared with other classes. The bonus is equal to the kill distance in meters. With larger maps and greater "time to live" timings for sniper bullets, players can potentially land kills over a kilometer away during normal play.

As an attempt to balance the inclusion of prone, any weapon (not just sniper rifles) using a high powered scope (With magnification higher than 4x), such as those used by the Recon kit, will cause scope glint, which is directional based on the target's location.

Glitches

 * In Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam, there is a glitch that the US and NVA recon's eyes pop out when they aim down the scope in their third-person animations.

Trivia
BF3= BF:BC2:V=
 * The USMC recon wears an SP-GPS that's not seen in the first person model.
 * The recons cover there faces with either a Keffiyeh for the US side or a beanie and bandana for the Russian side.
 * The Russian Ground Forces Recon has a unusable Machete in a sheath on his chest, rather than being modeled with a Combat Knife sheath like other classes.
 * Both models are the same body models for Kiril and Vladimir in "Comrades", and Dima in "Kaffarov" (3rd person only)
 * In Aftermath, the US recon is wearing his sun glasses over his eyes, while in the base game they are worn above his brow.
 * The USMC Recon is actually a recycled model of an RGF paratrooper seen in Rock and a Hard Place.
 * The US Army Recon in Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam wears a tiger jungle camouflage uniform while the other US Army kits wear Army Green. He is also the only one not wearing a helmet, instead wearing a beret with a beret flash that is the same as the insignia on the Huey.
 * The recon is the only class not shown in the TGS trailer for BFBC2:Vietnam, but the unused model wearing the patrol cap may have been a earlier design hence him wearing tiger camouflage and being shown on the flamethrower trailer.
 * The NVA recon seems to have been the medic model and vice versa as they were both shown in the others role in early gameplays and trailers.
 * In the trailer for Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam, the recon character is seen equipped with an M16A1, which normally isn't available to that class.
 * The appearance of the NVA recon may be a reference to the myth that having one eye gives you better vision.
 * The US Recon in Bad Company 2: Vietnam wears tigerstripe camo which during the Vietnam War was a visible trademark of Green Berets, LRRP's, SEAL's and other elite forces.