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Overview


The terrorist-exclusive SG 553 is a premium scoped alternative to the AK-47 for effective long-range engagement.
―Official description

The SG 553 is a Swiss assault rifle in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive & Counter-Strike 2 exclusive to the Terrorists. It is the successor to the Krieg 552 in previous Counter-Strike games, having the same role as its predecessor. Its Counter-Terrorist counterpart is the AUG.

Overview[]

The SG 553 is a Swiss-made assault rifle manufactured by Swiss Arms as part of the SG 550 platform introduced in 1990. It is an improved version of the SG 552 assault rifle, with the main difference being an added charging handle. Although the in-game weapon is named SG 553, it is modeled after the SIG556 HOLO, a semi-automatic rifle of the SG 556 series based on the same platform intended for the civilian market, with an aluminum lower receiver that accepts STANAG magazines.

In-game, the SG 553 serves as the successor of the Krieg 552 from previous titles. Like the Krieg 552, the SG 553 is equipped with a telescopic sight. The player can enter the scope by using secondary fire. The player will leave the scope if they use secondary fire again or switch weapons.

While scoped in, the player's view is zoomed in by 3x, recoil is significantly lowered, accuracy is increased, and the player's movement speed is reduced considerably. Unlike the Krieg 552, there is no longer a fire rate penalty for using the scope. The scope now also provides a HUD overlay of the scope, including an aiming reticle, giving the impression of the player actually aiming down the scope. Spraying for an extended burst whilst using the scope causes the scope dot to gradually disappear.

The SG 553 has slightly less base damage than the AK-47, but is the only weapon with 100% armor penetration, while the AK-47 has 77.5% armor penetration, meaning that it deals more damage to armored enemies than the AK-47, and is also the highest of any assault rifle. The SG 553 is one of the few guns capable of scoring fatal headshots regardless of armor.

The SG 553 has the slowest movement speed out of all assault rifles. It is slightly more expensive than the AK-47, making it the most expensive assault rifle on the Terrorist side. However, it is the slowest firing assault rifle of all.

The SG 553 is the 2nd main weapon for Terrorist bots who have weapon preferences of wielding scoped assault rifle. And they do not make use of the scope. Despite having a Terrorist's version of scoped assault rifle template, they prefer to use the AUG if they find it.

Properties[]

Hitbox Primary Attack
Unarmored Armored
Head 119 119
Chest & Arm 29 29
Abdomen & pelvis 37 37
Leg 22 22
Red signifies a fatal hit.
Movement speed in hammer units per second
Running 210
Walking 109
Crouch walking 71
Running while scoped 150
Walking while scoped 78
Crouched walking while scoped 51

Tactics[]

  • Be sure to take advantage of the scope and aim for the head of targets. One headshot is enough to kill regardless if the target is armored or not.
    • Although the scope makes it easier to engage enemies at long ranges, the player should check frequently for nearby enemies attempting to flank the player. Avoid using the scope for too long as the blurred peripheral vision can make it easier for enemies to sneak behind.
  • Only scope in when engaging players at long range; scoping in for close-range combat reduces peripheral vision and reduces turning speed.
  • Avoid using an entire magazine in one spray. While the first 17 bullets are easily controlled if the player has learned the spray pattern, the last 10 bullets of the magazine are very hard to control. A quick-firing pause in the middle of the magazine to reset the spray pattern can negate this. The unscoped spray pattern is larger than all other rifles apart from the AK-47, but with practice, the SG 553 can still spray very accurately and effectively since the spread is the lowest among Terrorist rifles.
  • Due to the recoil mechanism of the weapon, the recoil pattern initially (8-10 shots) goes up and to the right, unlike most other rifles with a direct upwards initial pattern. This can put off newer users of the weapon, especially when scoped in.
    • When firing unscoped, aim low and to the left while spraying bullets to combat diagonal recoil.

Update History

April 10, 2020
  • SG553 – Reduced rate of fire and accuracy to bring the weapon’s value to be more in line with other rifles.
November 18, 2019
  • Increased price of SG553 to $3000 to bring its price more in line with its value.
October 9, 2018
  • SG553 price reduced to $2750
September 28, 2016
  • Increased fidelity and reduced distortion in fire sounds for Famas, Galil, Aug, SG553, M4A4, M4A1-S, unsilenced M4A1-S, and AK47.
July 27, 2016
  • Added tracers to alt fire on Aug, Sg, Glock, and Famas.
February 20, 2014

[AUG and SG553]

  • Scope dot no longer fades too quickly during online play.
  • Scope dot is slightly more visible against bright backgrounds.
  • Scope dot is now tinted using the player’s crosshair color settings.
February 12, 2014
  • Reduced AUG and SG553 scoped run speeds
  • Improved scope visuals for Aug and Sg553.
February 5, 2014
  • Improved SG553 and AUG rates of fire.
June 26, 2013
  • Further adjustments to the AUG/SG553.
June 19, 2013
  • Tuned the AUG and SG553 to function more effectively as a rifle/sniper hybrid.

Achievement[]

Weapon Specialist
SG553 Expert csgo SG 553 Expert
Kill 100 enemies with the SG 553.

Trivia[]

  • Before the June 26, 2013 update, the rate of fire would be halved while using optic, to about 360 rpm.
  • The optic used by the SG 553 is the Trijicon ACOG (Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight) like its CT counterpart, the AUG A3, but with a different variant giving it a different appearance. It has a 3x magnification instead of 4x in real life.
    • The model of the Trijicon ACOG (Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight) modelled on the SG 553 is the Trijicon ACOG 4×32 TA01-D-100318 Tritium Riflescope
  • In the February 12, 2014 update in Global Offensive, the scoped view was updated from the old scope and crosshair (identical to sniper scopes) to a green dot sight, which is further updated in the February 20, 2014 update in which the scope dot is now tinted using the player’s crosshair color settings.
    • However, when cl_crosshaircolor_r, cl_crosshaircolor_g and cl_crosshaircolor_b is set to 0 makes red dot while using zoom for SG 553.
  • Prior to the update, the gun's front iron sight was flipped up in the first-person view. However, after the update, it was folded down. The reason could mainly be due to possibly obscuring the player's vision when entering the scoped state.
    • When dropped, the weapon world model still has its ironsight flipped up.
  • While the SG553 has the same damage drop-off due to range as the AK-47 (2%), it has higher base damage against armoured enemies. Hence its headshots remain fatal at ranges where the AK-47's aren't (4,512.31 vs. 2,716.24 units). While most official maps don't offer an opportunity to implement this, Canals at its lengthiest offers a shot of 2850 units from 'CT Start' to 'CT Side Lower'.

Behind the scenes[]

  • All of the weapon's files refer to it as the "SG 556" instead of the "SG 553". This was the weapon's alpha name.
    • The weapon is in fact actually modeled after the real SG 556 (longer handguard and collapsible stock in comparison to the SG 553 which has a shorter one). However, the real SG 556 is semi-automatic, due to the SG 556 being made for civilian and law enforcement use; while the SG 553 is fully-automatic, like portrayed in-game.
    • Its entity (weapon_sg556), models, sounds and textures and HUD icons all refer to it as SG 556.
    • Unused announcer clips from the Alpha and the 2011 Beta give the weapon two names: "Krieg 556" and "Sig 556". Both names fit the older games' naming schemes (The SG 550 and SG 552 were refered to as Krieg 550 and Krieg 552 or Sig 550 and Sig 552.)
  • The weapon's alpha line art purchase icon depicts its scope attached further into the weapon's back.
  • Although a spiritual successor of the SG 552 (Krieg 552), the latter's icons appear in both the Beta and the released game suggesting that it would have either appeared alongside the SG 553 (initially SG 556) or that the former was a placeholder/predecessor to the latter.

External links[]

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