The M4A1 is a weapon anyone who’s played a military FPS in the last two decades will be very familiar with, but with the right loadout, it can become one of the most versatile and powerful weapons in the game.
In Battlefield 6, the M4 belongs to the Carbine category. Carbines (alongside DMRs, and Shotguns) are not locked to any particular class, meaning anyone can use them in MP.
Of course, this distinction may not matter to you if you’re planning on spending your time in the Open Weapons Playlists only. However, the M4 is an early unlock (unlocked at rank 11), which makes it not just a no-brainer for those first days of multiplayer, but a solid choice for unlocking the best attachments and loadouts for the longer-term too.
Though the number of weapons available in BF6 at launch isn’t as high as some series greats like Battlefield 4, your pool of options is considerably deeper than Battlefield 2024, for instance. Even beyond raw figures, it’s a healthy dose of tools that’s only going to grow beyond launch.
Choosing the best one for the job depends on a lot of factors that include your class, play style, map, and even whether you tend to gravitate towards the larger, classic Battlefield modes or the smaller options that offer a more Call of Duty-like fix.
Before we start getting into our M4 loadouts, there are a few details worth keeping in mind.
Battlefield 6 uses a point system that assigns different values to each weapon attachment. A naked weapon without any attachments typically has 100 points to spend. Not every sight or magazine is going to be worth the same, which is going to greatly affect your build.
It’s also worth keeping in mind – as we cover in our wide-ranging Battlefield 6 tips page – that it simply takes a good while to level up a single weapon in Battlefield 6; longer than you expect. For that reason, some of the more valuable (and desired) options, such as suppressors, will take a lot of grinding. The good news is that a few options offer objective upgrades that do not come with any drawbacks, and cost the same as the one you’re upgrading from; so it’s a win-win.
Weapons typically have ten attachment slots, but, obviously, you don’t need every single one filled. In many cases, there’s going to be a default option you cannot remove. While it may seem tempting to fill all slots and use up all your points, you should only do so if the attachment you want doesn’t come with any disadvantages, or if you feel the upgrade is worth the tradeoff.
Finally, you can quickly hop into the Firing Range at the press of a button from the Loadout menu, which is a great way to see how the setup feels to you, not to mention learn the recoil pattern of any given weapon.
So, without further ado, here are our recommendations for the best M4 loadouts in Battlefield 6.
Best Battlefield 6 M4A1 Loadouts
Best M4A1 early-game loadout
- Optic: Mini Flex 1.00X (10P)
- Top Accessory: 5 MW Green Laser (10P)
- Barrel: Basic 12.5” MD (10P)
- Muzzle: Single-Port Brake (5P)
- Underbarrel: Ribbed Vertical (20P)
- Magazine: 20RND Fast Mag (5P)
- Ammunition: Penetration Tungsten Core (5P)
- Ergonomics: Improved Mag Catch (5P)
What makes this the best BF6 M4 loadout for early-game MP?
This M4 loadout is best for close-range encounters and essentially turns the weapon into a more powerful SMG, while taking advantage of the M4’s rate of fire and versatility elsewhere, making the most efficient use of the attachments you can unlock early on.
Firstly, the Mini Flex offers a perfect sight picture at its 1x zoom, which is good for our needs here. We’re going with the visible Green Laser because of its boost to hipfire accuracy. Yes, it’s visible to other players, but that’s not likely to matter when you’re playing in the chaos of close-range.
The basic/starting M4 barrel remains excellent, and we’re pairing it with the Single-Port Brake because it greatly reduces recoil. The increased weapon sway and the fact we won’t be hidden off the minimap aren’t major negatives here, either, given that you’ll be among squad members who themselves will be spotted anyway.
The 20-round mag is another contributor to how light the build is, even if you’ll be reloading more often. We’ve even added the mag catch to make that process even faster. Finally, Tungsten ammo helps harass enemy players hiding behind light cover.
Best M4A1 mid-game loadout
- Optic: CCO-2.00X (10P)
- Top Accessory: 5 MW Red Laser (10P)
- Barrel: Extended 14.5” Carbine (15P)
- Muzzle: Flash Hider (10)
- Underbarrel: Alloy Vertical (20P)
- Magazine: 30RND Magazine (5P)
- Ammunition: Standard FMJ (5P)
- Ergonomics: Improved Mag Catch (5P)
What makes this the best BF6 M4 loadout for mid-game MP?
This is the best M4 loadout designed for medium-to-long range engagements, and it makes the M4 work well as a lite-Assault Rifle. We’re going to use eight of the ten available slots for a total of 80 points here.
This loadout is likely the one you’ll be spending most of your time with, once you’ve unlocked a few more of the weapon’s best attachments rather than using whatever you have available.
One of this loadout’s strengths is accuracy at range. The M4 has moderate recoil, and though you can hold down the fire button at medium ranges, it’s going to require recoil compensation. We designed this loadout for three-four round bursts at longer ranges without ruining your accuracy.
The CCO-2.00X is a great starting point here for its 2x zoom, which is a sweet spot between the 1x sights and the more magnified 4x and beyond. Even with a build set up for recoil management, you really don’t want to take the M4 beyond the range of what a 2x sight offers
The 14.5” Extended barrel is what this entire build hinges on, as it offers the best accuracy at range. Paired with Standard FMJ ammo, and the Alloy Vertical grip, you’re really maximising range potential while keeping recoil under control.
The 30RND magazine is a solid option as it offers enough rounds and doesn’t slow you down like heavier magazines do. We went with the Flash Hider for our muzzle here because it removes 3D spotting, and reduces the range of minimap spotting.
For our remaining points, we’re going to use the Improved Mag Catch to get a tiny boost to reload speed, as well as the Red Laser as it offers a small boost to hipfire accuracy without being visible to enemy players.
Best M4A1 late-game loadout
- Optic: SU-123 1.50X (10P)
- Top Accessory: 5 MW Red Laser (10P)
- Barrel: Extended 14.5” Carbine (15P)
- Muzzle: Standard Suppressor (20P)
- Underbarrel: Full Angled (25P)
- Magazine: 30RND Fast Mag (10P)
- Ammunition: Standard FMJ (5P)
- Ergonomics: Improved Mag Catch (5P)
What makes this the best BF6 M4 loadout for late-game MP?
Our goal with this build is to cater to as many aspects of the M4’s strengths as possible, which inevitably means it’s going to fall behind more specialised loadouts like the two above. At that point, however, you should be more familiar with what the M4 excels at rather than simply making use of the attachments you have unlocked.
Assuming you’ve stuck with the M4 long enough to unlock some of the more desired attachments, this is the loadout we recommend going with. By that point, you’ll have likely ranked up your Weapon Mastery and unlocked some of the other Weapon Packages, like the incredible-looking Unstoppable Force.
A lot of these attachments won’t be available until very deep into their respective unlock trees. Considering your M4 would have to be at Mastery Level 50 for Unstoppable Force, this shouldn’t be a problem. Alternatively, you can go with the standard look and use the attachments we’re going to recommend in this section.
We’re using up all 100 points for this one. If you’re starting off from the Unstoppable Force skin, we suggest keeping both the sight and suppressor as they are because they’re responsible for that killer look. If not, we’d still recommend these options anyway.
Once again, we’re sticking with the 5 MW Laser because of its advantages vs disadvantages, but we’re upgrading to the 30-round fast mag here in order to have more bullets to spare without hurting reload speed too much – another reason we’re also keeping the mag catch.
The Extended barrel stays, too, because it’s simply too good to give away and have to deal with either slower bullet velocity or unnecessarily fast ADS speed. The Full Angled Grip is what brings this whole loadout together thanks to its ability to reduce recoil, improve ADS speeds and weapon draw speeds.