The Night Empress. Unfortunately, she's been going the way of many a monarch with the lower class overthrowing her. She used to be the last word for night battle ARs, but with AS VAL's mod, she has fallen behind. Turns out, being able to use a crit scope at night is very good. That being said, +200% damage at night is still decent and if you can't afford the mod, she's a good replacement.

Also, while enemy armor stacks superhard now, it's actually fine if you have sufficient +FP on your ARs to punch through. If you don't though, this still wont save you.

Good with unique gear and mod3. Less good before digimind evolution. Workable though.

Well EN is now having her special equipment, she can be worth it. Its a very significant boost (Puts her almost on par with NTW for raw ATK stat) and she can 1-shot stuff as an opener pre-skill. She'll be decent but not quite a priority yet.

Of note, she has almost as much ATK as NTW with her chip. This has certain uses to a creative commander.

Babushka says not one step backward. Every seventh shot, she gives a damage bonus! Also, the thing starts active, making her one of very few buffers with a start-of-battle skill activation. Her first skill is still defensive in nature, and the percentages got bigger. She's actually useful in a number of situations, either for reducing enemy firepower in specific fights (usually Gundam or tank related) or just the straight DPS boost from the get-go. You only really need her up to Mod 2, but the Mod 3 art is cute.

Her pre mod form is here

AKA AK-47

Yes, the game pretends she's a reward.

No, she's still cores. Kinda.

Actually AK-74M makes her alright. If you have her top-tier Unique Crit Score, she actually has surprisingly REALLY GOOD DPS.

Welrodski! ...By which I mean she's basically Welrod but 3 star, with lower numbers and an aura that wants her in the middle (or front works too). Usable if you lack Welrod and honestly not actually bad, but HG builds are cheap and she's pretty common so she might get annoying to get eventually. Also her -acc skill stacks with Welrod, and can be combined with a +evade skill for silliness.

Her mod has other uses and is quite interesting, see her mod entry here

Very good buffs, not good in her own stats though. Skill is blah-ish but serviceable at night. When she gets to MOD3, however. Becomes COMMISSAR NAGANT. May or may not land you in jail (or gulag as the case may be). She does say it herself afterall, about your odd taste...

Her mod form is here

Or SKS for short. Self-buffs RoF, but with too weak stats. Between G43 and M14 you have enough good low-rarity rifles to keep you supplied while you work on better ones.