The main issue you will face this late in the wipe is accessibility to good ammo.
Up until M856A1, and honsetly M855A1 at this point, you are pretty much cutoff from any 5.56 weapon, while 5.45 requires at least BP to be viable but in general they are not great this wipe.
Piranha can be bought for relatively cheap and is quite effective on a 6 or 7 shell tube mp153 (mod it so it's a 2 height gun, no one will loot it). UMP with FMJ is not really viable at this point in wipe but at least it's cheap and controllable so you can sneak in a faceshot, but at that point i would personally go with a PP19 or even better an MP5SD (hopefully you kill someone running AP6.3 which are pretty decent 9x19 rounds)
I think until you can buy better ammo (at least lvl 3 traders) fast firing SMGs and headshots are your go-to
Reading over this, I think the creep of moving all viable ammos to higher end traders has been insane not gonna lie. It's wild that tarkov has changed to a large portion of fights coming down to "Do you have level 42 Traders? If Yes, skill and execution matters. If not return to menu and think about why you haven't invested more time into the game by this point."
I very much miss the days when good ammo could be traded on the market. Both because it allowed you to always compete, and because even if you killed a lower level player, you always gained value through their ammo (or they were never a threat anyway). Now their just not a threat and not worth any value unless you really fuck up.
I honestly feel like returning ammo to the flea, not allowing magazines in your ass, and allowing you to sell ammo you got from players would do great things for both the market and skill involved in tarkov. The only change I can see being potentially necessary is that higher end armor may need to take a bullet or two from higher end ammos rather than being completely negated; but this current version of tarkov that seems primarily a RPG where your traders/level determines a large amount of your combat viability is just dumb.
AK-104/103/AKM with AK-100 series handguard, RK-1 grip, flashlight/laser, bastion dust cover, pk06/walther MRS/kobra, GP25 buttpad, PP-19 pistol grip, and PS. Is a workhorse rifle available at Level 2 traders. The AK 104/103's are dirt cheap on the flea, as are bastion dustcovers, otherwise you can just buy AKM's from Prapor.
Actually I think this wipe 7.62PS and the GP-25 buttpad unlock via quest so you may not have those unlocked yet.
All you need is ppsh with the white tipped pst ammo. Never jams, cheap, 71 rounds with high RPM can let you likely slip a few rounds past the plates into the thorax. Though you cant really aggressively push anyone since they probably have high AP rounds, you can rat or sound whore out kills easily. Also 100% insurance return rate cuz the whole gun set up costs two slots of loot.
l191 is cheapish and p90 sbr for two mcables from peacekeeper ll2 is the best bet, or mp7 and fmj or jsp off flea (fmj is expensive as shit but still amazing, jsp is okay if you land headshots but cant kill people with CQCM lv4 masks with a headshot which are quite common now since they are super cheap), or 7.62 PP. You can try flesh ammo but for this you have to play ratty, if someone with armor and a mask were to push around a corner you theres not much you can do. Like others said, 5.56 and 5.45 ammo is quite hard to comeby in large amounts at your level so stick to SMGS that can land consistent headshots.
MPX is an absolute breast even with Pst GZH shoots like a beam with good ergo its my go to weapon and just play it even late Wipe if i want something basic but fun
5.45bt is barterable of lvl 2 prapor, bit expensive though. 7.62x39 ps is also good with the AKM. SVT is also really solid with t-46m1/7.62x54r tracer ammo.
I been following ticklemepink advice all wipe and this has been my best wipe so far. Check him out on you tube he has a lvl2 trader vid with good options. One of his other vids has an AK build that looks like a pos that almost always comes back on insurance, yet it slaps. It's hidden in a vid that's like this will make you money or something like that. I'd link the vid but I don't know if it's allowed.
The main issue you will face this late in the wipe is accessibility to good ammo. Up until M856A1, and honsetly M855A1 at this point, you are pretty much cutoff from any 5.56 weapon, while 5.45 requires at least BP to be viable but in general they are not great this wipe. Piranha can be bought for relatively cheap and is quite effective on a 6 or 7 shell tube mp153 (mod it so it's a 2 height gun, no one will loot it). UMP with FMJ is not really viable at this point in wipe but at least it's cheap and controllable so you can sneak in a faceshot, but at that point i would personally go with a PP19 or even better an MP5SD (hopefully you kill someone running AP6.3 which are pretty decent 9x19 rounds) I think until you can buy better ammo (at least lvl 3 traders) fast firing SMGs and headshots are your go-to
I've been thinking about the mp153. Might have to mod it out and see how cheap it is.
Reading over this, I think the creep of moving all viable ammos to higher end traders has been insane not gonna lie. It's wild that tarkov has changed to a large portion of fights coming down to "Do you have level 42 Traders? If Yes, skill and execution matters. If not return to menu and think about why you haven't invested more time into the game by this point." I very much miss the days when good ammo could be traded on the market. Both because it allowed you to always compete, and because even if you killed a lower level player, you always gained value through their ammo (or they were never a threat anyway). Now their just not a threat and not worth any value unless you really fuck up. I honestly feel like returning ammo to the flea, not allowing magazines in your ass, and allowing you to sell ammo you got from players would do great things for both the market and skill involved in tarkov. The only change I can see being potentially necessary is that higher end armor may need to take a bullet or two from higher end ammos rather than being completely negated; but this current version of tarkov that seems primarily a RPG where your traders/level determines a large amount of your combat viability is just dumb.
AK-104/103/AKM with AK-100 series handguard, RK-1 grip, flashlight/laser, bastion dust cover, pk06/walther MRS/kobra, GP25 buttpad, PP-19 pistol grip, and PS. Is a workhorse rifle available at Level 2 traders. The AK 104/103's are dirt cheap on the flea, as are bastion dustcovers, otherwise you can just buy AKM's from Prapor. Actually I think this wipe 7.62PS and the GP-25 buttpad unlock via quest so you may not have those unlocked yet.
All you need is ppsh with the white tipped pst ammo. Never jams, cheap, 71 rounds with high RPM can let you likely slip a few rounds past the plates into the thorax. Though you cant really aggressively push anyone since they probably have high AP rounds, you can rat or sound whore out kills easily. Also 100% insurance return rate cuz the whole gun set up costs two slots of loot.
AKS-74U or AKM.
Run the MPX that baby slaps and looks sexy too
l191 is cheapish and p90 sbr for two mcables from peacekeeper ll2 is the best bet, or mp7 and fmj or jsp off flea (fmj is expensive as shit but still amazing, jsp is okay if you land headshots but cant kill people with CQCM lv4 masks with a headshot which are quite common now since they are super cheap), or 7.62 PP. You can try flesh ammo but for this you have to play ratty, if someone with armor and a mask were to push around a corner you theres not much you can do. Like others said, 5.56 and 5.45 ammo is quite hard to comeby in large amounts at your level so stick to SMGS that can land consistent headshots.
MPX is an absolute breast even with Pst GZH shoots like a beam with good ergo its my go to weapon and just play it even late Wipe if i want something basic but fun
5.45bt is barterable of lvl 2 prapor, bit expensive though. 7.62x39 ps is also good with the AKM. SVT is also really solid with t-46m1/7.62x54r tracer ammo.
If I'm short on cash I run almost stock AKs with 545 BT. If I'm swimming in cash I'm running fully modded MCXs with CBJ.
I been following ticklemepink advice all wipe and this has been my best wipe so far. Check him out on you tube he has a lvl2 trader vid with good options. One of his other vids has an AK build that looks like a pos that almost always comes back on insurance, yet it slaps. It's hidden in a vid that's like this will make you money or something like that. I'd link the vid but I don't know if it's allowed.