I think it’s comes more from projectile’s mass. 5.56 is very lightweight compared to other bullets. 9x39 is rather heavy, even heavier than 7.62.
Logically in GZ bullets with better anti-materiel properties would fare better and 5.56 is good as antipersonel, but easily defeated by any strengthened plating, hence it being underdog in this game.
Both 9mm ammo are bigger and heavier, despite having less muzzle energy they have higher mass, which translates into better materiel damage (if talk about sensitive components).
More precisely - momentum.
Mass (kg) * Velocity (m/s).
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What’s also outrageous in my opinion is that the ammo and gun seem to clutter the droptables. I have so far gotten 20 + 5* AT-WADs and not a single KVM 89 since I bought the DLC, plus the ammo does not seem to properly scale with scavenger as far as I can tell. I think it’s just a sub-par weapon that gives players nothing and adds nothing to the game. It’s attached silencer is irrelevant due to the fact that we can just stick one onto any SMG/AR and even choose if we go for barrel extension or silencer. Then the weapon cannot use experimental ammo, ammo can not be crafted, I honestly wish I could deactivate the DLC.
For me, my Salvage lvl2 works fine with 9x39mm. Given that you actually carry AT-WAD in your inventory.
They give variety.
From my above reply:
Same goes to the RPG as well. It has unique ammo (LG-7V HEAT) and it can’t be crafted either. Though, you can duplicate the unique ammo with Ammo Packs. 
On PC, you can. Just uninstall the DLC and Voila! 
(Same should apply to consoles as well.)
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The salvage with AT-WAD in inventory is actually useful, also the fact that PC players can uninstall. Nevertheless, variety is not an excuse for the lack of meaningful implementation or skipping the gun with one of the most important updates that actually brings a lot of guns on-par with experimentals, which exp ammo does to a point. I’d much rather prefer the devs to add the ammo crafting recipe to our inventory and make the guns worthwhile by slightly changing their stats or behaviour. RPG is not THAT bad, for example: it has a higher damage per rocket from my testing and a scope which allows for easier targeting and shooting at maximum range, there are situations where I use it over Grg. N60 also is much more stable than KVM59, has a wonderful iron sights and I enjoyed using it more, and N16 felt good. I don’t think AT-WAD has to be better than any of the existing guns, being on-par with them is OK, which it isn’t. But then, we are already godlike machine killers and with experimentals taking on a donzen hunters and two tanks at once on guerilla became a lot more realistic.
I bought the DLC to support the development of GenZ, but we’re already in endgame, so why not rather spice up that instead of adding midgame guns that become irrelevant as soon as experimentals become availible? Questions over questions, but I still think AT-WAD is not in a good state.
I’m finding AT-WAD an interesting weapon. My review of it:
Though, what’s your take on SVD? 
While you and many others are at end-game, new players are not. Let’s not forget that.
I actually like to see variety in the game, and i believe that new players also love to see bigger variety in weapons. And for end-game players, we have now base building and experimental consumables, to keep us busy.
It’s bad business for devs to only cater for end-game players. New players already have a hard time playing through the GZ due to the time paradox. There is no need to completely disregard them.
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I don’t think the DLC would only have ‘mixed’ reviews on steam if players were happy with it, DLC could also be two mid-game weapons and one possible experimental drop, for example to give something for every tier of player.
In my opinion the ‘bad’ performance of weapons like AT-WAD and also Kotenok (because objectively you will simply take longer to take out a horde of machines with a maxed AT-WAD or Kotenok than with an AG-4 or Kpist), now that you ask, is that all the ultra-heavy weapons essentially handle like SMGs, they have the same weight, same aim speed, and LMGs and anti material rifles can be fired easily while standing and give players no movement and only a negligible accuracy penalty. In most games SMGs and smaller weapons handle very differently from the heavy ones, giving them a niche for fast-movement warfare, whereas in GenZ it simply is not viable to go for an SMG/AR when you have LMGs availible or to go for a lighter DMR/Sniper rifle when you have anti-mat rifles availible. This is the overarching problem of weapon balancing, devs simply disregard weight and handling or dumb it down to a non-issue and turned this game into unreal tournament. I can out-strafe tank fire, why settle with exp Kpist if I can do the same thing faster and without having to reload with N60 or KVM? Then there’s ammo economy, one can funnel all of their resources into their favourite ammo types now thanks to crafting, so it’s guaranteed we have as much ammo as we want for our fav guns as long as we keep looting enemies. Basically the systems of the game have not been adapted to its current state, because with rivals, experimental and now experimental ammo the game has come a long, long way.
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I really agree with you, I feel like after they released the exp KVM-59 and the exp 50cal no other combo of guns come even close to their power. Which is a problem because they can’t just make every gun in game overpowered. And nerfing guns always feels very sad. And in this state there is no reason to use the AT-WAD other than for it’s cool factors. Because the gun really doesn’t match anything we have in the game. I am pretty sure that a hp5 with a supressor would surpass the AT-WAD.
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The stealth in the game is completely broken anyway, the only time i ever used stealth and it was actually practical was the beginning of the game on the Archipelago, before the revamps changed it to a smoldering wasteland full of corpses
I won’t tell the story behind the 9x39 and the VAL, And will use my military experience as example:
You can’t expect from a rifle chambered in 9x39 to have a high penetration and anti armor value.
The Val suit me well for light target and the silent factor not applying fully since Machine have thermal/NV.
GZ apply the same rule for any weapons in real life if you d’ont know how use it and understand her capacity you can’t use it at full capacity.With that said there is 9x39 AP as far i know in russian/soviet service.
My point is you’re pick the weapons suited for each situations and always should see them as “Tool”.
Hope my late reply on this subject will help
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The as val buff i think should happen is that it should have assault rifle levels of damage directly to components, and low armor damage. This is because of its slow, bad penetrating round, and big bullets, designed to destabilize after impact to create the most amount of damage, this would give it a niche in the meta.
As a player who hasn’t touched this game since the first DLC, I think the AT-WAD is great so far, as I’ve done a total restart on PC. Its a superior weapon in every way compared to the crappy shotgun, sniper rifle, and pistol you get at the start. While I can see it being disappointing for end-game, I think the gun is nice for new players. Makes the clearing the starting zone a breeze.
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It’s nice to hear a different view point 
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Taking out the Val today while playing with the “boys” on various difficulty and find Val really doing great at early stage, since was helping a new player hop on the game^^ With that said i think as owner of both weapons DLC that Val is the one with less damage so far.
I don’t think that damage is the problem here. On many occasions I was able do destroy FNIX Seekers with one shot from 50+ m.
What may make people to believe it has low damage per bullet is rather strong recoil and bullet spread.
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You’re right. I’m thinking, less spread and recoil (plus perhaps, the ability to put an 1-4x scope on it) would improve the AT-WAD’s performance dramatically.
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Single shot has very low recoil and very accurate, it’s extremely high firerate ruins it. Slow and heavy bullet makes it tricky to use medium-long range, akin to revolver and slug sniping. 1-4x scope will be a great game-changer with all these notches to help aim.
Please fix them. The kotenok should be doing more damage than the AI-76 or whatever you want to call that garbage. And the AS Val would outdo an mp5 any day in terms of damage per round, regardless if it is subsonic or not. 9x39 has more mass. On top of that. If youre handing out soviet weapons like candy from some creepy ice cream truck. WHERE IS THE RPK AND THE PKM!?!?!?!?!?
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Mind your “caps”.
But yeh i agree, the AS Val and the RJ7 should make a bit more of damage.
But in the end the worst is the Kotenok, it´s useless, not even worthy against runners, one bullet is not enough to destroy their fuel tank while with the other 2 hunting rifles 1 bullet is enough.
Rpk and PKM are both LMGS so only one would be needed.
I can agree that those 2 weapons need a buff, Kotenok more so. You can find many people requesting those kinds of things respectfully and without cap spamming.
As for the RPK and PKM, both of these weapons have been requested exstensively. All without spamming caps. It is actually easier to do that than not. The feedback also usually goes farther and is considerd more. Also, I could just as easily pick any Soviet weapon not included in the pack and ask for them like it was an obvious choice that the devs missed. I believe there are many to choose from.
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