While the answer is much simpler than you'd expect, it is unfortunately very time-consuming—don't shoot the messenger. Here's what you need to do to get the new Monolithic Suppressor attachment, and what it does.

How to unlock the Monolithic Suppressor in BO6 and Warzone

To get the Monolithic Suppressor in BO6 and Warzone, all you'll need to do is reach page seven in the Season 3 battle pass and spend an unlock token on it. It's a free reward, so all players can claim it. Thankfully, it's not the page completion reward, so you can at least unlock it slightly sooner, though it's still 28 unlocks in at best.

If you check the attachment in the gunsmith menu, you'll be told you need to "unlock at none level 1," which…literally doesn't make any sense. Unlike most other attachments, the Monolithic Suppressor is not tied to weapon progression whatsoever, so this should actually just send you to the battle pass instead.

Given that this new attachment is only available from the battle pass, it's going to take quite some time to unlock it. To speed things up, make sure to complete your daily challenges for bonus XP. If you're a PvP fan but desperately want the new suppressor, I recommend hopping into zombies, as this generally gives you more battle pass progression per hour.

The Monolithic Suppressor increases range and bullet velocity, combining the benefits of a suppressor with the popular Reinforced Barrel. However, it reduces aim walking steadiness and aim down sight speed, which are quite significant downsides, so pair it with other attachments that boost handling like the Commando or Quickdraw Grip.

I'll go over the attachments you'll need to make the best HDR build in BO6. I've also included a strong class setup if you're unsure what to bring with you into the battlefield.

It won't take too long to get this new sniper if you don't have it already. All you have to do to unlock the HDR is finish page three in the Season 3 battle pass. New weapons are free, so you don't have to buy the pass to add them to your collection.

Best Black Ops 6 HDR loadout

The best HDR build is:

• Barrel: Gain-Twist Barrel
• Magazine: Fast Mag 2
• Stock: Combat Stock
• Laser: Strelok Laser
• Optic: Prismatech 4x

As always with snipers, the goal is to improve aim down sight speed so you can keep up with enemies in close range. It's Call of Duty, so that's most of the time. The Fast Mag 2, the Combat Stock, and Strelok Laser are fantastic for exactly that.

While the upgraded Fast Mag does further reduce your magazine capacity (down to just four shots), it makes up for it by significantly boosting your aim down sight speed, as well as reload and sprint to fire speed. Likewise, the Combat Stock improves aim down sight and sprint to fire speed, aim walking speed, and flinch resistance. That's a hell of a lot of upgrades in a single attachment.

The only drawback is that it can't be used with grips, so you can't also have the incredible Quickdraw Grip—though this frees up an attachment slot for an optic. The Strelok Laser doesn't improve aiming speed, but does boost accuracy, making quickscoping more reliable.

Then, there's the ever-popular Gain-Twist Barrel, a staple for sniper builds. Since snipers already have all the range you could ever need, all that's left to improve is the bullet velocity, which this barrel has in spades.

With one attachment slot left and little in the way of valuable stat-boosting attachments remaining, I recommend picking an optic. The standard scope is far from terrible, but a lower zoom like the Prismatech 4x, the Willis 3x, the Kepler Red Dot, or even the Kepler Microflex are great options. These let you duke it out at close range, dropping enemies with a single shot like a shotgun blast.

HDR class setup

Here’s my recommended HDR class setup:

• Secondary: Grekhova
• Tactical: Stim Shot
• Lethal: Semtex
• Field Upgrade: Trophy System
• Perk 1: Dexterity
• Perk 2: Hunter's Instinct
• Perk 3: Slipstream
• Perk 4: Ghost
• Specialty: Enforcer
• Wildcard: Perk Greed

This loadout uses the Enforcer specialty, which increases movement speed and health regeneration after each kill, to keep the ball rolling. Since you're not quite as versatile with a sniper as you are with an SMG or assault rifle, it's more important than ever. So, you'll need three Enforcer perks.

Dexterity reduces weapon motion when using movement, making it much easier to consistently land shots. With the build's improvements to movement and aiming, why not take it to the logical conclusion? Don't be afraid to jump around just because you're using a sniper.

Next, go for Hunter's Instinct. This marks a nearby enemy each time you kill someone, alerting you to an enemy and giving you a target to hunt down at the same time. Fast Hand is a tempting option in this slot, though you'll lose the specialty bonus unless you choose it as your bonus perk below.

In the third slot, choose Slipstream or Double Time. Splitstream is generally the better option, though if you're too used to using tac sprint, stick to Double Time.

Because this loadout uses the Perk Greed wildcard, you can also choose a bonus perk. I'd suggest either Ghost or Ninja, though Fast Hands is an option too if you'd like a more reliable sidearm.

The equipment selection is what you've come to expect from the meta. Stim Shot and Semtex are the top picks, though there are still other good options like Drill Charges if you're looking to change things up. Since you're more likely to stick to one area and lock it down with a sniper like the HDR, I've opted for the Trophy System, though the Acoustic Amp is as good as always.

Below, I'll go over the attachments that you need to make the best Kilo 141 build in BO6, alongside a supporting class setup if you're unsure what to run. Despite being an iconic Warzone (2019) weapon, the Kilo is a bit vanilla, so the loadout isn't all that revolutionary.

Best Black Ops 6 Kilo 141 loadout

The best Kilo 141 build is:

• Optic: Kepler Microflex
• Muzzle: Ported Compensator
• Barrel: Reinforced Barrel
• Underbarrel: Vertical Foregrip
• Magazine: Extended Mag 1
• Rear Grip: Commando Grip
• Stock: Balanced Stock
• Fire Mods: Rapid Fire

By default, the Kilo struggles with strong vertical and horizontal pull, very quickly veering off to the left. Even with good recoil control, you'll have a hard time staying on target. To combat this, I recommend the Ported Compensator and Vertical Foregrip. While the Standard Compensator has greater vertical recoil control, its ported counterpart adds first-shot recoil control, which greatly improves your chances of landing the vital first two shots. Meanwhile, the Vertical Foregrip drastically reduces the horizontal pull.

The Reinforced Barrel shows its face yet again, as it does with almost all assault rifles, boosting range and bullet velocity–it's hard to say no. The Short Barrel can be a fun alternative if you're a bunny-hopper (curse you), but it blocks important muzzle attachments.

To improve the overall handling, use an optic like the Kepler Microflex or Merlin Reflex, the Commando Grip, and the Balanced Stock. As much as I love to save an attachment slot and keep things basic, the Kilo's default iron sights aren't great, so an optic goes a long way. The Commando Grip improves aim and firing delay speeds during almost all actions, and the Balanced Stock boosts all types of movement speed. All in all, you're much more agile now.

Lastly, I recommend the Rapid Fire mod and Extended Mag 1. With the muzzle, barrel, and grip equipped, the downsides of the rapid fire mod are easily outweighed, treating you to a 10% increase in fire rate and so speeding up your time-to-kill. Since you'll be shooting at over 800 RPM now, the no-negatives extended mag works wonders. You could opt for an even larger magazine, though the downsides quickly stack up.

Kilo 141 class setup

Here’s my recommended Kilo 141 class setup:

• Secondary: 9mm PM
• Tactical: Stim Shot
• Lethal: Semtex
• Field Upgrade: Acoustic Amp
• Perk 1: Dexterity
• Perk 2: Hunter's Instinct
• Perk 3: Double Time/Slipstream
• Specialty: Enforcer
• Wildcard: Gunfighter

The most important options here are the perks, as these also unlock a specialty. With three enforcer perks, you get a powerful buff that increases movement speed and health regeneration after each kill.

Dexterity is the best enforcer perk in the first slot, significantly reducing weapon motion when jumping, sliding, or diving. In other words, you can leap all over the place and still land shots. It takes some getting used to, but you'll be the enemy's worst nightmare. The addition of Hunter's Instinct, which marks a nearby enemy each time you kill someone, finally gives the enforcer specialty a good perk in the second slot. The third slot is a toss-up between Slipstream and Double Time, decided by how much you use tac sprint.

Moving on to equipment, there are plenty of good options. I like the Acoustic Amp field upgrade to track nearby enemies, which is great given all the Ninja perk players running around, though the trophy system and scrambler are strong alternatives.

Since this Kilo build uses more than five attachments, the Gunfighter wildcard is a must. This is necessary to equip up to eight attachments so you can squeeze in an optic without cutting out stat-boosting attachments.

How to unlock the Kilo 141 in BO6

To unlock the Kilo 141 in BO6 multiplayer, you need to download and play Warzone. That's it. In fact, you don't even need to play a match; you just have to boot up the battle royale once, and you'll be gifted it before reaching the main menu.

Unlike the other new Season 3 weapons, the Kilo isn't locked behind the battle pass grind. It's easier to get, though certainly more confusing and arguably more troublesome if you're fighting for storage space. After all, you have to download yet another Call of Duty game, and we all know how drive-devouring they are.

Below, I'll go over the attachments that you need to make the best CR-56 build in BO6, alongside a supporting class setup if you don't know what to run. I won't lie, it's about what you'd expect from an assault rifle—it's remained pretty similar for three seasons now.

If you're yet to get your hands on this new gun, you can unlock the CR-56 by finishing page six in the Season 3 battle pass. As always, new weapons are free, so you don't have to actually buy the pass to get them.

Best Black Ops 6 CR-56 loadout

The best CR-56 build is:

• Optic: Merlin Reflex
• Muzzle: Compensator
• Barrel: Reinforced Barrel
• Underbarrel: Vertical Foregrip
• Magazine: Extended Mag 1
• Rear Grip: Commando Grip
• Stock: Balanced Stock
• Fire Mods: Rapid Fire

Similar to the Kilo, the CR-56 AMAX has a strong vertical and horizontal pull (to the left) by default. As with almost all assault rifles, this is best countered using the compensator and vertical foregrip. The Compensator has the best vertical recoil control of all the muzzles, and the Vertical Foregrip has the highest-rated horizontal recoil control. This quickly turns the CR-56 from an unwieldy firehose into an almost perfect vertical recoil pattern, which is much more easily managed.

The tried and true Reinforced Barrel moderately increases both range and bullet velocity, letting you deal maximum damage at greater ranges and more reliably hit your target. At this point, it shouldn't be surprising to see this attachment on an assault rifle, as it really is all you could ever ask for.

While the front post of the CR-56's iron sights is clear, the back posts are a mess that constantly blocks your view, so I recommend using an optic. It's largely down to personal preference, but the Kepler Microflex or Merlin Reflex are popular choices.

To bump up the handling, I rock the Commando Grip and the Balanced Stock. This grip is fantastic as it massively improves the speed you can aim and fire after any type of action, like sprinting or jumping. This goes hand in hand with the stock, which increases movement speed when strafing, hipfiring, or aiming down sights. The Infiltrator Stock is a good alternative if you're only interested in aim walking speed, which is the most valuable of the bunch.

Name a more perfect pairing than the Rapid Fire mod and Extended Mag 1. You can't. The (admittedly hefty) downsides of this mod are countered by other attachments, so you'll get to enjoy an amped-up time-to-kill with little impact on recoil control. With this improved rate of fire, you'll naturally burn through ammo faster, so the larger magazine gives you more bullets to play with before needing to reload. As much as the 60-round magazine is fun, it does hurt handling, so I prefer to stay away from it.

CR-56 class setup

Here’s my recommended CR-56 class setup:

• Secondary: 9mm PM
• Tactical: Stim Shot
• Lethal: Semtex
• Field Upgrade: Acoustic Amp
• Perk 1: Dexterity
• Perk 2: Hunter's Instinct
• Perk 3: Double Time/Slipstream
• Specialty: Enforcer
• Wildcard: Gunfighter

This loadout makes use of the Enforcer specialty, which increases movement speed and health regeneration after each kill. So, it requires three Enforcer perks.

There's nothing more annoying than enemies who jump, slide, and dive all over the place like a Squirmle (those fuzzy worm toys on string). So, why not do it yourself? Dexterity significantly reduces weapon motion when using movement, making it much easier to consistently land shots. This perk makes up for the fact that this weapon build doesn't use a stock or laser with a similar effect.

In the second slot, go for Hunter's Instinct, which marks a nearby enemy each time you kill someone. Finally, an Enforcer perk in this slot that I actually want to use, and not just pick because it's necessary to activate the speciality.

For the final slot, I recommend Slipstream or Double Time, depending on how much you use tac sprint. Splitstream has taken over as my preferred option, though I've no doubt many players are too used to activating tac sprint whenever they can that Double Time becomes more valuable.

As for equipment, I recommend the ever-popular Stim Shot and Semtex, though there are plenty more viable options. Likewise, the Acoustic Amp field upgrade is great for identifying enemies (and countering Ninja players), but I'll often swap to the Trophy System or Scrambler for objective-based modes like Hardpoint.

Last but by no means least, you'll have worked out by now that you'll need the Gunfighter wildcard. This is how you're going to cram eight attachments onto the CR-56 AMAX.

The two characters in question? Lieutenant Simon “Ghost” Riley and Sergeant John “Soap” MacTavish.

And I am not joking when I say that they didn't call any of it "Soap's Soap." They called Soap's soap "Sarge Soap. " Are you joking. The man's nickname is literally Soap and your product is soap.

"Prep for your mission with Sarge Soap—a moisturizing bricc inspired by Lt. 'Soap' MacTavish that's crafted to keep you ready for action. Infused with fresh scents of Scottish juniper, pine, and moss, this bricc fortifies and primes skin to prepare you for battle and keep stink running for cover," reads the description.

I respect the amount of work that went into the product copy but also that's not Sarge Soap that's Soap's Soapy Soap-a-rama. (Also, why put juniper in it? I already smell like gin.)

Naming issues aside, I have no beef with Dr Squatch. They're cool, and they're a certified B-Corporation here in the United States which means they can prioritize public good over profit and that's nice.

In addition to the two soaps there are also deodorants based on both Ghost and Soap. You can even get both soaps and both deodorants in a four pack.

Anyway, military FPS Call of Duty soaps is by far very tame compared to some of the weirder crossovers we've seen in the past. Remember the official Monster Hunter perfume? PC Gamer remembers.

The Ricochet Anti-Cheat team has since released progress reports every few months, documenting ban statistics and detailing new tactics to counter the latest and greatest in ruining games for other people. Today's report touches on the purpose of "shadow bans," new restrictions around Ranked play, and community questions, but what caught my eye was a section on bogus reports.

Apparently, console players take the brunt of today's Call of Duty hackusations despite cheating being much less common and effective on the platform.

"Over 60% of received cheater reporting in Call of Duty: Warzone have been against console players, for example," the blog says. "Console cheating is possible, but our data has consistently shown it represents an extremely low population of detected cheaters when compared to PC, which means that this large volume of cheater reports are inaccurate even if the KillCams may have made it seem like the player was cheating."

That's pretty funny, if only because it makes me seriously question if CoD players are capable of recognizing actual suspicious behavior when they see it or if the majority of reports are motivated by the frustration of losing a fight.

I have my best guess, but the Ricochet team is giving players the benefit of the doubt. They reckon folks are often reporting what they genuinely believe is someone using wallhacks, but is actually just opponents using one of the many legitimate ways to detect players through walls in Warzone.

"We've found that many of these reports have been inaccurate in situations where the killing player might have had an intel advantage—such as when using perks like Recon Scout or when having the advantage of a Spy Cam live ping."

To combat this, a new "Affected by" module in Warzone's killcam will tell players exactly how many ways they were totally boned: In an example screenshot, the new killcam reveals that the player was spotted because of their unsuppressed weapon and a live ping.

Here's the full list of gameplay elements that will be reported by the killcam, with callouts for "equipment, killstreaks, field upgrades, perks, and more" coming in a mid-season patch:

• List of attackers who dealt damage with their username, weapon, damage, and hits
• Affected by Live Ping: If the enemy had you pinged via line-of-sight
• Affected by UAV: If the enemy had you pinged on the minimap via UAV, UAV Tower, or Advanced UAV
• Affected by Unsuppressed Weapon: When firing your weapon revealed your location on the minimap to nearby enemies

The hope is that ticked-off players will give the box a gander before accusing a 40-year-old dad enjoying his nightly PS5 time of downloading wallhacks on his non-existent gaming PC. Hackusations or not, I think every multiplayer shooter could benefit by surfacing information like this. I can't tell you how many times I've taken a bullet to the head in Hunt: Showdown and wondered what gave me away. If I knew, I could improve!

Call of Duty's enhanced killcam will arrive in Season 3, which kicks off April 3. Other headliners include more maps, a return to Warzone's Verdansk map, and a weed-themed event called "Blaze of Glory".

A blog post teased a number of the additions on offer, with a Nuketown variant called Blazetown almost certain to lean into the joke more than can be reasonably prepared for. Not to be outdone are the new "Joint Operations," a limited-time team-based gauntlet that pits teams against each other in five different gamemodes in a single match: team deathmatch, Domination, Hardpoint, HVT, and Kill Confirmed, though they've been renamed things like "Hotbox" and "Munchies." You know, because, like… weed.

While playing Joint Operations, players will be subject to all sorts of perception-warping effects like "double health, low gravity, visual hallucinations, and third-person POV," which are all standard cannabis side effects.

If you're reading all this and wishing you could go back in time before things were so silly, I have great news: two new operators, Jay and Silent Bob, are coming to your Call of Duty client straight from the 1994 film Clerks, as Kevin Smith pointed out in a post on X. They'll come with a separate bundle that transforms them into Bluntman and Chronic, which I assume is a thing from one of those movies they were in.

The season isn't exclusively weed-themed, though; the new Ladra submachine gun will add a new bullet hose to play around with and there are new perks and conversions coming as event rewards. Yesterday's blog post promises Blaze of Glory is only one event out of many, alongside Black Ops Tribute and Got Your Six, and players can "expect more event coverage in the Season 03 Reloaded announcement."

Still, Call of Duty continues to embrace wacky novelties and celebrity crossovers in a slow process akin to the Fortnite-ification of games like Magic: The Gathering. Speaking bluntly, I don't know if the tonal dissonance is my thing, but I suppose it's not much sillier than stuffing World War 2 full of Nazi zombies or letting players skate around as chairs and statues in Prop Hunt.

If you're bowled over by the upcoming additions, Black Ops 6 is $48.99 on Steam through April 10.

Well after just over three years, Verdansk is back! And not for a few weeks: Verdansk returns to Warzone on April 3, and Activision has seriously pushed the boat out with a slow-mo trailer set to Nat King Cole's rendition of "Unforgettable."

This trailer is either very dumb or very knowing, with soldiers caressing rivets, jeeps blown into the air and helicopters crashing as Nat King Cole croons. The trailer ends with a soldier viewing the new Verdansk, and a single tear rolling down his cheek. OK!

"As we celebrate Call of Duty: Warzone’s 5 Year Anniversary, it's time to revisit a place of unforgettable memories," reads the blurb. "Get ready for the drop zones and familiar terrain that players loved, alongside new updates to explore."

You'd think people would be happy, and there are plenty of "we're back!" comments to be found from players delighted to return. But a sizeable contingent, while pleased with the Verdansk announcement, are responding about a perceived problem and lack of action over the game's anti-cheat.

Warzone has been plagued by cheating issues since the start, something that the kernel-level anticheat Ricochet was supposed to address, but instead the last year has seen the situation apparently get even worse. Sure, things like cheaters flying around in boats is a good laugh for the rest of us, but probably not much fun when you're in there.

"This subreddit is going to be so upset when they introduce the old map and it still has the new problems," reads the top-voted comment on the CODWarzone subreddit by one overzealous_wildcat.

Verdansk arrives as part of Season 3 for both Warzone and Black Ops 6 on April 3.

"Season 3 is a big moment for Call of Duty: Warzone and Black Ops 6, and we're taking the time to deliver a great experience starting on April 3," the official Call of Duty X account says. Originally, Season 3 was meant to release on March 20, in just over two weeks, and while that may not seem like a massive delay, it does mean that players have to push back plans of reliving the glory days of Verdansk.

Among new content coming in Season 3, like weapons and a zombies map, there's a rumour that Warzone is also bringing back the Verdansk map. This is an original map that was included in the first Warzone back in 2020 and is a pretty great way to celebrate the battle royale's fifth birthday.

Despite the delay in getting new content, most players are taking the news of the new release date for Season 3 well. Most of the responses are pretty measured, and accept that it can take extra time and effort to balance a whole host of new weapons, so they're ready straight away for competitive play. But even still, there are still some players who are reminding everyone that the pressure's turned up now.

"I don't mind delaying it so there's no issues when it drops, but if there's still bigs when it releases we got a huge problem," one player says. There will be a few bored players waiting anxiously for Season 3, so here's hoping that Verdanks was the right choice and the devs didn't miss a trick by adding Caldera instead—I'm not sure the $90 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover will keep anyone occupied for much longer.

"Our team uses generative AI tools to help develop some in game assets," the disclosure reads.

For some time now, Call of Duty players have suspected that Activision is using AI to generate cosmetics in Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 6. Last year, a Wired report called out a calling card included in the $15 "Yokai's Wrath" bundle. Then in the weeks after Black Ops 6's historically successful launch, players noticed obvious signs of generative AI in holiday-themed loading screen (notice the six-fingered zombie), another hand with perhaps too many digits promoting Zombies Gobblegum, and several glaring oddities with the sexy "Hard Breakup" calling card.

Activision has not specified if it's using generative AI to produce the 2D art in loading screens or promotional calling cards, but the Steam page disclosure makes the claims easier to believe. It's one thing to phone in the loading screen for a Christmas mode, but it'd be another to slip generated art into a paid cosmetic bundle, or in the case of Hard Breakup, ask players to grind for hours to unlock AI slop.

"Disappointingly, I just grinded for an AI generated calling card," wrote Reddit user Poodonkus in December. "I had heard of a cool pin-up style calling card for completing this challenge, but I wasn't expecting to find out after trying to figure out what was supposed to be on her belt (surprise, just shapeless artifacts of a neural network image generator), that there are glaring hallmarks of an unrefined AI-generated image."

I'll be the first to admit I've stared at the details of an image long enough to be convinced it's AI when it's probably not, but I'm with Poodonkus on this one. What's going on with this lady's hair, and why does her right sleeve have a buckle that fades into nothingness?

"Remake this calling card, hell trace it if you have to. But give us players more respect than this," Poodonkus concluded.

It's worth noting that, other than the Yokai's Wrath bundle sold last year, these suspected AI art pieces are non-paid promotional materials, or a profile banner that you can earn for free. It's also worth noting that Activision-Blizzard laid off 1,900 humans in 2023.

PC Gamer has reached out to Activision to confirm whether or not any of the art mentioned in this article is AI-generated and will update if an answer comes in.

The announcement post doesn't give the exact cost but, based on the standard pricing across previous collaborations, each premium bundle will cost 2,400 COD points, which themselves will set you back $19.99 (?16.70). So if you want to run around as Leo, Donnie, Raph and Mikey that'll be a cool $80, and even then there's one more thing: The premium TMNT event pass, which among other cosmetics includes the Splinter skin, is another 1,100 COD points or $10. So if you want to go all-in on the TMNT, we're likely looking at $90.

Necessary caveat: No-one has to buy these things, they're purely cosmetic, and if you ask me the idea of the turtles running around with assault rifles is beyond stupid anyway. But on that latter point, the Fortnite vibes around COD have been growing stronger for years, and this feels emblematic of it. The happy accident of Epic's game is that the soft-edged aesthetic translates remarkably well across the enormous range of characters it now incorporates. With COD's more realistic visual style, a lot of this stuff just looks a bit dumb.

The top post on the CODWarzone subreddit by one JangoFett features plenty of fans livid about the crossover and specifically the price, and titled: "Activision casually glossing over the fact that they want you to pay $80+ if you want the 4 Turtles, plus another $10+ if you want the TMNT event pass rewards. Call of Duty's Gross greed strikes again... despicable!”

"The Turtles don’t use guns," says A Pensive Monkey. "Their fingers wouldn’t even…I hate this…" Soupy-E is straight in there: "Cash cow-abunga!"

There are plenty more reactions along the lines of don't buy it / it's cosmetic / I'm going to buy it anyway and screw you. But what seems to underlie a lot of the disquiet is that it's "$80 for a few ninja turtles lmao pull the other one," as Sleepy Titan puts it. The Fortnite comparison is made frequently, not least because Epic's game is free-to-play and also offers a TMNT bundle that nets you all four for $34.

The COD x TMNT premium bundles are also distinct from the standard battle pass and premium battle pass ($10 and $30 respectively). So there are lots of ways to spend your money in this game you've already paid an upfront price for. Call of Duty: Warzone is free-to-play, but Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is not.

This collab follows COD showing a stunning lack of self-awareness with its Squid Game crossover, the monetisation of which ended up annoying a lot of players (probably the same ones). Black Ops 6 generally has seen an avalanche of weird skins since launch and doesn't seem to be a game with any particularly strong identity of its own. But Activision Blizzard's laughing all the way to the bank anyway: Black Ops 6 is the most successful entry in series history.

One day, after 36.2 hours of playing the early beta version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, b00lin opened his Steam profile to find a ban message. At first, he thought that it could've been a result of encountering a couple of bugs in the beta. But after appealing the decision, Activision held fast: "We've confirmed with our security team that your account has been permanently banned for using unauthorised software and manipulation of game data. As you were the account holder at the time of the infraction, your ban will not be overturned."

This short message from Activision Support was the start of a long and arduous process of using the legal system to get his account unbanned and receive a refund for his initial purchase of Modern Warfare 2—all of this would take two years.

Before taking the matter to court, b00lin tried going through Activision one last time. He used Activision's ticket system, attempted to phone Activision support, and even tried contacting someone who works at Activision through Linkedin, but nothing seemed to work.

"When appealing these bans, I would often ask if there was any proof of the 'unauthorised software' used," b00lin says. "The answer I always received was that they are unable to [provide examples] due to it being a security risk and could expose how the anti-cheat works."

Protecting anticheat software is a must, especially when it comes to competitive games where players stand to gain the most from cheating. Within a week of Activision announcing its new kernel-level anticheat, Ricochet, back in 2021, the Anti-Cheat Police Department (a group of players dedicated to rooting out cheaters) announced that the driver had already leaked amongst cheat developers. When something like this happens, Call of Duty games and Warzone are usually swamped with cheaters for weeks afterward until Activision can make the necessary changes to root them out.

While keeping security secrets and information about Ricochet in-house is clearly important, b00lin does point out that he wasn't exactly asking for top-secret information. "Knowing the information such as the name of the software, IP address that was used, and how the software manipulated game data would all be known to a cheat developer," b00lin says. "Not even this harmless information [was] provided. How can I prove that I didn't cheat when no information has been provided? Was it Logitech G Hub? iCUE? OBS? To date, I still don't know what caused the false ban."

The last stop before taking the matter to court was an attempt to settle the matter by signing an NDA and using an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), which would involve an independent third party helping both parties involved come to a "mutually acceptable outcome." But that was shot down by Activision.

Court's in session

First, b00lin filed a Money Claim Online (a service that allows people to make small claims online) for the cost of the game and the fee to file the claim. Due to Activision not responding to this, b00lin automatically won, and Activision paid up. But, the developer still stood firm against lifting the ban.

"Activision paid me out but still refused to remove the suspension placed on my account," b00lin says. "Their reasoning was that the courts did not order them to do so—therefore, they wouldn’t. I am sure they wish they had done so because it ended up costing them in the long run."

So the next step saw b00lin filing a non-money claim, and after Activision passed the case off to a law firm, b00lin tried settling the case with them. In exchange for paying court fees and getting unbanned, the agreement stated he would not take this matter any further and would sign an NDA regarding the terms of the agreement. Unfortunately, this was also shut down.

By the time b00lin actually stood in front of a judge in court, he had amassed a great deal of information and examples to help his case. This included presenting his squeaky clean record in other games like CS2, in which he has over 1,000 hours, pointing out that he didn't want money, just the ban lifted, and that after this case was closed, he "wanted nothing to do with Activision." He had come prepared. So b00lin was surprised when the defendant presented their case, and it became clear that they didn't have any concrete evidence to prove that he actually cheated.

"This meant that if I didn’t commit any abuse of process within the courts, my case would be heard, and Activision would have no evidence to show what they are claiming," b00lin explains. "It would appear that Activision’s anti-cheat/security team is so strict that the people they hired to defend them were not allowed to see any 'evidence' of the 'unauthorized software or manipulation of game data'."

In the end, the judge found that b00lin should have his suspension removed on Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, and Warzone, and Activision must pay the Claimant's ?711 fixed costs, thanks to all the examples that he put forward and a lack of evidence presented by the Defendant. But that's not all: "The Judge also found Activision to be the one in violation of the contract," b00lin says. "And with that, two years of phone calls, emails, and reading pages of legal jargon had finally come to an end.

"For over two years (763 days as of writing), I was wrongly accused of cheating and falsely banned from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2022. As of 08/01/2025, this has been officially lifted on all platforms."

But why?

When I first read about b00lin's two-year-long fight, all I could think about was how anyone had the time and strength to keep up with all of that. B00lin had bought every Call of Duty PC game since 2003, and he's dedicated a significant amount of time and energy to build up an in-game character, and going to court wasn't about getting the best of Activision.

"Having a Steam profile's reputation ruined after seven years of ownership is what fuelled me to keep going and not give up," b00lin says. "A ban for something I did not do on a profile I cherish and have spent thousands of hours on did not sit right."

The negative effects of the ban also seeped into other games that b00lin played: " If I ever did well in a game, someone would look at my profile to see how many hours I have and instantly see the red marker that shows 'I am a cheater.'" b00lin even shares screenshots of a CS2 match in his blog where one player accuses him of cheating to win in their match: "You wouldn't have a VAC ban if you didn't cheat."

B00lin is also part of the COD False Ban Community Discord, where players who have encountered false bans or shadow bans come together to try and help themselves and one another. "I have seen so many stories of innocent players being banned and referred to this community in court," b00lin says.

Shadow bans are probably one of the most prevalent problems in Call of Duty. It relies on player reports or on Ricochet's internal system to identify cheaters, but even if you've done nothing wrong, you can still get flagged for it if enough players report you. The consequences of being shadow-banned can include not being able to play at all, worse matchmaking, or getting placed into poor-quality lobbies with other cheaters. Whatever the punishment may be, players will have to deal with it until the security team investigates the situation, which can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks.

Whenever Activision released an update to its efforts against cheaters, like when it revealed that 136,000 Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 accounts had been banned, there's always a sizable chunk of comments that point out how detrimental shadow bans still are for the community.

"I feel the COD False Ban Community on Discord helped because it was a community of people trying to accomplish the same goal," b00lin tells me. "Not only did it give me a bunch of anecdotes I could use to show a pattern of this behaviour, a few people in there had taken legal action, too. Speaking to one of those people in there gave me a good idea of what to expect and what I should aim to do."

This is also the same Discord that Mike Swanson is a part of. A few years back, Swanson published a blog post detailing how he had been banned without cheating despite only playing singleplayer in Modern Warfare 2. "A good chunk of the pages I submitted to the courts was this blog (with Mike’s consent)," b00lin says. "It was extremely helpful to be able to refer to someone with credentials to get my point across."

Some of the material that b00lin ended up using in courts included a research paper from the University of Birmingham, which was conducted to demonstrate how cheaters will commonly bypass Microsoft Windows kernel protections, Activision's own terms of service, and one of our articles on how innocent Call of Duty players got permabanned.

All in all, the two-year-long battle to get an account unbanned may seem like a shed load of work—that's putting it lightly—but it's not something that b00lin regrets: "After fighting this false ban for over two years, I am happy to say it is finally over. In my opinion, it was worth the effort just to see the account alert."

PC Gamer reached out to Activision for a comment about this court battle but is yet to hear anything back.

I've skipped ahead a bit here. The Terminator was teased on Call of Duty's blog as part of Black Ops 6's Season 2 update, but Arnie's crimson-eyed killing machine won't arrive through the time portal until shortly after Season 2 drops. But there's plenty coming to Black Ops 6 in Season 2 itself, including a cache of new maps, two multiplayer game modes, and a horde of updates to zombies.

Let's kick off with those map reveals. There are five arenas landing in Season 2 of Black Ops 6, four of which are entirely new, with three of these arriving at launch. These include Bounty, a 6v6 map where players battle inside the lavish penthouse suite of an Avalon crime boss, and Dealership, another 6v6 arena where you'll ruin some car salesman's day blasting speed holes in all his sleek, shiny rides. The launch map that caught my eye, though, is Lifeline, a compact Strike map set in on a luxury yacht stranded in the middle of the ocean. I love a map that squeezes players together, especially one that adds a novel conceit on top. Lifeline looks like it has both.

Following these launch maps, two further kill-boxes will unfold later in the season. This includes a remaster of Grind, a skate park map originally debuting in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. More interesting, though, is Bullet, another tight arena themed around a bullet train. As well as fighting inside the compartments, Bullet will also let players try to get the drop on opponents by climbing onto the roof. Be warned, though, this tactic apparently risks you being thrown off the train as it hurtles along at 200mph.

Outside of maps, Season 2 of Black Ops 6 brings two game modes to competitive multiplayer. First up is the brand new "Overdrive" mode. Described as a "charged-up twist on team deathmatch", Overdrive sees players competing to earn stars rather than points for kills, with different types of kills earning different numbers of stars as listed below:

• Earn 1 star for Basic Eliminations like finishing off an enemy with body shots.
• Earn 2 stars for Core Medal Eliminations like headshots and melee attacks.
• Earn 3 stars for completing Distinguished Medal Eliminations, reserved for only the most impressive takedowns.

Earning stars also nets players special abilities, like the ability to see through walls, and boosts to movements and reloading speed. Alongside Overdrive, Season 2 also brings back free-for-all favourite Gun Game, where all players start out with the same weapon and cycle through new guns as matches progress.

Beyond trad multiplayer, Black Ops 6's zombies mode gets a beefy addition. A new adventure will transport players to the Tomb a "cursed dig site" that may contain the "elusive" sentinel artifact, whatever that is. Through this adventure, players will venture progressively deeper into the tomb, starting at the exterior dig site, before venturing through catacombs and ossurarys, eventually arriving in far stranger environs that I won't spoil. I'm not a zombies guy at all, but it looks pretty neat. Alongside the Tomb, Season 2 adds a new undead enemy, the electrifying shock mimic, and a new wonder weapon called the staff of ice.

These major additions come bundled with an array of smaller updates, like new wildcards and scorestreaks for multiplayer, various balance tweaks to Warzone, and more. Then there's what's coming after Season 2 drops, which brings us back to my best robot pal. The Terminator plods mercilessly in Black Ops 6 in the form of a tracer pack operator bundle, which comes with two ultra skins; Arnie's quintessentially 80s T-800 get-up as seen in the original movie (not the biker outfit he wears in T2), and his skinless "Titanium Core" as seen in the climax of the film. They both look excellent, even if the modelling of Arnie's face falls straight down the uncanny valley. I also laughed at the blog randomly quoting Arnie's line "I'll be back". Yes Activision, that is something the Terminator says.

You can read the complete list of updates here. I haven't delved too deeply into Black Ops ' multiplayer this year. Morgan described it as "pretty bland" when he tested the beta, though Nova Smith was much more positive, praising the game's "stellar multiplayer offerings" in his review. I have played through a big chunk of the campaign, however, and it's comfortably the most interesting single-player Call of Duty has delivered for a while.

"Instances of cheating in Call of Duty, particularly in Ranked Play across both MP and Warzone, are frustrating and severely impact the experience for our community," a Call of Duty blog post says. "We’re here to tell you what’s being done about it today and our plan for support throughout 2025."

Apart from the 136,000 ranked play account bans since the mode launched a few months ago, significant updates have also been made to detection models and cross-examination tools: "When a cheater is banned, our system will detect other accounts it had regularly partied with and raise flags for the investigation to combat boosting and other cheater behavior."

A new detection and warning system has also been put in place for malicious reporting. This is when a player reports others for no valid reason—it's likely that they lost a game and are just looking for someone to take their frustrations out on.

"It’s important to clarify that when a user spams the report button in-game multiple times against a user, or someone uses an illegal cheat tool to spam 10,000 reports, our system does not consider more than one single report from a player versus another," the blog post says. "(Despite what cheat developers are telling players when they try to sell their illegal software)."

Instead of banning accounts of players who make false reports or are cheating, some parts of the Call of Duty community believe that the punishment should be far harsher. Some players call for IP bans to ensure that the guilty party cannot just simply make another account and carry on with their antisocial behaviour. But, while this does seem like an ideal solution for cheaters, Activision has reiterated that it's impossible to safely implement and, therefore, not a viable solution.

"We have seen community questions about detection methods, like IP-based banning," the blog post says. "We do not utilize IP-based bans for anti-cheat because they tend to take action against entire groups within a range that isn’t problematic. For example, a college campus or internet café would be swept up in an IP-based ban wave when only a single machine was targeted."

Even though IP bans are unlikely in 2025, Activision has some other new ideas to combat cheaters. Season 2 will introduce "new and improved client and server-side detections and systems," a major kernel-level driver update that will improve driver security and reinforce the encryption process, and a new tampering detection system.

A brand-new system to authenticate legit players and target cheaters will be introduced in Season 3 and beyond. More information about this will be revealed closer to the launch date, but for now, Activision is keeping its cards close to its chest so it doesn't "give cheat developers a peek behind the curtain."

Like always, it seems as if the fight against cheaters in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is an uphill battle, but even still, all of these new features seem complicated and helpful enough so that it'll keep the game as fair as possible, at least for the first few months before cheaters can figure out loopholes and ways around it.

"In the wake of devastating fires in Los Angeles impacting our friends, colleagues, and residents in Southern California, we're adding the LA Fire Relief pack to Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone," Activision wrote in a tweet on the official Call of Duty account. "100% of Activision's proceeds from purchases of the LA Fire Relief pack will be donated to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation and Direct Relief."

In another post on the main Activision Twitter account, the company announced that it will also be donating $1 million directly to the LAFD Foundation and Direct Relief. "As a company with roots deeply tied to the LA area, our hearts go out to our friends, colleagues, and residents impacted by the devastating fires," Activision wrote in the second post.

It's a great move, and I also appreciate that the skin itself actually looks pretty sick even absent a charitable context: You've got a hooded, tacticool, almost Squid Games-looking operator type wearing a mask with a sort of fingerprint swirl texture to it. The whole thing's brought together with a swirling, metallic, teal and fuchsia camo pattern over a charcoal grey base. It's maybe a little too smoke shop, streetwear, gen-Z for my taste, but still one of the cooler skins I've seen, and probably a good fit for the tastes of your average CoD-liker.

The fires have had other ripple effects in the gaming world, with numerous office closures for LA-based studios and a pause on filming the Fallout Show's second season. Activision also isn't the only studio that's given back to the city: Riot donated one of its backup generators to an impacted fire station, as well as meals from its employee cafeteria.

You can request the data via Activision support's privacy and data protection portal, a system likely put in place to maintain compliance with the European Union's more robust data privacy laws, so thanks for that one EU. There's something darkly humorous to me about using a data privacy/protection measure as a back door to mathematically solving Elo hell, but I can't deny TheXclusiveAce's craftiness in figuring it out. It took a day for TheXclusiveAce to get the data, but Activision support may be seeing a glut of these requests as the word gets out. Also, be careful who you share the data with?—it contains identifying information like the IP address you connected to each match from in addition to your performance numbers.

And boy, this stuff is thorough. In addition to kills/deaths, Activision keeps track of each bullet you fire, your accuracy, equipped skins and executions, how much you're moving around the map, and more. Relevant to the SBMM discussion is the skill number, which appears to be the ranking you enter a given match with. TheXclusiveAce made a graph out of how his skill rating changed since Black Ops 6's launch, but it's difficult to draw too many conclusions without more context?—TheXclusiveAce's score hovers around 400, but what's the maximum? What percentile of CoD players would that put him in?

TheXclusiveAce requested that viewers seek out their own skill rankings and share them for comparison, so we might see this aspect of Call of Duty demystified in the coming days. That may present its own problems though. "Trash talkers in cod are about to become data scientists," user jake-p2l quips in the top comment on TheXclusiveAce's video. "Now it won't be 'What's your KD? Mine's higher!'—it'll be 'What's your skill coefficient? What's your standard deviation over the last 30 days?'"

The budget figures were disclosed in December 2024 court filings related to ongoing lawsuits against Activison and Meta, which accuse the companies of "grooming" the shooter who killed 19 students in the May 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. As part of a declaration included in Activision's response to the lawsuit, current Call of Duty creative head Patrick Kelly provided budget estimates and associated sales figures for three Call of Duty games—2015's Black Ops 3, 2019's Modern Warfare, and 2020's Black Ops Cold War:

• Black Ops 3 (2015): Over $450 million in development costs, 43 million copies sold
• Modern Warfare (2019): Over $640 million in development costs, 41 million copies sold
• Black Ops Cold War (2020): Over $700 million in development costs, 30 million copies sold

The numbers are, to my eyes, a terrifying image of the funding expected at the costliest tier of game production. Between 2015 and 2020, the cost of developing a Call of Duty game had—in just five years—risen more than $250 million dollars.

While those budget figures include the costs of each game's year of post-launch content additions, they don't include marketing costs (which can, in some cases, be just as expensive as the game's development, if not moreso). As a point of comparison, Totilo cites 2023 court filings that revealed the $220 million development budget for 2020's The Last of Us Part 2—a number that, he says, "was considered huge when it leaked." Meanwhile, despite already demanding more than twice that amount five years earlier, the cost of making a Call of Duty game ballooned so much between 2015 and 2020 that the increase would, in itself, more than cover a TLOU2-scale development project.

While the court filings don't include development budgets for more recent games, the numbers indicate a rising cost trajectory that makes for some horrifying speculation. Dare I ask, if that trend has held true, whether the cost of making a single Call of Duty game is now somewhere in the neighborhood of a billion dollars?

And if so, to what end? Are guys holding assault rifles interesting enough to spend over $700 million to render them in ever-higher fidelity? Are those increases in development costs worth boldly marching into the monetization swamp of escalating premium battle pass tiers, guns covered in glowing pumpkin flesh, and reviled Squid Game crossover skins that cost $28?

Without more recent sales figures, we can only guess, even if Call of Duty remains one of the most-played games on Steam—but after watching how Concord's poor reception led to the rapid collapse of Firewalk Studios, we've seen how dire the fallout can be when a major publisher doesn't see a big enough return after betting hundreds of millions of dollars on a single game.

Of course it's extremely tempting to imagine Netflix suits, Activision's marketing army or MrBeast as clueless idiots who didn't understand what Squid Game was trying to say (very loudly), thus spawning multiple real-life knock-offs and collab skins for Call of Duty; just as it's tempting to ascribe the success of the show to its potent takedown of modern capitalism, rather than its stylishness and gratuitous violence. But neither of those characterisations are true.

What is true is that the message is completely irrelevant. Squid Game has been hugely successful and made a lot of people a lot of money. That's all that matters in the eyes of Netflix and Activision. The people coming up with these campaigns aren't blind to what Squid Game says about society, but they also know that fan culture turns people into whales, and that its popularity alone is enough to overwhelm any criticisms about these companies missing the point.

In a fairy tale utopia, fans of Squid Game would have no truck with these collaborations or crossovers, because they are disgusting, but time and time again we have shown a willingness to lap this gruel up with wild abandon, merrily spending our own money to promote and enrich random brands and media. There is nothing they can't sell us.

I'm not talking about the 'hey, you can play Fortnite as Spider-Man now' stuff, even if that is ultimately advertising for Sony and Marvel that you're paying for, but rather the more nakedly capitalistic collabs, like Aston Martin's deal with PUBG, or FF14 players spending $20 on bubble tea to earn a subtle reskin of a flying pig. The kind of things that are overt marketing campaigns where we spend money to raise an unrelated brand's profile.

Sure, when it's all laid out in a vacuum it does seem ridiculous. People are spending $28 to advertise a Netflix show where the premise emphasises the complete disregard capitalism—and the people it elevates—has for humanity. The participants in the games are stripped of their dignity and transformed into playthings for the ultra wealthy.

But I feel faintly embarrassed railing against it when I remember how much money I spend on trainers (way too much) from companies like Nike, which has a history of tax evasion and allegedly running sweatshops that employ child labour. "No ethical consumption under capitalism," I say, while still willingly participating in destructive systems that make the world a worse place, flashing that big Nike tick everywhere I go.

So for a piece of media that rages against capitalism to become a huge, money-generating brand, it's really just a Tuesday. There's nothing weird or incongruous about it. The moment it became popular, it was inevitable. The toys. The spin-offs. The Just Eat commercials where the people you just watched massacring poverty-stricken Koreans bring you some junk food.

Creator Hwang Dong-hyuk is trapped here with us. While the first season made Netflix a fortune, he didn't see much of it himself. "Honestly I didn’t make much," he told the BBC in November. What he did get was nine missing teeth, which he said he lost due to the stress of creating the series. Naturally, this experience didn't exactly compel him to do it again, but he eventually acquiesced. Why? "Money," he said. "Doing the second series will help compensate me for the success of the first one too." He'll be doing a third, as well. Netflix's coffers will grow, the collaborations will continue, and if we're really unlucky it might inspire MrBeast to make another Beast Games.

No doubt, like so many creators, Hwang Dong-hyuk wishes that Squid Game resonated in such a way that it could inspire, but media rarely truly shapes us. Just look at how many right-wing fans of Marvel, Star Wars and Star Trek complain about the 'woke mind virus' ruining their beloved brands, even though the shows, comics and movies have always espoused liberal and leftist ideals. That they're the villains of the media they are so protective over doesn't even register.

So! Yeah. Nothing to see here. This is just business as usual—and a business that's ramping up. CoD is really just following Fortnite's lead here, which has established itself as the home of random collabs turning millions of players into unwitting advertisers. Its enduring popularity among kids also ensures that this is never going away. The next generation of gamers are going to think that it's perfectly normal to shell out cash to promote everything from popstars to movies. And they'd be right.

"My very prestigious Golden Thunk award for Game of the Year 2024 goes to Animal Well," LocalThunk says in an X post. "Animal Well was an engrossing experience. Dripping with style secrets, and making me feel like an imposter in this industry as a dev, Billy Basso created a true masterpiece." Basso replied to this with an award of his own for LocalThunk: "Nicest Most Humble Dev of the Year." Everyone wins when you're nice.

After releasing mid-last year, Animal Well rapidly became the most acclaimed metroidvania since Hollow Knight. It was one of the best-reviewed games on Steam last year, sitting at an impressive and "overwhelmingly positive" 96% rating with over 17,000 reviews. I played a bit myself last year, and while I loved all the visuals, I wasn't entirely convinced it was on Hollow Knight's level or even the best metroidvania I played in 2024—that award has to go to Ultros. Sorry!

The runners-up for the Golden Thunk award included Mouthwashing, Ballionaire, Nova Drift, Arco, and Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers, which some players accused of being a Balatro clone. "People mistakenly wrote this off as a Balatro clone, but this was announced before my game ever was," LocalThunk says. "A beautifully synergistic and strategic deckbuilder, I have sunk dozens of hours into."

My favourite on this list is probably Mouthwashing. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this game, but it's been a while since I played such a concise horror game. Wrong Organ managed to flesh out a world and five characters in less than three hours, which is incredibly impressive and blew LocalThunk away.

"I didn't even know this was a horror game when I started playing it at 11pm one fateful night," LocalThunk says. "I was hooked instantly, and both the world it created and the poignant message woven into the game stick with me vividly months later."

Last year was a great one for indie games, but after all is said and done, we can't forget to include Balatro in these celebrations. The poker roguelike that came out of nowhere didn't just manage to hook most of the PC Gamer team, snagging our 2024 Game of the Year award, but has managed over 90,000 positive reviews on Steam. So 2024 was a pretty successful year for LocalThunk as well.

"Anyone else sick of these damn skins," Call of Duty player btrosCuPoJoE says. "Not to mention [they] look exactly the same running around in-game, so it's hard to figure out who is an enemy and who isn't." It's true that all the green jumpsuits running around can be a bit discombobulating, but not being distinguishable from other players isn't out of the ordinary after a big new collaboration. And if things get particularly difficult, you can also just look to see what colour the player's name is that floats above their head.

Although one of the Squid Game modes, which sees players go up against each other in a deathmatch, would probably benefit from having one side comprised of green jumpsuits and the other just being the pink soldiers instead of having a random selection of both on either side. Despite this opinion also apparently being pretty embarrassing among Gen Alpha, players are standing by it. "Last time I suggested this, a bunch of 12-year-olds made fun of me," a player says. "I don't care what anyone says. We need blue outlines for our allies like any other modern shooter has."

Another issue that players have is the price. You can get the Masked Worker (the pink soldier) bundle for 2,800 COD points, which is around $28, but as you can only buy the points in certain packages, you'll probably end up spending $30 if you want to get the 1,000 and 2,000 bundles.

With this bundle, all you get are the triangle, circle, and square masked workers, a couple of gun skins, an emote, and some charms. It's understandable that some players aren't too happy, but these prices are nothing new for Call of Duty or most other free-to-play games, and just like always, players will still buy them.

"Buying skins in an FPS game absolutely baffles me," one player says. "Fortnite, I get. You see your skin the entire time you play. COD? You literally NEVER see your skin. Especially if you're me, who never gets top 3 on the team." But players have the right to spend their money on whatever they see fit. And to be fair, some of the skins on offer look pretty great.

There are several operator skins up for grabs as part of the Squid Game collaboration. There's the Player 006 green jumpsuit, which is apparently what's causing all the confusion. Then there's the pink soldier uniform, the game master, the donors with their suits and golden masks, and even the doll from red-light green-light Chul-su. Like I said before, my favourite operator skin has to be the pink soldiers, but honestly, all of them look sick. To be clear, I say this with the knowledge of Squid Game's anti-capitalist message, so shilling out to a game like Call of Duty is obviously incredibly ironic, but that doesn't make these operators look any less cool.

The Squid Game crossover in Black Ops 6 begins tomorrow, January 6, according to Call of Duty's X account. There'll be limited-time modes in multiplayer, Zombies, and Warzone. The collaboration trailer shows players competing in red-light green-light, ddakji replacing dog tags in kill confirmed, and tons of Squid Game-inspired operator skins, like the contestant's jumpsuits, pink soldier uniforms, the black-masked game master, and a few patrons with their golden animal masks.

I usually find that Call of Duty collaboration skins look pretty tacky. The Fallout crossover that went live in June last year put Price in a gaudy vault dweller suit, which really didn't fit the look of Call of Duty and looked pretty silly to me. Then there's the swell of complaints about gaudy skins since Black Ops 6's release, which has seen some players go as far as to ask Activision if they can pay not to see a fluorescent green dragon running around maps.

But thankfully, I don't think anyone will be asking Activision to hide these new Squid Games skins because they actually look stylish. I like all of them, but my favourite has to be the pink soldier skin. The masks and suit look at-home—it'd actually be something I'd like to wear while going about my business in multiplayer lobbies.

I think the secret to this success is that these new skins actually make sense in Call of Duty's universe. I'm not saying that I could see Squid Game playing out in a campaign. But the people involved, the pink soldiers and the patrons in suits with gold masks, all seem like antagonists that I could feasibly come up against in a campaign whilst infiltrating some secret casino for the super-rich.

However, I do want to note that my only disappointment about this collaboration is that, like every other bit of media and merchandise to come out of this series, it completely misses the point of the show. Squid Game is, ultimately, a show about the terrors of capitalism. A system of commercialism so bleak that contestants would rather risk death at the hands of pink-suited captors on live television than go back to the doldrum of their old lives. A point that has gone over the head of any franchising efforts, hucking its imagery into a modern military shooter because it, uh, looks cool. But I think they do look cool, so that probably just makes me a cog in the machine.

There also seems to be a special multiplayer game that pits Squid Game contestants in their green uniforms against the pink masked soldiers in a gunfight, as the big wigs look on dressed in suits with their staple golden animal masks. Hopefully, that means players will get a chance to wear green jumpsuits or pink uniforms in this limited-time mode without having to purchase any operator skins.

As this collaboration is noted as being part of Season 1 Reloaded's events, it will probably end around January 28. This means players will hopefully have plenty of time to check all the new modes out. For the first time in a long time, I may actually purchase one or two myself.

"After a series of updates, our systems are in a better place today across all modes," Activision says in a blog post. "However, we did not hit the mark for the integration of Ricochet anticheat at the launch of Season 01—particularly for Ranked Play.

"We understand the promise of glory and notoriety from Ranked Play leaderboards makes Ranked Play an attractive target for cheaters. For this reason, our teams have been especially focused on turning the tide to deliver the competitive arena our players seek."

Warzone, in particular, has seen regular waves of cheaters dominating the leaderboards. Apart from boosting, which is when a low-rank player teams up with someone better to help them climb ranks, some cheaters were even more creative by creating bot lobbies, which they could farm for kills and SR. The problem with this is there's no one in the games to report the cheater, so they can go unnoticed unless someone takes a proper look at their ranked history.

To get a better handle on nefarious activities like the above, Activision has put together some updates that players can expect to see for Ricochet. More account bans have been promised thanks to quicker enforcement response times, and this process has also been updated for faster synchronisation of leaderboard changes. Activision also announced it plans to expand the Replay Investigation render farm significantly—this is what it uses to generate clips for examination.

"We've also ramped up the group dedicated to manually review clips (based on a priority order that favors detections)," Activision says. "In the last several weeks, the Replay tool updates have been highly effective at validating detections and reports, providing further training for AI systems for the anti-cheat team, and removing cheaters." The next couple of seasons will also see new server-side protections alongside the kernel driver.

These promises do sound like they'll improve Ricochet even by just making the response times for reports a bit quicker, but it doesn't sound like they properly address some of the real issues players have with the anticheat, namely shadow bans. Complaints about innocent players being sent to the shadow realm always pop up every time Ricochet chimes in with any updates, so it's surprising that the team didn't address these annoyances head-on. But small improvements are still a step in the right direction, so let's hope the new version of Ricochet pulls itself together so players can start the new year off right.

In the past year of Call of Duty games we've endured a pay-to-win Groot knockoff, Nicki Minaj, and a Fallout crossover. Black Ops 6, which released at the tail end of October, has been carrying on this new tradition by throwing demons, dragons, flaming skulls, a bong gun, and a catgirl into the mix. I'm actually less upset about that last one.

But why, fans might ask? Because it's fun, reply Black Ops 6's developers. No, really. In a recent interview with Dexerto, Treyarch's associate creative director, Miles Leslie, says it's all about cramming the most 'fun' into the game.

"Fun always comes first for us," Leslie states. "Of course, we want to stay grounded in the DNA that makes a Black Ops game unique when it comes to core gameplay, but we also like to break the rules if it’s going to maximize fun for players."

I'm not entirely sure what maximising my fun would look like, given the ephemeral nature of entertainment as a concept—one could make the very salient argument that this aesthetic 180 is, at best, fun for some players and a bummer for others. Some people don't want to see a half-dragon romping around their modern military shooter before getting shot dead and summarily t-bagged by a catgirl. I mean, I've got no skin in that particular game, but even I can tell when a shark is being jumped. There's actually a shark skin, by the way.

Still, Leslie insists, it's just a natural evolution of the kind of zaniness found in the ever-popular and longstanding CoD Zombies mode: "When it comes to cosmetics, the Black Ops series naturally lends itself to some pretty outlandish themes when you consider we’re the birthplace of Call of Duty Zombies, and all of the crazy mindf*ckery that comes with the storytelling in our games, so we like to have fun there too.

"The team has already delivered some of my all-time favorite Operator Skins, and we’re only in the first season." In the original article, this is posted above an operator wearing a giant plastic rubber duck mask.

You're not about to see Nicki Minaj guest-star in the game's campaign mode, though, Leslie promises: "The Campaign has a tightly defined cast of characters with an era-specific look to them that fits the story … This is something we take very seriously at the studio, and those who remember the continuing story with Stitch and Perseus throughout Black Ops Cold War’s seasons will know what I’m talking about. That doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun with cosmetics along the way!"

So—there you have it. If you were yearning for those days where Call of Duty was just about gruff-looking guys doing cool war stuff, the great engine of microtransactional nonsense isn't fading any time soon. At least Hunt: Showdown is safe—wait, why is Ghost Face here? Post Malone? What are you doing in the 1890s? Aw, man.

Before anything else, I'm gonna go ahead and tap the sign PC Gamer staff writer Morgan Park hung up last year: Every time a new shooter launches, you gotta start a countdown until it becomes a clown show of brands and hideous skins. Black Ops 6 appears to be speedrunning this process while also reaching for new heights of absurdity, including eye-searing skins that have some players begging to be able to turn them off.

The bong gun is truly an appalling, over the top masterwork. Were it a meal, it would give you gout instantly and you'd want to hide your face from god like you were eating ortolan. Neon, animated, Mtn Dew-green glass globules festoon a black and gold assault rifle. As an inspect animation, you take off the stock, reattach it elsewhere on the gun, and hold it out to smoke a bowl?—your lighter, by the way, is a diminutive fire-breathing lizard.

It is so overpoweringly stupid and I don't even want to know how much it will cost, but also? I kind of respect the sheer "damn the world, and good taste" decadence of this thing. From first concept to implementation, how much money and how many man-hours does it take to make a bong gun? I would never buy a bong gun, but it gives me a kind of sick thrill to know that it's out there in the world, making people mad.

I usually wouldn't put stock in the comments on X, "The Everything App," but there's quite a few people saying the same thing, they're getting a lot of heat, and the argument is so bizarre, so stupid, I'm reminded of internet greats like the Bodybuilding.com forum debate over how many days are in a week.

"Comm banning players for swearing but promotion of drug use," declares one comment with 8,500 likes. "Imagine banning people for swearing etc but promoting using drugs," asserts another with an eye-watering 11,000 likes?—11,000 people, give or take a few thousand bots, all expressing some approval of the argument. "But heaven forbid you tell someone they're trash at the game," another bemoans. One even shared a picture of the offensive chat warning they received.

I counted at least 25 semi-credible (who even knows these days) comments complaining about Call of Duty's enforcement of its in-game code of conduct when the game contains references to drug use, including one that repeated the slur that they were temporarily banned for. I'd argue that playing an M-rated game with gun violence and fairly absurd depictions of what is, in real life, increasingly pedestrian and legal drug use doesn't entitle you to tell your teammates to kill themselves. But you know what? Not my circus, not my monkeys. Maybe having to see the bong gun is a fitting karmic punishment for being the sort of person who gets freaky in voice chat.

"We've identified an issue that could result in erroneous visual blood effects when damage was not actually dealt while shooting at enemies in all modes," a Call of Duty update post reads. This means players aren't actually hitting their targets, and the problem is that they get blood splatter as if they are. But this isn't a good enough explanation for some players.

There's even now a community note on the original update post: "There's a hit registration issue in Warzone on the client side. It's displayed that shots hit enemies, showing the visual effect of blood, but servers don't register them as valid hits therefore, the error lies in the unregistered hit, and not on the visual blood effect."

So, right now, there are two sides. Players say that the problem lies with Treyarch's servers not keeping up with authorised hits, and Treyarch which seems to think that players reporting problems can't actually aim straight and aren't hitting anyone.

If there were only a couple of players reporting this issue, you could attribute it to client-side problems like network. I've encountered it before with my trash internet when I unload a mag into someone's chest, getting hit markers and all, only for them to walk off like nothing happened and for me to be lying on the floor like Swiss cheese. But I doubt all complaints about faulty hit registration can be waved off as being due to poor internet connection.

One player who regularly tests Warzone and Call of Duty games for bugs seems to think they may have an idea of what is causing these issues: "Hitboxes for the client-sided blood effects seem to not line up with the actual hitboxes, meaning that sometimes actual (near) misses will still show the client sided blood effects. There will be a few cases where shooting clothes and gear on the operators outside of the hitbox still gives blood splatter. Alternatively, the actual hitboxes are too small." But they also admit that hit registration or the netcode could just be broken.

Most players seem certain that this problem is Treyarch's doing, and the original blood splatter tweet was just done to cover tracks, not actually inform players. "The Call of Duty updates tweet honestly is genuinely awful," a Call of Duty Twitch streamer, TacticalBrit, says. "Because they know it's not the case. They know it has nothing to do with visual blood splatter. Anyone with a week's worth of game dev experience knows it, too. Which means they're actively being dishonest about it, and deliberately so.

"At best, they're simply implying visual blood splatter shouldn't be tied to your client. Which still doesn't change the fact that your shots are on target and your bullets should be registering. At worst, they're effectively saying that they don't want us to see how bad their server/netcode infrastructure is."

TacticalBrit goes on to say that this isn't even the first time players have encountered a problem like this in a Call of Duty game: "During [Modern Warfare 2], I made a video that demonstrated every server lag, stutter, and hit reg error was from Infinity Ward insisting on us having AI in-game on Warzone. It took them months to walk that back. Only because other people got vocal, too."

The wider response can be pretty much summed up with ModernWarzone's reply to Treyarch's blood splatter explanation: "Oh, so we gaslighting now." But I will say that just because Treyarch's response may potentially be misinformed doesn't mean that the developers are intentionally misleading players. Hopefully, we'll get a better, more candid explanation in the next few days or at least proof that this isn't a problem with hit registration or servers.

Now there's a new legendary skin up for grabs and instead of looking like a flaming green dragon with enough particles to blind anyone, this time we've got an anime cat girl snowboarder on our hands.

The Snow Time Showtime tracer pack is currently available in the Black Ops 6/Warzone store for 2000 CoD points, which is around ?20. This tracer pack comes with the legendary Alvarez anime operator skin, the Polar Rip Goblin MK2 blueprint, the Halfpipe Handler Kompakt 92 blueprint, an Ice Breaker finishing move, a cute hot chocolate weapon charm, a Polar Shred spray, and a double XP token.

You would think that players would be just as angry to see a bright pink and green anime girl running around their lobbies, but it turns out that people are kind of happy with this skin. "If you use this skin, thank you," Kind_Knowledge4856 says. "Thank you for being an easy kill. I'm blind as a bat but with this skin I can spot y'all a mile away."

It's true that this skin stands out rather nicely against most Black Ops 6 maps, and while it may not be realistic, at least it doesn't have clouds of particles and smoke covering its head to make it even harder to land a headshot.

Previously the Ghost Dreadwood operator skin was so difficult to spot—especially in Warzone if you went prone or crouched in a bush—it was almost unfair. Then there was the loathed Gaia skin which was also so hard to spot it actually had to get removed from the game and nerfed. Players spent most of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Season 6 calling for the skin to get binned because its dark brown colour, see-through gaps, and orange accents meant that on maps like Estate or Wasteland (which have a lot of grass and fall leaves) the skin was almost impossible to spot. But even though the Snow Time Showtime skin may be the complete opposite to these heinous additions, it's not entirely in the clear.

To be fair this has nothing to do with the skin itself. It's more about the players who own it. "Only people in my lobbies that have it are the super sweats," one player says. "So even though I can see them I cannot kill them."

The rest of the comments also point out that even though camo skins can be tricky to spot, it doesn't mean brightly coloured skins are ripe for the picking. Oftentimes in most Call of Duty modes everything is so fast paced it doesn't really matter how well you can spot someone else, it's more about how good your reaction times, aim, and map knowledge are. So if you come across this anime girl skin in your lobby just remember to humble yourself before you get too excited.

Players have a pretty rocky relationship with Activision’s anticheat software—mostly thanks to its kernel-mode driver, which gives the publisher the ability to access any bit of memory on your PC. But Call of Duty players were too tired of cheaters to protest against it when it was first released.

Since then, Activision has had lofty expectations of Ricochet, but it's never really been able to live up to them. In the first few weeks of Black Ops 6, Activision promised Ricochet would be able to "catch and remove cheaters within one hour of them being in their first match”. This aim hasn't been achieved yet, but Ricochet has still improved somewhat. Activision reported it has "stood up strongly against cheaters," with its behavioural mode categorising over 4.4 million data points per hour at its peak to then analyse for anomalies and possible cheating.

Team Ricochet also recently gave players an update concerning the ongoing work to combat cheating in ranked play. "AI systems continue to ramp up with code optimisations to accelerate enforcements. Over 19,000 ranked play bans since the mode launched. Hourly sweeps to remove cheaters from the ranked play mode and leaderboard. Thanks for your patience as our team continues to fight against cheaters."

This work is all better than nothing, but three years into Ricochet's life, some players are asking for more. "But shadowbans still exist," a player replies. "Only normal players suffer from this. Hackers simply create a new account." Shadowbans are only temporary but are still frustrating for people falsely accused of cheating—usually by players who just enjoy messing others around—because it'll put them in a limited matchmaking pool with other suspected cheaters or just bar them from any matches altogether.

Regulating Call of Duty cheaters is a tough business to be in—they're pretty persistent—but it does feel like Ricochet is barely keeping up. Every few months, we hear of a new ban wave with leaderboards getting purged, and despite this, it never feels like cheater populations are on the decline—but I could also just be incredibly unlucky.

Even with all of these problems, Ricochet has proven to be capable of some truly funny antics. One old punishment saw Ricochet deploy psychological warfare by plaguing hackers with hallucinations. These decoy characters could only be detected by cheaters and served to "disorient cheaters in a variety of ways." Honestly, I can almost live with getting jumped by hackers in almost every match if Ricochet carries on with these kinds of mind games, it seems like a pretty even and funny tradeoff.

Legacy XP tokens aren't unheard of. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3 both let players use previously purchased or unlocked items and cosmetics as well as double XP tokens from various Call of Duty games.

Unfortunately, this time it didn't seem like the feature was intentional. One of the latest Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 updates erased legacy tokens, or as Activision put it: "Fixed an issue that incorrectly allowed legacy XP tokens to be activated in the Black Ops 6 UI." We just can't have nice things.

This sudden change was matched by Black Ops 6 players who did a complete 180, going from praising Treyarch for providing them with this helping hand to condemning the devs for patching out something that everyone wanted. Players were calling the move "greedy" and "a joke", with one arguing that legacy tokens were disabled "to artificially inflate [Treyarch’s] retention metrics." But the story didn't stop there. Over the weekend players carried on telling Treyarch just how upset they were about this change, and it actually ended up leading to something.

"With the start of Season 01, a UI bug allowed players to activate legacy XP tokens in Black Ops 6," Treyarch says. "Unfortunately, it also introduced some potential risk to game stability, which is why it was patched yesterday.

"We realize how much players appreciate being able to redeem legacy XP tokens in both BO6 and Warzone, so we are currently testing a way to implement this change correctly in a future update. This allows us time to ensure stability is maintained before we reintroduce this feature."

I’m not qualified to comment on game stability. But it’s easy to imagine that an unexpected increase in how much XP the average player could earn may potentially throw a spanner in the works for future time sensitive events, as players could complete things that require XP quicker.

"In the interim, players can activate any legacy XP tokens in Warzone," Treyarch continues. "Any tokens applied in Warzone will also apply to Black Ops 6 should you switch titles or modes. We look forward to sharing more about this change next week. Thank you for your patience."

I'm glad that Treyarch came to the conclusion that legacy tokens were worth the time and effort to figure out and reinstate, but let’s be honest, players are likely getting this feature thanks to luck and not kindness. If a UI bug hadn't accidentally popped up and given players access to legacy XP tokens then Treyarch might well have kept this feature under lock and key.

There are a few skins around this season that are, well, ugly as all hell. These include a new parasite-inspired skin, the Goliath operator skin, and perhaps the most infamous new addition, the Dragon Knight, which looks like something more suited for Destiny or WoW than a Call of Duty game.

"Thanks for this skin," one player who goes by valayavr says. "It is so giant and has so many particle effects that I can't even see its head, and it cuts my frames in half. Masterful move, Treyarch." It's true that there are a lot of particle effects around this skin. Green flames and ashes constantly sputter from its shoulders, which can obscure the head at times.

However, someone else points out that you could actually use the Dragon Knight skin to your advantage if you see someone with it on the enemy team. "In stakeout, if that skin is lead running down a hallway, you basically have a line of blind people to down," another player says. "Got back-to-back fury kills from the same idiot."

But other than this player who has chosen to look on the bright side of the even brighter skin, most players are trying to figure out or just ask for ways to hide the hideous cosmetics for good. "I'd pay not to see other player's skins or tracer rounds," player aizendoto says. "I don't know why the skins in CoD have escalated to this degeneracy. Oh, I know, because people buy this dogshit for some reason. I thought Nicki Minaj was the peak of dogshit, but today I log on, and there is a green glowing dragon that has huge wings and shoots light green explosions that literally make you see NOTHING on impact."

I agree that the cosmetics in CoD have gotten a bit much lately. The problem is that not every game is cut out to be like Fortnite. Cartoonish or quirky characters or gun skins in Overwatch 2 and Valorant work because they match the art style, and these things don't feel too out of place. But getting sliced in half by a Gundam or watching Captain Price run around in a Fallout vault dweller suit just feels weird.

"Please let us turn off cosmetics," another player asks. "If you want that stupid shit, whatever, but let us disable that garbage. I don't need to see dragons and lazers all over the map. Can't we just go back to pre-season? At the bare minimum, disable all the stupid effects on our end. If you want to have an epileptic fit on your end, that should be your problem."

The best part of being able to turn off cosmetics wouldn't just be getting to go one round without having to deal with flashy skins around every corner, but it would also be pretty funny to think there'd be players out there spending money on skins no one else will ever see. If someone wears a gaudy skin in a CoD match and no one's around to see it, does it even exist?

"Pacifism will always be a legitimate strategy," Pilgore1 said in a Reddit post. Not getting a single kill in Black Ops 6 multiplayer doesn't seem like a hard feat—plenty of my teammates would probably excel in this challenge—but the impressive achievement comes from actually reaching level 55 and winning matches despite no kills.

"It was definitely risky at the start (previous games), and I got lucky a few times," Pilgore1 said in an interview with IGN. "I'd throw a Decoy grenade, and it would sometimes hit somebody. Luckily, it never got me a kill (yet). I've gotten much better at being careful after doing this for 51 Prestiges now. There's almost no worry about it happening in this game, as the Spy Cam has replaced Decoys for me."

While there's clearly a lot of skill that goes into achieving a 1.92 W/L ratio while not killing a single person, Pilgore1 does admit that some game modes are easier than others. Hardpoint and Domination are easier to win without having to get any kills because they are objective-based modes, and as long as you actually play the objective, you can be pretty successful. On the other hand, Team Deathmatch and Kill Confirmed are obviously harder going because they are more K/D focused. Although I will say that you could probably be fairly successful in Kill Confirmed by just picking up dog tags that players always leave lying around.

As for Perks, Pilgore1 said that he uses Flak Jacket, Gearhead, and Dispatcher to trigger Strategist, alongside the Tactical Expert wildcard, which gives him an extra piece of tactical equipment: "Four Spy Cams can genuinely get you UAV/CUAV on its own."

But even if it does take considerably more effort, Pilgore1 actually revealed that it's not too much of a grind. "I consistently get at least 7,000 score a match," Pilgore1 said. "My tactics haven't really changed over the years. I've experimented with different loadouts, but the main gameplay has been the same. Earning XP doing this is much better than you'd think."

It's all very impressive, but this isn't the first time that someone has attempted to do a pacifist run in a Call of Duty game. YouTuber ThatFriendlyGuy pursued the path of pacifism in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022). Like Pilgore1, ThatFriendlyGuy was able to achieve the maximum level in Modern Warfare 2 by supporting teammates and playing the objective—if only all my teammates were this dedicated to peace.

Most of the big stuff, like the addition of multiplayer maps Hideout, Heirloom, and Extraction, has already been covered, but players will also get new multiplayer modes alongside these. First up is Ransack, which sees players "looting gold bars from crates dotted around the area of operations on 6v6 maps," according to the patch notes. After you gather these, you need to secure the loot by bringing it to your team's stash. Then there's Prop Hunt, the infamous hide-and-seek mode that players have enjoyed in previous games like Black Ops Cold War and WWII.

Other new additions also include some new operators, weapons, events, and a Zombies directed mode, but otherwise, the rest is mostly just fixes and tweaks. The bug fixes address issues that lead to infrequent game crashes, forced restarts, and a bug that prevents players from completing some missions. In terms of weapons updates, weapon motion while moving has been adjusted to improve aiming and improved weapon depth of field settings when doing a weapon inspect. These changes apply to all weapons, but assault weapons have received a specific update as well.

"We are increasing the damage values for some of our Assault Rifles to ensure that they kill in just one bullet in Hardcore modes," the patch notes read. "The headshot multiplier changes have either kept the bullets to kill with headshots the same or even improved them at some min damage ranges." This change applies to the XM4, AMES 85, GPR 91, and the Goblin Mk2.

Each of these has received a damage boost, but despite the clear explanation, some players were apparently worried enough about the changes to damage falloff that Treyarch had to post a subsequent message confirming that nothing was changing for assault rifle headshots: "We want to clarify that tomorrow's Assault Rifle changes have not made headshots less effective at any range in Multiplayer. Base damage has increased for all of these ARs, which requires adjustments to the headshot multipliers. The changes resulted in the following net buffs to headshots."

This includes the AMES 85, now requiring only three (down from four) headshots for a faster TTK in its min damage range, and the XM4, AMES 85, and GPR 91 with the CHF barrel all only need two headshots (down from three) for a faster TTK in the min damage range.

Apart from these weapon changes, another interesting tidbit from the patch notes includes a message from Team Ricochet detailing how Treyarch had combated "disruptive behaviour." This patch will add "enhanced AFK detections to battle against account boosting" and "Adjusting ping thresholds to require players to play matches in their region to cut down on VPN abuse."

Players will also need to win 50 match-made multiplayer games to qualify for ranked to ensure "that players are experienced with multiplayer before they enter the mode and gives Team Ricochet a historical match history to examine before an account enters ranked play." This is actually a great way to ensure that players in ranked all have a baseline of experience and skill, but I do feel sorry for the poor souls out there who'll struggle to get over the 50-win mark.

Well this doesn't bode well for Black Ops 6's iteration of Gunsmith. Helpful CoD YouTuber TheXclusiveAce recently published a breakdown of Blops 6's barrel attachments and determined, amazingly, that most of them are essentially useless.

I wish that was an exaggeration, but the math checks out: Because of how CoD's ballistic model works, most guns are hitscan up to 30-40 meters. The game does not communicate that element of its gunplay anywhere, despite the fact that that 30-40 meters is longer than ~90% of gunfights in Blops, so increasing velocity with the Gain-Twist Barrel is mostly pointless. The same goes for the Long Barrel: With the exception of aggressive SMG damage falloff, the default damage range on Blops 6 guns is so forgiving that you're unlikely to notice a time-to-kill difference by using it. Considering the third barrel option, the Reinforced Barrel, just increases both velocity and range, you can forget about that one in most situations, too.

That leaves the Short Barrel that increases mobility (handy for fast-paced playstyles) and the CHF Barrel that increases headshot damage—even this one is only situationally effective depending on the gun, since extra headshot damage doesn't always mean it'll take fewer shots to kill. The lesson here, which has actually been true for the last handful of CoDs, is that you're better off focusing on attachments that improve the gun's handling, like grips and underbarrels, and ignoring ballistics (unless you're going for longshot kills with an SMG).

Why does Black Ops 6 have prominent attachments that barely do anything? It could be a simple oversight, but the more likely reality is that Treyarch didn't design these barrel attachments for Blops 6—they're for Warzone, where huge maps and long gunfights mean you absolutely want the most potent mix of velocity/range on all of your guns.

That's all fine and good, except that they still serve little purpose in 6v6 Blops multiplayer—a game that millions of people are playing—and the game makes no indication of that. It's up to you to stare at the stats and figure out that the green arrows going up aren't actually helping you, which is pretty counterintuitive for a system that's supposed to make your guns better or more interesting. If this were any other series and we weren't so used to the needs of Warzone clashing with the rest of Call of Duty, this sort of bad game design would be laughed out of the room. But unfortunately, it's business as usual for the best-selling franchise.

You'll get your chance to use Blops 6 barrels for their intended purpose this week. Black Ops 6 Season 1 begins on November 14, integrating Warzone into the Blops 6 fold alongside Omnimovement and a new Resurgence map, Area 99.

Stakeout is just one of four maps you can get in Face Off, but it's so popular that players regularly leave lobbies when it doesn't appear. That dedication is probably why Treyarch created a Stakeout 24/7 playlist, an honor usually only bestowed to fan favorites like Nuketown, which just went live today.

I reckon Stakeout's biggest appeal is in the brief: as the smallest map in the game, it has the highest XP potential. After just a few hours of (double XP) Face Off with friends last Saturday, I leveled up nine times and unlocked more attachments for guns than I had over days playing standard modes. So yes, if grinding Black Ops 6 mastery camos or leveling weapons is a priority, Stakeout 24/7 is the new best way to do that (though keep in mind there are no killstreaks in Face Off, so tune those classes accordingly).

That's not all there is to Stakeout though, because I'm usually a small map hater, and even I like it. The map is very similar to Modern Warfare (2007)'s Shipment with its square-shaped footprint and straightaway kill lanes, but while I still maintain that Shipment is a bad map with too many exploitable sightlines, Stakeout takes the same blueprint and makes it way more fair and dynamic.

The first smart move with Stakeout was putting a roof over everyone's head—this mitigates the effectiveness of grenade spam a lot. Then there's the division of sightlines. The longest straightaways in Stakeout (the north and south hallways) don't have a perfect line-of-sight from one end to the other. They can see a lot, but walls, doorways, or entire rooms prevent the common spawn camping you see in Shipment or Rust.

At the same time, there's not anywhere to hunker down or hide. Every angle is exposed by at least two routes, and the same doorways that block line-of-sight are also lethal bottlenecks that manufacture multi-kills like nothing I've ever seen. Don't get me wrong, this is still a map where you'll sometimes respawn and immediately die—chalk that up to a combination of BLOPS 6's generally poor spawns and small map realities—but it's remarkably rare for a map that takes maybe three seconds to sprint across.

The single best thing that Stakeout does is give me options. No matter where I go in Shipment, I'm always a part of the central meat grinder. In Stakeout, the loop of hallways is a constant meat grinder, but there are also cool side paths that let me momentarily circumvent the chaos. There's this really neat open terrace at the center of the map that you'd think would see constant traffic, but you have to shuffle through a bedroom on either side to get to it, and once you're there, you have to shimmy along roof shingles to avoid a death pit. On the extreme edges of the map are mirrored balconies that form a competitive crossfire, and hidden in the ventricles of the south hall is a crouch-height ventilation shaft that connects two rooms.

This is just really fun, personality-forward map design that's too easy to overlook. Shipment's entire schtick is that it's small and uncomplicated—which is fine if you're the a Super Smash Bros. player who only accepts Final Destination/No Items—but Stakeout manages to fit in distinct spaces that encourage different playstyles. That's what memorable map design is all about.

Stakeout 24/7 will be live in BLOPS 6 for at least the next week. Unfortunately there's no double XP this weekend, but I'll still be there.

Ah, nuts:

These are just some of the offerings of Black Ops 6 Season 1, kicking off on November 14. That means I have just seven more days to play a version of Black Ops 6 that matches the front of the box—military operators, spies, and armored grunts throwing down on maps where everyone looks like they belong. With the exception of Vault Edition zombie skins that already haunt my lobbies with their hideousness, the first week of Black Ops 6 is the most artistically consistent Call of Duty has looked in years.

I hadn't thought too much about it before being subjected to the contents of this incoming battle pass, but Call of Duty looking like Call of Duty for a change is a big reason why BLOPS 6 is clicking with me. But the clown show comes for us all.

I sorely miss the days when "Mastercraft" bundles, Call of Duty's highest-tier cosmetics with eye-watering price tags, were centered around creating ridiculous guns. When BLOPS Cold War got an SMG that was also a tape deck that played music, I pounced. In my mind, guns are the perfect confines for expression in an FPS—from my POV, the gun is the largest and most noticeable element on-screen, but other players aren't subjected to my questionable taste until I serve them up a killcam.

Honestly, it's not Mastercraft bundles producing the worst odor. Battle pass filler is the real problem—the less distinct, thinly veiled palette swaps that games routinely shove into the middle pages of a 100-tier battle pass to maintain an illusion of value. Nobody actually wants this stuff, but you get it on the way to something better, and equip it while you're there because why not? I'm talking bargain bin makeovers where none of the colors match, I'm talking making random elements glow so that suckers believe it's special, I'm talking about this garbage:

Putrid. Oh well, this stuff is obviously popular, so it's not like I'm gonna change where the wind blows.

I do have to believe, however, that the talented artists pumping out these skins see the value in thematic consistency—why else would they make a normal human operator the face of every season when they could've gone full Fortnite years ago? The standard operator you get with the Season 1 pass, Sevati "Sev" Dumas from the BLOPS campaign, looks badass.

Not "buy this $10 battle pass" badass, but I would consider dropping a few bucks on a special toggle that makes everybody else look like one of the default Black Ops 6 skins. Now that's innovation.

I'm happy for you Warzone folks, but it's the Black Ops 6 additions catching my eye on the Season 1 roadmap:

• Five new guns: Two at season start, three mid-season
• Five new maps: Three 6v6 maps at season start, one 2v2 and another 6v6 between November and April
• One new perk: Shadow, which I'm guessing makes you immune to proximity gadgets
• One new scorestreak: A Hand Cannon, presumably a one-shot-kill super gun with limited ammo
• Three modes: Ransack, Prop Hunt, and MP Ranked
• One new Zombies map (mid-season)
• Three new Zombies Gobblegums
• Two mid-season events
• A bunch of ugly skins

Black Ops 6's map pool is one of the few underwhelming aspects of an otherwise strong year for CoD, so injecting more 6v6 maps into the mix ASAP is a good sign. I hope those new guns have more personality than the majority of the launch ones: The AMR Mod 4, an intimidating one-shot-kill sniper rifle, is the spitting image of the Barrett .50cal from Call of Duty 4, and that foldable pocket SMG being a secondary weapon is intriguing. Unfortunately, both of those guns are arriving later in the season, either in an update or as an event reward. The full weapon list:

• Krig C (Assault Rifle, battle pass page 3)
• Saug (SMG, battle pass page 3)
• Maelstrom (Shotgun, mid-season event)
• AMR Mod 4 (Mid-season)
• Sirin 9mm (Secondary SMG, in-season event reward)
• Power Drill (Melee, in-season event reward)
• Cleaver (Melee, in-season event reward)

BLOPS is also getting post-release attachments, which is a bit surprising. Two guns, the XM4 and Kompakt 92, are getting new burst-fire conversion mods, which sound sorta like the "conversion kit" aftermarket parts from Modern Warfare 3 that let you create some truly deranged Gunsmith abominations. Making a gun burst-fire is nowhere near as transformative as a barrel that turns a revolver into a sniper rifle, but it's a step in the direction of making Black Ops 6 loadouts more interesting.

Also coming back from MW3 is Armory Unlocks, a system which lets you unlock guns and attachments from previous battle passes by completing challenges. The implementation of the Armory system was really confusing when it was first introduced, but it turned out to be a convenient alternate progression path for those who couldn't care less about battle passes or Prestige. It's nice to still unlock the occasional gameplay-relevant item long after reaching level 55.

Those are the highlights, but check out the whole blog post enchilada for a comprehensive accounting of Black Ops 6/Warzone Season 1.

The PP-919 is arguably the most versatile SMG of the bunch, earning it a spot among the best Black Ops 6 weapon loadouts. However, keep in mind that the KSV loadout has a much faster time-to-kill stat in close quarters and the Jackal also gives it a run for its money at range.

Best Black Ops 6 PP-919 loadout

The best Black Ops 6 PP-919 build is:

• Optic: Kepler Microflex
• Muzzle: Compensator
• Barrel: Long Barrel
• Magazine: Fast Mag 2
• Rear Grip: Commando Grip
• Stock: No Stock
• Laser: Fast Motion Laser
• Fire Mods: Rapid Fire/Recoil Springs

Unlike most primary weapons, the PP-919 doesn’t have an underbarrel attachment. However, it does mean that you can deck out the entire weapon using the Gunfighter Wildcard’s additional attachment slots.

Although the PP-919 has surprisingly clear iron sights, there’s no harm in using an optic in this build since Gunfighter is active. The Kepler Microflex is one of the most popular options alongside the Merlin Reflex, Merlin Mini, Accu-Spot Reflex, and Volzhskiy Reflex.

Moving onto more performance-focused attachments, I recommend using the Compensator muzzle. Oddly, unlike most other weapons, the Compensator on the PP-919 will actually improve both horizontal and vertical recoil control, making up for the lack of underbarrel attachment (which is typically reserved for the Vertical Foregrip). Providing the same recoil benefits with the addition of reduced first-shot recoil, the Ported Compensator might sound better on paper. However, taking a closer look at the stats reveals that it offers less recoil control than the standard Compensator.

Then, use the Long Barrel to increase the effective range of the PP-919 to upwards of 20m. In other words, you’re able to deal maximum damage for the majority of sightlines across Black Ops 6’s small maps. The PP-919 has best-in-class range so don’t be afraid to take shots at distant enemies.

The choice of fire mod will come down to your playstyle, though I find the Rapid Fire mod works best with the PP-919. Since it is already surprisingly controllable for a bullet-hose SMG, it’s a great opportunity to speed up the time-to-kill. However, it does hinder recoil control. If that’s an issue for you, then swap to Recoil Springs instead.

With the recoil and range improved, now it’s time to work on mobility and handling. As always, SMGs work best when you’re on the move and repositioning frequently.

Firstly, you’ll want to use Fast Mag 2, Commando Grip, and the No Stock option. Fast Mag 2 does what it says on the tin. By reducing the magazine size to 40, which is still more than enough, you’ll gain improved aim down sight speed, sprint to fire speed, and faster reloads. Likewise, Commando Grip gives two-point bonuses to aim down sight speed and sprint to fire speed, meaning you can draw and fire your weapon much quicker after sprinting. On that note, removing the stock offers faster movement speed, hipfire movement speed, and strafing movement speed.

Last but by no means least is the Fast Motion Laser. Now that you can move faster, why not mess with your enemies by diving and sliding around the arena? The Fast Motion Laser helps you do just that by boosting diving, sliding, and jumping hipfire spread so you’re more accurate using omni-movement. There’s nothing quite like leaping onto a Hardpoint and landing on your back to take out your enemies by surprise.

PP-919 class setup

The best class setup for the PP-919 is:

• Secondary: 9mm PM
• Tactical: Stim Shot
• Lethal: Impact Grenade
• Field Upgrade: Scrambler/Sleeper Agent
• Perk 1: Gung-Ho/Dexterity
• Perk 2: Assassin
• Perk 3: Double Time
• Specialty: Enforcer
• Wildcard: Gunfighter

With the PP-919 dominating close and mid-ranges with its massive magazine, it’s helpful to have a similarly adaptable sidearm. The 9mm PM fits the bill thanks to great range and damage with a reasonable rate of fire. However, the Grekhova is a strong close-range alternative.

Moving onto equipment, Stim Shot and Impact Grenades are the clear winners. As you’ll naturally be playing very aggressively with the PP-919, Stim Shots are perfect for quickly getting you back into the action or changing the tide of a shootout. Likewise, Impact Grenades avoid length detonation times in favour of an instant, high-damage explosion that rewards proper timing and precision.

There are lots of fun Field Upgrade possibilities like the ever-useful Trophy System and Assault Pack, but the Scrambler and Sleeper Agent are the best in my experience. Scrambler is perfect for keeping enemies in the dark to lock down an area while you dash around. On the other hand, Sleeper Agent lets you catch the enemy unaware by masquerading as one of their own. It’s a great fit for the aggressive nature of the PP-919, especially as you have 40 bullets to play around with before needing to reload.

The perk selection is typical for an SMG, favouring Enforcer perks to activate the Enforcer combat specialty. This provides a temporary buff to movement speed and health regeneration after kills, which has ‘SMG’ written all over it. To activate this, you’ll need three red perks.

Slot one has two very strong perks in Gung-Ho and Dexterity. I prefer Gung-Ho so I’m not slowed down when reloading and repositioning, though Dexterity plays into omni-movement incredibly well.

In the second slot, you’ve only really got one option and that’s Assassin. This perk causes enemies to drop Bounty Packs that grant Score towards your Scorestreaks when collected. I like to pair this with a UAV and Counter UAV to support aggressive plays.

Double Time is the third and final perk, letting you use your tactical sprint to your heart’s content. This comes in handy when repositioning, flanking, or simply swapping spawn camps.

Now you’ve got the best PP-919 build you should have an easier time getting your hands on the prized Black Ops 6 Mastery Camos. If you’re looking for a similarly fast-paced weapon with a little more range, then perhaps the XM4 loadout is the one for you.

As you’d expect from the likes of the best Black Ops 6 weapon loadouts, the KSV brings together great damage and handling in one neat package that is only improved by adding attachments into the mix. While the PP-919 loadout might have the best range, it can’t beat the king of close-range engagements when things get messy.

Best Black Ops 6 KSV loadout

The best Black Ops 6 KSV loadout is:

• Optic: Kepler Microflex
• Muzzle: Compensator
• Barrel: Long Barrel
• Underbarrel: Vertical Foregrip
• Magazine: Flip Mag
• Rear Grip: Ergonomic Grip
• Stock: No Stock
• Fire Mods: Recoil Springs

Although the KSV dominates up close, it is admittedly less consistent at range. Using the Gunfighter Wildcard, this flaw can be ironed out somewhat to make the KSV much more versatile.

The KSV’s iron sights can be a little cumbersome at times, so I prefer to use a clear optic like the Kepler Microflex, Merlin Reflex, Merlin Mini, Accu-Spot Reflex, or Volzhskiy Reflex. However, you could also use this slot on the Fast Motion Laser if you’d rather. This would improve diving, sliding, and jumping hipfire spread.

To reduce the annoying kick of the KSV, you should use the Compensator, Vertical Foregrip, and Recoil Springs. The Compensator significantly improves vertical recoil while the Vertical Foregrip does the same for horizontal recoil control. The Recoil Springs improve both vertical and horizontal recoil control, making the KSV much easier to use outside of point-blank range.

Building on this, I recommend the Long Barrel. This pushes the measly 10m effective range of the KSV closer to 20m, dealing maximum damage further out. While it still won’t quite beat out the PP-919 or assault rifles, it at least lets you fight back and take advantage of the KSV’s rapid time-to-kill.

Given the KSV is largely a close-range SMG that relies on mobility, it’s important to boost the overall handling of the weapon. Look no further than the Flip Mag, Ergonomic Grip, and No Stock option.

With a standard 30-round magazine and high 800 RPM, you will find yourself reloading frequently with the KSV. However, larger magazines come with significant hits to handling and mobility that take away. Thankfully, the Flip Mag offers the simple benefit of faster reloads without affecting the magazine capacity. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s the best one there is.

On the other hand, the Ergonomic Grip improves slide to fire speed, dive to fire speed, and even boosts aim down sight speed. As you can imagine, these are incredibly strong bonuses to have when you’re leaping around your enemies. Make sure to take advantage of the new omni-movement system, though, or you won’t reap the rewards.

Finally, removing the stock provides faster movement speed, hipfire movement speed, and strafing movement speed. This pairs perfectly with the Ergonomic Grip to ensure you’re able to slip in and out of combat easily.

KSV class setup

Here’s my recommended class setup to pair with the KSV:

• Secondary: 9mm PM
• Tactical: Stim Shot
• Lethal: Impact Grenade
• Field Upgrade: Scrambler/Sleeper Agent
• Perk 1: Gung-Ho/Dexterity
• Perk 2: Assassin
• Perk 3: Double Time
• Specialty: Enforcer
• Wildcard: Gunfighter

The KSV has close-range firefights on lockdown so it’s best to use the secondary slot for a sidearm with more range like the 9mm PM. Coming with best-in-class range, which can be improved further, it’s a reliable sidearm for a KSV loadout.

The rest of the class setup is fairly standard as far as SMGs go, playing into the fast-paced nature of the weapon type.

The Stim Shot lets you heal between—or during—fights so you’re never caught out, while the Impact Grenade’s instant detonation rewards your precision with incredible damage. The Semtex is a strong alternative to the Impact Grenade, though you’ll have to account for its short detonation time.

There are a handful of strong Field Upgrades to pair with the KSV, so don’t be afraid to play around to find your favourite. With that said though, the Scrambler and Sleeper Agent Field Upgrades work very well. Scrambler will disable enemy radar, equipment, and Scorestreaks in the area, giving you greater freedom to rush around. Sleeper Agent fills a similar role by letting you masquerade as the enemy. Activate it and infiltrate the enemies’ spawn or stronghold before taking them out.

As usual, the Enforcer combat specialty works wonders in this SMG loadout. Activated by using three Enforcer perks, it provides a temporary buff to movement speed and health regeneration after kills. Is it selfish? Yes. But you can always be a team player with your Scorestreaks.

Begin by picking either Gung-Ho or Dexterity in the first slot. I often prefer Gung-Ho so I’m not slowed down when reloading and repositioning but Dexterity is arguably the better option so long as you use omni-movement frequently enough.

Then, choose Assassin in the second slot. With Assassin, enemies will drop Bounty Packs that grant Score towards your Scorestreaks when collected. This is where you can be a good teammate since you can put it towards a UAV and Counter UAV.

Lastly, put Double Time in the third slot. This will increase the duration of tactical sprint, which is invaluable for repositioning and flanking. Bankroll can also be a fun alternative to get the ball rolling on your Scorestreaks.

That’s the best KSV build you can get, so good luck grinding the Black Ops 6 Mastery Camos. If you just can’t get enough of sprinting and diving around the map and annoying the enemy, then you should also try the AS Val loadout. This max-level unlock has all the perks of the KSV with added range.

Unlocked at level 40, the Model L does more damage than the XM4 and is much more controllable and agile than the AK-74. Although it has a slower rate of fire to compensate for these strengths, its time-to-kill is neck and neck with the XM4 loadout. In other words, it’s one of the best Black Ops 6 weapon loadouts you can use.

Best Black Ops 6 Model L loadout

The best Black Ops 6 Model L loadout is:

• Optic: Kepler Microflex
• Muzzle: Compensator
• Barrel: Reinforced Barrel
• Underbarrel: Vertical Foregrip
• Magazine: Extended Mag 1
• Rear Grip: Commando Grip
• Stock: Heavy Stock
• Fire Mods: Recoil Springs

Using the Gunfighter Wildcard, you’ll be able to deck out the Model L with a whopping eight attachments. While the Model L is competitive out of the box, it’s hard to argue against the build opportunities available here, allowing this late-game assault rifle to hold its own no matter the situation.

With eight attachment slots, you’re free to put on an optic without worrying about ‘wasting’ a slot. Given the Model L excels at mid-ranges, it certainly comes in handy, too. The Kepler Microflex is my personal favourite, though the Merlin Reflex, Merlin Mini, and Volzhskiy Reflex all work well.

The Model L hits hard and, naturally, it comes with quite a kick. Paired with the slow rate of fire, you can’t afford to miss shots. Don’t worry though, the main priority of this Model L build is to rein in the recoil so that you can actually land your shots at range. The Compensator, Vertical Foregrip, and Recoil Springs are the obvious choices here. The Compensator focuses on vertical recoil control while the Vertical Foregrip improves horizontal recoil control. The Recoil Springs further improve both stats with no drawbacks. Now, you’ve got a high-damage laser beam that makes it a breeze to land headshots no matter the range.

Since Model L already boasts a great range stat, the meta Long Barrel is rather redundant. Instead, the Reinforced Barrel works best here as it improves bullet velocity by 20% while also improving range slightly. If the CHF Barrel is tempting you with its increased headshot multiplier, keep in mind the heavy recoil penalties and little impact on time-to-kill.

As mentioned, you can’t afford to miss shots with the Model L. While the movement improvements of the other stock options are hard to turn down, it’s worth making an exception and opting for the Heavy Stock. By increasing your flinch resistance, you will be able to stay on target under fire. However, the Combat Stock is a good middle ground if you find the Heavy Stock to be too sluggish.

While the Model L isn’t quite as nimble as the AS Val, you will undoubtedly end up in a close-range skirmish—especially with the… messy spawn system and small maps. This is where the Commando Grip comes in, which improves aim down sight and sprint to fire speed for better overall handling.

For the final slot, I recommend picking Extended Mag 1. This increases the magazine capacity to 40 with only a slight hit to reload speed and without any of the movement penalties of Extended Mag 2.

Model L Class Setup

The recommended class setup for the Model L is:

• Secondary: Grekhova
• Tactical: Stim Shot
• Lethal: Semtex/Impact Grenade
• Field Upgrade: Trophy System/Scrambler
• Perk 1: Gung-Ho
• Perk 2: Assassin
• Perk 3: Bankroll
• Specialty: Enforcer
• Wildcard: Gunfighter

The Grekhova makes a great secondary for the Model L as its rapid rate of fire will save you in a pinch when things get messy. However, it’s also useful to swap to the CIGMA 2B launcher on objective-based modes to take down enemy Scorestreaks like UAV and Counter UAV.

As always, your Field Upgrade is best left to personal preference. With that said, the Assault Pack and Trophy System pair well with the Model L’s ability to hold down a lane when needed.

The Stim Shot Tactical is a great choice in many loadouts simply due to the ability to trigger health regeneration when you need it. You’d be surprised just how often this can turn the tide of a shootout. On the other hand, Semtex and Impact Grenades are the perfect balance between damage and blast radius, making them the go-to picks for the Lethal slot.

With its bonuses to movement speed and health regeneration after a kill, it should be no surprise that the Enforcer (red) perk specialty is the best (and most selfish) option there is. To activate this bonus, however, you will need three Enforcer perks, which certainly limits your options.

In slot one, I recommend Gung-Ho for improved speed while reloading as there’s nothing worse than being caught off guard with an unloaded gun. Dexterity is another good option in this slot if you’re a particularly aggressive player making use of omni-movement frequently.

Unfortunately, the second slot is significantly less competitive when it comes to Enforcer perks. Assassin is effectively the only option here as Bruiser is a melee-focused perk, though that’s not to say it’s not a good perk. With Assassin, enemies drop Bounty Packs that provide bonus Score towards your Scorestreaks. It’s a great way to get the ball rolling, especially if you use UAV and Counter UAV streaks.

Pairing perfectly with Assassin is Bankroll. This perk gives you a free +150 score each life, meaning you only need a handful of points to get handy recon streaks in the air (which will also help your team).

Whether you’re taking on the challenge of the Black Ops 6 Mastery Camo grind or simply wanting to improve your KD, you can’t go wrong with this Model L build.

Unfortunately, the AS Val is one of the most awkward Black Ops 6 weapon loadouts to access, simply because it’s unlocked at level 55 when many players will choose to prestige. If you want to use the AS Val and prestige, you’ll want to choose it as your permanent unlock. Don’t fret too much though, it’s worth it.

Best Black Ops 6 AS Val loadout

The best Black Ops 6 AS Val loadout is:

• Barrel: Suppressed Reinforced Long Barrel
• Underbarrel: Vertical Foregrip
• Magazine: Extended Mag 2
• Rear Grip: Commando Grip
• Fire Mods: Recoil Springs

Since the AS Val doesn’t have a muzzle attachment slot due to the built-in suppressor, there is little benefit from the Gunfighter Wildcard’s additional attachment slots. We’ll be keeping it simple with just five attachments in this build, though if you struggle with the AS Val’s iron sights, then using Gunfighter and adding an optic is an option.

The AS Val’s biggest weakness is its remarkably slow 715m/s bullet velocity, which makes it harder to win gunfights at mid-range despite surprisingly good recoil control. Thankfully, this is easily remedied with the Suppressed Reinforced Long Barrel, which is unique to the AS Val. This barrel offers three-point upgrades to both bullet velocity and damage range, bringing the speed up to around 930m/s and significantly increasing the effective range. Sure, it won’t beat the mid-range damage of the Model L loadout but it’s a hearty upgrade that keeps this close-range beast competitive further out.

With the ranged damage improved, it’s time to reduce the recoil to help land shots at a distance. The Vertical Foregrip gives three points to horizontal recoil control, the most pesky type of recoil and the one that most impacts the AS Val at range. Then, the Recoil Springs provide bonuses to both horizontal and vertical recoil control on top of that. You’ll be surprised just how stable the AS Val is now despite firing at nearly 900 RPM.

Now it’s just a matter of improving the overall versatility of the weapon with the remaining two slots, which are quite flexible to your specific playstyle. For example, you could use the No Stock option to increase various movement speed stats or the Fast Motion Laser for hipfire stats. However, I prefer to add the Commando Grip and Extended Mag 2.

The Commando Grip improves aim down sight speed and sprint to fire speed, which works wonders with the AS Val’s inherent close-range aggression. The Ergonomic Grip is a good substitute for the same reason, though it requires you to be using omni-movement often to make the most of it.

Unsurprisingly, Extended Mag 2 is here to increase the AS Val’s measly 20-round magazine up to 40 bullets so you’re not constantly reloading. Given the high RPM, you’ll still burn through 40 bullets in no time, mind you. If you find it to be too sluggish, then Extended Mag 1 offers a 30-round magazine with fewer drawbacks in return.

AS Val class setup

Here’s my recommended class setup to pair with the AS Val:

• Secondary: 9mm PM
• Tactical: Stim Shot
• Lethal: Impact Grenade/Semtex
• Field Upgrade: Sleeper Agent
• Perk 1: Dexterity
• Perk 2: Assassin
• Perk 3: Double Time
• Perk 4: Ghost/Ninja/Tac Mask
• Specialty: Enforcer
• Wildcard: Perk Greed

While I usually prefer to bring the Grekhova as a backup, the added range of the 9mm PM can be very useful. If in doubt, you can always change your sidearm depending on the map.

Since the AS Val is tailor-made for an aggressive playstyle, you’ll want similarly aggressive equipment. The Stim Shot Tactical is a no-brainer thanks to its ability to heal on demand. If a shootout isn’t going your way or you’re injured with another enemy on the way, a Stim Shot will be your best friend. Likewise, the Impact Grenade makes short work of enemies trying to rush you since you don’t need to wait for it to detonate. You do have to be more precise with your throws, though, so if that’s an issue, stick with the Semtex.

As for your Field Upgrade, the new Sleeper Agent ability is a blast to pair with the AS Val. Activate Sleeper Agent to easily hide among enemy team before firing away. Your enemies will be dead before they even realise what’s happened. If you’re not one for subterfuge, then you can always go with staples like the Assault Pack, Trophy System, and Scrambler.

The AS Val is the perfect opportunity to use the Perk Greed Wildcard, too, as Gunfighter is overkill. Continuing the theme of all-out offence, this loadout makes use of the Enforcer combat specialty which requires at least three Enforcer (red) perks to activate.

By reducing weapon motion while jumping, sliding, and diving, Dexterity makes it easy to outplay your enemies in close range. Don’t overlook Gung-Ho in this slot either. This improves speed while reloading and using equipment. In other words, you can run around like a maniac without worrying about getting caught out reloading.

Assassin is the obvious choice in the second slot. This perk creates Bounty Packs when you kill an enemy which grant bonus score when collected. It works very well with recon Scorestreaks like the UAV and Counter UAV.

In the third slot, I recommend Double Time. This perk greatly increases the duration of tactical sprint so you can more quickly get to cover, push lanes, or reposition when spawns swap.

For the additional fourth perk, I’m a big fan of Ghost thanks to its ability to keep your enemies in the dark. Ghost makes you undetectable by UAV and Scout Pulse when moving, which pairs well with the AS Val’s integrated suppressor to hide you from the map at all times. Otherwise, Ninja can also be a fun alternative.

Now, you’ll have arguably the best assault rifle in multiplayer, rivalling even the popular XM4 loadout. If you’re taking on the Black Ops 6 Mastery Camo grind while also speeding through the prestige levels, then it’s also a smart idea to complete the AS Val as soon as you can so you don’t roadblock your progress.

Modified to reduce recoil and improve overall handling, this C9 build earns its place among the best Black Ops 6 weapon loadouts right now. Despite it being an SMG, you’d be surprised just how competitive the C9 can be at mid-ranges once you’ve got the recoil under control, without sacrificing its natural close-quarters lethality.?

Best Black Ops 6 C9 loadout

The best Black Ops 6 C9 build is:

• Optic: Kepler Microflex
• Muzzle: Compensator
• Barrel: Long Barrel
• Underbarrel: Vertical Foregrip
• Rear Grip: Commando Grip
• Stock: No Stock
• Laser: Fast Motion Laser
• Fire Mods: Recoil Springs

With the C9 firmly in the close to mid-range SMG archetype, it’s highly adaptable to just about any playstyle. However, I find focusing on its versatility works best, improving recoil control and mobility equally. To do this, the Gunfighter Wildcard’s bonus attachment slots come in very handy.

First things first, you’ll want a clear optic. While this is largely down to personal preference, the Kepler Microflex is one of the most popular options, as are the Merlin Reflex, Merlin Mini, and Volzhskiy Reflex. These offer the most clear sightlines, which is crucial no matter the range. If you don’t care for an optic, then I’d recommend using this slot for Flip Mag instead.

The Compensator muzzle attachment is one of the most crucial parts of this build. This muzzle offers a three-point boost to vertical recoil control, letting you take better advantage of the C9’s accuracy and damage. When it comes to hitting those crucial headshots, you can never be too accurate, after all. You could swap this for a suppressor to better flank though keep in mind that SMGs like the Jackal and KSV are better suited to this role anyhow.

To further rein in the recoil, I recommend choosing the Vertical Foregrip and Recoil Springs. These two attachments feature in almost every meta loadout right now for good reason. Plus, there are very few competitive alternatives in their respective slots. The Vertical Foregrip improves horizontal recoil control by three points, which pairs perfectly with the Compensator. Likewise, the Recoil Springs boost both horizontal and vertical recoil control by two points. What’s not to like about that? While Rapid Fire is a strong alternative mod, its negative impact on recoil control is certainly noticeable.

Now that you’ve got the kick under control, slap on the Long Barrel. This attachment significantly increases the effective range to make the C9 a more consistent SMG and counter the C9’s sharp damage drop at range. Even better is that this hearty upgrade to your range comes with no downsides whatsoever (unlike in other recent Call of Duty games).

The last three attachment slots are best spent towards improving the handling of the weapon. The Commando Grip improves aim down sight and sprint to fire speed while the Fast Motion Laser boosts diving, sliding, and jumping hipfire spread. Lastly, the No Stock option provides noticeable bonuses to hipfire and strafing speed as well as overall movement speed.

C9 class setup

The best class setup to pair with the C9 is:

• Secondary: Grekhova
• Tactical: Stim Shot
• Lethal: Semtex/Impact Grenade
• Field Upgrade: Trophy System/Scrambler
• Perk 1: Gung-Ho
• Perk 2: Assassin
• Perk 3: Bankroll
• Specialty: Enforcer
• Wildcard: Gunfighter

Your secondary weapon is often down to personal preference, though I’d recommend the Grekhova specifically in this loadout since we’re not running a magazine attachment. The Grekhova is perfect for a frantic, close-range shootout, which it most likely will be if you’re drawing your sidearm.

Similarly, your Field Upgrade is very dependent on your playstyle—as well as the map and mode you’re playing on. I like to use the Trophy System on objective-based modes like Hardpoint (especially during Nukedown 24/7), while the Scrambler is perfect for just about everything else.

Other than that, this class setup is fairly standard for a run-and-gun playstyle. Stim Shot offers on-demand healing that can turn around a losing fight, while the Semtex or Impact Grenades are deadly explosives perfect for fast-paced action.

Unsurprisingly, this class setup also makes use of the Enforcer (red) perk specialty. The Enforcer combat specialty provides a temporary buff to movement speed and health regeneration after kills. Perfect for running head-first into the action, right? To activate this, you’ll need three red perks.

Gung-Ho is a great first pick simply for the added mobility while sprinting, which pairs nicely with the C9 build. Dexterity can also work well here if you find yourself jumping, sliding, and diving often.

For the second slot, Assassin is the clear winner as Bruiser is a melee-focused perk. With Assassin, you can earn bonus Score towards your Scorestreaks for collecting Bounty Packs dropped by enemies. If you’re running a UAV and Counter UAV, then it’s a great way to get the ball rolling.

Assassin goes hand in hand with Bankroll in the third slot, which makes it very easy to earn your streaks. As mentioned, this can easily snowball into long streaks once you’ve got recon in the air. If you don’t have any trouble getting your streak going, then Double Time is a great alternative.

Like the XM4, the C9 is a great place to start your Black Ops 6 Mastery Camo grind and this build makes it easy to quickly earn the 100 headshots you’ll need to get started.

"Season 1 takes Black Ops to the criminal underground on November 14," Call of Duty's official X account says. "Here's a sneak peek at a few of the new maps coming to Black Ops 6 multiplayer this season." The post includes some details about said maps: There's two new core multiplayer maps, Hideout 6v6 and Extraction 6v6, and a new strike multiplayer map, Heirloom 6v6 and 2v2.

Each of these maps appear to be located at a military base, a coastal hanger, and a museum, respectively. There's been a lot of discussion around the current map pool in Black Ops 6, and even the arrival of Nuketown wasn't able to appease players frustrated with all the terrible spawn points this season (which are seeing many players dying as soon as they spawn).

Under a Reddit post that asks, "Can we talk about how God awful some of these maps are?" alongside an image of all the launch maps with some crossed-off in red like a hit list, players pointed out that some of the maps aren't unsavable, they just have frustrating spawn points.

"Vorkuta could be a really good map, but the spawns are so weird," says one player. Others just say it "plays like Shipment." I don't hate Shipment, and sometimes I get the itch to jump into that hellscape, but I agree that spawning into a map only to die immediately because an enemy player is looking right at your spawn point is frustrating. So here's hoping that Treyarch has been listening to all this feedback since launch and that the new maps that we'll see in Season 1 will have some better spawns.

Other than new maps, players can expect other changes in Season 1. One of the most exciting ones sees Warzone getting integrated with Black Ops 6. There'll be a new Area 99 map and the addition of omnimovement, which has taken a bit of getting used to I'll admit, but even so has been a huge hit in part thanks to controller aim assist getting a huge nerf.

I'm not alone in my Babylon hate, but it'd be wrong to suggest it's the most hated map in Black Ops 6. There's no consensus so far: My coworker Jake Tucker hates Scud with all his being, a map that I like despite obvious annoyances, and my lobbies are avoiding Red Card like the plague. To me, Babylon is the worst map in a pool of pretty underwhelming battlegrounds in Black Ops 6. I give Treyarch high marks for the theming of its 6v6 maps this year—Red Card's soccer pitch, Skyline's rooftop hotel, and Lowtown's Venice-like canal networks look fantastic—but their layouts succumb to the worst tendencies of Activision map design: cramped quarters, exploitable sightlines, terrible spawns, and unimaginative floor plans.

Babylon is every mapmaking sin rolled up into one convenient target. Because I prefer to hate specifically, I jotted down some notes about Babylon:

It's a boring square

I don't hate that Babylon is a square—the history of multiplayer shooters is built on simple shapes—I hate that it's a boring square. There's a square on the outside and a square on the inside. On the left are some walls, to the north is a raised platform, and in the middle is also raised but otherwise featureless.

These arches suck

The coolest-looking architectural feature of Babylon, the pair of arched buildings on either spawn, is also a total nightmare to actually exist near. If you spawn on the north arches, literally every available exit can be watched by snipers across the map. If you're running past them to go elsewhere, enemies that have no business spawning so close to you will emerge from the arches and ruin your streak. The arches themselves are perfect target practice for grenade throwing—toss anything lethal through these standing hoops and you'll probably kill someone. I hate looking at this area.

What even is this part

The west quadrant of Babylon is a damn mess. It's the section of the map fully enclosed by walls, but we all know that "fully enclosed" by Babylon standards still means you can be shot from about 37 doors and windows. I don't understand how Treyarch envisions players making tactical use of the sniper nest (marked by the yellow plywood). Its position is way too exposed to the north for anyone to feel safe up there for more than three seconds, so predictably, nobody uses it. What's left is a bottleneck that connects the two hottest kill zones on the map (the center and north platform), which is fine in TDM but becomes a miserable death pit when it's the contested zone in Hardpoint. Grenades fly in and have nowhere to go.

Babylon's best vantage point can barely see anything

In general, I wish Treyarch would play with verticality more. This is the closest thing to a strategic vantage point in Babylon, and it kinda sucks. Its greatest function is to catch players off guard when they hurry too fast around the northeast corner and lock down the alleyway of death (touched on above), which is pretty weak stuff for what should be prized territory. Asymmetrical map design hasn't really been a feature of CoD since it got obsessed with "three lane" blueprints years ago, and this boring platform is a common consequence of refusing to get weird.

The center might as well not be there

Babylon has this raised centerpiece—a roundabout from which you can fast travel to anywhere on the map—and players actively avoid it. Why? Any number of reasons:

• There's no cover, so you're immediately exposed from four directions the millisecond you hit the top of those stairs
• Grenades are constantly getting lobbed in there
• Other than flanking, why bother? You can't even see that much from the top
• It's a square with a slightly higher square in the middle

Imagine if the center of Babylon was a proper stronghold. I see this blank space and picture a thousand interesting map features that could've gone here: a treehouse of cover to be sieged, a tower with angles on all four corners of the map, like six more pieces of cover—anything really.

If Babylon were a Halo map, players would fight over this space because it's where the rocket launcher would spawn. But because it's just a blank square, nobody cares. The only redeemable quality of Babylon is that it's small, making it a desirable place to grind mastery camos and get the most out of double XP.

I'm usually the CoD fan that actually cares a lot about the campaign, but it's those shortcomings pushing me towards this year's stellar multiplayer offerings. Black Ops 6 has lightning fast gunfights that leverage a wonderfully weighty new movement system to give old and new modes alike a distinct, John Woo-esque flair, where every match evokes the climactic shootout from Hard-Boiled – and what's more 90's than that?

"I was there, and it sucked."

Black Ops 6 begins with an op gone wrong at the height of Desert Storm, with heel Russel Adler returning to prevent your high value target from falling into the hands of a compromised CIA. Unknowns at the highest level of government are funding a literal black ops paramilitary outfit formed from ex-Eastern bloc soldiers operating under the name "Pantheon," siccing them on your squad at every turn. Pantheon's goons are occasionally bolstered by elite operatives, awkward miniboss encounters plucked from Warzone maps that prompt some of Black Ops 6's corniest moments. It's really funny to be gouging out some Cold War psycho's eyes in an interactive cutscene moments before getting into a Borderlands-esque shootout with an armored guy who can withstand 27 headshots as he sprints around the room tossing out glowing electric bear-traps, or being ambushed by a hazmat suit-wearing operative who leaves Joker gas in his wake while doing Dark Souls dodge rolls.

Raiding Saddam's palace in search of WMDs (yes, really) and then slinging surface-to-air missiles at graduates of the John Landis Helicopter Academy was the only real moment of "hell yeah" I found in the campaign, a gleefully stupid setpiece that had me grinning from ear to ear. Unfortunately, that level is a one-and-done conclusion to an abysmal mini-open world mission that has you hitting Iraqi SCUD launchers, an underwhelming sampling of Warzone's DMZ mode that scrapes at the shadows of Metal Gear Solid 5.

Unlike Metal Gear, Black Ops 6 tends to keep history at arm's length. Marketing materials often cited the global conflicts that followed in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse, but few of those are represented here in earnest. The Gulf War is almost entirely inconsequential to the narrative, which instead focuses on the dark dealings of fictional private military companies, rogue operatives, and organized crime.

Treyarch's pedigree for grimdark renderings of historical and modern conflict is wasted, and you'll encounter none of the cinematic expertise that characterized Black Ops 1 or World at War in this campaign—nothing so inspired as rolling up the Mekong Delta blasting "Sympathy for the Devil", nothing like the Battle of Berlin, no revelation as effective as your faceless soldier being part of a pivotal moment in history a la World at War's mind-bendingly good Reichstag raid. At its most inspired, we're attending a Bill Clinton campaign fundraiser and pulling off Payday 2 casino heists on European mobsters.

For all of Black Ops 6 pomp and circumstance, it's campaign that feels less evocative of the 1990s than, say, Ace Combat Zero on the PlayStation 2, a game where you're stuck within an airplane cockpit the whole time.

Squandered potential

One late-game mission, a dollar store Bioshock riff, integrates the zombies mode into the campaign in such an egregiously stupid and out-of-place way that I was aghast. Singleplayer zombies has always been an exercise in tedium, and having this extended fan-service level replete with repetitive boss encounters and nonsensical environments in an already mediocre campaign was beyond exhausting. If you're heavily invested in Call of Duty's "lore," (which back in my day we called "history"), this might be an extremely gratifying trip down memory lane, but I was begging for it to be over a quarter of the way through.

As a '90s industrial fan and noted junglist, I was also hugely disappointed at just how much Black Ops 6 squanders both its setting and licensed soundtrack, never putting it to use in a way that feels inspired, never accenting the period-piece action or providing thematic juxtaposition. While I guess I'm relieved that my prediction that we would be setting the Kuwait Oil Fields aflame to The Prodigy's "Firestarter" didn't come true, I'm now kind of wishing it did. Only when the occasional touch of acid synths gave a '90s EDM flair to the action did my raver heart flutter.

I don't accept that the largest game franchise on the planet, especially with such a rich history of incredible singleplayer campaigns, should be so thoroughly mediocre. Call of Duty used to at least have an engaging perspective, putting you in the hot seat of the turning point battles of the near-modern world, but Black Ops 6 offers nothing in this regard.

One mission towards the end of the story, "Ground Control," is based around an encroaching coalition tank line encircling an airport held by Iraqi soldiers. The way this tank line is framed invites obvious comparison to Call of Duty 4's still jaw-dropping "Shock and Awe" mission, a dread-inducing spearhead assault where imperial hubris is punished with nuclear force. Ground Control, like so much of Black Ops 6's campaign, flaunts its moments of militaristic might like eye candy—fleeting thrills, mostly experienced through cutscene rather than control, serving as noise to cover the smaller, less interesting "shadow operation" story beats you actually get to play. There's no rule that says Call of Duty has to have huge setpieces, but the lack of them is sorely felt in this story, and the instantly forgettable spy thriller that's replaced them feels like a bad trade.

Bullet ballets

For all my gripes about the campaign, my annoyance melts away in the face of the multiplayer, where Black Ops 6 seriously delivers. Call of Duty has never felt better in the hands, owing largely to the new omnimovement system, which lets one sprint, slide, and dive in any direction. It's a major reason why Black Ops 6 feels so good to play, bringing a satisfying sense of weight and momentum to a series that spent the last decade teeter-tottering between boots-on-the-ground and full-on jetpacks.

Vanquish-style knee slides chain together smoothly, and side diving into a room while mag dumping an SMG a la Max Payne just feels damn good. It's a mechanic I've been making extensive use of, and to surprisingly great effect. The real utility of the twitchy slides and dives is that they drastically lower the aim assist of whoever is targeting you, allowing you to skate past bursts of bullets and accurately return fire. I've been routinely placing top three in each match, which I'm still kind of shocked by. I suffer from a subset of cerebral palsy which has significantly atrophied one of my aiming hands into a limp claw-thing—an appropriate indicator for how vital smart movement is this go-round. Black Ops 6 is unexpectedly comfortable and empowering in the hands for a genre that is all too often a painful struggle for me.

I've been generally pleased with the maps this year as well, which have become a point of consternation among players: Babylon is a frantic Shipment-like, the kind of close quarters meat grinder that massages your brain into a TikTok scrolling-esque trance. Derelict, a narrow and linear blasting pit that can quickly see you flanked on all sides, is an absolute joy to dive and slide through. Vorkuta's long pathways are interspersed with sporadic cover and breakaway junctions that provide ample opportunities for fake-outs and clever flanks when you commit to using omnimovement in earnest. The only duds are Rewind, an American strip mall nailed by a cruise missile with some overly punishing open spaces, and Vault, an island outpost subject to egregiously bad spawns.

I've also fallen head-over-heels for Kill Order, a spin on Black Ops - Cold War's VIP mode which randomly selects high value targets on both teams and grants them armor, Last Stand, and a persistent UAV. The goal is to rack up a higher HVT killcount than the other team, and each match consistently led to some of the most engaging and dynamic firefights I've had in multiplayer Call of Duty—constantly trying to get the edge over a better-equipped foe who always knows where you're coming from. New modes in Call of Duty have a habit of falling into instant obscurity as most players prefer the familiar doldrums of TDM and Domination, but this one is quite good and I don't see myself removing Kill Order from my rotation anytime soon.

Gunplay is in line with the standard set by the Modern Warfare reboot series, owing to the stellar foundations offered by Infinity Ward's engine. This is the first time that all three of Call of Duty's major development arms are technologically unified, and it does wonders for consistency. A lot of the weapons here feel like the platonic ideal of a videogame gun, with a few standouts—the AK-47 spits bullets better than it ever has, its characteristic punchy recoil and ever-reliable irons making it a general purpose icon. Another low-level favorite is the Tanto .22, a weirdly slow Soviet SMG that spits out low-caliber, high damage rifle rounds. It's an easy-to-handle mid-range monster with an ASMR-like ka-chunk to its action.

I also quickly fell in love with the Tsarkov 762, a wonky close-quarters rifle that evokes the halcyon days of Halo: Reach's DMR. Taken altogether, though the selection and their attachments don't really evoke the 1990s, the arsenal provided here is more characterful and fun than any Call of Duty in recent memory.

Visual slurry

One of my biggest issues with Black Ops 6 is progression, and how intertwined multiplayer and the zombies mode is. Zombies has never been my first choice for CoD, but I respect just how far Treyarch has pushed it: this is undoubtedly zombies at its peak, with massively expanded mechanics, a new bestiarium of boss monsters, and extraction mechanics that let you bail out on a run early. It's also an ungodly garish headache—it's the "clown show of hideous skins" we've come to expect from live service games, except now with no countdown. Black Ops 6 hit the ground running with gaudy promotional operators (namely the terrible "Zombie Woods" pre-order bonus) and demonically infused Nerf gun skins. Is it too much to ask that a game launch and stick to a semi-consistent visual style for maybe six weeks?

Brand slurry aside, omnimovement significantly improves the experience of playing keep away with hordes of zombies, especially considering just how much of this mode is based around walking backwards and sprinting.

I tend to get out of Call of Duty what I put into it. After a stressful shift at my day job, and once I get my '90s techno playlist going, my broader issues with campaign structure, an already compromised aesthetic, and a hell of a lot of wasted potential, ultimately feel like nitpicks of what is an unquestionably good year for Call of Duty. Though my heart may yearn for a bygone campaign era, one that was more ambitious, thoughtful, and considered, Black Ops 6 just feels too good to put down.

I'd classify two out of three of these special perks as "nice to have" bonuses. Strategist (green) gives you more points for playing objectives and Enforcer (red) regenerates health faster after kills. Recon, however, gives you one of the most powerful advantages you can possibly have in Call of Duty. As its description goes:

"Enemies can be seen through walls for a short time after respawn; a HUD edge indicator flashes when an enemy is outside your view; leave no death skulls when killing enemies."

You get wallhacks! Legal, Activision-approved wallhacks, and not just once in a while. Every single time you spawn, you get a snapshot of where the entire enemy team is and isn't. Not just with pings on a map either: you see their entire silhouettes in red on your screen and it updates for a second or two as they move. It takes a little bit of time to unlock Recon, so I didn't have much exposure to the perk during the Black Ops 6 beta, but now that I've had a week with the full game, can we agree it's pretty busted?

Were this perk in an FPS with bigger maps or maybe longer times-to-kill, brief x-ray vision might not be a big deal. But on Black Ops 6's tiny maps, you can do a lot of damage with that info—exemplified perfectly by this frankly horseshit kill someone got on Derelict (shared by user BigJed7 on Reddit).

Who thought this perk was ever a good idea? from r/blackops6

If that happened to me, Black Ops 6 would probably no longer be on my SSD. More clips of folks exploiting the almighty power of the official wallhack perk are appearing online, and everytime I watch one I'm just baffled that Recon made it into the game as-is. People are literally respawning, aiming at the head of someone they can see through a wall from their spawn point, and getting a completely unfair kill. Once you watch a killcam where someone only found you because of Recon, you can't unsee it.

Good Call of Duty play is as much about picking up on audio and visual cues as any competitive FPS, so you can imagine how Recon throws a wrench into its already murky balance. Stealth exists at a premium in this series—simply shooting a gun is enough to reveal your location on the mini-map, and that's assuming you're not already getting snitched on by a UAV plane in the air. Taking back a bit of privacy on the battlefield usually requires eating up valuable attachment or perk slots with suppressors or Cold Blooded, but for some reason, Recon simply has no counter.

So when, at any given time, multiple people on the other team get to know exactly where I am for free, what use is Ghost? Why do UAVs even exist? Why wouldn't everybody just equip the perk that literally gets you free kills at best and valuable information at worst?

Come on Treyarch, we've had our fun cosplaying as hackers. Please nerf this terrible idea into the ground and let's pretend it never happened.

Zombies is far different from multiplayer, though you’ll be pleased to hear that your weapon progression and other unlocks carry over into Zombies. This means you can start both Liberty Falls and Terminus armed to the teeth. It will certainly help in the early stages of the easter egg but it will still be far from easy. To save you the trouble of figuring them out for yourself, here’s how to beat the Liberty Falls and Terminus main easter eggs.

Black Ops 6 Liberty Falls easter egg guide

You will need to take out zombies and progress through the map as usual until you unlock the church/Dark Aether, which contains the Pack-a-Punch machine. Once there, interact with the strange machine to the right of the main door known as the SDG Generator. There's no prompt but when you interact with it, a character called Panos will begin to speak, letting you know you’re ready to begin the easter egg.

It’s a good idea to leave one zombie alive in a round when you’re attempting to complete the following easter egg steps. This will give you some breathing room to investigate and interact with things without fear of dying and risking your progress. Likewise, Decoys are also incredibly handy.

Here is an overview of the main Liberty Fall quest steps:?

• Assemble the Jet Gun
• Assemble to LTG
• Clear the first storm
• Calibrate projectors
• Clear the second storm
• Survive the final encounter

Assemble the Jet Gun?

Before you can properly start the Liberty Falls easter egg, however, you need to get your hands on the map’s unique Wonder Weapon—the Jet Gun. While you can get it from the mystery box, there are no guarantees. So, your best bet is to craft it with three hidden parts:?

• Water pressure gauge
• Handbrake
• Electrical wires

Water pressure gauge

The first part you will need is the water pressure gauge, though you will first need to grab a water valve. This is located at the front of Lily’s Flowerpot shop on Hill Street. Here, you will find a tap against the wall to the right of the broken door, near a flower display. Hold the interact button to pick up the water valve.

With the water valve in hand, head over to the bowling alley and break the wall panel to the right of the lanes (either with your weapon or melee) to expose the water pressure system. Interact with it to attach the valve and then hold the interact button to increase the water pressure.

Your goal is to fill the water pressure meter by holding the interact button. However, endless waves of zombies will spawn and you will be unable to fight back while increasing the water pressure.

If you’re playing with other players, then they can protect you. If you’re playing by yourself, you will have to frequently lead the horde outside the bowling alley before running back in and making as much progress as you can before they reach you again. Your progress will be saved for a short time, so make sure you repeat this process as much as you need.

Once the pressure is full, the zombies will burn and the water pressure gauge will fall onto the floor for you to collect.

Handbrake

To get the handbrake, you need to kill a special Groundskeeper zombie in the graveyard to the right of the church. Head into this area and slay out until this unique enemy spawns. Unfortunately, it is random so you’ll have to stick with it until you get lucky.

Once you’ve defeated the Groundskeeper, pick up the toolshed key and make your way out of the graveyard and to the left, down a driveway next to the white house. At the end of the drive is the Groundskeeper’s shed, which you can now open. The handbrake is located on the desk to the right of the shed.?

Electrical wires

The final part you need to craft the Jet Gun is electrical wires. To do this, break the gates blocking the Radio House shop on Riverside (near the starting location, across the road from the comic book shop). However, you will need a Mangler cannon to break it open.

This can be done in one of three ways:

• Stand in front of the gate and bait a Mangler into shooting it
• Shoot a Mangler’s cannon to break it, at which point it will drop a Mutant Injector when killed. This will turn you into a Mangler temporarily, letting you shoot the gates yourself.
• Purchase the Mangler Cannon item from a workbench using scrap

Once opened, go inside and interact with the four pools of blood until one eventually gives you the electrical wires.

With all three parts in hand, go to the motel in the starting area and head up the stairs. A group of zombies will charge out of a room, revealing a crafting bench where you can assemble the Jet Gun.

Assemble the LTG Device

Whether you crafted it or were lucky enough to get it in the mystery box, now that you’ve got the Jet Gun, you can start the main easter egg quest. This begins with you assembling the LTG device from three parts. Here's where you can find them:

Olly’s Comics

Go to Olly’s Comics by the starting area and look up at the ceiling. There will be a broken section of the roof in the middle of the room. Stand on the desk and you will see a canister hidden in the roof. Use the Jet Gun to pull the object towards you and collect it.

Washington Avenue

Go to Washington Avenue by the Speed Cola perk machine. Then, head up Hill Street towards the mystery box spawn on the left side and climb on top of the roof. From here, jump off the roof onto the white van in the middle of Washington Avenue. Turn to face the building you jumped off (the barbers) and you will see another part in the window. Again, use the Jet Gun to collect the part.

Church

Head into the church through the main entrance and almost immediately turn around and look up. Near Panos, you can find the third and final LTG part on the balcony which you can once again collect using the Jet Gun.

With all three parts collected, use the zipline from the graveyard to reach the Washington Avenue Rooftops (near the exfil area). Here, in the northeast corner, you will find a workbench that you can use to craft the LTG Device.

Portal Storms: Cemetery?

Now you have the LTG Device, you need to interact with two portals—one in the cemetery and the other near the starting area of Riverside. These can be done in either order, though there is a step that must be completed between each one. Personally, I prefer to start with the cemetery, as it’s as simple as taking the zipline back from the rooftop.

Before you start the storm, go inside the church and interact with the easter egg machine to collect an Aether Canister. You will need to carry this to the Dark Aether trap on Washington Avenue (near Speed Cola) and place it within its radius. Be careful though, as you will be unable to run while carrying the canister. With this in mind, it’s best to keep one zombie alive to delay the next round.

Cemetery Storm

Make your way over to the storm cloud in the cemetery and interact with the plate on the ground. This will place the LTG and begin a timed encounter where you must defend the portal from waves of zombies for one minute. Any zombie that makes contact with the portal will damage it. Should you fail, you will have to wait a round before you can restart.

Once you have defended the portal for one minute, a named boss will spawn—either a Mangler or an Abomination. Weaken this boss but be careful not to kill it. When it is low on health, it will begin to emit a purple glow, at which point you must bait it into the Dark Aether trap we set up earlier. Activate the trap when the boss is within its radius and its soul will be absorbed.

You then need to take this charged canister back to the machine inside the church. However, picking up the canister will begin a one-and-a-half minute countdown so you’re against the clock.?

Strauss Counter location

With the canister secured inside the machine, a new compartment will open on the left, rewarding you with the Strauss Counter. This device will replace your Tactical slot. To use the Strauss Counter, hold your Tactical button to raise the device.

Your goal now is to locate three projectors and activate the correct lights on each of them by interacting with them, based on the colour of the display on the Strauss Counter:

• Yellow Strauss Counter display: Yellow projector light
• Green Strauss Counter display: Red projector light
• Red Strauss Counter display: Green projector light

The correct sequence of lights will be random each time, so unfortunately you will have to put in the legwork.?

The Hilltop Stairs projector is the most obvious of the bunch, simply placed on the grass next to—you guessed it—the Hilltop Stairs. It overlooks the bus outside Liberty Lanes bowling alley.

To reach the Yummy Freeze Rooftop projector from the Hilltop Stairs, it's a quick sprint to the Alamo rooftop, accessed via the zipline lift. On the roof, remove the debris marked with a red cross in the low wall to the east and drop down to the lower roof. The projector is found next to the sandbags on the right.

The final projector can be found in the Groundskeeper’s Yard, near the shed where the Jet Gun’s handbrake was hidden inside. The projector is in the patch of grass near the large fences to the east.

Portal Storms: Riverside?

Return to the first storm that you completed (which will be in the cemetery, if you’ve been following this guide verbatim) and collect the LTG Device. Then, you’ll need to head over to the other storm and repeat the process. In this case, that’s on Riverside. Ensure you’ve got all the equipment and ammo that you need as you’ll once again be in for a fight.

Before activating the Riverside portal, it’s a good idea to set up the next Dark Aether trap. To do this, grab the Aether Canister from the device outside the gas station by holding the interact key. Like before, you won’t be able to run, though you only need to place it in the nearby Dark Aether trap’s radius. Once done, you’re free to start the portal defense whenever you’re ready.?

Successfully clear out the waves and defend the portal, and another boss will spawn. Lure this boss into the Dark Aether trap and activate it to absorb its energy in the canister you placed just before.

Like last time, you will then have to carry this canister all the way back to the church to place it in the device, though it’s a lot further to run in just one minute and 30 seconds. Whether you’re playing in co-op or not, it’s a good idea to have some Decoy grenades, or only keep one zombie alive so you don’t have to worry about staying alive.?

Survive the Final Encounter?

With the second Aether Canister placed in the SDG Generator, you’re officially ready to start the Final Encounter. How ominous!

You will be trapped inside the Dark Aether (in other words the church) as you fight off three waves of zombies and elites. With such limited space and some challenging enemies sent your way, it’s naturally a hard encounter.

Before you start, ensure you are geared up with level three armour, Jugger-Nog, and at least a level two Pack-a-Punched weapon. Additional items like Decoys, Monkey Bombs, and Killstreaks will also be useful.

Obviously, a max Pack-a-Punch weapon will do the most damage, though be careful not to be too reliant on this if you’re low on funds. While there is an ammo box inside, remember it will cost you $10,000 to buy ammo for such a top-tier weapon. That’s why it’s a good idea to also bring a level two Pack-a-Punched weapon as a backup since ammo is cheaper.

Start the Final Encounter whenever you feel ready and, should you survive, you will be automatically downed and enter a cutscene with Panos who will reveal their master plan.

Once this cutscene is over, you will have the option to either continue playing or exit the match. If you choose to continue, you’ll be rewarded heavily with additional currency, high-quality weapons, an Aether Tool to upgrade weapon rarity for free, and a Raw Aetherium Crystal to use the Pack-a-Punch machine for free, too.

Black Ops 6 Terminus easter egg guide

Ready to take on the true challenge of Terminus, eh? Being a much more claustrophobic map, Terminus is certainly the harder of the two launch Zombies maps, not to mention the more troublesome main easter egg too.

Before you can begin the Terminus main easter egg though, you must first turn on the power as usual. Follow the markers to activate the three AMP Generators, leading you all the way to the Bio Lab.

As always, it’s a good idea to leave one zombie alive at the end of each round when you’re attempting to complete the following steps. This will give you some breathing room to investigate and interact with things without being munched on by hungry zombies. Likewise, it’s a good idea to bring some Decoys to lure enemies away at pivotal moments.

Here is an overview of the main Terminus quest steps:

• Assemble the Beamsmasher
• Break a specific Tentacle Trap with the Beamsmasher
• Find Nathan’s code and beat the challenge
• Fix Node Connectors
• Hack buoys
• Disarm Terminus
• Survive the final encounter

Assemble the Terminus Wonder Weapon?

Like Liberty Falls, you will need to get your hands on the Terminus Wonder Weapon before you can start the main easter egg. While it is possible to get it from the box, you’re best off crafting it since you won’t need luck—just skill and the Dead Wire ammo mod from The Arsenal machines. To craft it, you will need to collect three Beamsmasher parts and unlock the crafting room. Here's how:?

Opening the Research Office

Begin by purchasing the Dead Wire ammo mod for your weapon as you will need it to activate circuits. Then, ride the Inclined Lift (the one with the Pack-a-Punch machine) either up or down into the Bio Lab. On the way, you will need to shoot three electrical boxes—in order—using your Dead Wire weapon:

• The first electrical box can be seen through the right side window of the concrete building as you descend
• Turn directly right to see the second electrical box hidden between the metal frame surrounding the top of the lift
• Turn right once more to face south, where you can see the final electrical box on the wall of the white building

With these three boxes activated, head to Living Quarters (the small room with Jugger-Nog) where you will find another electrical box next to the AMP Generator. If you’ve completed the previous step correctly, it should be arcing with electricity. Shoot this box and then head outside into the courtyard to the west where the final electrical box can be seen on the wall of Living Quarters. Shoot this to open the green doors directly ahead of you, revealing the Research Office.?

Inside the Research Office, you can find the crafting bench used to eventually assemble the Beamsmasher, as well as a computer which we’ll get to later. Most important right now, however, is that you kill the trapped zombie to your left, which will drop an EMF Fob for you to collect.

Activate the Laptops to get the first Multiphasic Resonator.

With the Research Office open, it’s time to start assembling the components for the Beamsmasher. The first step in doing so is to activate three laptops hidden around the main island, each with a different symbol and allocated letter on them, though there’s no need to remember these right now.

• The first laptop can be found outside the Communications, near where you start the match before entering Living Quarters
• Another laptop is hidden in plain sight in Storage Area, which is to the left of the path leading into the caves to Bio Lab
• The last one can be found at the Docks, overlooking the boat spawn under the Sea Tower

Now, head into Sea Tower where you will find a briefcase with a severed hand clutching it on a desk opposite Elemental Pop. Interact with the briefcase to open it using the EMF Fob and grab the Multiphasic Resonator.?

Get the Computer Code.

Return to the Research Office and interact with the computer directly ahead of the entrance. This will place the Multiphasic Resonator on the top, at which point you can interact with it again to display a code interface.?

In the background, you will have a clear view of two whiteboards containing the means to crack the code, though this involves a complex equation using the symbols on the laptops. To make matters worse, this code will be random each time you play. To save time and bypass this step, it’s best to get $5,000 and speak to Peck who will give you the answer via a computer screen to his left.

Peck can be found by leaving the Research Office and turning right to head through Storage Area and into the Guard Station, where you spawn at the start of Terminus. Peck will be behind the large glass window.

Whichever way you acquired the correct code, enter it into the computer in Research Office and the display will start highlighting various islands around the map. Complete one round and the computer will then pinpoint one island in particular that you will need to head to. This could be either Castle Rock Island, Crab Island, or Temple Island.

Before you leave, make sure to pick up the Multiphasic Resonator by interacting with it on top of the computer again. This is the first part of the Beamsmasher.

Head down to either the Docks under Sea Tower or the Bio Lab, spawn a tactical raft and travel to the island that was displayed on the computer. For me, it was the island to the east known as Castle Rock Island. This begins the process of acquiring the Beamsmasher parts.

Locate the other Beamsmasher parts

Sail to the correct island and you will see a large blue orb pulsing with energy. Interact with the orb to begin a challenge that will spawn waves of zombies. Occasionally, a zombie will glow blue. Defeat this marked enemy and it will drop an orb, which you must pick up and run into the large blue orb. Repeat this process two more times and this orb will disappear, dropping another Multiphasic Resonator.?

You will need to repeat this process on the other two islands. However, it can only be completed in a specific order: blue, green, purple. If the island you head to doesn’t have an orb yet, then you’ve skipped an island.

After you’ve cleared the orbs on each island, finishing with the purple orb, it will drop the AMP Munition. This is the second part of the Beamsmasher.

The third and final part of the Beamsmasher is, thankfully, much easier to get. Simply make your way to Engineering back on the main island (east of Living Quarters) and look for the Battery on the desk in the middle of the room.

Return to the Research Office and interact with the Workbench to craft the Beamsmasher Wonder Weapon. Now, you’re ready to start the main easter egg quest for real.

Beamsmashing Tentacles: Get the Hard Drive

The first true step of the Terminus easter egg is to acquire a Hard Drive. To do this, head into the Bio Lab and find the Tentacle Trap which has a broken vent above it. There are two Tentacle Traps in Bio Lab and the correct one will be random each game. If you can’t find the correct trap, then it’s possible that it could also be the Tentacle Trap in Living Quarters, though this is less likely.

Activate the trap and continuously fire the Beamsmasher at the tentacles until they drop the Hard Drive item on the ground. If you can’t activate the trap, then it’s because you haven’t yet opened the door it’s covering.

Once you have the Hard Drive, return to Peck in the Guard Station and deposit it in the box at the bottom of the window. Afterwards, Peck will send you off to find Nathan in the Bio Lab.

How to get Nathan’s Code?

Go to the Bio Lab and head to the centre of the room, next to the AMP Generator. Here, interact with the window above a small keypad on the large chamber. Nathan will appear in the window. Your next goal is to rescue Nathan from his chamber by finding the three-digit code to the keypad below his window:

First digit

The first digit of the code to unlock Nathan’s chamber is very easy to miss. Go to the Interrogation Rooms (near the Guard Station featuring Peck) and look at the clock on the wall behind the fenced-off area. Look specifically at the hour hand, which will tell you the first digit. If the hour hand is between two numbers, then look at the minute hand to round it to the nearest hour.

Second digit

The second digit is just as obscure. Make your way over to the Mess Hall near the Research Office and look for the corkboard next to the window. On this board will be a small playing card, which will give you the second number for the code.?

Third digit

The third and final digit is located in Engineering. To the right of the crafting table you will find a poster counting the days since the last injury. Surprise, surpise, that number is your final digit.?

Before you return to Nathan’s chamber to enter the code, make sure you gear up with armour, ammo, Jugger-Nog, and a Pack-a-Punched weapon as this will trigger a tough encounter. It’s also a good idea to call the Inclined Lift down to the Bio Lab so that you can do a full loop of the arena with no dead ends.?

After entering the code, you will need to interact with the four levers around Nathan’s chambers. If you’re playing solo, this can be done one by one. However, when playing in co-op, these will need to be activated simultaneously. I did this with only one other player, and we activated them in pairs.

While the encounter is rather challenging, it’s also pretty straightforward. Whether you’re solo or with a group, it’s best to run around the arena in a loop, firing back at the named Amalgum until it’s dead. Then, you’ll be treated to a cutscene. Afterwards, dive into the water and search for the gold keycard item on the ground. This item is very small and spawns in a random location, so it will take some thorough searching to find.?

Node Connector locations?

Once you’ve found the keycard, gear up once again as you’ll have yet another encounter shortly. Take a boat over to the large shipwreck to the west and sail underneath the hole in the middle of the wreck. Here, you will find a ladder with a hatch above it. Thanks to the keycard, you’ll be able to enter.?

At the top of the ladder is a very small room called the Workshop. Here, there are two Node Connectors on a desk that, when interacted with, will trigger waves of enemies to spawn while locking you in. If you’re playing with a full party, then you can actually guard one window each. Defeat the enemies and eventually, you will be let out of the room.

Now, you have to take the two Node Connectors to two of three randomised locations. You’re looking for a section of thick pipe that is missing a piece. If the pipe is complete, then it’s the wrong location. If you’re playing solo, you will have to do this one at a time, returning to the shipwreck for the second Connector afterwards.?

• The first Node Connector is on Crab Island, just east of the shipwreck. The pipe is on the west side of the island opposite the crafting bench.
• The second Node Connector is at the Docks, directly underneath the Sea Tower on the beach area.
• The third Node Connector is in the Sea Caves joining the Docks to Bio Lab.

With the two Node Connectors slotted, head back to Peck in the Guard Station to pick up the Hacking Device.?

Where to find and Hack the buoys?

With the Hacking Device collected, you need to head back out onto the open waves to hack three buoys. These buoys are easily identified by the satellite dish and flashing light. While the buoys can be hacked in any order, there is a simple loop you can follow. Before you hack any of them, it’s important to note two things:?

Firstly, hacking each buoy takes several seconds, during which you will be vulnerable, and against a two-minute timer. If you’re with other players, it’s smart to have a designated driver and hacker, while anyone else takes out any parasites that spawn.

Secondly, after you hack the three buoys, you will immediately progressed to the next step, which is also timed, and requires you to race back to the Bio Lab to defuse three bombs before the game ends. Make sure you’re familiar with the map and which routes you can take.

• The first buoy is near Castle Rock Island to the east
• The second buoy is between Crab Island and the shipwreck to the west
• The third buoy is between Temple Island and Castle Rock Island to the north

Disarming the Terminus bombs?

Immediately after hacking the three buoys, you will have to race back to Bio Lab to disarm three bombs around the room within five minutes. Failing to disarm them will result in Terminus exploding and the game ending.

These bombs looks like purple vials attached to a silver stand, each tucked into a wall compartment, and are disarmed by holding the interact key.

Two bombs are located on the bottom floor at either end of the room, and the final one is on the main floor, directly underneath the raised area that leads to the S.A.M Trial machine.

Survive the Final Encounter?

Once you have defused all three bombs, your screen will flash white and you will be able to access the Final Encounter, which is located on the lower levels of Bio Lab via a white door with a green light above it.

Before heading there, it’s wise to gear up with tier three armour and Pack-a-Punch, legendary quality weapons, all the perks you want, and a self-revive kit. This final boss is no joke, so any extras like powerups, Gogglegums, and equipment will be very useful.

Like the Liberty Falls Final Encounter, you can buy ammo in this room. However, keep in mind that max Pack-a-Punch ammo is $10,000. So, it’s not a bad idea to keep a tier two Pack-a-Punch weapon as a backup, since it only costs $5,000 to restock.

Entering the Final Encounter will place you into a unique boss room against Patient 13. There will also be infinitely spawning waves of zombies, including elites in the later rounds, and poison-lobbing tentacles. Since the enemies are never-ending, you will want to focus on the boss as much as you can—though you can also farm money for ammo using the standard zombies. ?

Patient 13 has three phases with unique attacks, so here are some things to keep in mind:?

• Aim for the glowing areas for critical damage: pustules in phase one, and its chest and tentacles in phase two
• Patient 13 will follow you around the arena, so keep track of them, especially to avoid its slam attack
• Use the cover and even the water to your advantage, though staying the water too long will spawn a roaming poison cloud
• Phase three will block off the arena, making the water the only way to traverse the two sections
• Phase three has a wipe mechanic when it charges electricity that can only be avoided by using the cover near the entrance

After eventually beating the boss, you will have the option to either continue playing or exit the match. If you choose to continue, you’ll be rewarded additional currency, Perkaholic, high-quality weapons, an Aether Tool to upgrade weapon rarity for free, and a Raw Aetherium Crystal to use the Pack-a-Punch machine for free, too.

Now you know how to beat the Black Ops 6 Zombies easter eggs for Liberty Falls and Terminus, all you need to do is put it to good use. After all, there are exclusive rewards up for grabs for those who are successful.

While you won’t need the best Black Ops 6 loadouts at hand to solve these puzzles, there’s no shortage of action in the campaign mode. Luckily, these puzzles are completely optional, so you can skip them if you’re not cut out for the Robin Hood lifestyle. Don’t forget though, you need money to upgrade the safehouse.

There are a total of nine safes to find in the Black Ops 6 campaign—one in each main mission (excluding the opening and finale), and one elaborate safehouse puzzle. Thankfully, aside from the safehouse safe, all safes follow the same structure. So, once you’ve solved one, you’ll have a good idea of how to open the rest.

How to unlock safes

The first step is finding the safe. After that, you need to look around and locate a nearby radio, which you'll know you're getting close to when the signal strength indicator appears on-screen Use the indicator to pinpoint the location of the radio.

Once you’ve found the radio, interact with it to begin the waveform puzzle.

Here, you must change the frequency and amplitude of the waveform to match the signal (basically bending the shape of the waveform to match the background), at which point the radio will begin to play a repeating string of numbers. Those numbers are the safe code—punch them into the safe to claim your rewards.

Blood Feud safe code and location

Blood Feud is the first campaign mission to feature a safe, and opening it is simple once you know where to look.

Progress through the mission until you reach Chateau de la Haute Lune, where you will exit the van into a plaza area. Both your main mission objective and the safe are located inside the main building. However, instead of barging in the front door, head to the far left side of the building.

On the left side of Chateau de la Haute Lune, you will see a stack of cardboard boxes behind a white van parked down the alley. There will be a light above, so you’ll know when you’re in the right place.

Climb these boxes to reach a ledge where you can open a vent into the building. Head into the vent and take the first right, where you will hear two guards talking. Remove the vent panel to kill these two enemies and then drop down into the room.

You will find the radio on a desk to the side of the room, near the exit door. Match the signal and then claim your $1,000 from the safe next to the green desk at the centre of the room.

Most Wanted safe code and location

Most Wanted drops you into Capitol Station with the freedom to decide how to proceed, with three major leads to follow. It’s easy to get caught up in the Mission Impossible-like scenario here, so it’s a good thing that the safe can be opened almost immediately.

Once you’re free to explore the party, head to the off-limit area behind the bar. This will be directly to your right as you enter Capitol Station.

Wait for the guard to leave the entrance on a quick patrol and sneak in, heading through the closest red and yellow curtains. Then, take the first right out of another set of curtains to find a small room.

The radio will be on the desk directly to your right and the safe is at the back left.

Hunting Season safe code and location

In a surprising shakeup, Hunting Season unleashes you onto a large, open map with several objectives to complete however you’d like.

With such a sprawling locale to search, it’s easy to miss the Hunting Season safe. Thankfully, it’s not too far away from one of the main objectives.

You will want to head to the Village point of interest to the southwest of the Layup (northwest of the Satellite Farm Outpost). This is an enemy outpost, meaning you’ll first have to clear out the area. There are a ton of enemies in the village, including some with rocker launchers, so I don't recommend barging in.

Once clear, head inside the large house at the centre of the village. If you’re entering from the west, then you will need to head up a small staircase, whereas the east side entrance already takes you to the main floor.

The radio is located on a desk with a TV in a small dark room by the east exit. The safe is tucked in next to a cabinet in the well-lit kitchen area.

The Cradle safe code and location

In what must be a conscious decision to catch out those rushing through the campaign, the safe location in The Cradle is found almost immediately.

Upon starting the mission, you’ll see a large statue in the background, with a room either side of an arched doorway. Head into the building on the left side and go up the stairs to find a lavish seating area.

The radio is located on a table directly to the right of the built-in wall safe. How convenient!

Emergence safe code and location

Emergence is one of Black Ops 6’s most unexpected missions, though don’t get carried away with excitement as it’s very easy to miss this safe.

Progress through the mission until you reach the futuristic science lab and are set the task of finding four security cards from the four sectors of the facility. Proceed with your objective until eventually you head to the Cognitive Research (red) sector.

Upon entering Cognitive Research, continue down the hallway where you will find a wheelchair near a doorway. Instead of taking the left turn, head right into a hallway that leads to a locker room.

The radio is tucked into a nook on the left of the shelves at the centre of the room, while the safe is against the wall near the exit, next to a rack of lab coats.

High Rollers safe code and location

The High Rollers safe is very hard to miss, though it’s easy to second-guess yourself given it's found late into the mission. Continue with the mission as normal until you are controlling Sev inside the vault room.

Here, you will have to call the elevator for Marshall and Felix to break into the vault which, conveniently, is right next to the radio and safe. Yes, the radio really is sat directly to the left of the elevator and the safe is on the right, behind a wooden panel.

Ground Control safe code and location

Hot on the heels of Gusev, Ground Control is an intense mission that doesn’t give you much breathing room to explore. Thankfully though, its safe is located towards the start.

Once you’ve entered the airport, continue through the first terminal and eliminate the enemies. Before you head into departures (which will trigger a shootout), turn directly to your left to find the information desk.

The radio is tucked into a cubby hole on the far right end of the desk as you approach. The safe is a short distance away in the room directly to the left of the departure gate.

Under the Radar safe code and location

Like The Cradle, the safe in Under the Radar can be accessed almost right away. Once you’re given your three objectives, leave the watchtower as normal and head straight to the Radar Dish objective.

Enter the building (either via the ladder on the outside or the front door and heading upstairs) where you will see a guard standing next to the radio, and two more behind a locked area.

Take out the guard by the radio and match the signal as usual. Then, lockpick the gate directly behind you and kill the two guards inside. The safe can be found in the corner directly to the right of the gate.

How to open the Safehouse safe

The safehouse safe code is the most elaborate safe puzzle in Black Ops 6, and the only one that breaks from the usual formula.

To open this safe, you will first need to complete various puzzles within the safehouse, including the piano and generator puzzle that you might have come across while wandering around.

Don’t worry if you missed this safe the first time you visited the safehouse, either. You will have several other opportunities to obtain it as you progress through the campaign.

Step 1: Generator

Begin by heading down into the basement, found through a closed door in a hall behind Woods, near the entrance of the building. Here, you will find a generator with three interactable components. While the nearby note does give you instructions on how to get the generator running, they’re not all that clear.

To turn on the generator, you must turn the boiler wheel twice and turn the fuel valve once. Then, turn the pilot dial. With the generator fixed, all you have to do is turn the boiler wheel twice to refill the generator with water and you’re good to go.

Step 2: Piano

The safehouse piano puzzle is arguably the most confusing step to cracking the safe, at least before you understand how it works.

This room, found at the back of the house near the garden, has a piano and a blacklight. Pick up the blacklight and interact with the piano and you will see five symbols above the keys. Take note of the symbols and their order on the piano, as this varies from player to player.

Look around the room using the blacklight and you will see these very same symbols on the walls, marked with an arrow pointing in another direction and a number.

Find the first symbol and take note of the number before following the arrow to the next symbol. Thankfully, this order is fixed, unlike the display above the keys.

In case you want to skip the detective work, you will need to press whichever piano keys align with the following symbols, in order:

• Ми
• Р别
• 颁и
• До
• Pe

With the piano puzzle complete, a door will open to the right which leads to another basement, continuing the safehouse safe puzzle. Head down the stairs and take the short hallway to the right where you will find a keypad.

Step 3: Keypad

As with the other keypad puzzles in the campaign, it’s merely a matter of identifying which keys need to be pressed using the blacklight, and then figuring out the order by process of elimination.

This five-digit code is random, so you will have to examine your keypad carefully. Take note that some numbers may be repeated, displayed through multiple fingerprints when viewed under your blacklight.

Enter the buttons and you’ll be told whether it’s correct or not. Green means that the number is in the right spot, yellow numbers are present in the sequence just in a different position, while red numbers are outright incorrect.

Step 4: Cipher

With the door unlocked, walk inside and head left to find a computer with a cipher puzzle. Again, this is a standard puzzle through the campaign, so you’ll get the hang of it if you haven’t already.

Examine the code word in the top left and use the cipher at the bottom to fill in the blanks. The good news is that you can’t fail this puzzle and, while the order is random, the code words are consistent.

If you want to speed things up, the code words are:

• BUNKER
• OPEN
• HOLDING
• ROOM

Once complete, leave the room and head down the hallway to the right where you will now find an unlocked door.

Go inside and lockpick the door in front of you. With this locked door open, you can now enter the interrogation room and pick up the key on the small desk at the centre of the room.

Leave this room to return to the main hallway, this time taking the hallway to your right. At the end of this corridor will be a locked door that you can open with your key. You’ll know you’re in the right spot once the signal strength indicator appears.

Step 5: Radio

Using the signal indicator, find the radio on the cabinet directly opposite you as you enter the room, next to the mannequin. Tune the radio and you will be given a unique recording.

Unlike the other radios, this one will not directly reveal the code. Instead, it will hint at objects in the room which, when viewed under the blacklight, will reveal the safe code numbers. So, listen to the recording carefully and pick out key phrases and objects, as this puzzle has several random variations.

It’s a good idea to have a notepad next to you for this step as the safe is actually on the first floor, meaning you’ll have to remember your code for a short while. Additionally, it doesn’t matter if you can only figure out three of the four numbers, as you can brute force the final one.

Step 6: Safe

Once you have figured out your code, leave the basement to return to the ground floor. Then, head upstairs using the stairs by the front door. At the top, turn left and left again to find a bedroom with a safe in the left corner. Enter your code correctly and the safe will open.

With all the money from these safes, you’ll be able to purchase plenty of safehouse upgrades to bolster your combat effectiveness. Along the way, you’ll also earn several charms, stickers, and other rewards that will go nicely with your Mastery Camo in the multiplayer modes. What’s not to love about that?

And we're talking about the full double XP lineup, meaning you'll earn double account XP, double weapon XP, and double Gobblegum earn rate in Zombies. What's a Gobblegum, you might be asking if you're a simple PvP CoD player like myself? They're temporary buffs, like infinite ammo or instant revives, that make it easier to survive those later rounds, and therefore earn more XP.

The party continues with a few Nuketown-centered playlist updates going live on Nov 1:

• Nuketown 24/7 in featured playlists
• Hardcore Nuketown 24/7 in the Hardcore tab
• Includes TDM, Domination, Hardpoint, Kill Confirmed

If you're feeling pretty good about Call of Duty this year like I am but haven't had much free time to level up weapons, four full days of double XP is a godsend. It's no coincidence that Treyarch is adding a 24/7 Nuketown playlist at the same time—there's nothing CoD players love more than double XP and a tiny map perfect for grinding kills. Nuketown isn't quite as hectic as Modern Warfare staples like Shipment or Rust, but it's a worthy pint-sized battleground for those racing to unlock the Black Ops 6 mastery camos.

I posit that Call of Duty is at its most fun when you're unlocking stuff twice as fast, and that maybe Activision should just consider doing this 52 times a year, but I'll settle for the company's generous four-day interpretation of a "weekend"—Double XP starts tomorrow and ends Monday, Nov 4.

Internet provider Comcast recently put out a statement (via The Verge) reporting the "biggest week in internet history". In this, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 accounts for 19% of all network traffic coming up to its launch.

Nearly a third of Comcast's data was just Call of Duty and Thursday Night Football, which is a pretty huge amount of its total data. Figures aren't available on last year's Call of Duty launch, though it didn't have as big a launch as Black Ops 6.

Importantly, Comcast only gives its Xfinity users 1.2 TB of data with its plans, so customers do have to choose how they spend their data when it comes to huge releases like this.

As pointed out in the Black Ops 6 system requirements before launch, the game itself on Steam is over 120 GB but can be much more with extra packs post-launch and previous Call of Duty games. This means that not only are Comcast customers choosing to play the game en masse but many of them are effectively choosing to do that over other uses of their data. That Comcast limit is a monthly cap, and I would have gone significantly over 1.2 TB of data just this month as I bought a new PC and decided to cram pretty much every game I could fit onto my new SSD.

However, a silver lining in this report is that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 actually seems worth playing this year. From spending some time getting through the campaign and taking on zombies, it's the most I've enjoyed the game basically since the invention of COD HQ a few years ago.

This file size problem has only gotten worse since launch, as Treyarch launched Nuketown amid complaints about maps and spawn points. Despite the game launching on Xbox Game Pass, it still seems to be outselling the previous Call of Duty, which was, admittedly pretty terrible. Hopefully, this big launch will see greater support throughout the year, even if Comcast's monthly limit may get in the way.

"Basketball easter egg found," one player who goes by SmartGuy316 says. "Make the ball in the hoop for a free 2,000 points (The Ball is sitting in the corner above the gas canister on the WW quest door on the roof). Definitely need to find a good setup of this for speedruns." I'm not sure how many attempts SmartGuy316 had before finally scoring the points, but regardless of the number of attempts, it's still an impressive shot.

Getting 2,000 points in Zombies is nothing to sniff at. Some players have pointed out how strangely difficult it is to get enough points the usual way. "To start off, the number one issue that Zombies YouTubers had pointed out after playing BO6 Zombies was that the point scaling was off, and it felt like they consistently never had enough points," one player says.

"In BO6, we have ammo mods, gobblegums, pack a punch, tactical, lethal, and support equipment, weapon rarities, etc. In theory, more options equals more variety in gameplay and more happy players. However, with so many systems, balancing becomes difficult. With the points system, there is no longer a way to prioritize how you receive points, such as getting headshots vs melee kills vs body kills, etc." The points system may be a little off, thanks to just how many new items players can have, but beggars can't be choosers when you're knee-deep in undead killer corpses that are trying to rip your face off.

So, if you find yourself low on points and want a not-so-easy and probably not-that-quick way of wracking some up, it's worth giving this easter egg a shot. The only other noteworthy thing is that you need to have the right weapon. "It SEEMS as if this only works with packed explosive weapons and from the angle that I did it here, but I would love to be wrong on that," SmartGuy316 says. Otherwise, this easter egg is pretty straightforward.

There are also a couple of other easter eggs popping up more as players start to really look around their surroundings. On Liberty Falls, just outside the front entrance of the church in Hilltop, if you throw a lethal at a Floating Head on top of the highest steeple point and manage to hit it, you'll then be greeted by loads of zombies falling from the sky (via Detonated).

But falling zombies aren't the only fun thing you get from this easter egg. As the undead hit the ground and explode on impact, they give you some valuable loot like support items, armour plates, aether tools, and lethals and tacticals. It's not much, but you have to get help any way you can when you're in BO6 Zombies.

Nadella must be settling nicely into his new role as Call of Duty overlord, because declaring that this year's Call of Duty is the new biggest Call of Duty you've ever made is classic Activision. Even when CoD was clearly in a down year, Activison's previous stewards always found a metric that it excels in. To be fair, anyone could've guessed Black Ops 6 was gonna break a CoD record or two: It's the first Call of Duty to launch on Game Pass, so it would've been bigger news if it weren't immediately the most-played on release day.

Nadella also mentioned that sales on PlayStation and Steam are up 60% over last year. A positive sign for the series' health, but without sales numbers to compare, I wonder if this speaks more to how much of a stinker last year's Modern Warfare 3 was.

The victory lap continued on social media, where the Call of Duty X account shared engagement records (again, no actual figures included). Over a three-day opening weekend period, Black Ops 6 racked up the most hours and matches played in series history, which is consistent with the total player record. Launching the biggest game of every year on Microsoft's subscription service is having the intended impact on subscribers, too: Nadella added that BO6 contributed to Game Pass' highest single-day subscriber adds.

Our Black Ops 6 review is in progress, but the party happening in the Zombies mode looks fun, and I'm happy to report that Omnimovement has won over this boots-on-the-ground player.