THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE to EVERY ATTACHMENT in Black Ops 6: In-Depth Explanations & Use-Cases!

The Definitive Guide to Every Attachment in Black Ops 6

An In-Depth Guide by XVI the Great

Black Ops 6 has a very simple Gunsmith, yet it can still be challenging to understand what attachments are worth using, and which ones aren’t. This guide is designed to serve as a definitive resource that explains every universal attachment in the game in a way that is helpful to players of all skill levels. If you ever ask yourself “is this attachment good or not?”, the explanation lies below. Specialty attachments, such as the Buffer Weight Stock, are not included.

Also included are the use-cases of each attachment that explains what weapon classes or playstyles an attachment is best used for. This guide is written from the perspective of using 5 attachments in Multiplayer, so when an attachment has a use-case of “None” - meaning it is never good to use because using a different attachment would simply be better – it means that it is not worth using as 1 of your 5 attachments. Many of these attachments are still beneficial to use in Gunfighter builds and have a use-case there. Ultimately, the use-cases are based on my personal opinion and years of experience building and optimizing weapon loadouts. At the end of the day, feel free to use what you want and do not let anyone tell you not to have fun.

The guiding principle behind my interpretation of each attachment is whether it would benefit you in the majority of gunfights – that is my #1 metric for good or bad.

Optics

The following are low-zoom, general use scopes. The Kepler Microflex is realistically the only sight that should ever be used (except for Snipers), but other options are available, especially if you are having trouble hitting headshots on the camo grind.

  • Best All Around: Kepler Microflex
    • The clearest, slimmest, least obtrusive frame.
  • Great for Headshots: Kepler Red Dot
    • Just the right amount of zoom (1.25x) for hitting headshots with unprecedented scope clarity. I would consider this the best option for the camo grind.
  • Reduces Gun Kick (no ADS penalty): Accu-Spot Ultra Holo (3x zoom)
    • A somewhat goofy shape, but no handling penalty.
  • Reduces Gun Kick (ADS penalty): Jason Armory 2x (2x zoom), Willis 3x (3x zoom)
    • Very clean, usable scopes that appreciably make firing easier, but come with a small handling penalty.

Muzzles

  • Suppressor
    • Effects: No Minimap Firing Ping
    • Use-Cases: High-value universal attachment
    • The Suppressor is one of the highest-value attachments in the entire game and should absolutely, positively be used whenever possible. Every time you fire an unsuppressed weapon, you show up as a red dot on every enemy's minimap (in Hardcore, you only have a minimap while someone on your team has deployed a UAV, so Suppressors are not nearly as important there). Using a Suppressor to stay off the minimap is an absolute top priority. It makes a significant difference in how often enemies are able to be aware of you (audio-wise), not only are you harder to detect in combat (especially with occlusion), but going loud and unsilenced basically gives every single enemy in the game a direct, real-time, 100% accurate indicator that tells them exactly where you are, every single time you fire your weapon. My #1 tip to improve at Call of Duty is to learn how to religiously watch the minimap. If you look at any high-caliber player's gameplay, simply look at how often their eyes flick to the corner of the screen - back and forth, constantly. They're looking for that free information, and once an aware player knows where you are (because you aren’t using a Suppressor), it can practically be a free kill.
  • Compensator
    • Effects: Strongest reduction of Vertical & Visual Recoil  
    • Use-Cases: SMGs, and long-range accuracy over fully automatic, sustained fire
    • SMGs have an elevated, continuous level of recoil that is best mitigated by the Compensator. While the Ported Compensator may seem attractive, by proactively compensating for recoil and pulling down at the same time you fire, you can maintain laser-accurate fire despite bumpy conditions. The Compensator is also the best form of mitigation for using fully automatic weaponry over long distances, such as Assault Rifles and LMGs – it will provide the smoothest possible firing conditions in the slot.
  • Ported Compensator
    • Effects: Medium reduction of Vertical & Visual Recoil; special mitigation on first shot
    • Use-Cases: Weapons that jump significantly after firing, highly accurate players performing fully automatic fire over short periods of time, and burst weapons
    • Over extended periods of fully automatic fire, the Ported Compensator performs worse than the standard Compensator, so if you choose Ported, you are committing to hitting your opening barrage of shots for quick, precise, technical kills. If you fail to hit the majority of your opening shots, your recoil will be worse than if you had used the standard Compensator. As such, the Ported Compensator is ideal for Competitive and Ranked due to the high accuracy of competitive/professional players. These players are often holding specific angles with limited windows of time to kill targets as they cross; as such, they need the highest possible accuracy over a short period of time. If you are the type of player that shoots 5 and hits 4, the Ported Compensator is for you.
    • With regards to burst weapons, effective fire is dictated by starting and ending a burst on-target; burst weapons often have an intense first-shot kick, which runs the risk of knocking the rest of the burst off-target; mitigating that first shot is the key to maintaining accurate bursts over distance.
  • Muzzle Brake
    • Effects: Special mitigation on first shot, reduces scope rebound*, shortens recoil pattern reset period
    • Use-Cases: High-kick, slow rate of fire semi-automatic weapons, and an unknown amount of other weapons
    • This attachment functions in a most unexpected way, and not exactly a pleasant one. Thanks to the thorough sleuthing of u/TheXclusiveAce, the Muzzle Brake’s described functionality is rather misleading: It fails to improve the recenter speed of a weapon as expected, and only improves the rebound when returning back upwards to the point of origin. Think about firing a .50 caliber sniper – massive kick upwards followed by recentering back to where you were originally aiming – this part is unfortunately unaffected by the Muzzle Brake. As the scope falls back down, it will sink beneath the point you were originally aiming due to gravity, then rebound back upwards to the point of origin. This is the part that is improved by the Muzzle Brake, and that means using this attachment for that purpose is a waste of an attachment.
    • The real functionality of the Muzzle Brake is that it improves the speed at which a weapon’s recoil pattern resets. Under prolonged periods of sustained fire, a weapon’s recoil pattern gets progressively worse and more intense. Each weapon has a built-in timer that dictates when that recoil pattern resets to normal, as if you are firing it for the first time. The Muzzle Brake shortens that reset period. What is the recoil reset time of any given gun, you might ask? Until a talented-enough detective sniffs that out, or we are graced by the almighty wisdom of Treyarch themselves, nobody knows.
    • You may be tempted to use the Muzzle Brake on Snipers due to the recenter speed; you should not use this attachment on any bolt-action rifles because you can manually recenter after each shot. Any time human compensation or personal skill can replace the need for an attachment, you can build a better gun. The Muzzle Brake should only be used on high fire-rate semi-automatic rifles, like the Tsarkov 7.62, SVD, or AMR Mod 9.

Barrels

  • Gain-Twist Barrel
    • Effects: Strongest increase of Bullet Velocity
    • Use-Cases: Hardcore only on medium/large maps
    • Disclaimer: I know many players are concerned about Velocity and Hitscan range and might think this attachment is mandatory, but if you are only using 5 attachments, increasing your Hitscan range will only help you in an occasional gunfight rather than the majority of gunfights.
    • Hitscan refers to the maximum distance your bullet will instantly strike a target with zero travel time. Otherwise, for distant targets, your bullet may have a 10/20/30ms, etc. travel time before it hits the target, sinking due to gravity and possibly necessitating that you lead your target.
    • Hitscan is directly measured by your Bullet Velocity, divided by 20. For example, if you have 800 m/s Velocity, you will have a Hitscan range of 40 meters. If you fire at any targets 40 or less meters away, your bullets will not have a travel time and will instantly strike the target.
    • In the vast majority of gunfights, especially in Black Ops 6’s often-microscopic maps, Bullet Velocity will almost never be a factor. There are many misconceptions about Bullet Velocity, such as giving you better hit registration, it makes your guns “hit different”, or that you can “feel the difference”. These anecdotes are almost never true and I went extremely in-depth about the fallacies and misconceptions surrounding Bullet Velocity in last year’s MW3 Advanced Stats guide, Section 5: “Bullet Velocity: The Single Most Misunderstood Stat in Call of Duty”.
  • Long Barrel
    • Effects: Strongest increase of Damage Range
    • Use-Cases: All SMGs, Shotguns, and Pistols
    • For anyone unclear on Damage Range, the Maximum Damage Range is the distance from 0 meters (your gun) that your gun deals the “maximum” amount of damage – the numbers shown in the Advanced Stats.
    • SMGs live and die by Damage Range, as their TTKs fall off very hard the second you attempt to engage someone outside of it, so extending your maximum Damage Range on SMGs is practically mandatory. However, most Assault Rifles, Light Machine Guns, Marksman Rifles, and Sniper Rifles have extremely generous Damage Ranges that handle the majority of engagements without losing any damage, even over midrange.
    • If the vast majority of your gunfights occur within the Maximum Damage Range, the Long Barrel is a wasted attachment and you are actually playing with 4 attachments instead of 5. It is not worth using a Long Barrel for the 1 in 10 engagements where it might help; it is far more worthwhile to take an attachment that helps with 4 out of 5 engagements – namely a dot sight, Muzzle, Underbarrel, Magazine, Rear Grip, or Stock.
  • Reinforced Barrel
    • Effects: Medium increase of Bullet Velocity & Damage Range
    • Use-Cases: None
    • Repeat Disclaimer: I know many players are concerned about Velocity and Hitscan range and might think this attachment is mandatory, but if you are only using 5 attachments, increasing your Hitscan range will only help you in an occasional gunfight rather than the majority of gunfights.
    • The explanation here is largely the same as the Gain-Twist Barrel: This is not an attachment that will help you in the majority of gunfights. However, with all of the weapon classes that do not need Range or Velocity boosts (AR, LMG, MR, SR), it is the perfect attachment to throw on with Gunfighter.
  • Short Barrel
    • Effects: Reduces weapon handling penalties when jumping
    • Use-Cases: None
    • Jumping is a generally ineffective form of movement during a gunfight in Black Ops 6, and for anyone unfamiliar, you receive both an ADS and S2F penalty if you attempt to aim and shoot while jumping. The jumping penalty combined with the almost complete removal of bunny-hopping means that the best way to challenge an enemy is almost never by initiating a jump. In combat, jumping is only useful to gain elevation and engage an enemy you otherwise cannot see from a standing position.
  • CHF Barrel
    • Effects: Increases headshot damage; significantly increases recoil
    • Use-Cases: Sniper Rifles only
    • The CHF Barrel is an awful attachment, which is especially disappointing considering that the vast majority of time spent in the Multiplayer camo grind is getting headshots, so you would figure that the CHF Barrel is a no-brainer. In fact, it looks purpose-built to help with the camo grind! It is, in fact, a trap. Do NOT use this attachment. It should always reduce shots to kill when a single headshot is landed, but there are countless scenarios where equipping this attachment literally does nothing, ever, and only makes your gun worse. This attachment is lazily and irresponsibly implemented. If it cannot provide a benefit under any situation, it should not be allowed to be equipped.
    • In Core, there are plenty of scenarios where you can equip it and have the appreciable benefit of requiring one less headshot to kill, which sounds good, but there is a double downside to consider: (1) you deprive yourself of an attachment which could ironically help you get more headshot kills faster (2) the extreme recoil penalties increase your chance of missing, even in close quarters; if the added recoil causes you to miss shots, you are not actually able to take advantage of the faster time to kill
    • There are plenty of scenarios where the CHF Barrel can “help”, but there are even more scenarios where equipping it does literally nothing, and no matter what combination of shots you have – whether they are purely to the head or a mixture of head and body shots, you have a worthless attachment.
    • With Snipers, this should only be used if you struggle to hit enemies in the one-shot kill zone, which for each sniper, can be seen in the Advanced Stats by the area shaded in red. If that is too difficult for you, the CHF Barrel can make it a decent bit easier.

Underbarrels

  • Vertical Foregrip (Some guns: “Weighted Handguard”)
    • Effects: Strongest reduction of Horizontal Recoil
    • Use-Cases: High-value universal attachment for every weapon class except Shotguns and Snipers
    • One of the best, highest-value attachments in the entire game, the Vertical Foregrip provides best-in-slot reduction of Horizontal Recoil – one of the highest-priority stats. Vertical Recoil is extremely easy to compensate for; you simply pull down as soon as you begin firing. Horizontal Recoil, however, kicks in at different times on different weapons, in different directions and angles, and directly governs how stable a recoil plot is. The Vertical Foregrip will not remove your Horizontal Recoil, but in many cases it can make it negligible and, worst case scenario, makes your gun very easy to shoot.
  • Lightweight Foregrip
    • Effects: Strongest reduction to Idle Sway
    • Use-Cases: Snipers only
    • The Lightweight Foregrip provides the strongest reduction to Aiming Idle Sway, which is the random bob and sway back and forth, up and down as you hold ADS. However, every gun has a stat called “ADS Idle Sway Delay” – when you enter ADS, this delay is the amount of time before your weapon starts swaying at full strength (so you have a generous ‘grace period’ before sway fully kicks in) which can certainly knock you off target. When using Snipers, with good centering and breath control, you can easily defeat the effects of Aiming Idle Sway.
  • Marksman Foregrip
    • Effects: Adds “Hold Breath” to any weapon; reduces recoil & adds small zoom while holding breath
    • Use-Cases: None
    • The Marksman Foregrip is an inventive, interesting attachment, but simply has no real use. It works independently of your optic (so you can use whatever zoom desired or even no optic at all), and when you ADS, you gain the option to hold your breath. Doing so will reduce your recoil and zoom in, which can help capture some niche, precision kills. As a clever user in the comments pointed out, it can be used with Ironsight snipers (which have no glint - even using a red dot on a sniper will add glint), to zoom in without a scope and get a tiny bit more precise.
    • If you want to reduce recoil, use an attachment that reduces it every time you fire – not just the times you hold your breath. You never want to think about having to constantly hold your breath in the heat of battle; the manual maintenance required to use this attachment will almost guaranteed make you shoot worse and cause you to lose gunfights.
  • Precision Foregrip
    • Effects: Moderate reduction of Horizontal Recoil; Minimal reduction to Idle Sway
    • Use-Cases: None
    • The Precision Foregrip matches the Ranger Foregrip in terms of Horizontal Recoil reduction, but instead of enhancing your Sprint Speed, it improves your Aiming Idle Sway by a small amount. This attachment certainly sounds good for long-range engagements where you want a sensible blend of reduction of both Horizontal Recoil and Idle Sway, but the Horizontal Recoil reduction pales in comparison to the Vertical Foregrip, and the Aiming Idle Sway reduction is simply negligible. This attachment does two things poorly, so do not use it.
    • If you are using a high-zoom scope and looking for something like this for long-range engagements, you can hold your breath to freeze the sway or exit and re-enter ADS to reset Idle Sway and reactivate your ADS Idle Sway Delay, which would allow you to instead use the Vertical Foregrip, making you more accurate overall.
  • Ranger Foregrip
    • Effects: Moderate reduction of Horizontal Recoil; increases Sprint Speed
    • Use-Cases: Universal applicability except Snipers & Shotguns
    • For any gun with light-enough Horizontal Recoil that you don’t need the full mitigation of the Vertical Foregrip for, the Ranger Foregrip is a great option for mixing recoil reduction with mobility, but remember this: Sprinting faster is nice, but Sprint Speed doesn’t help you in a gunfight. In a gunfight, your more pertinent stats are things like Strafe Speed and Horizontal Recoil, so the Vertical Foregrip is generally the better choice, and I feel comfortable using the Ranger Foregrip only on Nuketown or small maps.
  • Launcher (Standard / Smoke / High Explosive / Drill Charge)
    • Effects: Adds Underbarrel launcher
    • Use-Cases: Personal preference
    • This attachment is more for “class fantasy” and immersive play and has no real use-case, but never let anyone tell you not to have fun.

Magazines

  • Extended Magazine Level 1
    • Effects: Increases Magazine Capacity; Reduces Reload Speed
    • Use-Cases: High-value universal attachment
    • Because there is no option to reload faster except by taking an outright penalizing Magazine attachment, this tilts your choice in favor to making the magazine bigger. On all weapon classes, Extended Magazine 1 comes with zero penalties except making your reload slightly slower (in most cases), making it the logical choice.
  • Extended Magazine Levels 2/3/4
    • Effects: Increases Magazine Capacity; Reduces Reload Speed & slows ADS / S2F / Strafe
    • Use-Cases: Select weapons with high ROF; player preference
    • Using an Extended Magazine beyond Level 1 almost universally comes with a further penalized reload time, in addition to new ADS & S2F penalties and possible Movement Speed penalties. For weapons that burn through their magazine in the blink of an eye (AS-VAL, Kompakt 92, GPMG), these attachments are definitely worth the downsides.
  • Fast Mag Levels 1/2/3
    • Effects (Level 1): Reduces Reload Speed
    • Effects (Level 2/3): Reduces Reload Speed and Magazine Capacity; Enhances ADS / S2F / Strafe Speed
    • Use-Cases: None; Snipers only
    • Fast Mag 1 provides an insultingly low increase to reload speed in exchange for losing a whole attachment slot to accomplish so little. Fast Mag 2 and 3 actually reduce your magazine capacity to further reduce your reload speed (by proportionally paltry amounts) while also providing ADS, S2F, and possible Movement Speed bonuses. The bonuses sound attractive, but reducing your magazine size in a game with tiny maps, terrible spawns, and a slow TTK for such negligible benefit is a truly losing combination. The only reasonable application is gaining faster ADS on a Sniper Rifle.
  • Flip Mag
    • Effects: Reduces Magazine Capacity (Some*); Reduces Reload Speed every other Reload
    • Use-Cases: None
    • Just like with Fast Mag, using this attachment is kind of like playing with 4 attachments instead of 5. The reload speed benefit is negligible, and to add insult to injury, the faster reload speed only applies every other reload. Absolutely horrific attachment; stay far away.

Rear Grips

  • Quickdraw Grip
    • Effects: Strongest reduction of ADS time
    • Use-Cases: None
    • The Quickdraw Grip provides the best possible gain of ADS with no penalties, (except for Snipers, which gain the ADS bonus but with a heavy hit to Flinch Resistance). For everything else, it’s a great attachment, but it should be replaced with the Ergonomic Grip (or Commando for Snipers) as soon as it is unlocked.
  • Assault Grip
    • Effects: Strongest reduction of S2F time
    • Use-Cases: Non-Omnimovement Hipfire and Strelok builds
    • The Assault Grip provides the best possible gain to Sprint to Fire (S2F). Hipfire-only builds, such as Akimbo Saugs and Hipfire-maximized Shotguns should only use this grip until they unlock the CQB Grip. If you don’t use Omnimovement at all (sliding/diving), then this would be the best option.
    • To learn about the Strelok Laser and why it is so good, visit the Lasers section.
  • Commando Grip
    • Effects: Medium reduction of ADS & S2F time
    • Use-Cases: Snipers Only
    • This attachment is best in slot for Snipers since it provides the biggest boost to ADS without the penalty to Flinch Resistance (the Quickdraw Riser and Ergonomic Riser both heavily penalize Flinch Resistance).
    • The Commando Grip should only be used on non-Snipers if you do not use any form of Omnimovement; only traditional strafing and shooting.
  • Ergonomic Grip
    • Effects: Medium reduction of ADS time; strong reduction to Slide & Dive to Fire time
    • Use-Cases: Non-Strelok Omnimovement
    • If you slide or dive routinely (you should at least be sliding routinely) and do not use the Strelok Laser, this is your best-in-slot attachment. The Ergonomic Grip provides a nominal boost to ADS with massive reductions to your Slide and Dive to Fire Times, -50% to each. Considering that these timings are both usually 370ms by default, that is a massive improvement and completely changes how you can take advantage of Omnimovement.
    • How Slide & Dive to Fire Times Work: Thanks once again to the thorough sleuthing of u/TheXclusiveAce, SL2F and D2F times actually ignore both your ADS and S2F times, even if you were sprinting beforehand. You will be able to fire as soon as your SL2F or D2F time is up, regardless of how long it takes you to ADS (and if your ADS is slower than your SL2F or D2F times, it will not be throttled).
  • CQB Grip
    • Effects: Medium reduction of S2F time; strong reduction to Slide & Dive to Fire time
    • Use-Cases: Hipfire-only weapons; otherwise, only in combination with the Strelok Laser
    • When using Hipfire weapons, this grip allows you to slide without a massive firing delay.
    • To learn about the Strelok Laser and why it is so good, visit the Lasers section.

Stocks

  • Light Stock / No Stock
    • Effects: Strongest increase to non-sprint movement speed from the hip only
    • Use-Cases: Hipfire builds only
    • This will only provide a benefit when moving while standing/crouching and holding your weapon at the hip, but not while performing more important forms of movement: sprinting or aim-walking. Use exclusively with Hipfire-only weapon builds.
  • Infiltrator Stock
    • Effects: Strongest increase to Strafe Speed
    • Use-Cases: High-value universal attachment
    • The Infiltrator Stock provides the best possible increase to Aim Walking Movement Speed (aka Strafe). One of the most important forms of movement in a gunfight is something that happens automatically - Strafe Speed. Having a fast enough Strafe Speed allows you to actually “dodge bullets” by laterally moving away from your opponent’s aim.
  • Heavy Stock
    • Effects: Strongest increase to Flinch Resistance
    • Use-Cases: Snipers, weapons with high-zoom scopes
    • Flinch is generally not a large concern on most weapon classes but is extremely important on Snipers. This attachment can be used to counter the penalty from the Quickdraw Riser, but if you’re reading this guide, you know there’s a better way to gain good ADS without compromising on Flinch (Commando Riser).
  • Balanced Stock
    • Effects: Medium increase to non-sprinting movement speed from the hip and medium increase to Strafe Speed (no bonus to Sprint Speed)
    • Use-Cases: None
    • The Balanced Stock is a combination between the Light and Infiltrator Stocks at almost exactly half the strength of both, enhancing the speed of all categories affected by both of those stocks, but to a lesser degree. Ultimately, using the Balanced Stock represents an indecision between Hipfire-only or ADS-only; you should choose between one or the other and accentuate that playstyle with either of the other stocks.
  • Combat Stock
    • Effects: Medium increase to Strafe Speed and minimal reduction to Flinch Resistance
    • Use-Cases: None
    • Providing a boost to Strafe Speed equal to half the strength of the Infiltrator Stock, but approximately one-third of the Flinch Resistance of the Heavy Stock, the Combat Stock is yet another hybrid attachment that does two things poorly instead of one thing good.

Lasers

  • Steady Aim Laser
    • Effects: Strongest increase to Hipfire accuracy
    • Use-Cases: Shotguns kitted for Hipfire, Akimbo weapons
    • I think a lot of players use the Steady Aim Laser without considering how often it would actually benefit them, thinking it would be nice to have just in case they get into close-quarters engagements. The reality is that the vast majority of engagements in CoD occur at distances where the best and only option is to ADS. If you are using the Steady Aim Laser but ADS during 95% of your gunfights, then you are using a wasted attachment 95% of the time. It simply isn’t worth using this attachment unless your playstyle is dedicated to Hipfiring.
  • Fast-Motion Laser
    • Effects: Increases Hipfire accuracy during Omnimovement
    • Use-Cases: None
    • The Fast Motion Laser appreciably improves your Hipfire accuracy during Omnimovement, but not by an amount that makes it worth using. This attachment is far too situational to ever provide real benefit, but it does let you get cool action-hero kills during Omnimovement if that’s your thing.
  • Tactical Laser
    • Effects: Enables Tactical Stance
    • Use-Cases: Preference with Shotguns
    • The Tactical Laser allows you to enter TacStance, a hybrid between ADS and Hipfire that increases your movement speed at the cost of accuracy and performs best in close to mid-range, but always risks being outgunned due to the loss of accuracy. To enable TacStance, you must first ADS, then press the TacStance key / button (on controller, the default mapping is left on the D-Pad). TacStance is generally inadvisable for all weapon classes except Shotguns, where it does have a very real and competitive use-case. While using Shotguns, if you don’t like the handling delay of aiming down sights but also don’t like the range limitations of hipfiring, TacStance is your perfect middle ground. It will give you a tighter pellet spread than Hipfire (but worse than ADS), but will allow you to aim faster than fully aiming down sights. I strongly prefer Hipfiring with Shotguns, but TacStance might be your preference and it would not put you at a competitive disadvantage.
  • Strelok Laser
    • Effects: Replaces your ADS time with your S2F time
    • Use-Cases: High-value universal attachment
    • To put it plainly, the Strelok Laser is a VERY good attachment. It effectively disregards your ADS time and allows you to achieve near-ADS-level accuracy as soon as you finish sprinting out and begin raising your weapon from your hip to ADS, meaning that you are effectively ADS’d as soon as you start raising your weapon.
    • How to Use the Strelok Laser: Your muscle memory is likely ADS then fire, but with the Strelok Laser, you want to ADS and fire at the same time, since the Strelok Laser will significantly improve your accuracy as you raise your weapon from hip to ADS. This means you want to improve your S2F speed since you will technically begin engagements by firing from the hip. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to fully ADS since you will have nearly-full accuracy with the Strelok Laser, which very effectively and very accurately bridges the gap until you fully enter ADS.
    • How ADS & S2F Work: When you are sprinting and begin to ADS, the game will weigh your ADS speed against your S2F speed; the slower value of the two will be chosen, and your ADS will be throttled to that value. However, your S2F has a hidden secondary value depending on whether you were Sprinting or TacSprinting. If you were TacSprinting, your S2F time is, on average, 100ms slower.
    • Example: You have an ADS time of 200ms but an S2F time of 250ms. If you are sprinting and begin to ADS, you will ADS in 250ms. This is why it is important to balance ADS & S2F, especially when considering the invisible TacSprint penalty.
  • Target Laser
    • Effects: Increases ADS Idle Sway Delay and reduces scope movement while moving
    • Use-Cases: None
    • This attachment used to be a necessary crutch for Snipers as Aiming Idle Sway prevented Snipers from aiming down sight perfectly on-target (the reticle would be off-center and force you to recenter on the target), but Treyarch has since adjusted that silly behavior and added an appropriate Aiming Idle Sway Delay to all Snipers. If you still find sway to be a problem, you should consider better rationing of holding your breath, but you can also use the Target Laser as it increases the Idle Sway Delay.

Fire Mods

  • Recoil Springs
    • Effects: Moderate reduction of Vertical, Horizontal, and Visual Recoil
    • Use-Cases: High-recoil weapons in conjunction with another recoil-reducing attachment
    • The Recoil Springs are a decent hybrid attachment that uniformly reduces your Vertical Recoil, Horizontal Recoil, and Gun Kick, but provides the least amount of benefit in each category compared to the “real” recoil reduction attachments. If you need an attachment to reduce recoil, you should choose either a Muzzle or an Underbarrel first before the Recoil Springs. This attachment is best used on weapons where either one of those attachments does not do a good enough job of reducing recoil by itself and needs extra assistance. For example, the Kompakt 92’s recoil can be quite crazy, and if you find too much difficulty staying on target, it would be helpful to use the Recoil Springs for an extra boost to reduce both your physical and visual recoil.
  • Rapid Fire
    • Effects: Increases Fire Rate; significantly increases recoil
    • Use-Cases: Reducing the burst delay on burst weapons and improving rechamber speed on Snipers
    • While Rapid Fire can technically be used on any weapon, it does come with a significant recoil penalty – so if you want to improve your TTK a small margin, expect to lose the ability to challenge more distant targets you could previously challenge without a problem. Ultimately, the TTK gain is only truly beneficial if you are a highly-accurate player who can control recoil very well and generally hit 4 out of every 5 shots at minimum. If you cannot hit nearly every shot, the missed shots will end up making your TTK slower than your non-Rapid Fire TTK. If you use Rapid Fire, you cannot miss.
    • On burst weapons, such as the Swat and AEK, this is an invaluable attachment because it is the only attachment that can provide an appreciable reduction in the delay between bursts and is well worth the recoil penalty. On bolt-action Snipers, such as the LW3A1 and LR 7.62, you practically suffer no penalty and reduce the delay between shots.
  • FMJ
    • Effects: Reduces damage penalty when shooting through objects; increases damage when shooting Scorestreaks
    • Use-Cases: None
    • FMJ is generally not worth using because Penetration Kills are extremely uncommon, and dedicating a full attachment slot to only occasionally benefit you is a poor choice; you want to use attachments that help you every single gunfight. Even so, I recall testing the efficacy of FMJ in Hardcore to improve my Nuketown wallbangs, and by the time I reached the fifth AR with absolutely no change in shots to kill with and without FMJ, I decided not to continue.
  • Overpressured
    • Effects: Moderate increase to Bullet Velocity
    • Use-Cases: Hardcore only on medium/large maps
    • Threepeat Disclaimer: I know many players are concerned about Velocity and Hitscan range and might think this attachment is mandatory, but if you are only using 5 attachments, increasing your Hitscan range will only help you in an occasional gunfight rather than the majority of gunfights.
    • For the sake of sharing, there is only one area where I have found the stacking of both Gain-Twist Barrel and Overpressured to be useful: Pistol headshots in Hardcore. Pistols have such low Velocity that at midrange, bullets fired at headshot-level sink to the neck area due to low Velocity – there’s a helpful camo grind tip for you: Gain-Twist + Overpressured on Pistols in Hardcore.

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Thanks for reading. See you next guide :)