Weapon and Perk Guide v0.95

Created by IncredibleBulk92

last edited by IncredibleBulk92 10 months, 2 weeks ago

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Version	0.95	Type	General FAQ
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Can all authors publish?	No	Date Created	Sept. 18, 2008
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Introduction

This guide is, at the moment a serious work in progress, this is my first guide so bare with me. I'vey inadvertently gone with a sort of schizophrenic/resentful tone for this guide which I'm hope will entertain you at the very least, invoke resentment at best. I hope you can see the quality I'm going for here in the sections I've actually taken the time to do properly, I'm going to update the rest gradually in a completely random order. Basically what you'll find in here is a summary of every weapon, perk and attachment in the game along with any important stats or abilities and a few comments from me. Leave comments by any weapon or section if you feel you've got something usefull to contribute, I'd really love to see other people's opinions on the stuff in this guide, I'll credit you all when I figure out how to do that without messing up my nice clean layout :) If I messed up a spelling or whatever just PM me, no need to let everyone know lol.

Just to give a little bit of background about myself, I've been playing Call of Duty games ever since the first and I've tried each games multiplayer mode but none have grabbed me in the same way that Call of Duty 4's multiplayer has. My Gamertag is IncredibleBulk9 (tell me where you found me) I've played the multiplayer mode for more than a week, 200 hours in total. I decided to stop using the prestiege mode for at least a while after reaching the second level so I could play around with the Weapons and Perks a little more. My kill/death ratio is about 1.6 at time of writing and my biggest kill streak is 28.

I'm not really sure where to put this but I'd like to thank Infinity Ward and generally anybody who took part in making this game as great as it was. I'm eagerly looking forward to the next game in the Call of Duty series that we probably won't see until 2009 unfortunately but I'm willing to wait for quality.

A Side Note

I still consider this guide a kind of work in progress. I need to spell check a few sections and give it a few proof reads to polish it off before I consider it complete. I might also add a few more Class Suggestions if I find any good ones

So yea, please don't burn me at the stake because I've missed out the apostrophe in "thats" or something dumb, I'm not very clever so it's bound to have happened somewhere.

Tables

This weapons chart has stats pulled straight from the PC versions files so their accurate. In normal deathmatch each player has 100 health, in hardcore mode each player has 40 health and in the old school mode each player has 200 health. Throughout this guide I'll probably say things like "3 shots will kill" or something like that, If I say that I'm talking about the normal rules multiplayer so 100 health for each player.

Something most people don't realise about the health system in Call od Duty 4 is that after you take damage, you'll always take exactly 5 seconds to get all of your health back. Until these 5 seconds are over, you won't recover a single point of health. This means that if you tkae a hit and go down to 30% health, you'll be at 30% health for 5 seconds and then instantly have 100% health left. If you take 1% damage you'll be at 99% damage for 5 seonds and then you'll instantly go back to 100% health.

Weapon Stats

The damage and range stats are directly linked, at the lowest number for the range stat the weapon will do the highest amount of damage. The amount of damage desreases gradually as range increases unit at the maximum range the weapon does the lower amount of damage. Theres no good way to explain the scale of ranges in Call of Duty 4 so this is to give you a general idea of how much damage the weapons will do. The Hip Accuracy is how inaccurate the weapons are when fired from the hip, ie not looking down the sight. The higher the number the more bullets will spread. A final stat of interest is the Location Damage Multiplier, these numbers show that where your bullet hits your target affects how much damage it does, the locations themselves are shown on the small diagram at the top. These numbers really affect how effective a weapon is. For exaample in the sniper rifles section we can see that a headshot will always kill in one hit, a neck hit will also kill in one with most of them while shots to the limbs will always cause the normal 70 damage.

Some weapons have strange stats so I'll explain what they are here. First for the Assault Rifles and SMGs there are 2 stats for range and sometimes even damage, the lower numbers with SD written next to them represents the difference that silencers do to to weapon ranges. Strangley the Red Dot Sight reduces the damage that the AK-47 does, I don't know if this is a bug but none the less, its very strange. Shotguns have 8 x 30 - 10 for their damage, this is because shotguns fire 8 large pellets at their targets which spread out over distance. The further away a target is the less likely it is that these pellets will hit. Also you may notice that Sniper Rifles do not have any range, this is because they always do the same amount of damage no matter what the range.

Call of Duty 4 weapons chart

Explosives Chart

This chart details the different explosives present in Call of Duty 4's multiplayer, its pretty self explanatory really especially the fuse and other columns. The only parts I think need explaining is the range and damage ratings. These work in the exact same way as the weapons, at the centre of the blast the maximum amount of damage is caused, at the maximum range the lowest amount of damage is caused. This expands out at a radius from the grenade itself in a complete sphere unless otherwise stated meaning that a grenade that explodes in mid air can kill targets. The Direct Impact stat in the damage column is how much damage you'll do if you throw a grenade or fire a rocket directly into someone, yes this can kill if they have low enough health. Oh and don't ask me why the flash grenade even has a range rating if it doesn't have a damage rating, I don't know.

CoD4 Explosives chart

Destructibles

This table shows the health and damage that the destructible elements in the environment. I've given a bit more detail to this chart in the Others Section of the Guide. Something to note is that the car will catch fire after taking 550 damage points and will then catch fire, the barrel will catch fire after a single point of damage and will explode at 150 damage which is roughly 3 or 4 bullets. After something catches fire it's only a matter of time before it explodes, it will take damage from the fire that seems to take about 10 seconds.

Vehicles & Destructibles

General Advice

I'm not turning this guide into a complete multiplayer guide just yet but I plan to add a section here with a lot of general advice for play. I'm not doing it yet, I'm going to concentrate on the weapons and perks first. I've already included some advice on claymore placement in the claymore section so it won't go here, I'll probably tell people its down there tho Its just going to be a few short sections about things most people know like:

Reloading

Freqent reloading is essential in any shooting game, no more so than in Call of Duty 4. There's no knowing how many enemies you'll come up against or how they'll react, having a full clip of ammo will really help you out. After every firefight you should reload but you should try to avoid reloading if you think there might be another enemy coming around the corner soon. It's even more important to reload inteligently when you're equipped with a Light Machine Gun or Shotgun as these weapons take a very long time to reload so reloading mid firefight or getting caught reloading after an enemy turns up to a fight late will almost always prove fatal. There's no way to gaurantee that you'll always be safe when reloading but thinking about the best time to reload will reduce the number of times you're caught with your pants down.

Aim For The Head

Headshots are important in Call of Duty, a headshot is worth a lot more than a body shot, 2 shots to the head will usually kill while it might take 3 or 4 body shots. A personal able to take headshots quickly will rack up a lot of kills against player who aim for the body. Even aiming for the higher parts of somebody's body will net you the occasional headshot. Headshots are even more important if you're using a Sniper Rifle as you probably won't be able to take a second shot.

Evading Snipers

Evading snipers properly is a very useful ability. A good sniper will be able to get a headshot on a target sprinting across a small street, somebody trying to cross an open field is easy prey. One of the simplest things to do is zig-zag as your run, change direction at random intervals but make sure you still move in the direction you're trying to go, its the easiest thing in the world to get completely spun around and have to slow down to check where you are. Another thing to do is to vary your speed, switching between sprinting and just running can really throw snipers off especially if combined with zig-zagging. Also make sure you use cover where available if you know where the sniper is, this can allow you to catch your breathe and keep up the sprint for a bit longer. The most important point is to keep moving, if you stop you're a dead man, so keep moving damnit!

Class Suggestions

I wasn't really going to add this class until later in the guide but I really can't resist adding just a few selections right now at the very least. Feel free to suggest your own classes in the comments but try not to repeat anybody else's suggestion. Also bare in mind I typically play on Hardcore mode but I hav tried to accomodate for both modes.

The groups I've put these classes in are more to do with their function that their weapon so they're a little strange and I plan to add a few more when I get round to it

Assault

Brawler:

G36C (Red Dot Sight)

Deset Eagle

3 x Frag

Sleight of Hand

Steady Aim

This class is really designed to excel at close to medium range combat. The steady Aim and Sleight of Hand are awesome up close with the Red Dot Sight really helping at longer ranges.

Close Combat

Sneaky Flanker:

MP5 (Silencer)

M9 (Silencer)

Bomb Squad

UAV Jammer

Dead Silence

This class is built for the larger maps or games with small numbers of players such as team tactical or head-2-head. Its excellent for sneaking around maps and seeking out snipers. Just make sure not to spent too much time out in the open or you'll be killed pretty quickly.

Default Shotgun Class:

W1200 (Grip)

Desert Eagle

Bandolier

Sleight of Hand

Extreme Conditioning

Built to get right up close to enemies as fast as possible and chew them up. Really try to stay out of large open areas or get out of them quickly, you'll be very vunerable there. The Desert Eagle is used as its probably the best long range pistol and was chosen for specifically that purpose but don't try to take down snipers with it. The Shotgun itself is really interchangeable but there is something satisfying about hitting a two or three guys with shotgun blasts in the space of a few seconds.

Support

Assault Gunner:

RPD (Grip)

M9 (Silencer)

RPG-7 x 2

Sleight of Hand

Deep Impact

This class is designed around using the RPD as I consider it the best LMG, it really doesn't need too many Perks to help it. That said the gain from Sleight of Hand is much greater than the gains for other Group 2 Perks and I really consider it indespensible for this build. I think there should be at least 1 guy on each team with an RPG, and who better than the guy with Sleight of Hand, you could always switch it for Claymores if your more the type of guy that likes to stick to a single location. Oh and the Silenced Pistol is for quietly executing any enemies you bump into that might not be looking your way, The M9 was chosen because I consider it the best pistol to change to if you run of ammo mid firefight.

Blocker:

M60E4 (ACOG Scope)

Desert Eagle

Claymore x 2

Double Tap

Deep Impact

This class is made to hold down a flank or stop people entering a building, the M60 with the ACOG Scope and Double Tap can give you a fearsome amount of firepower against aproaching enemies and allow you to take out targets at long range who might be trying to snipe you. Use the Claymores to stop enemies sneaking up on you and make sure you listen for their distinctive click as somebody sets them off.

Snipers

Good All Rounder:

Dragunov

M4 (Red Dot Sight)

Claymores

Overkill

Iron Lung

This is my personal favorite sniper class, the Dragunov is an excellent Sniper Rifle and the combination of M4 and Claymores can allow you to defend yourself without relying on unreliable team mates.

One Shot:

M40A3

Desert Eagle

Claymores

UAV Jammer

Iron Lung

This is really a class dedicated to doing one thing, getting headshots. This class is made to hide behind a tree or in a building out of the way and kill unsuspecting targets. The best places for this are places where you have a good view of the map without being exposed, these can be hard to find so a good map knowledge is essential.

Weapons

The weapons in Call of Duty 4 are all very interesting and diverse, each has its own strengths and weaknesses, some, like the M249 have high firing rates and large clip sizes, others like the G3 are very accurate making them less usefull at close range combat. Then there are the weapon attachments to consider which each affect a weapons characteristics in subtle but very useful ways. There is no single best gun in Call of Duty 4, there are favorite guns and pretty damn good guns but none of them can really be considered the best, if you play with a gun enough you'll learn how it functions are plays in different situations and your skill using it will improve. So please try them all, you'll get far more out of Call of Duty 4's multiplay just by sticking with a gun for 10 matches just to see how it works.

Firstly I think I should explain a little about how the unlock system works. At level 6 the player unlocks the ability to create up to 5 classes. Initially the selection of available weapons and Perks is very limited but as the player levels up new weapons and perks are unlocked. Also available are many different camo patterns and attachments for each weapon, however these must all be unlocked by completing specific challanges. Attachments are unlocked through kills, a Red Dot Sight for your M16 will take 25 kills with that M16, a Silencer will take 75 kills and an ACOG scope can take 150 kills. Camo patterns are different in that they are unlocked for headshots instead of kills, so 25 kills will net you a Digital camo, 75 will unlock the Blue Tiger camo and 150 will unlock the Red Tiger camo. There are also Gold camo patterns available for specific weapons, these take a lot more time to unlock as they require the player to complete every single challenge to do with a specific weapon type. For example, to get a Golden AK-47 you'll need to get 150 headshots with every Assault Rifle. Remember your progress to unlock these attachments and camo patterns is visible in the Barracks under the Challenges section. There are no stat bonuses for any of the camo patterns, they just look different, live with it.

Assault Rifles

Assault Rifles are very versitile weapons, they can be used at any range but really excel and medium range combat. The available weapon Attachments are Red Dot Sights, Silencers and ACOG Scopes in that order. The humble Red Dot Sight is probably the best all round attachment for these guns, it takes a lot of the guess work out of using the iron sight and frees up a lot of room on the screen. Thats not to say that the other attachments aren't useful, not at all, but the Red Dot Sight is useful for all ranges and doesn't really have any disadvantages like the others do.

As for Perks to be used with Assaut Rifles you can't really go wrong with Stopping Power, 1 shot less to kill people is pretty damn good, other perks to consider using are the Double Tap for its increased rate of fire with the automatic rifles and Sleight of Hand if you find you keep getting killed while reloading. As the Assault Rifles have pretty high penetration using deep impact can net you a lot of kills if your the type who likes to shoot through walls, if not Steady Aim is pretty helpful for those situations where you run around a corner and panic and start spraying and praying.

M16A4

Theres a good reason that the M16 is the first weapon you get. Its the most powerful in the entire game. I know thats a pretty big claim but the M16 has several key advantages that place it well above the other assault rifles and even most other weapons. It has the fastest reload of the assault rifles, a great range, high penetration, very little recoil, a fast firing rate and a 3 round burst coupled with high stopping power means that 2 bursts will drop any foe.

Due to the extreme power of the M16 I can honestly say that there are no wrong choices when it comes to the perks, that said, there are a few that stand out as a little more interesting: Double Tap will give the weapon a rediculous firing rate, choosing Overkill can give you the advantage of a decent back up weapon without sacrificing too much and Sleight of Hand will even allow you a lightning fast reload that can even be used mid firefight.

AK-47

The AK-47 is a Russian designed, fully automatic assault rifle with a high stopping power and decent range. Its pretty damn good in all respects and so comes highly recommended. The biggest disadvantage of the AK-47 is it has pretty high recoil which can make getting more than a couple of shots on a target at long ranges a bit tricky sometimes. Fortunately theres a very good way to counterthe recoil problem, the Silencer. The Silencer is probably the most commonly used attachment for good reason, it doesn't take away too much range from the weapon so only increases the usefullness of the weapon.

AS for Perk choices you can't go wrong with what I consider the big 3, Stopping Power, Sleight of Hand and Double Tap. Deep Impact is useful due to the high penetration and automatic fire that feature on the AK-47. I'd also say that for the attachments too, theres no standout awesome attachments or red herrings but bare in mind that the Silencer Red Dot Sight actually reduce the amount of damage that the Ak-47 does.

The AK-47 is the Assault Rifle that has a Gold unlockable camo scheme, is it even worth calling it a camo scheme if its fricking Gold? It doesn't exactly blend in does it.

M4 Carbine

(Unlocked at Level 10)

M4 Carbine

The M4 is a pretty decent Assault Rifle, it doesn't have very high power for an Assault Rifle, the rate of fire does somewhat compensate for this to be fair. It has a very fast reload but it's real strength lies in its low recoil, even when firing a whole clip its not too hard to keep it on target.

To counter the main weakness of the M4 Stopping Power can be very useful, the M4 already has a pretty high firing rate so you may not want to bother with the M4. There's no real bad choice of attachment with the M4 as the sights aren't too bad and the recoil already isn't too high on the standard M4.

G3

(Unlocked at Level 25)

The G3 is a single shot assault rifle that has pretty good stopping power and excellent range. Due to its single shot nature it can be hard to get kills and down right frustrating at close ranges. It does have a pretty good sight on it however which is pretty useful as it still allows you to use a silencer without forfitting the advantages of a scope too much.

As for perk choices you can't really go wrong with stopping power in the standard death match except in hardocre modes where it will kill with a single shot. In hardcore mode the G3 acts as a sort of semi-sutomatic, low recoil Sniper Rifle when its equipped with a ACOG Scope. Hiding in a window using one of these can really show you just how powerful the G3 can be. Remember that Double Tap is useless with single shot weapons and Deep Impact won't really net you too many points.

G36C

(Unlocked at Level 37)

G36C

The G36C is a very interesting Assault Rifle, its stats aren't really too impressive. It is identical to the M4 Carbine except for a lower rate of fire but the G36C still stands out as one of the best Assault Rifles in the game. This is because the G36C sways very slightly when it is sighted, every other weapon in the game sways a lot more. What this means is that it's a lot easier to stay on target while aiming, this coupled with a very low recoil makes the G36C a very accurate and powerful weapon.

For Perks I'd higly recommend the Stopping Power and Double tap Perks, the G36C has the lowest power of all the Assault Rifles and these Perks can counter that weakness. If you play Hardcore mode, extra Stopping Power won't really help much so Sleight of Hand is a much better choice. The sights aren't too bad but the obscure a little too much of your vision for me so the Silencer and Red Dot Sights are good choices. Due to the accuracy and low sway of the G36C the ACOG Scope is a pretty good choice and still effective at longer ranges.

M14

(Unlocked at Level 46)

M14

The M14 is a single-shot, very accurate Rifle with a 20 round clip featuring the highest damage rating of any non-sniper weapon. 2 shots at medium range will kill, a single shot on hardcore mode. It has pretty bad recoil and the sights are terrible so I definetely suggest equipping a decent sight. Its single shot mode mean that its dificult to use effectively at close range and double tap is effectively useless. Stopping Power is actually a pretty useful Perk for the M14, at longer ranges the M14 will take 3 shots to kill instad of 2, with Stopping Power that drops back down to 2. For a single shot weapon with high recoil the less shots to kill the better, getting 3 shots on target is harder and takes longer and so means your less likely to get a kill on a moving target. To increase the M14's effectiveness at close range consider equipping Steady Aim, you only need to get 2 shots on target so pressing the trigger as rapidly as possible is actually more effective than trying to get a couple of decent shots down the sights.

MP44

(Unlocked at Level 52)

MP44

Yes, the MP44 is old (it was a German made weapon in World War II). Yes the MP44 cannot have attachments (too old), but the MP44 is still a pretty good gun even when it's compared to the other assault Rifles in the Game. It has pretty high damage, range and reload time, and very accurate and has a pretty decent scope. Honestly its pretty damn good, give it a try. The worst thing about the MP44 is the slow firing rate so naturally equipping the Double Tap Perk is a great counter and makes the MP44 even better.

Sub Machine Guns

Sub Machine Guns or SMGs are designed to be close combat weapons. They all have very high rates of fire and low damage so meaning that spraying them at enemies is actually pretty effective. The unlocks for the SMGs are the same as the unlock for the assault rifles, you get the Red Dot Sight, the Silencer and the ACOG scope. The first two are really useful but the ACOG scope is designed to be used at a greater range than SMGs are effective at making it sort of useless, the Silencer and Red Dot Sight are much better choices. As for Perks there are 3 main recomendations I have for you, Stopping Power, Sleight of Hand and Double tap, these are all pretty self explanitory I feel and you shouold try them all with each weapon to see which amuses you the most.

MP5

MP5

The MP5 is a very versitle Sub Machine Gun, it works brilliantly at close range and retains its accuracy and power and longer ranges meaning its still very useful at higher levels. It actually, on average, is the most powerful Sub Machine Gun in Call of Duty 4. The Skorpion beats it on highest damage but see my Skorpion section for why the MP5 is better, in the power are at least. The MP5 has the lowest rate of fire and pretty high recoil when compared to other Sub Machine Guns but also features quite high accuracy. A Silencer is a pretty good option when using the MP5, its accuracy if anything improves and the sights on itare excellent so the Sights aren't really neccessary.

Skorpion

The Skorion is a pretty bizare gun, at close range is it amoung the most powerful weapons in the game and can kill a player with just 2 shots, a shot to the head with stopping power will cause an incredible 98 points of damage, just 2 points short of a 1 shot kill. This power however trails off incredibly quickly and it actually reaches its minumum amount of damage at a shorter range than the shotguns do, check the table if you don't believe that. One of the great things about this gun is that it has pretty low recoil and a pretty high fire rate so even at longer ranges its still pretty effective. Bare in mind that the Skorpion has a very small clip, only 20 rounds so you'll need to reload often and I'd recommend Bandolier too as you will find yourself running out of ammo.

Mini-UZI

(Unlocked at Level 13)

Mini-UZI

The Mini-UZI has the highest firing rate of all the weapons (the 3 round burst M16 doesn't really count). To counter this it also does about the lowest damage rating of the weapons and also has pretty bad recoil and I'd really recommend putting a silencer on it. Using Double Tap is excellent fun while using the fastest firing gun in the game, you'll very very quickly run out of ammo tho so using Bandolier can extend the fun.

AK-74u

(Unlocked at Level 28)

AK-47u

The AK-74u is the baby cousin of the AK-47, its shorter, has a higher firing rate and a lower damage output. Its actually a pretty good SMG with a decent range on it and not a bad accuracy rating. The recoil on the Ak-74u does have pretty bad recoil for a SMG so using a Silencer on it is very helpful.

P90

(Unlocked at Level 40)

P90

The P90 on paper looks little better than the other 4 SMGs in the game but its 50 round clip and a fast firing rate really gives this gun the edge. Such a massive clip size lets you literally spray this weapon for a few seconds without really aiming and give you a fair chance of coming out on top. Used properly you'll rarely find yourself running out of bullets mid fight, this does come at a price however, the reload time for this weapon is much higher than the other SMGs and means that needed to reload in the middle of a fight will almost certainly get you killed.

To counter the biggest disadvantage of the P90 I'd highly recommend the Slight of Hand perk, it won't make reloads super fast but it'll probably bring them down to about the level of the rest of SMGs. As a bonus try equipping this with a Silencer and the Double Tap perk for a seriously crazy sounding weapon.

Shotguns

Shotguns are only used for one thing, up close and personal. They have extremely high stopping power and are able to kill people at close range with a single blast. Most of the kills you get while using the shotgun you probably could have got just as well with your knife limiting the usefullness of the shogun. One of the downsides to using a shotgun are that they have a fairly lengthy reload time requiring each shell to be loaded individually. This can be countered quite effectively with Sleight of Hand. The second downside is that they have a very very low range. Its very hard to get close enough to use the shotgun without resorting to hiding in a corner. The reason the range of the shotgun is so low is that they fire a lot of small pellets which spread out over a distance, the further away someone is, the less pellets will hit them, reducing the damage done.

The unlocks for the Shotguns are different to the normal method in that at 25 kills for a weapon you get the Red Dot Sight, at 50 kills you get a Grip for your weapon. The Red Dot Sight isn't really necessary, it can't hurt but its sort of pointless, if you can't tell if your aiming at your target at the range your using the shotgun quite frankly I'm amased your able to read this guide. The Grip however is pretty damn good, it reduces the recoil of the shotgun which is one of its main drawbacks making it far easier to get a second shot on a target if the first one doesn't do the job.

W1200

The W1200 is the first shotgun you'll encounter in the Call of Duty 4 multiplayer. Everything I've said in the Shotgun header above applies to this, it has very high Stopping Power, very low range and takes an age to reload. The main difference between the W1200 and the W1014 is that the W1200 needs to have the slider under then gun racked between each shot. This probably takes less than half a second to do this but it can get you killed. The tradeoff for this is an 8 shell clip which should be good enough for most firefights.

Again I consider Sleight of Hand and the Grip attachment As essential to using any shotgun to counter their biggest disadvantages. Theres not a lot to discuss here that I haven't already discusses in the Shotgun secion itself and it really just comes down to the different clip sizes and firing speeds.

W1014

(Unlocked at Level 31)

caption

The W1014 is different to the W1200 in several ways that make it preferable to a lot of players but obviously there are disadvantages to using it too. Alright here are the advantages to using the W1014, its semi-automatic. That's it. This is a pretty fricking big advantage, if the first shot doesn't immediately kill a guy, just shoot again and again and again and... you're empty. Yep thats it, 4 shells. This is a big problem with the W1014 when you consider just how long the reload time is. I really consider both Sleight of Hand and Bandolier essential as along with the small 4 shell magazine you only get 8 spare shells too. In the heat of combat your likely to go through those shells super fast.

The W1014 is the Shotgun with the unlockable Golden camo scheme.

Light Machine Guns

The Light Machine Guns are the big guns of Call of Duty 4, they have huge 100 round clips, high firing rates and high damage. They work best at a medium to long range but work reasonbly well at most ranges. Even with all these advantages LMGs are not perfect, the recoil from them will drive you off target very quickly so remember what I said in general advice about firing in short bursts. The biggest disadvantage of the LMGs is the huge reload time, 2 of them have nearly 10 second reload times. Thats pretty crazy when you consider that a majority of the weapons in the game have a 2 to 3 second reload time. Sleight of Hand cutting this time in half is pretty damn useful but still doesn't make the reload time reasonable at all. Extreme Conditioning can be useful for LMGs too as due to the huge weight of the weapons running speed can be seriously reduced.

All of the attachments are very useful for the LMGs but two really stand out for me. LMGs have enough range for the ACOG scope to be useful and increase your kills and the Grip can significantly reduce the recoil of the LMGs which is one of the big disadvantages. For Perks give Double Tap and Deep Impact a try sometime, its a lot of fun killing snipers with this build.

M249 SAW

The SAW is a very different weapon to the other LMGs, it has the fastest firing rate but the lowest damage. It also has the fastest reload rates of the LMG at "only" 6.5 seconds and range doesn't have any effect on how much damage the SAW does, it always does the flat 30 damage with each shot. Also the SAW has pretty good sights and the recoil isn't too bad, putting the Grip on the SAW is a very viable option but there is no real chocolate teapot option.

For the Perks again I recommend the Sleight of Hand and the Deep Impact Perks as they'll give you the biggest advantages. Also give Double Tap a try, I guarantee you'll have fun, at least until the clip runs out.

RPD

RPD

The RPD is probably the best Light Machine Gun in the game. It has a higher firing rate than the M60 but far less recoil and very accurate, it has a pretty decent sights and the range has no effect on how much damage it does. Adding Stopping Power or Double Tap to this baby will only increase the amount of kills you rack up, just remember as with all Light Machines Guns fire it in short burst. The single greatest disadvantage of the RPD however is its mamoth 9.7 second reload time, Sleight of Hand will bring this just under 5 seconds but that's still quite a long time to be completely defenceless

The RPD has good enough sights and low enough recoil to allow me to recommend just about any Attachment that you can put on it. Sights can safely give you the extra precision or range you need while the Grip can definetely let you keep firing for a lot longer before your hopelessly off target. Probably the best Perk to use is the Sleight of Hand Perk to counter the biggest disadvantage of the RPD but also give Double Tap a try if you don't mind the reload wait.

M60E4

(Unlocked at Level 19)

M60E4

The first thing you'll notice when you fire the M60 is the noise, it sounds terrifying and you really feel how powerful this weapon is, at even long ranges 2 shots will kill. Its low firing rate and high recoil mean that its a lot harder to get a lot of shots on target then with other Light Machine Guns, it is however very accurate so getting enough shots to kill isn't as hard as it might sound on target isn't that hard, providing you actually manage to find the target which brings us to the biggest disadvantage of the M60, the sights. The M60s sights are absolutely terrible, when looking down the sights about half the screen is covered by the gun itself and the sight seems to consist of a large vertical bar with a hole in, again, terrible. The obvious solution to this is to put one of the unlockable sights on it, a M60 with a Red Dot Sight is very useful.

As with all the Light Machine Guns I highly recommend using Sleight of Hand, with nearly a 10 second reload time a 50% reduction is huge and always useful. The high penetration and stopping power of the M60 make the Deep Impact Perk very useful, you'll find yourself netting a lot more kills with it equipped. The most fun you will ever have with the M60 is using it with the Double Tap Perk and maybe an ACOG Scope, carefully lining up a shot on a target and letting rip with the second loudest gun in the game stuck on full-auto. It really is satisfying.

The M60 comes with an unlockable Gold camo scheme which I think might be a reference to Lord of War but its probably not to be honest.

Sniper Rifles

The Sniper Rifle is a weapon designed to be used at long to extremely long ranges, with each of these weapons a single shot to the head can kill, 2 shots to the body will kill. These weapons are extremely accurate, all have single shot modes and high powered scopes. These factors make them excellent for long range but terrible at closer ranges. The high powered scopes alone mean that its very hard to find your target let alone getting a decent shot to kill someone.

Every Sniper Rifle has the same damage rating of 70, what effects the amount of damage done is the Location Damage Multiplier. Every location that has 1.5 for its Location Damage Multiplier will give a kill instantly, locations with a 1.1 multiplier will kill if Stopping Power is equipped. This makes Stopping Power very useful for some Sniper Rifles but nearly useless for others, for example the Dragunov will not have any new instant kill locations and so other Perks are more useful. For all Sniper Rifles the Double Tap Perk is completely useless, their all single shot/bolt action Rifles so choose other Perks. Probably the useful Perk for a Sniper is to use Iron Lung, what this does is double the amount of time that you get to aim before your guy runs out of breath and it becomes nearly impossible to get a decent hit on a target. This extra time can net you a lot of kills in the long run. The final Perk recommendation I'll make is to use Claymores as these really help people who like to stick to one place which is really the big strength of the Sniper Rifle.

M40A3

A hell of a lot of people love the M40A3 as a Sniper Rifle. Its the most accurate, the recoil isn't to bad and getting a headshot on a running target is one of the most satifying things you can do in Call of Duty. That said, statistically the M40A3 is the weakest of the sniper rifles, not because the actual power of the sniper rifle is lower but because it has worse Location Damage Multipliers, see the damage table for an explanation of what I'm talking about. This can change dramatically by simply equipping the Stopping Power Perk this drastically improves your chances of killing with the M40A3.

Personally I see the M40 as a sort of training Sniper Rifle, if you want to really learn how to snipe properly use this for a while until you feel you can reliably get kills with it. The Rifle will force you to aim for the head and choose your shots, most of the time you will not get a second shot on a target so getting that headshot becomes very important.

As for perk choices I'm not really going to repeat what I said in the Sniper Rifles section but Iron Lung is made even more important when you're using a bolt action Sniper Rifle as your even less likely to get a second shot.

If you don't really mind feeling like a bit of a jerk online then you can take advantage of a nifty little bug; Equipping the ACOG scope on the M40A3 gives it 5 extra damage points. Alone this is meaningless, with Stopping Power equipped this is devastating, the percentage increase in damage takes shot damage to over 100. This means that a single hit at any range from a class built this way will kill a target instantly unless their using the Juggernaught or Last Stand Perks.

M21

(Unlocked at Level 7)

M21

The M21 is actually the weakest of the Sniper Rifles due to low Location Damager Multipliers but that doesn't make it a bad choice. The M21 is semi-automatic, it can fire as fast as you can pull the trigger, this coupled with Steady Aim can be deadly at close range. The M21's greatest strength is that it has incredibly low recoil, you can fire several shots in a short amount of time and still get quite a lot of hits.

The M21 isn't a bad Sniper Rifle choice if you like to use Overkill with your Sniper Rifles due to its semi automatic fire mode. Stopping Power has a good effect on the M21, with it, a shot to the chest will kill instead of wound.

Dragunov SVD

(Unlocked at Level 22)

Dragunov SVD

The Dragunov is an excellent Sniper Rifle, its semi automatic and a shot to the head or torso will kill. It also looks and sounds a lot cooler than the most similar rifle, the M21. One of the best things about the Dragunov is that it mixes low recoil with the same power as the R700 and .50 Cal, Stopping Power doesn't improve the Dragunov either so one of the best tactics is to use the Dragunov with Overkill and an Assault Rifle.

The Dragunov has the unlockable Golden camo scheme and it seems kinda strange to me. I've found Snipers several times that I wouldn't have found otherwise just because there's a large shinny Golden Dragunov sticking out of a bush on Overgrown. Its very amusing to find but not exactly practical.

R700

(Unlocked at Level 34)

R700

The R700 is very simular in nature to the M40A4 Sniper Rifle. It has a bolt action firing mode, and pretty high recoil. The main differences between the bolt action Sniper Rifles is that the R700 has better location damage multiplier stats at the cost of only having 4 rounds to a clip which I feel is a pretty good trade off. It could just be me but it seems like the R700 is a bit more unstable and the scope seems to sway slightly more than the games other sniper rifles, again I'm not certain and I'm not sure how I'd check that.

AS for Perks, there's not a lot I'd recommend. Double Tap and Deep Impact are completely useless on a Bolt Action Sniper Rifle. Better choices are Overkill, UAV Jammer and maybe Sleight of Hand if the reload times annoy you. As for all Sniper classes Claymores are very useful, read the Claymore section for a few hints on how to place them. Stopping Power has very little effect on the R700, but an effect nonetheless, see the Stopping Power section for hopefully a little more information

Barret .50 Cal

(Unlocked at Level 49)

Barret .50 Cal

The Barret is usually considered the best Sniper Rifle in the game and its not hard to see why, all the advantages of a semi-automatic sniper rifle and excellent penetration coupled with the best location damage stats in the game and to top it all firing this beast sounds like dropping a cargo ship onto the world's largest bass drum. There are disadvantages to using the Barret, it has massive recoil and the longest non-Light Machine Gun reload time in the entire game but really who's even thinking about those things after firing this gun for the first time.

The most useful Perk to the Barret to me is the Sleight of Hand Perk to decrease the long reload times but Stopping Power is also pretty good as with it Stomach shots will now kill too which is great fun. The ACOG Scope isn't a terrible choice with the Barret if combined with Stoppping Power as a shot to the torso will kill so getting hits becomes the main concern rather than getting head shots specifically.

Pistols

Pistols are your standard back up weapon, most of the classes you make are going to have a pistol as your secondary weapon so its important that you use one that you like. Pistols are all single shot weapons with a short range. These are weapons that should be used when you run out of ammo or instead of reloading mid firefight. Their not really designed to replace your primary weapon. All pistols except the Desert Eagle can be equipped with a Silencer.

M9

The M9 is the pistol with the shortest range by far, to counter this it has a huge clip size compared to the other pistols. It also has pretty great hip fire accuracy secondary seconded only to the Desert Eagle. Both these stats mean that its pretty damn good for firing off rounds as rapidly as possible from the hip if your primary weapon runs out of ammo.

M1911 .45

(Unlocked at Level 16)

M1911 .45

The M1911 has the best range of all pistols except the all-powerful Desert Eagle meaning it retains a high stopping power at longer ranges. The downside to this is that the clip size is a bit smaller. Personally I think that the M9 is a better pistol, range isn't really a statistic you need for a back-up weapon, but personal preference really is key in this game so try them all and decide for yourself.

USP .45

The USP in similar to M1911 in that its a pistol that exchanges a lower clip size for higher range. The USP seems to have a very high accuracy and has very low recoil. This lets you fire off a lot of rounds very accurately at quite a long range and still have quite a high stopping power.

Desert Eagle

(Unlocked at Level 38)

Desert Eagle

The Desert Eagle is easily the most powerful handgun in the game. In hardcore mode it can kill with a single shot. It has pretty good accuracy and range too which make it a favorite for online players. However the Desert Eagle suffers from a bad case of recoil, a low clip size and it is completely unable to equip a silencer. These reasons alone turn off many players, myself included.

Oh and at level 55 you unlock a Golden version of this gun, its identical in terms of stats and such but its Gold plated which clearly makes it about 10-15 times better than the standard version.

Attachments

The Attachments are used to completely change how the weapon itself handles, while Perks can change statistics about the weapon they never really change the weapon itself. Changing the sight on a weapon can really change how the weapon feels and how much players like the weapon, a lot of people I know were really put off by the M60 when they first used it, with a Red Dot Sight all that can change. Playing around with the Attachments is one of the first things you should do when messing around with a gun.

Grenade Launcher

The Grenade Launcher is a very powerful attachment, because of its size its only available for the Assault Rifles. The Grenade Launcher allows you to fire 2 powerful explosives along a parabolic arc which detonates on impact and will kill most targets with a single hit, Juggernaught is no protection. The Grenade Launcher is equipped by tapping left on the d-pad, this changes the way your character holds the weapon so you can easily tell what is equipped. When fired, the projectile is unarmed which means that if it hits an object at close range it won't detonate but the impact is still enough to kill a player, at longer ranges the Grenade will arm and then detonate on impact. Needless to say the Grenade Launcher is a very powerful weapon for killing Snipers and people ducking behind windows.

There aren't really a lot of Perks that affect the Grenade Launcher too much, Sleight of Hand is probably the most useful. Sonic Boom does have an effect but it's not really noticeable as most Grenade Launcher shots kill so I generally don't use them together. The Grenade Launcher takes up your Perk 1 slot.

Red Dot Sight

The Red Dot Sight is really the neutral choice when it comes to attachments, it has no real disadvantages and no real advantages. When it does do is replace the standard weapon sight with a Red Dot Sight which is pretty simple to use, the Red Dot is where the bullets hit, thats it. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of using the other sights in the game, meaning that your reaction time is potentially increased as you'll no longer be forced guess exactly where the bullets will hit for those more distant targets.

This sight is very very useful to replace some of the worst sights in the game like the M60 or M14 or really any sight you dislike although I suppose most people choose it just so that they have something on their weapon. Strangely the Red Dot Sight seems to reduce the amount of damage that the Ak-47 does which is unique as changing sights does no change to weapon damage or range for any other weapon as far as I can tell.

ACOG Scope

The ACOG Scope is very underused online, the extra zoom is really useful for longer range enagements and the smaller size of the Scope allows Sniper to see a lot more of the battlefield. The big downpoint to the ACOG is that the actual centre of the cross-hair, the part your using to actually aim is very imprecise. With very accurate weapons its not always as clear where bullets will hit when compared to the Red Dot Sight also the zoom level reduces its usefulness for close encounters. The stats screen shows that the ACOG Scope decreases the accuracy and increases range of weapons, this doesn't actually affect the performace of the weapon itself, it simply refers to the bad cross hair and increased zoon due to the Scope.

The main uses for the ACOG Scope are Light Machine Guns and Sniper Rifles, the zoom level is well suited to the range of the weapons and the small size of the Scope allows easier acquisition of targets. I also enjoy using the ACOG Scope with the single shot Assault Rifles such as the G3 and M14 as they act almost like less powerful Sniper Rifles with the ACOG and are very powerful on Hardcore mode.

Silencer

The Silencer is a very useful attachment for several reasons. Firstly any shots you take will not show up on peoples radar, this can allow a particularly sneaky player to kill someone without the guy next to him knowing where you are. It also vastly reduces the amount of noise that your shots make meaning that if somebodys close they may not even hear your firing which might net you a kill without your target even knowing he's being fired at. Another big advantage is that the presence of a silencer will reduce the amount of recoil you get while firing. This is very useful for sub machine guns which have a very high rate of fire and so recoil affects them quite a lot, especially with perks like Double Tap on. Theres only one real disadvantage to the Silencer, the silencer reduces the range of a weapon, this can mean that your bullets ultimately do less damage at longer ranges.

As a bit of a bonus, if you really want to be a sneaky bastard then put a Silencer on your gun and equip the UAV Jammer and Dead Silence Perks. You'll basically become a ghost making no sound as you move and undetectable on the Radar. Its a lot of fun to play around with a class built this way but it really requires one of the more open maps and preferably few players on a map.

Grip

The Grip can only be used with the Shotgun and Light Machine Gun weapons in Call of Duty 4. All they do is reduce the recoil of a weapon which doesn't sound like much but it does combat one of the biggest disadvantages of using those weapon classes. I highly recommend using the Grip with every possible weapon with the exception of the M60 which must always have a scope attached to it. The benefits of being able to get more shots on target are immense are much better than using scope in my opinion.

Others

This is just a section with a few things that I had no idea where else to put but I think are important enough to warrant a little space here at least. These aren't greatly in depth stats discussions just gneral outlines of how they function for those who are unclear as to how they work. If there's anything you feel like I've missed in this guide feel free to drop me a comment and I'll add it in when I get around to it.

Helicopter

The Helicopter is the reward for getting 7 kills in a single life, they're activated in the same way as a UAV and so don't need you to aim at a point on the map like an airstrike will. The Helicopter enters and leaves the map from a certain point and then trvels to a few predetermined places around the map in a seemingly random order, the amount of time that the Helicopter stays on a map seems entirely dependant on the map. It uses a minigun and a pair of rockets to engage targets it finds out in the open and seems to prioritise players who are closest to the Helicopter and those with weapons that are more effective against it such as the RPG-7 and Light Machine Guns. When the Helicopter takes damage it eventually begins to smoke, this means that the Helicopter is close to death and a full clip will usually finish it off. While smoking the Helicopter will move around the map much faster and maybe even leave the map sooner unless destroyed.

The Only effective weapon against the Helicopter is the RPG-7, usually 2 direct hits will take one down but a single hit is enough to cuase serious damage. The next best weapon to use is a good old Light Machine Gun, aim for the middle of the Helipcopter and simply open up. It can take more than a full clip so make sure you've got enough ammo first.

Airstrikes

Airstrikes are the reward for getting a 5 kill streak with a single life, when activated the player is made to choose a point on the map for the bombs to drop, during this time the player is completely vunerable to enemy fire. After a delay of a few seconds a bomb will drop at the chosen location, a few seconds later a second bomb will drop a few seconds after that the final bomb will drop. Anybody in the area after the first explosion has a good chance to either get out of the area or take cover. If your stuck trying to decide where to have your airstrike, wait a few seconds, as soon as somebody fires they'll appear briefly on your air strike map, place it there, its likely that there's more than one player in the area due to the respawn system, players are always spawned near friendly players.

Cars

This man seem dumb but cars are actually very dangerous, an exploding car will instantly kill any player near it for a fairly large area actually. After taking a bit of damage the car will catch fire, this means players close to it should start running, after about 10 seconds the car explodes, this time car be reduced by causing more damage to the car. Typically either a single grenade or about 15 to 20 rounds from a Sub Machine Gun or Assault Rifle will cause enough damage to cause an explosion. Oil Barrels function in the exact same way as Cars except they have far less health with maybe 3 or 4 rounds causing enough damage to make it explode.

Knife

The Knife replaces the good old rifle butt from older Call of Duty titles, its an instant kill if it hits and its a lot faster than swinging a Machine Gun. There seems to be two different types of Knife attack, a slash and a stab. It could just be me but stab attacks hit enemies a lot easier and seem to be activated at longer ranges

should i include grenades and flashbangs c4, claymores ects here, include them in the table at the top or maybe throw them into the perk 1 section

Perks

Perks are very important choices when building a class, they can make up for any disadvantages of the weapons you've chosen or give you whole new advantages to work with. Two different classes using the exact same weapons can play very very different if different perks are used. I can't stress enough how you should experiment with different Perks with your classes, if your running into serious problems with a particular situation, chances are that there's a perk to counter it.

Perk 1

The Perk 1 choices are basically a collection of things that go bang, grenades, mines, RPGs, C4 and a whole load of bullets. These are all pretty useful and fun and it all basically comes down to personal preference. If you feel you're going through all your ammo really fast, try Bandolier, if you love throwing grenades through windows use 3 x Frag, if you like sniping try the Claymores. Its impossible to say that there's one perfect perk for everybody but 3 Frag grenades is always pretty useful.

Something to remember is that the Grenade Launcher Attachment and the Grip take up your Perk 1 slot, I'm not going to include them here, you can look them up in the Attachments Section though.

RPG-7 x 2

RPG stands for Rocket Propelled Grenade, this probably gives you the best idea of what this weapon is and how it should be used. The RPG fires a rocket that explodes on impact, this makes it great against enemy helicopters and maybe enemy snipers. This also means that caution should be exercised at close range, hitting a wall, barrel, or friendly player will cause it to explode, at close range this will probably kill you.

Combining RPGs with Sleight of Hand is really the only way that you can affect the RPG's. Sonic Boom does increase the killing power of RPGs but again I'm not certain how large the increase is or whether there is a noticable affect. It takes 2 RPGs to take down an enemy helicopter both with and without Sonic Boom and seeing as this is the primary use of the RPG personally I wouldn't bother using Sonic Boom.

Frag x 3

(Unlocked at Level 41)

Frag x 3

The Frag x 3 Perk does exactly what it says on the tin, it gives you 3 Frag Grenades. Theres not really a lot to talk about here, you know what Frag grenades are useful for. Instead consider the other Perk 1 choices when building a class, a lot of classes will benefit more from Bandolier or Claymore than from 3 x Frag but really it depends heavily on your playing style and preference.

Special Grenades x 3

Special Grenades are not used as much as they should be online, throwing one into a room you know that an enemy is in is a great start to a fight. If nobody can see where you are or hear your shots there's not much chance that you'll be killed. That said I really doubt that anybody would ever use 3 Special Grenades in a life, there just aren't enough situations you find yourself in where you know that there is an enemy in a room before you go in. Actually having 3 situations like that in the same game where you actually remember to use the Special Grenades would be rare. If you can't tell I hardly ever use this Perk, there are far more useful Perks for Slot 1. The differences between the Grenades are that the Stun Grenade slows people down and stop them aiming at you, the explosion radius is far lower than the Flash Grenades which blind players but still allow them to spray randomly which can be very dangerous if they know where the door is. The alternate use for the Special Grenades is to piss off people on your team who steal your kills, great fun.

Claymore x 2

(Unlocked at Level 23)

Claymore x 2

These are basically a type of anti personel mine. Their selected in the same way you'd equip a grenade launcher and when their placed you've got to be quite careful as they only have a 120 degree angle (MUST FIND THE SMALL o) in which they cause damage. You'll notice the danger zone when you place a Claymore, it's shown as 2 thin red lines. Any enemy entering the danger zone will trigger it and after a short delay it will explode and anyone in the danger zone will be killed.

There are several things to note about cvaymores, first they can be destroyed. A single shot or damage from a grenade will cause the Claymore to explode like a small grenade. When Claymores are triggered they give off a distinctive click noise, listen for it. As a defending player you'll know that somebody is trying to sneak up on you, on the offensive you now that somebody is laying Claymores around and that you should probably slow down and start checking for Claymores. Of course thats assuming your not the one who triggered the Claymore, in that case you'v got nothing left to do really, just take more care in your next life ok. Also I mentioned a short delay before the explosion, you can actually use this to your advantage if you know where a Claymore is, when you spot a Claymore and you either don't have time to shoot it or its in a place you can't reach it consider sprinting past it. You'll set off the mine, people will know your coming but there's a good chance you'll survive the explosion.

Probably the most important parts in using Claymores is the placement of the Claymores themselves. Typically Claymores are placed just to the sides of doors and just at the top of staircases or stepladders. These are places attackers are unlikely to check and if the Claymores is found then it can be quite tricky to destroy them. However this is a very common place to put Claymores and so veteran players know the places to look, especially when their approaching players typically snipe from. Another, more difficult to use, tactic is to place Claymores by bits of cover that people typically run to when their under attack. This is a great use for snipers who can force their enemies to take cover. If you hang out in the same sniper locations frequently then you'll start to learn where your enemies are likely to try to hide from you, this is where you should place your mines if you want to try something a bit different. As a general rule with the Claymores the more unexpected the places you hide them are, the more likely you are to get a kill.

Also, Please for the love of God, do not run around with them equipped, you'll be insanely easy to kill and you'll look and feel like an idiot. Unless of course you plan on placing them on the back of a snipers boot. That's just good fun.

C4 x 2

C4 is like a manual version of the Claymore mines. When selected the C4 is placed by throwing it against walls or cars, their sticky so they can be thrown quite literally everywhere, walls, doorways and celings. They can then be detonated by tapping the reload button twice. The C4 is more powerful than the Claymores as it doesn't have a firing cone and explodes in a radius, it does still have the short delay before a detonation so you'll have to detonate before sprinting enemies reach the C4 to catch them in the blast.

Something to remember about the C4 is that has a large blinking bright red light on it. This means that it's not exactly inconspicuous and that it must be hidden or at least placed where people are unlikely to look. Hiding the C4 behind doors or cars is usually a good tactic. It only takes a single shot to destroy C4 but the explosion is as big as the standard C4 explosion so it can still kill.

Bandolier

(Unlocked at Level 32)

Bandolier

When starting a match every player starts with the ammo that's already in their weapon and 2 extra clips. This means that for a weapon with 30 rounds per clip you'll have 90 shots before you run out of ammo. Bandolier gives you an extra 3 clips of ammo. For most weapons this isn't really necessary, most assault rifles will find spare ammo on the ground faster than they'll use it so it's really a wasted perk for them. For the more obscure weapons or strange class builds then it's far more useful. Its rare you'll find ammo for a shotgun and classes using the Double Tap Perk may find themselves running out of ammo quickly especially if using alerady fast firing guns like the SMGs. I generally wouldn't bother giving this Perk to a LMG equipped class as 300 rounds is a lot to go through in a single life, no matter what Perks you have equipped.

Bomb Squad

(Unlocked at Level 14)

Bomb Squad

Bomb Squad is a very useful Perk for people who like to move around the map a lot and sneak up on snipers. Every enemy Claymore and C4 on the map will show up as a Skull, this Skull is even visible through walls and objects so there's no excuse for missing it. Getting killed by a Claymore when you have this Perk equipped will make you feel really silly. Bare in mind that Claymores and C4 can be shot through walls and destroyed so Claymores that are put in really awkward places like right behind doors can be destroyed wihtout getting yourself killed.

Perk 2

Perk 2 is probably the second biggest choice you'll make when building a class next only to choosing a weapon. These Perks are the most powerful and useful. They can be used to enhance the killing power of your weapon, make you harder to kill or cover up any weaknesses in the weapon you've chosen by halving your reload time or allowing you to take a second weapon into combat. Playing around with these perks can really change the way a class feels so experiment and try them all, you may find something really unexpected and amusing.

Stopping Power

Stopping Power increases the amount of damage that your guns do to enemies, notice I said guns there, Grenades and Claymores are unaffected (See Sonic Boom). The exact amount of damage isn't really that important, all you need to know is that for the most part it will take 1 less bullet to kill people. This doesn't seem like a lot but you will find yourself getting a lot more kills while using it. That said, don't start using it on every class you build, its just not neccessary. For Shotguns or Light Machine Guns you also might want to consider Sleight of Hand instead to offset those weapons main drawback.

As I've explained in the Sniper Rifle section, using Stopping Power doesn't have as greater effect on Sniper Rifles as most people like to think, for the most part Stopping Power will have very little effect on most shots, especially since you should be aiming for the head. However using the Location Damage Multiplier section of the weapons table we can see that any Sniper Rifle hitting a location with a 1.1 multiplier when equipped with Stopping Power will kill instantly. This includes the Stomach area for the R700 and Barret .50 Cal. The chest area for the M40 and M21 and also the stomach area for the M40. So you may want to bare this in mind when using stopping power with those weapons and skip it completely for the Dragunov.

(Thanks to j0nnyDiGITAL for correcting me on my Stopping Power not effecting Sniper Rifles comment)

Juggernaught

The Juggernaught Perk is a pretty good Perk, it increases your health by a set percentage. Effectivly this Perk will allow you to take 1 more bullet before you go down. This may not seem like much but you'd be suprised how many times it'll save your life in a match. This can allow you to extend kill steaks and earn those air strikes and helicopters. Also notice that Stopping Power has exactly the opposite effect to Juggernaught so this Perk won't work on everyone, Stopping Power equiped foes will still kill you with the same amount of shots and also Juggernaught will have no effect on Sniper Rifles shots to the head, they'll all still kill you. What all this means is that people complaining that they took an entire clip to kill a guy because he had Juggernaught on are, in fact, just bad shots. It takes 1 more bullet to kill, not 1 more clip, aim better next time yea?

UAV Jammer

(Unlocked at Level 11)

UAV Jammer

The UAV Jammer is a very useful Perk, its great for people who like to camp or sniper and its also great for sneaking around the map. What it basically does is stop you from showing up on other player's radar screen when they activate their UAV, however firing your weapon will still make you show up, even in hardcore mode. Of course the way to avoid this is to use a silencer on your weapon. Snipers who like to play Hardcore mode will find UAV Jammer a huge benefit as players will be forced to look for you, which can be very difficult sometimes when using your guile suit properly.

The strength of this Perk is that as soon as UAVs are activated a majority of the players online just stare at that little screen and assume that because there is no blip in the next room then it must be clear. You effectivly turn dangerous periods in matches where everybody knows where you are into periods where you gain a huge advantage with players either not knowing where you are or assuming your not there. Also the opposite is true, when someone on your team activates their UAV make sure you don't fall into the trap of assuming areas are clear, use it as a guide but remember there's always a chance that there is somebody in the room with a UAV Jammer.

Sonic Boom

Sonic Boom is a very powerful Perk for people who use Grenades quite well, throwing Grenades randomly will never give you as many kills as throwing them where you know enemies are or where they are going. Sonic Boom increases the damage done within the radius of the explosion but does not increase the radius of the explosion itself. This means that anybody within the radius of the explosion will be killed and not wounded. Aparently this Perk has the same effect on the Grenade Launcher but I've never fired at Grenade Launcher and only wounded somebody, it either gets a kill or it misses completely so I wouldn't really recommend combining them. Obviously the best Perk to use in conjunction with Sonic Boom is the Frag x 3, throwing some of these into a building before you go in can pretty much guarantee that there won't be anybody left alive in there.

Sleight of Hand

(Unlocked at Level 20)

Sleight of Hand

Sleight of Hand is a brilliant Perk, quite simply it cuts the reload time of a weapon in half. For a lot of weapons its not really necessary and choosing Stopping Power would generally be a better choice, but for some weapons, like the Light Machine Guns, Shotguns and some of the Sniper Rifles reloading can take an age. The M60 alone can take nearly 10 full seconds to reload, 10 seconds, thats an eternity in the fast paced games that Call of Duty can produce. Now 5 seconds, thats almost reasonable.

As a bit of more general advice you should always be running around with a full clip, just incase you have a phase of particularly bad accuracy. Typically reloading mid-firefight will get you killed, so ducking behind cover for a few seconds and taking the time to reload can really pay off. That said don't just reload after every guy you kill, if there are 2 guys in the room you'll die looking like a complete tool.

Double Tap

(Unlocked at Level 29)

Double Tap

Basically Double Tap increases a weapon's firing rate by roughly 25%, a weapon that fires at 600 RPM will fire at 750 RPM, this doesn't seem like much but it can really cause a lot of damage. Effectively there are actually very few differences between Double Tap and Stopping Power, you will kill in the same amount of time, Stopping Power takes 1 less bullet to kill, Double Tap will let you fire another bullet in the same time frame. The big difference is that Double Tap will suffer from greater recoil than Stopping Power. Double Tap is probably more useful for less accurate players, you'll fire a lot of bullets much faster so you have more chances to hit. Its very effective at closer ranges especially if combined with Steady Aim. Its really a toss up between Double Tap and Stopping Power and I suppose it all comes down to personal preference and which weapon is equipped. The most important thing about Double Tap is that it only works with automatic weapons, these include Sub Machine Guns, Light Machine Guns and some Assault Rifles, check the individual Assault Rifles if you're not sure.

Overkill

(Unlocked at Level 38)

Overkill is actually a very useful perk and I don't really think enough players consider it when building a class. The tactical choices that a back up or alternate weapon gives is pretty considerable. Players who like to use Sniper Rifles can find themselves vunerable when moving around the maps or if somebody gets too close, as I've already said Stopping Power isn't too useful for them so maybe a nice Sub Machine Gun or Assault Rifle would help. Players that like to use Shotguns might find themselves vunerable when they need to cross a large open area, maybe a Light Machine Gun would help out. That said, don't stick it on every class for the sake of having two guns.

Something of note when using Overkill is that it takes slightly longer to change to a secondary weapon compared to pistols and also your secondary weapons aren't cocked by default. This means that when changing to your secondary weapon theres a short animation where you pull back the firing bolt on the weapon enabling it to fire. This animation takes less than a second but its definetely something to consider. Oh and for you vain barstards out there, while you can still choose the camo scheme of your primary weapon, you cannot choose the camo pattern of the secondary weapon, so its stuck black. Sorry.

Perk 3

Perk 3 isn't as big a Perk choice as thew Perk 2 slot. These Perk generally have very little effect on a character either not coming into play very often or only really being useful to certain types of weapon. The Iron Lung Perk for example can only be used with Sniper Rifles, Extreme Conditioning is only really useful on bigger maps, Dead Silence doesn't really help for large firefights and so on. They still are useful Perks and can really help if you're having problems in certain areas but they aren't hugely game changing.

Extreme Conditioning

Extreme conditioning can be a very useful Perk for certain types of players but I definetely don't think it should be put on every class. In a nutshel Extreme Conditioning doubles the amount of time you can sprint for until you need to rest for a few seconds. It does not effect the speed at which you sprint, so carrying weapons like the Light Machine Guns will still reduce the speed at which you run and hence the distance you can achieve during a single sprint. The main uses for Extreme conditioning are for gaining an early advantage at the very start of a match and also useful for flanking and sneaking around the map. It's also worth using if you're a big LMG user and get annoyed at your extremely low sprint distances.

The reason I won't recommend this to every class is, well for one, there are a lot more useful Perks in Group 3. But mainly I don't find myself in a situation where I think "if I could only sprint for 2 more seconds" and much more often wish I could shoot through the wall to kill the Sniper or something along those lines.

Deep Impact

Deep Impact is a very powerful Perk, in Call of Duty 4 bullets can penerate walls and still have enough power to kill an enemy. Not all guns are really effective at this, most of the Sub Machine Guns don't really have enough penetration to pull this off but Light Machine Guns and some Assault Rifles are really good at it. Deep Impact increases the amount of damage retained when firing through walls so it can really allow you to rack up a few kills if you often attempt to shoot people through walls. Again there aren't really a lot of weapons this Perk is too effective for, don't use it with Sniper Rifles, Shotgun or really any single-shot weapon, powerful automatic weapons are the best choices when it comes to Deep Impact.

Steady Aim

Steady Aim is a very useful Perk for situations where you're too close to your enemy to look down your sights and spraying is your best option. This Perk reduces the distance from the centre of the screen that your bullets will hit. Obviously this Perk works best with rapid fire weapons like Sub Machine Guns and Light Machine Guns but it does work with all weapons. This means that powerful single shot weapons like the M14 and the G3 are far more useful in close combat.

Last Stand

(Unlocked at Level 8)

Last Stand

Last Stand is a pretty interesting and useful perk thats sort of annoying to your enemies. Basically what happens is when enemies do enough damage to you to kill you you go into last stand mode. Basically your knocked to the ground badly wounded but still alive, you can't move, and your primary weapon is lost and your forced to use your pistol. During the 10 or so seconds you are given you can exact revenge on your assailant or kill passerbys. One of the best things about last stand, as opposed to matyrdom, is that you're still alive, this means that you can continue your kill streak and maybe earn your self an airstrike or UAV. Something to consider when choosing which class to use Last Stand with is that your pistol has very short range meaning that its pretty rubbish on the larger levels.

There are ways to stop enemies going into Last Stand mode, if someone equipped with Last Stand is stabbed, shot in the head or killed with explosives their assumed to have been killed instantly. If your getting annoyed at people entering Last Stand mode all the time then get creative. Take advantage of the fact that a single hit from basically anything can kill them. Start throwing flash bangs and stun grenades at them, if you get a hit its an instant kill which is highly amusing for all involved.

Martyrdom

(Unlocked at Level 17)

Martyrdom

Martyrdom is a pretty strange perk. No matter where your shot or how your killed a live grenade will magically appear next to your body ready to kill anybody unlucky enough to walk over your body in about 5 seconds. This means this if you're shot through the head with a .50 cal Sniper Rifle and killed instantly, if your stabbed in the back by a mad knife weilding SAS guy or even if an Air Strike completely atomises your body. Your character is still assumed to have somehow pulled the pin on a grenade that he was very relunctant to throw while he was alive. Just to clarify can have thrown all of your grenades then the Martyrdom ability will still activate and a grenade will still appear next to your body. Yea I know, its a strange Perk.

Martyrdom is useful on the smaller maps in the game like Countdown and Vacant and on the more confined sections on medium sized maps and it will net you quite a few kills over the average game. In the larger maps where even Sub Machines Guns are of limited usefullness, Martyrdom really doesn't have much of an effect. Perks generally don't effect other Perks but Martyrdom is affected by Sonic Boom which can really increase the number of kills you rack up if running into a room and getting killed is a tactic you like using. One final tip is to not use this Perk on Hardcore mode at all, friendly fire is ON, this means your grenades can kill your team mates. This will lose you exp and your team mates will hate you for it. Don't be suprised if you find team mates shooting at you if you're using Martyrdom.

Iron Lungs

(Unlocked at Level 26)

Iron Lungs

Iron Lung is only useful for Snipers, seriously every other weapon will see no benefit for using this Perk, even Snipers with ACOG Scopes will find this useless. All Iron Lung does it allow you to hold your breath when sniping for twice the amount of time. It doesn't sound like much but anybody who's ever tried to use the M40 to get headshots consistantly will tell you that every second counts on particularly tricky targets. I really do consider this an essential for Snipers.

Eavesdrop

(Unlocked at Level 35)

Eavesdrop

Eavesdrop is a very strange perk and to be honest I can't see what its for. What it allows you to do is listen to what the other team is saying to each other which in theory could allow you to know where their coming from or know if they've spotted you while sniping. The problem is this, a majority of the players on Xbox Live and probably PSN aren't exactly talking strategy to each other while talking. Its far more likely you'll hear a very high brow conversation about how fat someone's mother is or a players supposed sexual orientation. While amusing for a while its not exaclty going to give you an advantage in battle so maybe you should think about skipping it.

Dead Silence

(Unlocked at Level 44)

Dead Silence

Dead Silence can be a very useful Perk for certain class builds. While using Dead Silence other players won't be able to hear your footsteps meaning that they won't hear you run, jump or sprint. To be fair this won't work on most players but people with good sound systems or those who just listen to what's happening around them usually have a big advantage over those who ignore what's happening around them. An excellent example of this is on Broadcast, players on the bottom floor can hear the players above them giving them a huge advantage. The same player on the top floor with Dead Silence would remain undetected.

(Thank you to Destroyeron for finally finding a decent Dead Silence Picture)

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