Black Ops 7 is here, and with it, a new era of Call of Duty is about to begin. This year’s game builds on last year’s Black Ops 6 in several ways, but it also introduces some key new features and major upgrades that are well worth paying attention to.
In fact, some of the things you may be used to from past games have been entirely changed, and you may be surprised to see how that factors into the moment-to-moment of the multiplayer action. In this guide, we’ll go over some key gameplay tips, and bring your attention to a few major features to help you get started in Black Ops 7.
Don’t bother with Tac Sprint
Tactical Sprint has been a feature in modern Call of Duty games since the 2019 Modern Warfare reboot. The idea is that, by doubletapping the sprint button, you can trigger a faster version designed to help you quickly get into cover, or traverse vast distances faster.
Black Ops 7, however, takes it out of the equation, but not entirely. By default, all players have one base sprint speed, which can obviously be affected by the weapon you’re carrying, just like in past titles. Tactical Sprint is not entirely gone, however, because you can bring it back by equipping the aptly named Tac Sprinter Perk.
The Perk does what it says, but it also lowers your regular sprint speed when equipped. This is one reason why we recommend not bothering with that perk, but players have also found that your base sprint speed in Black Ops 7 is comparable to the Tac Sprint speed in Black Op 6.
In other words, it’s not worth the tradeoff. You’re better off slotting any of the other Perks available to pick from into that slot.
Learn to live with Wall Jumps
Sticking with the topic of movement, Black Ops 7’s big new movement tech is the ability to Wall Jump. This boosts the already impressive Omnimovement system from last year’s game, meaning it should slot right in with the rest of your repertoire.
You can ignore Wall Jumps if you don’t feel like doing them, but only up to a point. As you’re going to see, most of the game’s maps have spots that are clearly designed for players to Wall Jump in order to reach or traverse through.
In fact, you’ll find that, for some areas, jumping and sliding to get a boost won’t work. I’ve fallen to my death a few times in a couple of the maps because I thought I could get by without having to perform a Wall Jump on the wall clearly made to be jumped off of.
It remains to be seen whether players will like Wall Jumps, but you should absolutely add it to your regular movement in Black Ops 7. Even if you don’t intend on doing any flanking on the outside edges of maps, you’ll find plenty of uses for Wall Jumps in the middle lanes, such as in cases when you want to reach windows or higher ledges.
There’s a Reward Feed now
One of the new, easy-to-miss features in Black Ops 7 is the Reward Feed. This page is available across all screens, and it sits under the Launcher Menu. You know, the one with the six dots nestled at the top-right corner of your screen.
The Reward Feed is the one with the padlock icon, and it keeps track of every single thing you’ve unlocked, but also items you’ve bought and earned throughout your time with the game. Depending on which version of the game you own, and how much time you’ve put into last year’s game, one of the first things that will show up in that feed is a notification about double XP boosts that you’ve been given, which are now ready for use.
When you’re too busy to focus on which Calling Card or reticle you’ve unlocked in a match, a quick glance at the Reward Feed after you’re done will show you everything you’ve earned. Check it often, because you might see something you immediately want to equip.
Sharing (and stealing) weapon builds has never been easier
Black Ops 7 has a cool new feature that makes it much easier to share your own weapon builds with everyone, use those recommended by top players, and even steal the really good ones that you keep dying to in multiplayer.
With how complex building a weapon has gotten over the years, and the Loadout screen itself gaining more and more options for you to pick from, it’s clear something needed to be done to make it easier for players to share their work.
For now, the feature is only available for weapon builds, not the entire loadout. Whenever you select a weapon, you’ll find a hashtag icon where you can input a code that will instantly replicate that build with your own gun.
The system is smart enough to know when some (or all) of the attachments have not yet been unlocked, and will offer you the option to only keep the ones you have unlocked or make alterations. Unfortunately, the only issue at the moment is that codes are quite a bit long.
It’s going to be a breeze to copy and paste them with a couple of button strokes on PC, but anyone on consoles would have to bring up the keyboard and type some complex codes using their controller in order to get those builds, which isn’t ideal.
Another great companion to that feature is the ability to copy the entire weapon build of anyone who killed you. There’s a button to copy their kit that appears on the killcam, just below their build. When the match is over, you’ll find a notification under your Reward Feed, and you can then decide to turn it into a weapon build or ignore it.
Zombies is great for XP
Zombies mode is back in Black Ops 7, with a host of new ideas and mechanics to boot. One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is that Zombies shares progression with multiplayer, and even campaign this year.
In other words, you’re going to be unlocking weapon attachments and career levels as you play Zombies, the same as you would be in multiplayer. Yes, the earn rate is different, but we’re willing to bet that you’re going to be killing zombies a lot faster and more efficiently than you might be killing other players in multiplayer.
If you’re looking to rank up a few underused guns, or unlock some attachments you’ve been grinding ages for, load up a game of solo Zombies, stack some double XP/weapon XP tokens, put some music or a podcast on and get slaying.
In general, when it comes to overall progression in Black Ops 7, we’ve found it to be relatively fast – certainly faster than pre-patch Battlefield 6, for instance. You’re also very likely to have a stash of double XP and weapon XP tokens in your bank, which you should utilise in these early days to maximise your XP earn potential.
Don’t sleep on the new Overclock feature
Treyarch and Raven made a big deal about Overclocking at various Black Ops 7 pre-launch events, and with good reason. This is something entirely new to Call of Duty, and it adds a layer of gameplay customisation you didn’t know you needed.
Overclocking simply allows you to push certain items beyond their limits, giving them extra attributes. You can Overclock Lethals, Tacticals, Field Upgrades, and even Scorestreaks. Every single one of those has two OC options, unlocked by levelling up the item in question.
Of course, you can only equip a single Overclock to each item, but you can certainly Overclock all of the above options in the same loadout. For some of them, it’s going to take you a while to level them up, so it pays to stick with the ones you want to unlock OCs for.
The more you use an item, the faster you’re going to unlock Overclock options for it, after all.
Squad Link is a killer Field Upgrade
In the Black Ops 7 beta, Squad Link was among the most popular Field Upgrades. Rather than for its destructive power, the Field Upgrade has immense potential to be a score generator for you and your teammates.
When deployed, Squad Link boosts the score of teammates and their gadgets within its range. Its first Overclock expands said range further, while the other OC option boots the earned score and increases Field Upgrade recharge speed.
This thing will see you earning Scorestreaks faster than you thought possible. It’s good for you within the match, good for your teammates, and great for everyone’s XP haul. The Field Upgrade looks to have been nerfed from the beta, but we found it to be quite effective still.
Assuming it doesn’t get nerfed again, it’s a pretty solid option for support players, or anyone looking to passively generate XP and score.
Hybrid Combat Specialists is a Perk gamechanger
Longtime Call of Duty players will know that combining Perks of the same family (same colour) in past games sometimes gave you a bonus. This feature returns in Black Ops 7, dubbed Combat Specialty.
Perks come in three types (colours): Enforcer (red), Recon (blue), and Strategist (green). If all Perks in your three Perk slots are of the same type, you get a bonus that varies from one group to the other. These Core bonuses are expected, but what’s new this year are Hybrid bonuses.
By mixing two different Perk types (colours), you can earn a special bonus that – while not as strong as having a full stack – offers you something extra, and even a bit of a challenge. The Perk page will show when you have a Hybrid Specialty activated. Tactician, Scout, and Operative are your choices.
You can only do this by mixing two categories, not three. It’s also worth keeping in mind that the Perk Greed Wildcard does not count towards this system, which makes sense. So give them a look, you might be surprised by some of the bonuses they offer.