How You Can Trust My Tactics:
Current K/D ratio in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (MW) is 1.5
In the past games of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (CoD 4) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (MW2), my accuracy percentage was 25%. I was and am currently extremely good at hitting my targets (I don’t know why they made the stupid decision to remove this in MW. Probably because everyone cares too much about their K/D ratio).
Play an Hour a Day, Every Day
They say it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at a specific craft. Now, you don’t need 10,000 hours to become good at Modern Warfare (MW), but you do need to put in a lot of time and effort.
Back when I first played Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on the Xbox 360, I was so bad at the game I could hardly aim my gun or move around properly. Granted, it was the first FPS game I ever played, so I was bound to suck royal ass.
However, because I was so enthralled with the game, I kept playing, for hours and hours at a time. Keep in mind I was in high school during this time, so I had a lot of free time to play this game. I would play up to four hours every single day.
“Nebraskan Otaku, why the hell would you play Call of Duty for four hours every day? Didn’t you have a life back then?”
No, dear reader. Back then all I cared about was competing and trying to win. It was one of the first online games I ever played, and back in 2009, competitive gaming wasn’t even around at the time. So CoD 4 was one of the ways to release my competitive spirit.
So, based on experience, you won’t get good at MW unless you play it. A LOT.
Don’t Get Frustrated If you Die
If you’re just starting out, you’re going to die a lot in MW. You’ll probably receive more deaths than kills in the majority of your matches, but you can’t let that get to you.
As stated above when I first started, I could hardly walk around or aim properly; my hand-eye coordination was still in its infancy for FPS games. However, after playing every day for three to four hours a day each day for a month straight, I finally got first place in a Free-For-All match. I was able to go from a complete noob to a gold medal in a month’s time.
So the moral of the story is, you’re going to die a lot on your journey to become good. But you have to think long term about becoming so good you can pull off headshots left and right. Which I can do now.
Play Free-For-All
Team Deathmatch is the mode most people gravitate towards when they start their Call of Duty experience. However, if you’re not good at this game, then I would advise you to play Free-For-All first.
Why? Because when you’re just starting out, you don’t know the lay of the land, and you don’t want to have to think too hard about shooting.
When playing Free-For-All and you see an enemy, you don’t have to even think for a split second whether he’s on your team or not. All you have to do is pull the trigger. When I first went from Free-For-All to Team Deathmatch, I had a huge issue of having to judge whether the person I’m aiming at is a friend or foe. That split second decision can mean life or death.
Play Free-For-All first to become good at shooting in the game, and then slowly branch out to other game modes once your hand-eye coordination is spot on.
Learn the Layout of the Maps
At first when you start up MW, you’re not going to know where to go on a certain map. Hell, you’re not going to know where to go in your second or third match. It probably won’t be until the 20th match until it finally occurs to you, “Holy crap! I remember this spot in the map!”
Learning the layout of the map comes with time. Eventually you’ll learn where the enemies spawn in Free-For-All or where the enemy team spawns in Team Deathmatch. You’ll learn where most of the firefights occur and where most people tend to cluster. Finally, you’ll learn how to flank the enemy and which paths to take to do so.
By playing at least an hour per day, within the span of two or three months, you’ll learn about 70% of the map layouts in the game.
Use Certain Gun Classes for Specific Maps
Don’t use the same gun for every single map you play. How else are you going to figure out which guns you like and which ones you think suck major ass?
Follow this tactic: for small maps, use Sub Machine Guns (SMGs) or Shot Guns. Medium and Large maps, use Assault Rifles (ARs) or Light Machine Guns (LMGs). Don’t use the sniper class unless you know where on the large maps that you can set up shop and stay there.
You do not want to run around blindly using a sniper class in MW. The Aim Down Sight (ADS) mechanic is WAYYY slower than past games. It basically makes it nearly impossible to shoot anyone unless you have a clear line of sight on the map.
Marksman rifles are much more reliable than the Sniper class once you unlock the sniper scopes for them, but until you unlock them, they basically suck. However, when you unlock the sniper scope for marksman rifles, then the Sniper class becomes essentially useless.
With a 7x scope on a marksman rifle, you get roughly the same amount of damage as a sniper rifle but with a much snappier and faster ADS speed. This means you can be much more mobile and don’t have to camp as much if you don’t want to do so.
Know When to Reload
Knowing the correct time to reload can be the difference between life and death. If you reload too early, the enemy can kill you while you’re stuck in the reloading animation. If you reload too late, you’ll run out of bullets while the enemy is shooting at you.
The best time to reload is after each kill. This is assuming that:
A. No one is currently shooting at you
B. Your gun has a fast firing rate
If your gun has a slow rate of fire, like the Kar98k, let’s assume the following scenario:
You just killed an enemy with your Kar98k and you have four rounds left in your five round clip.
Do you reload?
The correct answer is: No.
You don’t have to reload for this situation because, being practical, you’ll either have enough rounds to get a few more kills, or you’ll end up dying anyway and start with a fresh clip.
But how about this situation:
You just killed two enemies in a row with your P90 and see another enemy coming your way. Your magazine has 20 rounds left out of the maximum 50.
Do you reload?
The correct answer is: Yes!
“Nebraskan Otaku, why should I reload? I see him and I have a bunch of rounds left to kill him.”
Wrong, dear reader. Most of your bullets are going to miss while he’s shooting at you, and because the rate of fire in the P90 is so fast, and there’s a high probability that you’ll run out of ammo and have to reload anyway while he’s getting the drop on you.
It makes more sense to find cover, reload, and then fire your P90 at the enemy.
Use Your Ears
“ENEMY IN THE CENTER!”
You’ll hear this line and several other lines spouted during the match. This will enable you to know where enemies are and how to find them fast.
If you look at the top center of your HUD,
You’ll see it says “Barn.”
This means when they say, “ENEMY AT THE BARN,” you’ll know that the enemies are at your current location.
Use this tactic while learning the layout of the maps and you can get the jump on your opponents with ease.
Use the Minimap
The mimimap in the upper right-hand corner of the HUD shows the map layout. When enemies fire, it shows up as a red dot on the minimap. When you use the UAV killstreak, it shows the enemy location with each pass.
Make sure to glance up at the minimap every so often. In doing so in combination with knowing the map layout, you’ll be able to pinpoint exactly where on the map an enemy is located.
Really Learn the Maps
I can’t say this enough, but knowing the layout of the map is your best tactic. Once you know the layout, you’ll know the most common areas where enemies will pop out and try to shoot at you. If you know the map well enough, you can plan ahead and prepare for any coming onslaught of enemies that will appear out of corners or doors.
In Summary:
Play at least an hour per day.
Every Day.
Get good at Free-For-All before trying the other modes.
Learn the layout of the maps.
Use certain gun classes for specific maps.
Know when to reload.
Use your ears.
Use the minimap.
And finally, LEARN THE MAPS, DAMN IT!
