Welcome to “Bravo Six: Going Dark Matter”
A complete guide to Polyatomic and Orion Camo
Volume 1: Assault Rifles!
This guide was authored by KRNG XVI |
@xvithegreatThis guide is designed to be the most detailed, comprehensive guide to assist you on your journeys through Gold, Platinum, Polyatomic, and ultimately Orion. It has been written after extensive time testing, leveling, investigating, and compiling data about the game, and will be releasing over 9 volumes due to the sheer size of information and customization.
"Bravo Six, Going Dark (Matter)": A Complete Orion Camo Guide
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Volume 7: Sniper Rifles (Coming soon!)
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Volume 8: Pistols (Coming soon!)
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Volume 9: Launchers & Melee (Coming soon!)
Simplified Tuning Method
First time? You should definitely read Volume 0: Introduction!
The Introduction contains the following topics that are relevant to nearly every weapon class, such as:
What you have to do to earn Orion, with individual challenge recommendations; best settings to control recoil (extremely important); best Weapon XP and Longshot methods; complete Tuning guide; recommended perks & equipment, and general tips and tricks that will assist you throughout your camo grind.
This guide is divided into the following sections:
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Section 1: Weapon & Attachment Unlock List
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Section 2: Best Assault Rifle Attachments Analysis
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Section 3: Tuning Insight & Best Practices
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Section 4: Bullet Velocity
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Section 5: Recommended Loadouts, with Tuning
Not all ARs are unlocked just by leveling up; some must be unlocked by leveling up other guns first. In addition, there are a few attachments I will recommend you use on every gun, and some of these are not natively unlocked by the AR class.
Weapon Unlock List
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M4A1: Unlocked at Player Level 1.
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Taq-56: Unlocked at Player Level 19.
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Kastov 762: Unlocked at Player Level 23.
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Lachmann-556: Unlocked by leveling the Lachmann-762 (BR) to Weapon Level 13.
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STB 556: Unlocked at Player Level 41.
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M16: Unlocked by leveling the 556 Icarus (LMG) to Weapon Level 13.
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Kastov-74u: Unlocked by leveling the Kastov 545 (AR) to Weapon Level 13.
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Kastov 545: Unlocked by leveling the Kastov 762 (AR) to Weapon level 10.
Attachment Unlock List
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RF Crown 50 Muzzle: Unlocked by leveling the Taq-56 (AR) to Weapon Level 16.
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Bore-490 Muzzle: Unlocked by leveling the S0-14 (BR) to Weapon Level 14.
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FSS OLE-V Laser: Unlocked by leveling the EBR-14 (Marksman Rifle) to Weapon Level 10.
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VLK LZR 7MW Laser: Unlocked by leveling the STB 556 (AR) to Weapon Level 5.
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FTAC Ripper Underbarrel: Unlocked by leveling the Lachmann-762 (BR) to Weapon Level 6.
Section 2: Best Assault Rifle Attachments Analysis
No matter your playstyle, your overall objective when building strong weapons should as best as possible adhere to the 3 tenets of an effective weapon: (1) maximum damage/range; (2) low recoil; (3) fast handling. You should strive to construct weapons that are versatile and adaptable, able to reflexively perform in a variety of situations. 6v6 weapons should be well balanced between speed and accuracy, Ground War weapons should slightly emphasize accuracy over speed, and Warzone weapons should sacrifice most speed for accuracy. The builds presented in this guide are constructed for effectiveness in the standard 6v6 multiplayer experience.
“I’m only using 2 or 3 attachments on my guns…” A reasonable conclusion to arrive to, and I don’t blame a large portion of the population for arriving at this resolution. Many people are sticking to the traditional Suppressor/Barrel/Magazine/Mobility template that has worked for years since MW19, and that simply doesn’t work this year. However, I've conducted extensive testing with the builds I present, and you should find that they work excellently with 5 attachments. It's all about avoiding the attachments at both ends of the spectrum: Some mobility attachments are too fast and give you too much recoil, and some recoil attachments are too heavy and slow you down too much. It's really difficult to find the niche attachments that give the most benefit for the least cost unless you perform very extensive testing like I do.
My understanding and insight on attachments is limited in the absence of advanced stats, but I base my knowledge on how attachments performed in MW19 and Vanguard (Vanguard operated on the MW19 engine). MW2 uses the MW19 engine, so it’s likely things are going to behave very similarly, if not exactly the same. Here is an explanation of the best attachments per slot for 6v6 (Not Ground War or Warzone):
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Muzzle: +Horizontal/Recoil Control: Straight-up Vertical and Horizontal recoil control is pound for pound, stat for stat, the most powerful form of recoil mitigation (basis: Exact numbers from Vanguard), providing the strongest amount of reduction per point over any other types of mitigation, such as stabilization, steadiness, generic control, or anything of the such. I personally believe this to be the best recoil control attachment in the entire game.
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Notice that this was Horizontal first, Vertical second. Attributes of an attachment are listed in order of strength, so if +Horizontal Recoil is listed first and Vertical second, the attachment will provide more Horizontal Recoil Control than Vertical Recoil Control.
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What about suppressors?! Regardless of the current implementation of suppressors (showing up on the UAV while firing a silenced weapon with Ghost), I overall find the stealth benefits of suppressors to be far outweighed by the mobility penalties, and find them generally not worth using.
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Barrel: Not Always Worth It: Barrels are variable per gun and, in some cases, are not even worth using because the penalty to mobility is significantly stronger than the benefits of recoil control, range, or velocity. Barrels are used on a gun-per-gun basis and usually when necessary to increase the range to 40 meters, a standard Assault Rifle breakpoint.
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Laser: FSS OLE-V Laser: A penalty-free gain of ADS, Stability, and Sprint-to-fire. S-Tier attachment. The “con” to using this is that the laser is visible in ADS; if you are pre-aiming an area you believe an enemy will appear, aim at the wall closest to where they will appear so that your laser is not visible around the corner, and be ready to snap on-target.
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What about stability? In Modern Warfare 2, Stability is active at all times, even when firing your weapon; this means that your weapon is always swaying up and down, side to side. I view Stability as a form of “soft recoil control” – and it’s disingenuous to refer to it as control, because it does not affect the amount of kick your weapon has; rather, an unstable weapon has a chance to sway you off-target even with perfect accuracy and recoil control; as such, a stable weapon has a better chance of staying on-target in the heat of battle. More important over medium-range encounters, very important for long-range encounters.
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Optic: Preference, Otherwise Not Worth It: Try to get used to the Ironsights, but if you find them unbearable, you will be sacrificing something important. The attachment I would recommend cutting to add an Optic would usually be one that increases mobility at the cost of recoil control; these are usually Rear Grips.
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Stock: Sometimes: Stocks are similar to barrels in that many of them harm your gun more than help it. However, Stocks are a precious source of mobility, and the +Strafe/Sprint Speed Stocks are excellent since they increase your mobility without harming recoil.
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Rear Grip: Sometimes: Generally you don’t want to be sourcing your recoil control from the rear grip; rear grips tend not to affect the weapon heavily, but are a decent source of nominal mobility improvements.
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Magazine: Never Worth It: Fast Hands is king this time around. Magazines tend to incur a heavy mobility loss on the weapon in every possible area - Movement Speed, Strafe Speed, ADS Speed, Sprint to Fire Speed, etc., - so the Fast Hands Bonus Perk is an MVP choice this year.
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Ammunition: Never Worth It: Ammunition types simply do not provide enough benefit to justify an attachment slot when the nature of attachment balancing in this game is such a delicate dance; I liken the balancing of attachments in MW2 to balancing a nuclear reactor – too much heat (mobility) and you’ve got recoil plots akin to a runaway reaction; too much control, and you won’t get any productive amounts of power output. We simply must be using attachments that provide more value.
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Underbarrel: +Recoil Stabilization: The Underbarrel slot is absolutely prized with the legendary FTAC Ripper providing incredible amounts of stabilization. This is a key attachment slot for any gun with an undesired amount of horizontal recoil; on almost every recommended build, I highly recommend this supremely powerful attachment to stabilize your recoil and focus it into a largely vertical plot, which is easier to control. The FTAC Ripper also provides an excellent amount of stability, another key stat for more distant engagements.
Section 3: Tuning Insight & Best Practices
I published a very detailed guide that explains the process, but for anyone not interested in learning how it works and just want the technique, I did also include a 60-second TL;DR video that teaches you everything you need to know.
Section 4: Bullet Velocity - Does It Matter in 6v6?
By and large, the answer is no, though there are exceptions. Players subscribe to many placebo-type myths that have been busted (such as velocity giving better hitreg – false), and for most primary weapons, Velocity largely does not matter and will almost never be the defining factor of a 6v6 gunfight. Velocity largely comes into play when engaging horizontally moving targets in which your velocity may be too slow and force you to horizontally lead a target, but this largely applies over distances well exceeding 40 meters.
Every Assault Rifle has a base velocity of 590ms, which requires no lead up to 50 meters, and minimal lead beyond 60 meters. Again, remember that this is largely horizontal lead. I only recommend the High Velocity attachment for Longshots due to the 38-meter minimum engagement range for AR Longshots, which edges a bit close to requiring lead. With no other attachment considerations, the High Velocity attachment will make it so you should not have to lead any targets (vertically or horizontally) under 70 meters.
Section 5: Recommended Loadouts, with Tuning
In this section I’ll provide my highly-tested and confirmed-effective loadouts that are a result of many hours of testing in live matches, bot matches, shooting walls to observe recoil plots, and messing with tuning. You may not be able to build these weapons early or until the weapon is fully leveled; remember, Tuning is not unlocked until the weapon is maximum level. Be sure to refer to my earlier Attachment Unlock List to scavenge for missing attachments – especially the laser from the EBR.
