BO3topright Ztr

"Full-auto heavy machine gun. 2-shot kill at a slow fire rate."
— Description

The Gorgon (known as the Slowfire in the beta game files) is a light machine gun that appears in Call of Duty: Black Ops III.


The Gorgon is the last machine gun unlocked, as well as the last weapon overall unlocked in the campaign, at level 20. It is also rarely used by enemies, so finding one from the battlefield is difficult.

It functions very similar to its multiplayer counterpart, being a powerful weapon that can easily take on any types of enemies, as it has exceptional performance against humans, robots, Warlords, and even vehicles and walkers, with the only drawback being its bad handling and low rate of fire. Quickdraw HandleLaser Sight, and Stock can all help alleviate its weak handling by improving ADS time, hipfire accuracy, and ADS movement speed of the weapon, respectively.

Fast Mag speeds up the reload a marginal ammount. Extended Mag increases the magazine capacity by 40% and also gives additional starting ammunition.

FMJ combined with the weapon's high damage and penetration, the player can shoot through most, if not all penetrable cover. With this combination, the player can reduce a Warlord in mere seconds if most of the shots landed on his head, and quickly damaging other robotics.

Data Vault SpecificationsEdit

  • Ammo: .50 Cal
  • Length: 1348mm
  • Weight: 14.7kg
  • Barrel: 712mm
  • Production Years: 2042 - Present
  • Country of Origin: Egypt


The Gorgon is unlocked early on at level 7.

The Gorgon is a very high damage per bullet weapon. At almost all ranges, the Gorgon, without a Suppressor, should have the ability to two shot kill enemies that are not using Kinetic Armor or hiding behind cover. If using the Suppressor, it will typically take three shots to kill. This two shot kill ability gives it one of the fastest potential time-to-kill ratios of all weapons in the game. The Gorgon also has high penetration power, making the user able to shoot through cover with extreme efficiency. The Gorgon should generally get one shot kills at any distance in Hardcore game modes, with or without a Suppressor equipped.

The Gorgon's high damage per bullet is very highly offset by the Gorgon's rate of fire. The Gorgon will fire at around 300 RPM. This is far and away the slowest rate of fire on any fully automatic weapon, and is roughly that of the Haymaker 12. The Gorgon's rate of fire is so slow that even the Drakon and MR6 are capable of besting the Gorgon's fire rate. This rate of fire makes the Gorgon have one of the slowest time-to-kill ratios if factoring in missed shots and will make the Gorgon much less user friendly.

The Gorgon has odd accuracy traits. The iron sights are clear, and the recoil per shot is quite high, but due to the rate of fire, the Gorgon should resettle between shots. However, the Gorgon also suffers from extreme sway values, making it wildly inaccurate if not accounting for its sway.

The Gorgon has far and away the worst handling traits in the game. It will move at 90% of the base speed, it will aim down the sight in a game-worst 550 milliseconds, and its hip-fire spread is extremely large. Therefore, hip-firing with this weapon should only be reserved for the direst situations. The Gorgon's reload speed is fairly good for an LMG, but slow overall, taking about 5.5 seconds to reload the belt. This isn't as slow as the BRM and the 48 Dredge, but is slower than that of the Dingo.

The Gorgon suffers from having the smallest magazine capacity in its class. Due to a nerf, the Gorgon holds only 40 rounds in each belt. This size sounds fairly bad, but due to the Gorgon's high damage per bullet, the player has a lot of ammunition that can be used effectively, something the 48 Dredge and the Dingo struggle with due to their elevated rates of fire and lower damage per bullet. The player will spawn in with 120 rounds total, or three belts containing 40 rounds each.

The Gorgon gets the usual set of attachments for an LMG. The optical attachments are fair game, but the Recon Sight is extremely effective on the Gorgon as it eliminates most, if not all, of the Gorgon's huge idle sway, while reducing recoil a fair bit. The Recon Sight makes the Gorgon severely more accurate. The Foregrip isn't needed on the Gorgon, as the weapon's recoil resettles between shots.

The Quickdraw Handle is a great attachment to consider on the Gorgon, as it cuts the ADS time in half, to about 275 milliseconds. The weapon's ADS time is nothing short of methodic, and as such, players will struggle to get their shots to land accurately in a straight gunfight. The Stock will improve the Gorgon's otherwise poor strafe speed, but this is not needed if playing defensively. The Laser Sight will improve the gun's extremely large hip-fire spread, making the Gorgon an at least serviceable option in close quarters, however it's still not ideal for many CQC gunfights.

Extended Mag and Fast Mag ease the pain of reloading the Gorgon. Its reloading pains are rare and aren't that painful, as the Gorgon has a relatively fast reload time for an LMG, and it has a lot of ammo to start off with that it can put to good use. The two attachments just aren't that useful on it.

The Suppressor is almost exclusively detrimental. What the player gains in stealth, they more than lose in bullet power, as the Gorgon becomes an almost guaranteed three shot kill, making its time-to-kill ratio all the more slower.

FMJ is an overkill option to some, but for others, it allows them to easily puncture through almost all walls and kill enemies behind cover as if it were dumb luck. It also increases the Gorgon's damage against scorestreaks, making it effective to take down a UAV or a Rolling Thunder drone quickly. FMJ is dependent on the players' playstyle, and while some players may love it, some others may not value the attachment as much.



The Gorgon appears in Zombies, where it can be found in the Mystery Box for 950 points. It is an effective weapon for holding out at early rounds, where it can retain a one-shot kill to the head until mid-teen rounds, and can essentially be used as a more powerful Sheiva. The rate of fire is extremely slow, and can be a detriment if many shots are missed. It also hold the smallest magazine size of an LMG in Black Ops 3, at 50. To top off its slow performance in almost every aspect, it has a slow reload time as well, which will be more frequent than expected due to its 50 round magazine. It also performs poorly as a mobile weapon, not only due to its weight and inaccuracy while hipfiring, but firing the weapon slows the player down significantly which allows zombies to catch up much easier. Double Tap Root Beer and Speed Cola are highly recommended to accommodate the slow damage-per-second and reload, and Rapid Fire and Fast Mag are also helpful in the same regard, albeit being late unlocks to the weapon. Stamin-up is almost a necessity with this weapon, especially considering the faster movement speeds of zombies in Black Ops 3, particularly in maps like Shadows of Evil.

When upgraded via the Pack-a-Punch Machine, it becomes the Athena's Spear, becoming a much better weapon. It boasts a 100 round magazine now, which combined with it's fire rate and high damage, makes reloads very infrequent. The movement speed is made slightly better, and damage is also increased, along side a slight boost to the fire rate. If one can accurately shoot with this weapon, it can be used in the higher rounds very effectively. Campers should consider this weapon when Pack-a-Punched, while trainers should avoid it, but it is quite usable while training as well with the correct attachments. Once Pack-a-Punched, headshots remain a one-hit kill up until round 24 with Double-Tap Root Beer.

Gorgon vs Athena's SpearEdit

Gorgon Athena's Spear
Gorgon BO3 Athena&#039;s Spear BO3
Damage 225-130 450
Multiplier head: x4.5
chest: x1
abdomen: x1
Fire mode Automatic Automatic
Rate of fire 327 RPM 327 RPM
Magazine size 50 100
Max ammo 250+50 500+100
Mobility Low Moderate
Extras Extended Mags, FMJ, higher damage, more reserve ammo


For attachment variants, see Gorgon/Attachments.
For camouflage images, see Gorgon/Camouflage.


  • The Pack-a-Punched Gorgon, Athena's Spear, refers to Athena, a goddess in Greek Mythology who turned Medusa into a Gorgon.