

Multiplayer Survival Guide


Ten multiplayer tips to help improve your game online...and keep you alive longer.

1. Combat Training


2. Instant Replay, aka Theater Mode


3. Don't Get Killed


4. Plan Ahead


5. Identify Your Style


6. Don't Waste Your Death

If your multiplayer mode provides a kill cam, try to get a sense of where your enemy was when you were killed. Scroll through your teammates viewpoints and see if you can spot any enemies to give you an idea where they are when you respawn. The more intel you can get on your foes, the better. And don't be afraid to ask any teammates where they died to get a sense of where the opponents are moving on the map. Above all else, don't run to the spot where you previously died -- chances are your foes are still in the same location, waiting to kill anyone (like you) who returns. It's better to maneuver around the general vicinity to see if you can find them.

7. Loadouts: When and Where

For a Flagrunner
Lightweight/Steady Aim/Marathon, along with an SMG with Lightweight to make your general movement speed faster. Marathon allows you to sprint for a longer time and will let you hustle around the map, which is helpful for grabbing or intercepting flags. Since you'll be focused on moving around, Steady Aim will complement your speed by allowing you to be a decent shot even when you're not aiming down the scope.

For a Gunner
A light machinegun (LMG) is nice but it chews up ammunition and takes a long time to reload, so combine that with Scavenger/Sleight of Hand. Scavenger helps keep up your bullet supply while Sleight of Hand will help counteract the time needed to load an entire ammunition belt when reloading. Throw in the Ninja Perk as well, because it's awesome to become a mobile self-sufficient machinegun that can sneak up behind people.

For Bomb Techs
Flak Jacket/Warlord/Tactical Mask with a shotgun or an assault rifle with Sabotage/Domination/Headquarters to have fixed locations for objectives. Objectives tend to get bombarded with grenades or napalm fire for area denial, and Flak Jacket will basically let you shrug off most any grenade explosion that's not a direct hit. If someone tries to toss in Nova Gas grenades, Tactical Mask will help you breathe while arming/defusing/capturing. We just put in Warlord as the Tier 2 perk to give your weapon-of-choice additional attachment options to make up for how defensive and placement-centered your other Perks are.

For the Happy Camper
When you find a nice spot to stay at during your gaming session, don't budge. In order to minimize the amount of people that actually discover your camping strategy, use the Ghost Perk so you're invisible to aircraft, turrets, red crosshairs, and your name. Since you're camping you'll most likely prefer to snipe. Because there's no quick-scoping in the game, we suggest you make use of the Scout Perk -- you'll have a longer duration to steady your aim. And finally, depending on what you prefer, we suggest Ninja for undetected audible movement or Tactical Mask to protect you from those that want to use their special grenades against you.

For the Warmonger
Want to encourage your team to do their best? Equip the Hardline Perk to earn those Killstreaks much faster -- trust us, the more havoc you create on the battlefield, the better. Also, make sure to use the Spy Plane Killstreak. The more intel your team has on the enemy, the more likely your team gets those kills. We also like the Warlord Perk, so use a M16 Flamethrower and Grenade Launcher for short and long distance executions. Because you'll be on the front lines, equip Second Chance for that last kill before you die.

8. Have Some Grenade Tact

Most beginning players only think to throw frag grenades and maybe buy semtex grenades. But when it comes to team-based games, the tactical grenades supply a lot of helpful options as well; Nova Gas, Flash, and Concussion Grenades all help with crowd control in different ways. By default, you don't even have any equipment and could easily forget to buy some -- but something as innocuous as a well-placed claymore/jammer/motion sensor/tactical insertion could easily help out you and your team.

9. Don't Be Antisocial

If it's not free-for-all, then remember to be a team player. It bears repeating: a team that actually coordinates its actions and has players complementing each other will usually win. This means stuff like not having everyone pick the RC-XD killstreak; someone should still use the default Spy Plane to reveal targets on the map, which another player can then use for designating Mortars or Napalm Strikes. Black Ops is even more generous in doling out experience points for team-based actions, such as capturing points, placing or defusing bomb charges, or simply killing an opponent right after he takes out a fellow teammate (for some Avenger XP). Don't be the antisocial fool who just tries to get kills and points for himself. Besides, being part of a winning team that goes on a victory streak will probably level you up faster than being an armed misanthrope.

10. Stats Are Your Friend

Once you reach level 10 and unlock your Combat Record, a slew of information will be at your fingertips, such as heat maps that show where most people die on a map, where you tend to shoot people, and also how people tend to kill you. You can then in turn use this information to better yourself as a player. For example, if you find that you are being knifed in the back a lot, you may want to get better at watching your back by using the Spike Cam to cover your flank, or even some Claymores. Or if you find that you are shooting people more often in the arms, equip a red dot sight to hone your aim and turn on auto-aim. This will help you refine your shots to hit enemies in the chest and head -- key areas to quickly take down your opponents -- allowing you to move up the ranks even faster.


Pretty good! Anyone relevantly new to the game would find this a great deal of help!
Mods, give this a sticky, it's worth it!
Nice little guide, should help the new players out a bit. I bet they appreciate this a lot, because if I was new to this game, this would definitely help me.


I always prefer to use combat training to work on my sniping skills. I feel like you get better at the game as you get more familiar with the map and your aim. If you have good aim but are not familiar with good spots on the map then you will be out of luck really, your kill count will not be as high as it should be. As of the other ways of practicing, I never really bothered to try them.

Planning ahead of time is actually one of the ways I use to get most of my kills. I am able to anticipate where the enemy is going to be next before I even run there. My clay more and I are indestructible because of planning.


I think I'll give combat training a chance, I am so bad at sniping. Embarrassingly bad. Soon as I break out a sniper, I get knifed in the back without fail.


Yeah a little tip. When you are a sniper and you aim at your victim, you hold your breath for a second and when you think the the victim is in the + (plus) of the reticle you shoot it.
When you are running around and your not yet good then run with a good pistle. Also take other people's automatic weapons when you kill them.

All this is COD ofcourse.


These are some tips. I think you can still be good without combat training; actually playing against real people and understanding what they do is more beneficial than the tactics of bots. I never did combat training and still became a solid player.

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