Call of Duty's weapon system offers extensive customization through its Gunsmith, where you modify weapons with attachments affecting range, accuracy, mobility, and handling. Each weapon has five attachment slots covering optics, muzzle, barrel, underbarrel, stock, rear grip, ammunition, and magazine categories. Attachments have trade-offs — a longer barrel increases range but slows movement speed and aim-down-sight time.
Assault rifles are the most balanced weapon class, effective at most ranges. The meta shifts with each game and patch, but ARs are always a safe choice for beginners. SMGs excel in close-quarters combat with fast fire rates and excellent mobility, making them ideal for aggressive, rushing playstyles. LMGs offer large magazines and sustained fire at the cost of slow handling — they're strong for holding down sightlines.
Sniper rifles and marksman rifles reward precision with one-shot kill potential at long range. Quickscoping — quickly aiming and firing a sniper rifle at close to medium range — is a skill-intensive technique beloved by experienced players. Shotguns dominate at point-blank range but are useless beyond a few meters. Pistols and melee weapons serve as secondaries for when your primary runs dry.
Perks significantly impact your playstyle. Standard options typically include stealth perks (hide from UAVs and radar), speed perks (move faster, swap weapons faster), and combat perks (extra health, faster regeneration). Equipment includes lethals like frag grenades, thermites, and claymores, and tacticals like stun grenades, smoke grenades, and heartbeat sensors. Killstreaks (or scorestreaks) reward consecutive kills or score with AI support, aerial strikes, and powerful weapons. Start with lower-tier streaks like UAV and Counter-UAV until you can consistently earn higher ones.