Modern Warfare 2 Gunsmith Revealed

Hours away from the franchise's upcoming showcase event, Call of Duty: Next, Activision officially unveiled the revamped Gunsmith debuting in Modern Warfare II.

Aside from simply confirming that the series will be returning to a five-attachment max system, it appears the new offering will present an all-new system for players to learn. From Platforms and Receivers, to Weapon Vaults and more, here's a breakdown of everything you need to know about the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Gunsmith.

Modern Warfare 2 Gunsmith Revealed

Weapons Platforms

First and foremost, the biggest change with the new Gunsmith is the addition of Weapons Platforms.

Whereas in previous CODs where every weapon is a separate "family," MW2 will take weapon manufacturers (e.g. Tempus Armaments) into account and group their offerings into Weapons Platforms.

Although some Weapons Platforms still contain one weapon — such as the RPG-7 and Lockwood MK2 "cowboy rifle" — other, more modern Platforms are said to have three, four or even five different weapons.

In MW2, players will receive every base Weapons Platform from each manufacturer as they level up from Rank 1 to Rank 55.

Receivers

The first weapon unlocked on a Weapons Platform will be known by its Receiver, the core of a weapon that determines its primary use and strengths. Changing a weapon’s Receiver completely alters what the weapon is; it’s considered a "new" weapon when building a Loadout, but it still lives within the same Weapons Platform.

For instance, the first Receiver in the Tempus Armaments Weapons Platform is the M4 Assault Rifle. Once upgraded, players will unlock Attachments for the M4, as well as more Tempus Armaments Receivers.

This effectively streamlines progression because using the M4 not only unlocks the Tempus Armaments' M16, 556 Icarus LMG, FTac Racon Battle Rifle and FSS Hurricane SMG Receivers, but also compatible Attachments that can be carried over to the new offerings right away.

Expect reduced repetitiveness and reasonable challenges to unlock Attachments and camouflage.

- Activision

Each new Receiver can be seen in its designated Weapon Categories in the Loadout Screen. However, while editing any weapon that is part of a larger Weapons Platform, players can also just simply swap Receivers while editing in the Gunsmith.

Attachments

Just like in previous games, leveling up a weapon in MW2 unlocks Attachments, which include the aforementioned Receivers.

As hinted at earlier, depending on the Attachment, it is either unlocked for all weapons within a Platform or unlocked for all weapons in the entire game.

In leveling up a Weapons Platform, you unlock two types of attachments:

1. Weapons Platform Specific Attachments: Includes Receivers, Barrels, Stocks, Rear Grips and Magazines. These are sharable within the Platform across all Receivers. There is no need to re-unlock these kinds of attachments for each individual Weapon in the Platform, but different Weapons Platforms have their own Barrels and Magazines to unlock.
2. Universal Attachments: Includes Optics, Ammunition, Underbarrels and Foregrips and Muzzles. These only ever need to be unlocked once and can be used across all weapons that are able to equip them. Is there another Optic or Muzzle attachment you like? It may be on a different weapon’s Progression track — check around the Gunsmith, use that weapon to unlock them, then feel free to use it any other weapon.

Weapon Vaults

Weapon Vaults are said to be the ultimate Weapon Blueprints: a variant of a weapon that keeps its cosmetic properties on all attachments native to its base platform.

Owning a Weapon Vault, such as the MW2 Vault Edition's FJX Cinder, means having every attachment from an equivalent Weapons Platform (Receivers, Barrels, Stocks, Rear Grips and Magazines) ready to use and with the same design.

Other Optics, Ammunition, Underbarrels, Foregrips and Muzzles can be outfitted to Weapon Vaults once they are unlocked normally.

All Weapon Vault attachments are said to be designed with a specific cosmetic appearance in mind.

Weapon Vaults are designed for those who care about appearance just as much as effectiveness, especially for a specific Weapons Platform.

- Activision

Firing Range

Lastly, Activision did officially confirm that Modern Warfare 2's Gunsmith will indeed have a Firing Range feature. More information on that front is said to be coming at Call of Duty: Next.

For more on Call of Duty, be sure to check out our top five lists:

• Top 5 Call of Duty Games of All Time
• Top 5 Call of Duty Guns of All Time
• Top 5 Call of Duty Maps of All Time
• Top 5 Warzone Moments of All Time
• Top 5 Warzone Seasons of All Time

Additionally, feel free to check out our timeline on the history of the Call of Duty franchise!