Perks

Call of Duty: World at War Multiplayer Guide

Perks

Most perks are unlocked as you progress through the ranks in the game. There are three perk classes and you pick one from each. This is to stop the game from becoming too imbalanced with everyone picking all the damage and health-related perks.

Class 1:

Special Grenades x3: This increases the number of special grenades (Signal Flares or Tabum Gas) to three. The type depends on which sort of special grenade you have chosen with that particular class.

Satchel Charges x2: This equips your character with 2 Satchel Charges in addition to any special grenades. Satchel charges are very good against tanks, make a humorous noise when you try and detonate them without having planted any, and are cracking on objective games or in close quarter maps where you are often guaranteed kills.

M9A1 Bazooka x2: This equips your character with 2 Bazooka rounds. Bazookas are surprisingly good against infantry, and surprisingly useless against tanks. Great when enemies are clustered together.

Bomb Squad: This is for anyone who gets angry at constant Bouncing Betties deaths. They will now appear on the map with the ordnance icon that you will be used to seeing on allied mines.

Bouncing Betty x2 – This equips your character with 2 Bouncing Betties. These are proximity mines which can be planted anywhere on the map and explode when an enemy puts pressure on the area nearby. You can get many kills by planting them in doorways and simply staying alive (any active Betties are made redundant upon your death).

Bandolier: This perk is great for players who are constantly getting through all their ammo and have to switch to pistols. Certain guns with a small number of total ammunition or those that have a high rate of fire and churn through the ammo quickly make Bandolier, the perk which increases total ammunition (not the amount in each clip or magazine).

Primary Grenades x2: Unlike Modern Warfare, you only get one additional primary grenade (Frag Grenade, Anti-Tank Grenade or Molotov Cocktail) with this perk, making two in total.

M2 Flamethrower: The flamethrower is not as effective in multiplayer as it is in singleplayer, but this perk allows it to be used in addition to your other weapons i.e. it doesn't replace either your primary or secondary weaponry. As such it is a good weapon for snipers to have as short-range back up.

Class 2:

Stopping Power: The opposite of the much-maligned Juggernaut, this boosts your damage by 40% which allows some weapons to kill in one body shot and others in a quick two. It is cancelled out by players with Juggernaut.

Juggernaut: In contrast to Stopping Power, this decreases enemy damage by 25%, often needing at least one more bullet to finish you off than would otherwise be required. Stopping Power cancels out the effect of Juggernaut, so your would get no damage bonus, and they would receive no less damage, putting everyone back to a level playing field.

Fireworks: This perk boosts all explosive damage to increase your chances of taking out the enemy. Grenade fanatics in particular lap this one up, especially in conjunction with Primary Grenade x2 as a Class 1 perk.

Flak Jacket: This reduces explosive damage to help keep you alive following grenade or other explosive attacks. The natural answer to enemy fireworks, and useful on tighter maps with heaps of grenades and not much room to run.

Gas Mask: With the Gas Mark perk you will not be poisoned or have your vision affected by Tabum Gas. This usually distorts the screen and provides a similar effect to a flashbang from the first game (you struggle to see the enemy). The main idea is to use this as an offensive perk, so throw a Tabum grenade into a room, then run in among the gas to clear out the enemy.

Camouflage: If you're fed up with feeling that the enemy always knows where you are (the chances are that they do), then this perk is right up your street. Like the UAV Jammer from Modern Warfare, it ensures that you don't appear on the RADAR when enemy Recon Planes make a pass. The only time you will ever appear on the RADAR now is when you fire your gun. Of course, if you use a silenced weapon then this isn't a problem and you can, in effect, be totally invisible.

Sleight of Hand: This reduces reloading times by 50%, making it ideal for any guns which regularly need reloading, such as rifles, or those which take a long time to add more ammo, such as shotguns and light-machine guns.

Shades: If you either love or hate flare attacks, then this is probably an enticing perk. It reduces the effect of flares so you can either throw them in front of you while in a room, or hide in the flare and pick off enemies who then can't see you. Obviously enemy flares also appear dimmer, though they are not widely used in multiplayer.

Double Tap: The World at War debate is whether Double Tap is better than Stopping Power. As it increases your firing rate by double, you should, in theory, do twice the damage, making it more powerful than Stopping Power. Obviously on snipers or very slow firing guns you wouldn't necessarily hit both shots, but on medium to fast weapons (such as the BAR in particular) it's a very good thing to use. Certain guns like the MP40 or the PPSh may look and sound great with this perk, but your ammunition won't last long.

Overkill: Returning from Modern Warfare, here you can equip two primary weapons of your choice, rather than having to have a pistol as a secondary weapon. It's good if you are often running out of ammunition in your primary weapon, but the cost of not having any of the more recognised Class 2 perks such as Stopping Power or Double Tap means it's only really used by snipers so that they can more adequately defend themselves up close.

Class 3:

Deep Impact: This increases bullet penetration, allowing you to shoot through walls and most cover. The power of the gun and rate of fire that you are using determines the relative effectiveness of the perk. Useful for light-machine guns, where you can spray bullets at a wall and try to blindly hit enemies. It's also essential when an enemy retreats behind cover when they're nearly down, as you can now just finish them off.

Extreme Conditioning: You can sprint for twice as long with this perk, which is handy on maps such as Airfield with big gaps between cover. In objective games or even general Deathmatch it's also useful to get to the target (or behind enemy lines) before they expect.

Steady Aim: This perk increases accuracy when you're firing from the hip (i.e. not looking down the sights of the weapon). Especially useful for players with quick-fire and close quarter guns such as the PPSh or MP40.

Toss Back: If you hate always getting taken out by grenades when you pick them up to throw back, this perk resets the timer on the grenade, effectively giving you a free-throw. Grenades are not as common as they were in Modern Warfare, but on certain maps, such as Asylum, where particular locations are bottlenecks, it's not a bad one-off perk.

Second Chance: Treyarch's answer to Modern Warfare's Last Stand, players can now be revived when in 'Last Stand' mode. This is when you are injured but not killed, i.e. not shot in the head or grenaded basically and stay prone on the ground with your pistol to defend against or kill enemies. Any team mates with Second Chance can then heal you and get you back on your feet, saving the team 10 points and keeping you alive. Friendly players in Second Chance mode appear as crosses on the map.

Martyrdom: This pulls a pin on a grenade when you die, leaving any enemies, particularly your killer, to have to evacuate the immediate area. It's also useful as enemies will run round corners and over what they think is a corpse, but the grenade may not have gone off yet, getting an easy and free kill. To defend against it, don't kill someone and then run past their body until you give the grenade a chance to go off.

Fireproof: This perk is only useful against flamethrowers and molotovs, which are used very occasionally in the game. It protects you against both, and is mainly useful when you yourself have a flamethrower and can then follow the flames into the enemy with no damage.

Dead Silence: One thing that is noticeable in World at War is that you can now hear people sneaking up behind you or walking nearby. This silences your footsteps, and is the last part of the stealth perk combination.

Iron Lungs: Used for sniping, you can now keep your breath held (increasing accuracy by decreasing weapon movement) for twice the period.

Reconnaissance: A fun perk rather than a useful one, this shows dogs, artillery strikes and tanks on the map. If you particularly enjoy taking out the dogs and defending against them, then it's worth considering.