The lowdown on movement mechanics, minimaps, and more.

An imminent new Call of Duty generation can leave seasoned players feeling one of two ways: excited or terrified. A new game means new maps and new toys to play with. Great! But it also brings changes to the systems you’ve spent so long mastering. Uh oh. HyperX gear can give you an edge over the competition , but if you want to ensure your personal skills hold up as boots hit the ground in that first match? Listen up. These are the biggest changes coming in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III multiplayer that you’ll need to quickly adapt to.

Movement And Combat

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III will carry over the core tactical gunplay of previous Modern Warfare titles. But there are changes coming – some new and some which reintroduce popular systems from older titles.

Tac-Stance

The biggest new skill in your mechanical arsenal is Tac-Stance. This firing mode lifts your weapon into a canted position, putting it halfway between firing from the hip and aiming down sights. It’ll tighten your bullet spread but still allow for more mobility than a full ADS stance. Perfect for clearing close-quarters, indoor environments.

Slide And Reload Cancels

Old-school skills return in the form of slide cancels and reload cancels. Caught mid-reload in an unexpected gunfight? A quick double weapon swap will have you ready to shoot again in no time. There are even some perks that tie directly into these systems. One key difference is that slide canceling will no longer refresh your Tactical Sprint. Those leg muscles deserve some rest!

General Movement Systems

Modern Warfare III also introduces a few movement tweaks. Mantling is now faster, and you can mantle objects while sprinting. Guns can now be fired immediately upon sliding, though you’ll need a specific perk to ADS during a slide. Tactical Sprint lasts longer and now recharges while sprinting normally. Finally, base strafing speed while aiming down sights has been increased, making you more mobile when holding your sights up.

The Return Of The Classic Minimap

Old-school COD players rejoice, for Modern Warfare III will see the return of classic minimap systems. Enemies will now show up on the minimap as red dots whenever they fire an unsuppressed weapon. Keep an eye on that radar to ensure you’re well aware when a gunfight breaks out. Get close and your HyperX headset will help you pinpoint them precisely so you can line up your shot in advance.

Increased Time To Kill

Modern Warfare III will see base player HP boosted to 150, increasing the game’s Time To Kill when compared to MWII. Rapid and precise aim is still the name of the game, but players caught out by enemies should now have a chance to react, depending of course on the weapon they’ve been shot by.

Perks Are Grouped By Equipment

Perks – once ethereal, magical powers that your Operator somehow harnessed – are now grouped into one of four equipment-based categories: Vests, Gloves, Boots, and Gear. Perks are also active from the start of a match, rather than earned throughout. The clothing-based groupings won’t make any visual change to you in-game, either. So you don’t need to worry about bright white sneakers giving you away unless they’re part of your equipped Operator skin.

Here’s how Activision breaks each Perk category down:

Vests

Equip a variety of Vests that offer special abilities in addition to determining which kinds of items can be equipped within your Loadout. For example, the Engineer Vest disables Lethal Equipment, but provides two Tactical Equipment pieces and an extra Gear slot.

Gloves

Adjust your weapon and Equipment handling with Gloves that increase weapon swap speed, allow you to throw equipment farther, reload while sprinting, and more.

Boots

Further enhance your mobility options with Boots that eliminate footstep sounds, increase climbing and mantling speed, and more.

Gear

The Gear slot features a greater variety of items that affect your Operator, from EOD Padding that reduces non-Killstreak explosive and fire damage to the Bone Conduction Headset, which reduces combat noise for improved identification of enemy footsteps and gunshots.

Map voting

Another small change with a big impact in Modern Warfare III is the return of map voting. At the end of a match, players will have a short window in which to vote on the next level from a selection of maps. It’s a long-requested feature which adds some player agency even outside of the matches themselves.

New Weapons, Equipment, And Killstreaks

It wouldn’t be a new Call of Duty game without new weapons, equipment, and killstreaks to unlock and unleash on your enemies. Modern Warfare III will actually carry over all weapons and attachments players have from Modern Warfare II, but there’s plenty more to come on top of that.

Weapons

Over 30 new weapons are on the way for game launch. We don’t know the full list yet, but examples include the Rival 9 SMG, Longbow Sniper Rifle, and Warden Kortac Operator.

Equipment and Field Upgrades

A wealth of new equipment will also be fighting for a place in your loadout. The Breacher Drone fits into the Lethal slot and can be launched to slowly seek out enemies. It detonates on proximity, but sneaky maneuvering will be crucial as it can be shot from the sky by enemy players.

The A.C.S. Field Upgrade is made for objective-focused players. In addition to hacking enemy gear, it can be thrown onto an objective to contribute to its progress, even when you’re not present.

Another option is the Comm Scrambler Field Upgrade. This will shield allies within its radius from enemy UAV sweeps and deny any opponents inside the ability to use Killstreaks or Field Upgrades. The radius appears on the minimap, so expect opponents to come hunting whenever this is deployed.

Killstreaks

On the Killstreak front, we’ve been introduced to the Mosquito Drone. And yes, it’s just a lovely as the name implies. Deployed to an area, this small explosive drone will bombard any enemies which approach. Listen out for its telltale sounds to help spot it in advance and avoid an untimely end.

After-Market Parts

And finally, here’s one for the Gunsmith fans and completionists. One of the most exciting changes that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is introducing for multiplayer is the After-Market Parts system. This introduces bespoke customization kits which fully alter the behavior of a given weapon. And we mean fully. Examples shown so far include a Bullpup modification for a heavy LMG and an SMG build for a pistol.

These kits can only be unlocked by first maxing out the level of a given weapon, then completing a unique challenge for that weapon. We don’t yet know how many After-Market Parts will be available in the game at launch, but expect more to be added as seasons progress.

Ready yourself for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III’s most rigorous challenges by adding HyperX gear to your arsenal ahead of launch.