Call of Duty Modern Warfare II is almost here! We’ve been playing the Beta on PlayStation, and we could not be more excited for the sequel to Modern Warfare 2019. To celebrate the Beta release on all platforms, let’s talk about what we love about the game so far, controller settings to help you enjoy the Beta while it’s available, and what we’re looking forward to when the game releases on October 28th!

Controller Settings

Before you jump into a match, always check out the gameplay and controller settings to make sure they align with your preferences. While some settings have changed, the overall feel of movement and aiming are very similar to Modern Warfare 2019 and Warzone, so to make your life easier, you can take a video of your current Modern Warfare settings and copy most of those over to the MWII beta settings.

Button layout is personal preference and for the most part, you should stick to what is comfortable. Tactical will swap the melee and crouch buttons, which is what we play on so we can activate slides and dolphin dives while adjusting our aim with that right stick. You will want to adjust your aim more often when sliding than while meleeing, so we recommend this setting. While KontrolFreeks can greatly extend the lifespan of a controller by enhancing the grip of your thumbsticks with extremely durable and grippy materials, the internal mechanisms of a thumbstick get worn down by pressing those thumbsticks in too often or too aggressively, which can create jitter and drift in some thumbsticks. Therefore, we always recommend mapping your most used inputs to buttons rather than joystick inputs, like L3 and R3.

We always turn Controller Vibration off when playing competitive FPS games where it doesn’t offer any clear advantage. This will extend the battery of your controller and prevent your aim from being affected by a rumbling controller.

While haptic trigger effects can enhance some single player games, similarly to controller vibration, we recommend turning Trigger Effect off for competitive Call of Duty, if you are focusing on multiplayer as we all are during the Beta. If you want to upgrade the feel of your controller and make it feel like it has Stippled Grip Tape, try out some KontrolFreek Performance Grips.

We could talk forever about sensitivity settings, but those are mostly personal preference. If this is the first Call of Duty game you’ve played or you are just returning to the series, then you should know that KontrolFreek Performance Thumbsticks enable you to play on higher sensitivity settings while maintaining control of your movement and precise accuracy. We encourage players to play on the highest sensitivity setting that you can still hit your shots with, because this will allow you to turn on enemies shooting you from outside of your POV quicker than you could on a lower sensitivity. If you are looking for a safe starting point, 6 Horizontal Stick Sensitivity and 6 Vertical Stick Sensitivity are generally considered to be the best sensitivity settings for most Call of Duty pro players in recent years, so that may be worth trying to see if that works for you, and those are the settings that we use as well!

ADS Sensitivity Multiplier adjusts your sensitivity when you are Aimed Down the Sights of your gun. Feel free to play around with this setting if you are struggling to hit your shots on higher sensitivities. You can also adjust the sensitivity multiplier for Third Person, Ground Vehicles, Air Vehicles, and Tablets.

In the Gameplay Settings we start with Aim Down Sight Behavior, which we recommend to set to hold, except for in accessibility circumstances.

Automatic Sprint is a setting that we love to turn on and we go as far as setting that to Automatic Tactical Sprint. This means that anytime you press your movement stick forward, you will activate a tac sprint to move as quickly as possible. This offers 2 advantages. Firstly, you will be more agile and harder to track in game, helping you stay alive and outflank your enemies. Secondly, as we mentioned before, clicking L3 every time you want to sprint will decrease the internal integrity of that thumbstick over time, and double clicking to tac sprint will have an even worse effect on your controller. Also, when you are in the middle of a close gun fight and wanting to activate tactical sprint, you are more likely to press that thumbstick in more aggressively, which can cause a lot of problems inside that joystick mechanism. We love your controller. Our products are designed to help you get the most out of your controller and as such, we want it to live a long and happy life while aiding you to countless wins! Try out Automatic Tactical Sprint. While it may feel awkward at first and there are some drawbacks when hip firing weapons like shotguns on the move, getting used to Automatic Tac Sprint will greatly improve your in-game movement and extend the life span of your controller!

Equipment Behavior you should leave on HOLD.

Weapon Mounting is back and we prefer to activate it by using ADS+Melee.

The option we use for Interact/Reload Behavior isn’t going to be the best for everyone, but this is another setting that you can change based on your play style. We prefer to play on Tap to Reload, because we always want to be able to reload as fast as possible in the middle of a gunfight, but some of the other options like Tap to Interact and Prioritize Interact work well in the campaign on even Warzone, where you are interacting with items more often than reloading.

Aim Assist settings should always be on and on default settings when playing on controller. This will feel consistent for returning players and provide an adequate aiming enhancement for new players.

Aim Response Curve we normally leave at Standard, but KontrolFreek Performance Thumbsticks will enable you to maintain precision and control on Standard or Dynamic response curves.

In the Aiming settings, you can adjust your ADS Sensitivity Multiplier, which can enable you to play on a higher sensitivity while maintaining accuracy while aimed down sights.

ADS Sensitivity Transition Timing is a new controller setting to MWII. This will affect how long it takes for your sensitivity to adjust to your sensitivity multiplier while aiming down sights. We recommend setting this to Instant.

You can also modify your Custom Sensitivity Per Zoom, if you are having trouble snapping to targets with higher zoom weapons like sniper rifles or marksman rifles. This is an aspect of the game that can be greatly enhanced by upgrading your controller with some KontrolFreek Precision Rings. With Precision Rings on your thumbsticks, you can play on a higher sensitivity while maintaining precise accuracy in your fine aim adjustments. Also, you can use this combination to drift snipe more effectively. You can flick your aiming thumbstick the direction of your enemy, and the Precision Rings will prevent you from over accelerating your aim allowing the aim assist to kick in and then you just need to pull the trigger at the right time!

Inputs Deadzone is an important setting to be aware of if you ever need it. If your controller is picking up unintended inputs on your left stick, right stick, or triggers, you may want to adjust these settings to make the threshold greater before your controller picks up those inputs. For example, if your Left Stick Min is set to 5, and your player is occasionally walking backwards without your input, increase that number gradually and check to see if the problem persists. We recommend setting each Min to the lowest number without unintended inputs, and vice versa, each Max should be the highest number without unintended inputs. This will make your controller as responsive and reliable as possible!

In the Movement Settings we start with Sprint Behavior, and we recommend leaving this on Toggle.

Auto Move Forward should be Off unless you really need it, and Tactical Sprint Behavior should be Double Tap.

We recommend turning off Grounded Mantle as this will prevent you from accidentally mantling a nearby ledge when you are trying to bunny hop mid fight. Automatic Airborne Mantle we set to Partial, as this will mantle a ledge to prevent you from falling to your death but will otherwise leave you in control of when you mantle or not in the air.

Dolphin Diving is back! You can now slide and dive depending on whether you hold or tap the crouch button while sprinting. We left this setting on Standard, which means you will slide when you tap crouch and dive when you hold crouch.

Swimming is also back! Based on your Plunging Underwater setting, you can either sprint and look down or look down and move forward to plunge underwater. We left this set to Movement, but this may change as we play around with the swimming mechanics on different maps.

Bashing through a door that you sprint in to is a lot of fun, so don’t turn off Sprinting Door Bash.

In the Combat Behaviors Settings, leave Weapon Mount Movement Exit On, but turn off Depleted Ammo Weapon Switch. Lastly be sure to turn on Quick C4 Detonation, which will make it easier and quicker to detonate a C4 explosive charge.

Best Weapons to Grind

Now that we’ve covered the best controller settings, we want to offer a few suggestions for guns you may want to try out while the beta is live. These guns may be getting nerfed as the beta progresses, so stay tuned for an update gun ranking for MWII when we get our hands on the full game October 28th!

For anyone who played Modern Warfare 2019, it should be no surprise that the M4 Assault Rifle is once again a consistently dominant weapon in the Modern Warfare II Beta with the right attachments. Throw on a Tempus Hightower Barrel, Forge-Tac Castle Comp Muzzle, VX Pineapple Underbarrel, No Stock, and a Sakin ZX Rear Grip and watch your enemies get melted at medium and close range.

Another staple weapon for Modern Warfare 2019 is the MP5. Called the Lachmann-Sub in MWII, you can unlock this weapon by leveling up the Lachmann-556, which you can only access currently by selecting Overkill with a Shotgun in your primary slot. While this may seem like a lot of work to use a gun in the beta, this gun is worth it. With an L38 Falcon 226MM Barrel, a Lockshot KT85 Muzzle, VX Pineapple Underbarrel, 40-Round Magazine, and an LM Cronus Rear Grip, this weapon will win most close-range gunfights and be able to compete at some mid ranges.

Lastly we recommend trying out the FSS Hurricane Submachine Gun, which you can unlock by leveling up the FTAC Recon. Use an FSS Cannonade 16” Barrel, 4MW Laser, VX Pineapple Underbarrel, Demo Quicksilver Stock, and a Sakin ZX Rear Grip, to make this super fun, quick, and fast-killing SMG.

New Features to MWII

We could write several articles about all of the new features to MWII compared to Modern Warfare 2019, but for the beta weekend, we want to point out a few key differences that will help you enjoy the game more if you understand how they work.

The Gunsmith works completely differently compared to MW2019. You don’t have to grind each gun to unlock all of the attachments for that gun. Once you unlock an attachment for any gun, that attachment can be used on any other weapon that the attachment is applicable to.

In MW2019, you could activate Scorestreaks with a selectable perk. In MWII, you can toggle between killstreaks and scorestreaks without affecting your perk package.

While we’re on the subject, let’s talk about perk packages, because this is probably the biggest difference that long time Call of Duty fans will notice when playing the beta. There are 6 default perk packages: Assault, Phantom, Hunter, Deadeye, Support, and Sniper. Each package has 2 base perks, 1 bonus perk, and one ultimate perk. Bonus perks and ultimate perks are earned for achievements in game, similar to how specialist streaks worked in previous CoD games.

You also have the option to build a custom perk package, by selecting 2 base perks such as E.O.D and Battle Hardened, then a bonus perk, like Fast Hands, and finally an ultimate perk, such as Ghost. By default, you will earn your bonus perk 4 minutes in to a match and your ultimate perk 8 minutes in to a match. Kills, Objectives, and Streaks will reduce the time it takes to earn your bonus and ultimate perks.

here’s a lot more we will cover about Modern Warfare II and we’ll have even more to talk about when we get our hands on Warzone II, but these tips should help you get started playing the Beta this weekend, and enjoy the time we have with this game before it releases in full on October 28th!

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