How to achieve a mouse sensitivity that's right for you.
Our Call of Duty Blackout mouse sensitivity guide covers the best DPI and sensitivity settings to help improve your accuracy.
Call of Duty’s main strength has always been its impeccable shooting and fluid movement, so it’s no surprise to learn that Blackout’s one of the most polished Battle Royale experiences out there.
The guns all have a lovely weighty feel to them when pulling the trigger, and the act of aiming down the sights isn’t finicky or cumbersome. In Blackout, engaging in combat plays out as tightly as you’d want it to in a fight to be the last person standing.
If you’re playing on PC though, the very act of aiming and shooting an opponent may not feel quite right. Either you’ve not quite found the right DPI settings for you, or you’ve never tinkered with your mouse sensitivity before, so you’re running with some less than optimal settings.
To help you find your perfect mouse sensitivity, we’ve put together a guide below that’ll walk you through how to turn off your windows mouse acceleration, tune your DPI to perfection, and set your sensitivity to a number that suits your playstyle.
Turn Windows Mouse Acceleration Off
If you’ve never tinkered with your PC system settings, then it’s certainly not immediately obvious how to go about switching Windows Mouse Acceleration Off – let alone know what it is, or why it was switched on in the first place.
To keep the explanation nice and simple, having mouse acceleration switched on means that Windows always tries to improve your mouse accuracy by subtly altering your cursor’s movements. It turns out that this really isn’t ideal if you want total control over your pointer in a precision shooter.
Switch mouse acceleration off and it’ll mean Windows won’t tamper with your cursor anymore, and so all mouse movements will be entirely yours and yours alone.
Although the effect is hard to notice at first, if you don’t switch it off you’ll actually begin developing muscle memory for mouse sweeps and wrist flicks that hold you back. You want your aiming to be entirely dependent on your own actions.
Here’s how to turn off mouse acceleration:
- Type “mouse settings” into your Windows search bar.
- Select “Change your mouse settings”.
- Click “Additional mouse options”.
- Select the “Pointer Options” tab.
- Uncheck the “Enhance Pointer Precision” box.
- Click “Apply” in the bottom right corner.
- Click “Okay”.
More COD Blackout guides
- 1. Guide – COD: Blackout – Guide
- 2. Guns – COD: Blackout – Guns list
- 3. Sniper Tips – COD: Blackout – Sniper tips, tricks and strategy advice
- 4. Best Guns – COD: Blackout – Best guns guide (PC, PS4, Xbox)
- 5. Mouse DPI Settings – COD: Blackout – Best mouse DPI and sensitivity
How to find the best mouse DPI setting for you
Before we get started, you’ll need to go through an unavoidable step if you want to have a mouse setting that’ll truly be your own, and that’s to purchase a gaming mouse. Although we might have produced a slight wince at the prospect of you having to part with your hard earned cash, trust us when we say you can get some brilliant gaming mice for a decent price.
What you want to look out for when buying a new gaming mouse is the ability to change DPI settings, either through official software or a dedicated mouse button. It’s better to spend around £40 here, as cheaper options typically have lousy optical sensors and dodgy DPI settings that simply won’t do your aim any favours. We’d recommend brands like Logitech, Razer and Zowie, but there are some other options out there too.
Once you’ve settled on a gaming mouse and have got that all set up, you’ll then need to go about tweaking the DPI settings. Just below we’ve broken down the advantages and disadvantages of high and low DPI ratings, which should give you a better understanding of which range would best suit you:
Low DPI (400-800)
Set your mouse at a low DPI and it’ll mean that you have to put more work in to perform actions like aiming and turning in-game. For example, setting your mouse to 400 DPI will mean big, sweeping arm movements for 180 turns, and will necessite broad mouse strokes to target enemies.
Aiming feels a bit more careful, smooth and considered at a lower DPI, but you’ll need to be prepared for a lengthy adjustment period as it’ll be very different from what you’re probably used to.
From a personal standpoint, we’d highly recommend any DPI ranging from around 400 to 800, as it promotes precision. It also helps the gradual build-up of muscle memory, which is essential when ti comes to shooters like Blackout which demand accuracy and composure, even in the most heated of gunfights.
High DPI (1000-3000+)
Set your DPI to anywhere over 800 and you’ll use less of your arm and more of your wrist when aiming. This means less broad strokes and more quick flicks of the wrist to reach the same point on the screen. This has its advantages.
For a start you’ll turn faster, and targeting enemies using a higher DPI won’t be as strenuous on your arm. However, we wouldn’t recommend going above 900 DPI, as only minute mouse movements will begin translating to cursor lurches in-game. At a very high DPI, accuracy is gradually eclipsed by speed, and this isn’t ideal for games that demand precision-aiming.
Much of this comes down to personal preference, of course, but we’d suggest going no higher than 900 for Blackout as accuracy will definitely suffer in crucial moments!
What DPI setting should I choose?
When it comes down to it, it’s very much up to your personal preference.
We’d absolutely recommend trying out as many DPI settings as possible when in-game. Focus on moving, turning and shooting to truly see the impact of your chosen DPI setting and whether you’re happy with it or not. If not, exit the game, change it and give things another go.
Once you’ve settled on a DPI setting that works for you, then it’s a case of practicing with it as much as possible. Don’t worry if things still feel a bit off at first, as muscle memory will take time to build up and establish itself.
If you’re still struggling to find the sweet spot, some mice come with software that allows you to really fine-tune the DPI of your mouse precisely to the pixel, instead of being locked to set incremental increases.
Moving up or down even just 1 or 2 DPI can have a huge effect, so try tweaking things until you feel completely in control.
