Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Best Beginner Class Loadouts

Best beginner loadouts in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

We’ve got a couple different directions to go. As a beginner class, we’re looking at kit you unlock before level 10, allowing you to go straight into class creator and start racking up those kills. Remember, once you’ve levelled up a bit it’s well worth switching some stuff out if you fancy, but these loadouts are a great starting point.

M4A1 Assault Rifle

Unlocked at level 6, the M4A1 is an extremely powerful weapon that’ll absolutely shred through your foes at all ranges. This class is based on getting the best out of your primary weapon, which we’ve ranked pretty highly on our gun tier list thanks to its damage and accuracy. It’s just so consistent and useful in all situations.

Primary weapon: M4A1

The centrepiece of this loadout, you’ll want to start levelling up this gun as soon as it’s unlocked. We’re fans of this weapon regardless of attachments, but we’ve listed some of our favourite early-unlock ones below:

• Operator Reflex Sight: Our favourite of the scope options, we’ve found a lot of guns’ iron sights to be lacking in precision. Pick out your favourite red dot and use it though, the marginal loss of ADS speed is worth it.
• Tactical Suppressor: Makes your weapon silent to enemies, meaning you’ll be better able to successfully flank without being heard.
• Commando Foregrip: Sometimes you’ll need to fire a whole lot of rounds into your foes to finish them, and with the Commando Foregrip this gun feels so much more accurate when holding down the trigger.

Of course, go with what feels good for you. Once you unlock a Hybrid scope we highly recommend trying that out too – it offers a level of versatility that’s hard to overstate.

Secondary weapon: PILA

You won’t be picking this up particularly often, but it’s useful when an enemy is absolutely killing it and taking you down with a huge killstreak. Shooting down Chopper Gunners or VTOLs can be the difference between victory and defeat, and the PILA is useful in other situations in case you fancy shooting a huge rocket into a cramped room with lots of enemies.

Perks

We’ve picked out some perks that’ll be unlocked early on in the game so you can use them immediately. Our favourites for this class are below:

• Double Time: Double the duration of Tactical Sprint, increase crouch movement speed by 30%. Really good for your mobility, especially when you start getting bogged down a bit by attachments.
• Restock: Recharge equipment over 30 seconds. Useful when you’re chucking your flashbangs out there to test for enemies, and excellent if you manage to stay alive for a long time.
• Tune Up: Reduces the charge time of field upgrades by 33%. Depending on your upgrade, this can be consistently helpful, allowing you to use a Recon Drone and tag enemies more easily or tossing out Munitions Boxes for friends more often.

Equipment

You get a slot for one lethal piece of equipment and one tactical. There’s so many choices constantly being unlocked as you level up. We like the classics in this class though: Frag Grenade and Flash Grenade.

There’s nothing more satisfying than cooking a frag to perfection and surprising a couple enemies with it when they don’t expect a thing. It’s also generally a great crowd control tool for when you need to clear a point. The Flashbang is similar – blinding your foes for a few seconds can give you the valuable time you need to take an objective or flush an enemy out of their hidey hole.

More Call of Duty guides

• 1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Best Guns Tier List Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Guns Tier List – Best Primary Weapons
• 2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Ranks – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – How does progression work?
• 3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Trials – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Trials, XP rewards and more
• 4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Crossplay – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Is there crossplay in Modern Warfare?
• 5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Best Beginner Loadouts – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Best Beginner Loadouts
• 6. Modern Warfare guide hub – Modern Warfare guide hub

HDR Sniper

Modern Warfare offers players the opportunity to face off against enemies in all manner of environments. This means you’ll often require a bit of range, especially on the larger maps like Aniyah Palace. This basic sniper class is perfect for the job, and we’ve sorted the loadout so it compliments the gun best.

Primary Weapon: HDR

The second sniper you unlock after the weak Dragunov, your HDR is a standard powerhouse sniper rifle. The boom of the gun will strike fear into your enemies if they even get the chance – you’ll be one-shotting people if you get their upper body. We like this weapon with the Thermal Sniper Scope, as the default scope is honestly not that great. You’ll have to level it up to 11 to get it, but it’s worth the time investment.

It’s also worth putting the Recon attachment on when you can, as it increases the range at which you can see enemies on your HUD, making it easier to land those spicy shots. Remember, you’ll have to be careful not to get caught running about – any enemy with a decent close-range gun will easily shred you unless you get a lucky no-scope.

Secondary Weapon: .357

The magnum revolver is a great way to make yourself a bit more sturdy when running between sniping spots. Hitting a couple shots with this is usually enough to down a foe, and whilst it’s not exactly the perfect answer to enemies running about with MP7s and the like, it’s a solid option nonetheless. It’s worth putting a reflex sight of some kind on the gun too, and Fast Melee allows you to whack bad guys before they whack you.

Perks

We’ve got some favourite early perks, but in future it’s well worth upgrading to Shrapnel once you’ve got it unlocked.

• E.O.D.: Take reduced damage from non-killstreak explosives and fire. It’s super useful for when someone tries to frag your sniping nest, and stops you from getting trapped in a spot by enemy molotovs.
• Restock: Recharge equipment over 30 seconds. Your Claymores are vital to success, and if one gets triggered and explodes, it’s nice to have another in your back pocket.
• Tune Up: Reduces charge time of field upgrades by 33%. Generally a useful option, but we recommend upgrading to Shrapnel when you can, as that extra Claymore lets you cover even more ground defensively

Equipment

Our equipment slot is more important for this class, mostly because of the Lethal kit.

We’ve gone for the Claymore. It covers routes to your sniping spots so enemies will find it harder to flank you, and even if they do, you cut off various avenues of attack simply by having these mines on the ground.

The Flash Grenade isn’t as vital, as it’s more of an offensive tool. However, after levelling up a bit you should unlock the Snapshot Grenade, which can help you spot hiding enemies and let you snipe them when they show their face.

That’s it for our best beginner loadouts! Check out more of our Modern Warfare guides, like our weapon tier list and a guide through the multiplayer progression system.