Everything you need to know about Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare multiplayer

The Pick 13 system

Sledgehammer Games has gone back to the popular Pick 10 system, expanding it by an additional three points to accommodate Scorestreaks. But before we jump into that, let’s do a quick overview of everything you’re going to be dumping points in:

• Primary weapon: The tool of the trade. Primary weapons come in five categories: Assault rifles, submachine guns, sniper rifles, shotguns, and heavy weapons (which includes the new directed energy weapons).
• Primary attachments: These vary by weapon class but usually two available attachment slots for use. Purchasing a wildcard unlocks a third attachment slot.
• Secondary weapon: No surprises here. Secondary weapons come in Pistol and Launcher classes.
• Secondary attachments: Some secondary weapons — but not all — support attachments.
• Perks: These are once again separated into three different groups. You can unlock additional perks from a single group by purchasing a wildcard. Advanced Warfare introduces a few new perks that specifically augment the effectiveness of your exo abilities.

Exo abilities: These are a new class of powerful talents that include gear or modifiers attached to your soldier’s exoskeleton. From portable shields to cloaking, exo abilities are battery-powered and can only be used for a short time before they must be recharged. They are as follows:

• Exo shield: A quick-deploy shield attached to your exo’s arm.
• Exo overclock: Increased footspeed.
• Exo stim: Temporary health regeneration beyond normal level.
• Exo cloak: Short duration visual concealment.
• Exo hover: Short duration hovering in place.
• Exo ping: Shows enemy movement and weapon fire in the HUD.
• Exo trophy system: Destroys incoming grenades and rockets for a limited period of time.

Exo Launcher: The Exo Launcher category has essentially replaced both the tactical and lethal grenade slots — because in the future, your supersuit should throw grenades for you. As your tactical grenade function has now been replaced with the exo ability, you’ll have to choose one type of grenade to bring with you into combat. You have more choices than ever, including flying, player-seeking grenades, and variable grenades that allow you to scroll through stun, EMP, or target-marking payloads.

Score Streaks

Sledgehammer Games has also included the ability to customize Scorestreaks, by adding modifiers to the base benefit while increasing the cost. For example, if you select the XS1 Vulcan, you can call in an area bombardment with a powerful laser by earning 600 points without dying. But if you were to customize it with the Light Show module for an additional 200 points, when you earn 800 points that same Vulcan bombardment becomes four lasers swirling across the area for greater effectiveness.

Another new element added in Advanced Warfare are cooperative Scorestreaks. Though we didn’t get a chance to run them in tandem during our time with multiplayer, Sledgehammer has teased certain Scorestreaks will be pilotable by two players simultaneously, like the futuristic Warbird helicopter. This offers players who aren’t able to regularly rack up the points a chance to try out some of the more potent and lethal perks of the job.