Footstep sounds are a powerful tool in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War to detect enemies in the immediate vicinity. MeinMMO helps you find the right sound settings and even discover players with the stealth perk “Ninja”.
Why are footstep sounds so important? If you want to get better in the intense first-person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, you should take advantage of all the mechanics and benefits available to you.
The sounds of your enemies’ footsteps are definitely among them. The best weapons in Cold War won’t help you if the enemy knows about your location from 40 meters away while you’re not paying attention to their footsteps.
The YouTuber and CoD expert “TheXclusiveAce” has addressed this issue in a video, helping you find the right sound settings for your personal setup and explaining how the stealth perk “Ninja” affects footstep volume. MeinMMO summarizes his findings and provides tips on how to better hear your enemies’ footsteps.
Test the presets with your individual sound settings
How do I find the right sound settings? Many CoD soldiers are playing under various starting situations. There are countless different headsets, some play over their TV sound, and others have a solid sound system hooked up to their console. To find the optimal settings for you, you need to experiment.
Here, we embed XclusiveAce’s video, where you can listen to all the preset sound settings in the game to decide for yourself which ones work best for you. Play the video on your gaming setup at the volume you typically use for gaming. The test starts at 1:13 minutes:
Choose 2 or 3 of the settings that allow you to hear footsteps the loudest and play a few rounds with them. The setting with the loudest footsteps may not necessarily be the best for you, as you will encounter many distracting noises during matches, such as explosions or gunfire.
These sounds are also significantly amplified by settings with “boost” in the title, which can lead to poorer footstep detection overall. So don’t settle for the setting that seems optimal after your initial test; experiment to find the best solution for your sound setup.
What setting does the expert recommend? After some trial and error, Ace has decided on the standard setting “Treyarch Mix”. As a second option, he finds the preset “Treble Boost” useful.
He could also see this using his editing software for his videos. He can observe the frequency spikes of sound effects in detail. He believes that the other settings either do not amplify footsteps enough or that other sound effects overpower the steps too much.
If you’re looking for more recommendations on settings, check out our comprehensive special on the right settings in Cold War:
Information on footstep sounds – Without Ninja Perk
At what distance can I hear enemies? To determine at what distance you can hear your enemies, TheXclusiveAce conducted further tests. In a completely quiet environment, you can hear your enemies’ footsteps without the perk “Ninja” at the following distances:
- Sprinting: From 50 meters / Loud from about 20 meters
- Running: From 50 meters / Loud from about 20 meters
- Crouched walking: Clearly audible from 10 meters
- Walking in aim: From 30 meters
Interestingly, there is hardly any difference in footstep sounds between sprinting and normal running. Additionally, keep in mind that walking in aim is relatively loud in CoD Cold War. In CoD MW, walking in aim was one of the quietest movements. However, in Cold War, you are still quite audible.
Information on footstep sounds – With Ninja Perk
How does the Ninja Perk affect sounds? Another difference from its predecessor in 2019: There is a perk that allows you to walk more quietly. Players with the perk “Ninja” can be heard from the following distances:
- Sprinting: From about 20 meters
- Running: From about 20 meters
- Crouched walking: Clearly audible from 10 meters
- Walking in aim: From 10 meters, but quietly
Without the Ninja perk, you can clearly hear enemies’ footsteps from 20 meters. Approximately from this distance, enemies with “Ninja” will become audible to you. However, these footsteps are by no means as loud as without the perk. Crouched walking is not affected by “Ninja” at all.
However, the perk provides a significant advantage when walking in aim. With “Ninja”, you are significantly quieter when aiming than when crouching. However, you can still be heard by opponents who are attentive to enemy footsteps.
There is no real “silence”, which many players and pros desire in a Call of Duty. You should always keep this in mind, especially in modes without respawn, such as “Search & Destroy”, where the matches are usually much quieter than in a team deathmatch with sustained gunfire.
Optimize your audio setup to hear footsteps better
How can I hear footsteps better? If you have rarely used footstep sounds to determine enemy positions, you should start doing so. You will be surprised how often you can locate an ambush or an enemy around the next corner ahead of time. It requires focus, but it can give you a significant advantage, especially if the enemy does not pay much attention to these sounds.
If you already use footstep sounds in your game and want to improve, you often need a hardware solution. If you are currently using sound from your TV, monitor, or enjoying multiplayer battles on your home theater system, consider switching to headphones. This way, ambient sounds from the real world will hardly disturb you, and you will be closer to the action. You can find a buying guide with tips on what to consider when choosing a headset here on MeinMMO:
Recognizing enemy footsteps early is a powerful tool in Call of Duty. If you are attentive, you can locate almost any nearby opponent in advance and be prepared for any attack. What you also need are the right weapons. For instance, 3 guns stand out due to a good time-to-kill compared to automatic weapons. Here you can find out which weapons they are and what makes them so strong.
