Call of Duty: Modern Warfare allows you extensive customization of all weapons. This includes bullet speed, which appears as a property on various attachments. What this does and when you need it, we will explain here.
What is bullet speed? Bullet speed is fundamentally the indication of how quickly a projectile travels from the muzzle of your weapon to the target. The faster the bullet, the more accurate the shot is right on the crosshairs.
In Modern Warfare, this property affects every weapon because every weapon operates with projectiles here – unlike some predecessors, where there was “hitscan”, meaning no flight time but a direct impact.
As a stat on the weapons, bullet speed does not actually appear. Its influence is felt on the “range” value. Some of the gunsmith’s attachments indicate bullet speed directly as an effect.
Bullet Speed – Effect and Attachments
This is how bullet speed affects you: Fundamentally, bullet speed is responsible for how well you can hit an opponent, thus affecting the TTK. This is especially true at greater distances and with moving targets.
YouTuber TheXclusiveAce has made some observations and gathered some data on this. He tested various weapons without attachments over different ranges and came to the following conclusions:
- Pistol X16: 40ms at 30m to 190ms at 80m
- MP5: 53ms at 30m to 87ms at 80m
- M4A1: 37ms at 30m to 80ms at 80m
Up close (0 meters, “point blank”), the M4A1 is a bit stronger, and the MP5 is even the weakest. All numbers can be found here in a table. Generally, bullet speed is tied to the caliber: The larger the caliber, the faster the bullet.
Only pistols fall out of this relationship. They are extremely slow, which can cause them to feel inconsistent. Bullets seem to penetrate enemies sometimes and do not hit them because they are too slow.
For aiming itself, bullet speed is not that important. What is more important is that you control the recoil properly. Which attachments improve your recoil and aiming you can find out here.
Impact of Better Bullet Speed
This is how strong better bullet speed is: In testing, TheXclusiveAce also addressed some attachments that change bullet speed. Especially barrels and muzzles are responsible for how bullets behave.
Between 0 and 30 meters, no attachment makes a noticeable difference with any weapon. However, the attachments for the X16 and M4A1 have a significant impact at longer ranges:
- X16: From 190ms down to 130ms at 80 meters
- M4A1: From 80ms down to 33ms at 80 meters (almost hitscan)
- MP5: No significant difference at any distances
Impact of Poorer Bullet Speed
This is how poorer bullet speed affects you: Generally, attachments that decrease bullet speed only affect distances from 50 to 80 meters. The M4A1 has hardly deteriorated. Pistols and SMGs, however, lose significantly in speed.
However, these weapons are not designed to hit accurately at such ranges. As a rule of thumb, it can be said: If you play as the weapon is intended, you can disregard bullet speed. More details can be found here:
- MP5: The best attachments and setups for the
- M4A1: The best attachments and setups for the
- The strongest weapons of each weapon category in Modern Warfare
When is More Bullet Speed Worth It?
From here, speed becomes important: Although there is hardly any effect at these distances and with the mentioned weapons, there are situations where you should pay attention to bullet speed. This is especially the case in Ground War.
The maps here are significantly larger and you will find yourself more often in situations where you fire at 80 meters or more. However, the stat is most important for snipers.
If you want to play as a sniper, it is important to be able to predict where the bullet will hit at long distances. A high bullet speed helps you hit moving targets and even reduces the “bullet drop”, fighting against gravity.
Therefore, those who want to hit well at long distances should look for attachments that increase bullet speed. More tips to become a better sniper can be found here.
Is bullet speed worth it for me? However, if you are not playing as a sniper, you can safely disregard the stat. Most maps in the multiplayer modes of Modern Warfare only offer ranges of about 50 meters.
Up to this range, attachments for bullet speed have no noticeable impact anyway. If you are playing a run and gun build, you can ignore it anyway. You can safely focus on other things, such as faster aim down sights time to kill more effectively. Or you can try other things that the enemies do not expect:
