One of the most popular weapon attachments in Call of Duty: Warzone gave you a hidden speed buff: the Merc Foregrip. After a silent update, the bonus has now disappeared, along with much of the usefulness of this attachment.
What happened with the Merc Foregrip? With underbarrel attachments, you usually had a limited choice for the stable all-round weapons in Call of Duty: Warzone. You either reduced horizontal recoil to the side or vertical recoil upwards. The attachments for this:
- Commando Foregrip – Horizontal
- Merc Foregrip – Vertical
For the vertical variant, you actually have 3 options, as the Operator and Ranger Foregrips reduce the upward recoil just like the Merc Grip, but with different downsides. The Merc Grip was the best choice here because it provided a substantial speed buff of 3.7%.
But this speed buff is now gone. Even more – instead of making you faster, this part now slows you down by 1%. “truegamedata” shows the changes with exact measurements in an English YouTube video:
Merc Foregrip after secret change is only mid-tier
Which underbarrel should I choose instead? The 3 grips for vertical recoil are coming closer together. And due to a slight advantage in ADS speed (the time to aim), the Ranger Foregrip is now winning.
Advantages and disadvantages of underbarrel grips (Example weapon Kilo 141) – Source: truegamedata.com
- Ranger
- Vertical Recoil: – 17 %
- Movement Speed: – 1.3 %
- Aim Movement Speed: – 8 %
- Time to Aim: + 20 milliseconds
- Operator
- Vertical Recoil: – 17 %
- Time to Aim: + 33 milliseconds
- Merc
- Vertical Recoil: – 17 %
- Hip Fire Spread: – 19 %
- Movement Speed: – 1.0 %
- Aim Movement Speed: – 8 %
- Time to Aim: + 25 milliseconds
- Commando
- Vertical Recoil: – 6 %
- Horizontal Recoil: – 15 %
- Movement Speed: – 2 %
- Aim Movement Speed: – 14 %
The differences are small, but enough to catapult the Merc Grip from top-tier to mid-tier. For all-round weapons with range, the Ranger Grip or Commando Foregrip is now the better choice. Here you can find more info about attachments for better aiming.
Merc Grip now only top choice for hip fire spread
Is the Merc Grip really useless now? Because of the speed buff, the Merc Grip was often chosen for weapons with slightly stronger recoil, such as the powerful CR-56 AMAX. But even with weapons where the Commando Foregrip usually worked better, many used the Merc Grip because of the speed buff.
After the hidden adjustment, the Merc Grip now only brings you advantages if you want to benefit from better hip fire. For some submachine guns, like the MP5 or a hip fire MP7, the underbarrel still delivers good performance. But for weapons with longer ranges, the Merc Grip is now practically useless, as the speed buff was the reason this underbarrel was so commonly used. By the way, the MP5 also recently received a silent update.
Knowing which weapons, equipment, and attachments are strong in Battle Royale Warzone can make the difference between a successful or a short match with early elimination. But tactics also play a large role. Here are a few guides for targeted approaches:
- Strategy of the most successful Warzone player
- Loadouts and tactics for trio teams
- Loadouts and tactics for duo teams
Not all players rely on their weapons, tactics, and skills. Some unfortunately also use cheat software to gain an unfair advantage. Recently, a streamer was caught with a cheat window popping up in the background.
