Every Perk & Combat Specialty in Black Ops 6 Explained
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is finally here and players all around the world are already diving right into everything the game has to offer. Whether you're a beginner who took a chance on the standard edition of the game for the first time, or a seasoned veteran who always buys the biggest edition available, Black Ops 6 features a lot of new features and mechanics for players to learn.
From the brand new omnimovement systems, to a more simplified create a class, Black Ops 6 offers a variety of multiplayer challenges for players to tackle. In this article, we're going to take a deep dive into the Perks of BO6, what each of them does, and how the all-new Combat Specialty system for perks works.
Related Article: Every Weapon in Call of Duty Black
What Perks Are Available in Black Ops 6?
Black Ops 6 features the Call of Duty standard of 3 perk slots, which have a select number of options that are specific to them. A perk in the perk 1 slot can only be equipped in the perk 1 slot. A perk in the perk 2 slot can only be equipped in the perk 2 slot. It's the same for perk 3. You can't have multiple perk 1s, or 2s, or 3s.
Black Ops 6 has 21 total perks available with an equal number of 7 available in each perk slot. There are 3 types of perks in BO6: Enforcer, Recon, and Strategist. We'll discuss more of what this means in a little bit. For now, just know that the perk 1 slot contains 3 Enforcer perks (and 2 of the other types), the perk 2 slot contains 3 Recon perks (and 2 of the other types), and the perk 3 slot contains 3 Strategist perks (and 2 of the other types) for a total of 7 for each slot.
Here is every single perk in Black Ops 6 with the most important ones bolded:
Perk Name | Perk Type | Level Unlocked | Perk Slot |
|---|---|---|---|
Gung-Ho | Enforcer | Immediately | 1 |
Dexterity | Enforcer | 20 | 1 |
Scavenger | Enforcer | 26 | 1 |
Ghost | Recon | 17 | 1 |
Ninja | Recon | 35 | 1 |
Flak Jacket | Strategist | 8 | 1 |
Tac Mask | Strategist | 44 | 1 |
Assassin | Enforcer | 5 | 2 |
Bruiser | Enforcer | 53 | 2 |
Engineer | Recon | Immediately | 2 |
Tracker | Recon | 29 | 2 |
Forward Intel | Recon | 47 | 2 |
Dispatcher | Strategist | 11 | 2 |
Fast Hands | Strategist | 38 | 2 |
Double Time | Enforcer | 14 | 3 |
Bankroll | Enforcer | 23 | 3 |
Vigilance | Recon | 6 | 3 |
Cold-Blooded | Recon | 41 | 3 |
Quartermaster | Strategist | Immediately | 3 |
Guardian | Strategist | 32 | 3 |
Gearhead | Strategist | 50 | 3 |
What Does Every Perk In Black Ops 6 Do?
1. Gung-Ho
Gung-Ho is an iconic perk in Call of Duty. It serves a very simple but effective purpose: It allows you to reload while moving at faster speeds and throw lethal/tactical equipment while sprinting.
The perk 1 slot is the most valuable in Black Ops 6, and while Gung-Ho is not a bad perk to start with, once you unlock Ninja, Flak Jacket, or Tac Mask, you'll likely never use Gung-Ho ever again.
2. Dexterity
Dexterity is one of the worst perks in the game. However, this perk could be useful for brand new players or someone struggling to get used to omnimovement at launch.
However, fall damage in CoD is basically nonexistent to begin with and the weapon motion issue can be fixed with better crosshair placement and a stronger understanding of how movement works.
3. Scavenger
The value of scavenger depends greatly on what your playstyle is like. If you're someone who likes to play slow and hold angles for extended periods, then Scavenger may be a decent option for you since you'll likely be taking lots of shots across the map at long ranges. When someone pushes you, you can turn to get the kill, run over their body and get your ammo back for more long-range fights.
If you're someone who plays much more fast-paced and maximizes taking as many gunfights as possible, the value of this perk is diminished as even the best players will likely die enough and respawn with full ammo again that this perk isn't really all that necessary.
4. Ghost
Ghost is a decently valuable perk. It helps you stay hidden from the enemy's minimap while running around and playing certain objectives. It's nowhere near as good as the perks right below it, however.
5. Ninja
Now we get to one of the most important perks in all of Call of Duty. Many Call of Duty players have a tendency to rely 100% on sound to know when an enemy is coming and where they are coming from.
This creates a situation where a lot of players never really develop much game sense and rely on the audio to do everything for them. Ninja makes your footsteps virtually silent. It would take literal damage to their eardrums for players to hear you coming.
This can easily give you the freedom to run around the map and do what you want. It's good in respawns and completely invaluable in search and destroy.
6. Flak Jacket
Flak Jacket is very straightforward and very powerful. Grenades hurt a lot, this makes them hurt less. There isn't much to say on this one. If you don't care about moving quietly and value lethals over tacticals, this is the best perk 1 choice.
7. Tac Mask
Tac Mask is the final of the big 3 on this list. Flashbangs and stuns are extremely powerful in Black Ops 6. This perk significantly diminishes their effectiveness against you. In respawn game modes, this should be the standard perk taken for the vast majority of players.
Oddly, this perk is locked behind level 44. Given how strong tacticals are in this game, it should realistically be available much earlier.
8. Assassin
Assassin allows you to target the best players on the other team and go after them for bonus score towards your scorestreaks. If you're valuing getting scorestreaks as much as possible, then this perk could be strong; otherwise, it's fairly weak and shouldn't be taken.
9. Bruiser
This perk is almost completely useless. It could help you escape in a pinch if you run into someone awkwardly around a corner and beat them to death. It's also invaluable to players going for the Dark Matter camo and are on the melee weapons.
Beyond that, this perk is garbage and shouldn't be used.
10. Engineer
This is a perk that sounds good, but in reality just isn't. The perk 2 slot as a whole is weaker than the other two slots, so it's not surprising. There isn't much to say about this one. It helps with destroying enemy equipment or avoiding Bouncing Bettys.
11. Tracker
Tracker is another super niche and not very valuable perk. It can help counter players with ghost by allowing you to track their footsteps. Beyond that, it doesn't do much.
12. Forward Intel
Forward Intel can be useful in some aspects. The directional indicator for enemies on the minimap can come in handy. Overall, however, this perk just doesn't do enough to warrant being taken.
13. Dispatcher
Dispatcher makes your non-lethal scorestreaks cheaper and stacks with the Bankroll perk. This can be useful for players who like getting UAVs as much as possible or care packages just for fun. In terms of making the best possible choice, this isn't it, but it can be fun to use in specific scenarios.
14. Fast Hands
Fast Hands is the only genuinely good perk in the perk 2 slot. It doesn't require a specific niche scenario to be valuable. Switching weapons is faster than reloading, and every player is bound to run into scenarios where faster weapon swapping is the difference between living and dying.
The resetting of fuses when throwing grenades back is just a nice bonus.
15. Double Time
Double Time doesn't do much to help in combat at all, however it can useful to swap to on larger maps where you find yourself needing to run farther in order to get back into the action. It unlocks early on at level 14 and considering the best perk 3 options aren't unlocked until much later, this isn't a bad one to use from time-to-time.
16. Bankroll
Bankroll is fine to use in conjunction with Dispatcher. Otherwise, it's not really worth equipping. It can be useful since it also gets you closer to lethal scorestreaks as well, but ultimately there are better options in this slot.
It's perfectly fine to use while working your way towards the better options as well, since Bankroll is unlocked first.
17. Vigilance
Vigilance has its place as a niche perk. The HUD indicator for when you appear on enemy minimaps is fairly useless. However, the immunity to CUAV, Scrambler, and Sleeper Agent can be valuable in specific scenarios.
18. Cold-Blooded
Cold-Blooded is another iconic CoD perk and is perfectly fine for what it does. Ideally, the other team doesn't really get any scorestreaks to begin with because you're playing better than them.
However, that's not always going to be the case. Cold-Blooded should never be the perk you have equipped all the time, but it can be useful to have a copy of your favorite custom class that has Cold-Blooded on it, or you can just swap to it as a particularly powerful scorestreak is earned by the other team.
19. Quartermaster
Quartermaster is extremely powerful right now, if you're someone with a slower playstyle who is going to survive long enough for the multiple recharges to be useful.
Tacticals and Lethals are extremely powerful in Black Ops 6 and considering Tac Mask isn't unlocked until 44, you can take advantage of most players not being able to minimize the effectiveness of flashbangs and stun grenades very easily right now.
20. Guardian
The second part of this perk doesn't really matter that much as there are few scenarios in standard Call of Duty multiplayer where you'd be reviving a downed teammate.
However, the faster healing on objectives can be incredibly useful in game modes like domination, hardpoint, and control.
21. Gearhead
Gearhead lets you use more Field Upgrades and steal enemy equipment and Field Upgrades. It's not very good, but neither are any of the other perk 3 options either. It can be fun to use and powerful in the right scenario.
What Is A 'Combat Specialty' In Black Ops 6?
As mentioned above, every perk belongs to one of 3 perk types: Enforcer, Recon, or Strategist. If all 3 of your equipped perks are the same type, you activate that perk types combat specialty.
Three Enforcer perks grants the bonus of: Killing enemies grants a temporary buff to movement speed and health regeneration rate.
Three Recon perks grants the bonus of: Enemies can be seen through walls for a short time after respawn; a HUD edge indicator flashes when an enemy is outseide your view; leave no death skulls when killing enemies.
Three Strategist perks grants the bonus of: Earn a score bonus for objectives and destroying enemy Equipment; see Equipment through walls; deploy Equipment and Field Upgrades faster.
These Combat Specialties are optional, but can be useful and worth activating if your playstyle fits a specific one and would gain value from having it.
