Modern Warfare 2 Gunsmith mastery: Weapon tuning explained

Players can intricately design guns in Modern Warfare 2 (Image via Activision
Players can intricately design guns in Modern Warfare 2 (Image via Activision)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is currently being rolled out worldwide, with the full release happening at 9:00 pm PT on October 27. Many players around the world have already started playing the multiplayer and spec-ops game modes. It goes without saying they've started leveling up their weapons.

The Gunsmith feature in Modern Warfare 2 has been highly upgraded compared to its 2019 predecessor. Players can now fully customize their attachments to create the most optimized weapon. Aim Down Sight Speed, Recoil Stabilization, Aim Walking Speed, Aiming Idle Stability, Sprint to Aim Speed, and more can all be altered to suit an individual's playstyle.


Modern Warfare 2's Gunsmith will let players create heavily personalized weapons

The Advanced Gunsmith Customization can push weapons beyond their top statistics and increase their performance in certain areas. However, this will have a negative impact on other departments. The good thing is that the player has all the control regarding which stat they want to increase and which they want to take a hit. According to Activision:

"After you unlock every attachment in the game, weapon tuning is where you can experiment to find the most ideal version of each attachment for each weapon. While the changes may seem small, they could add up to make a weapon fit your ideal meta."

To unlock the weapon-tuning feature in Modern Warfare 2, players will have to reach the max level of a "Gunsmithable Weapon," as not all guns are tunable. Subsequently, every attachment for the fully upgraded gun will be customizable.

The M4 Weapon Platform (Image via Activision)
The M4 Weapon Platform (Image via Activision)

There are three types of attachments in Modern Warfare 2 that are unlocked while leveling up a Weapon Platform:

  • Weapon Platform-Specific Attachments that are shared across weapons on the same platform but can be assigned to only one weapon in a platform.
  • Universal Attachments are those which can be shared with compatible weapons.
  • Receivers are additional weapons within a Weapon Platform that have extra attachments to be unlocked and possibly even more Receivers under them.

Currently, there are 27 Gunsmithable Weapon Platforms in Modern Warfare 2, which are speculated to increase once the first season drops and adds new firearms.

Activision has teased that the attachments unlocked on every weapon platform will already be equipped on the guns to be released with the seasonal update. This means that having all the weapon platforms maxed out will give players a head start with regard to the newer weapons.

A radar graph in the gun tuning section will show the current statistics of the firearm that is being customized. There are two sliders, one on the left and the other at the bottom; these change the weight and length of the attachment. Adjusting one slider will have an impact on the other, and players will have to decide which area they want the weapon they're enhancing to be better in.

When the weight of an attachment is decreased, it will affect the movement speed and recoil, while increasing the length of the attachment will affect the damage range of the weapon and Aim Down Sight time. This way, recoil can be traded-off for immense ADS speed, or ADS speed can be traded off for an easy-to-control recoil.