New Specialist score earn rates after Black Ops 4 April 9 update
The latest update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 introduced a major change to how Specialists work in competitive modes, and now the new official score earn rates have been confirmed.
Changes made to Specialist cooldowns
On April 9, developers Treyarch implemented a change in both League Play and the official CWL ruleset which now allows each Specialist’s main Weapon or Ability to be unlocked by score only.
Previously, the cooldown for each Specialist was charged up by both score and time spent alive in a match, but continuous negative feedback from the competitive community compelled Treyarch to balance things out.
Players can only unlock their Specialist’s Weapon or Ability based on their score in League Play and CWL matches.New Specialist score earn rates
As a result of this massive change, the earn rates for each Specialist’s main Weapon or Ability were also modified, seeing as how earning them in-game is now solely dependent on score.
Tony Flame, one of the game designers at Treyarch, revealed that them main Weapon/Ability of the Ruin, Battery, Zero, Crash, and Prophet Specialists would be fully charged up at 1700 score.
Firebreak’s Purifier will be unlocked at 2200 score, the Seraph’s Annihilator at 2400, and the Recon’s Vision Pulse at a whopping 2550.
After this update, the Recon’s Vision Pulse will be the most difficult Specialist Weapon/Ability to unlock.Below, you can find the new score earn rates for each of the Specialists, along with the time it takes for their Equipment to unlock. It’s important to note that this update has not affected Equipment charge rates, which continue to be based on time only.
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Keep in mind that all of these score requirements can be decreased by using the Equipment Charge gear, although its exact effect on teach of these new rates has not been determined yet. The stats for the Equipment Charge below are going off of the effect it had prior to this update.
Battery
War Machine: 1700 Score (EC: 1200)
Cluster – 1:00 (EC: 50 seconds)
Crash
TAK 5: 1700 Score (EC: 1175)
Assault Pack: 1:45 (EC: 1:15)
Firebreak
Purifier: 2200 Score (EC: 1575)
Reactive Core: 1:50 (EC: 1:25)
Prophet
Tempest: 1700 Score (EC: 1300)
Seeker: 1:45 (EC: 1:00)
Recon
Vision Pulse: 2550 Score (EC: 1950)
Sensor Dart: 1:45 (EC: 1:00)
Ruin
Grav Slam: 1700 Score (EC: 1350)
Grapple Gun: 0:15 (EC: 0:10)
Seraph
Annihilator: 2400 Score (EC: 2000)
Tac-Deploy: 1:40 (EC: 1:10)
Zero
Ice Pick: 1700 (EC: 1100)
EMP Disruptor: 1:15 (EC: 0:50)
Yep the SnD meta will be totally changed. Recon will be extremely hard to earn, even if you had Equipment Charge. For SnD I recomend Ruin, Battery, Zero, Crash, and Prophet that will all be fully charged at 1700 Score. Recon you will need 2550
— Tony Flame (@Tony_Flame) April 9, 2019
What does this mean for Search and Destroy?
As powerful as each Specialist’s main Weapon or Ability is, they all have the potential to be game-changing, especially in Search and Destroy.
By making these new score earn rates universal for all competitive game modes, the effect of these Weapons and Abilities in S&D is mitigated, as players will sometimes simply not be able to get them in time, especially the more powerful ones.
This seems to be exactly what Treyarch had in mind in implementing this change, and it looks as though the majority of the competitive CoD community approves of this change in the SnD meta.