CoD world champion Shotzzy reveals XDefiant ACR build destroying lobbies

Halo-turned-Call of Duty world champion Anthony ‘Shotzzy’ Cuevas-Castro has taken to XDefiant early on and already put together a lethal ACR loadout to tear through the competition at the highest level.

No stranger to silverware, Shotzzy is among the most accomplished FPS pros of all time, having won world championships across multiple titles. Currently, he sits atop the Call of Duty League as part of OpTic Texas, having just dominated yet another LAN event to hoist the 2024 Major 3 trophy.

Taking some downtime before the CDL season kicks back into gear, Shotzzy jumped on stream to grind some XDefiant on May 27. Throughout the broadcast, the 22-year-old phenom tested a range of weapons before settling on the ACR 6.8 Assault Rifle, a gun we’ve ranked as S-Tier and the most powerful AR in XDefiant’s Preseason.

A master of multiple games in the genre, Shotzzy has no doubt earned his stripes, so his XDefiant loadouts are certainly worth your time. Here’s how he built around the meta-leading ACR.

Shotzzy’s ACR loadout in XDefiant

Obviously, it’s still very early days for XDefiant, having only just launched in full on May 21. As a result, loadouts, especially at the highest competitive level, are sure to continue evolving. New attachment combinations will only continue to be refined as players pump thousands of collective hours in, but for now, Shotzzy has settled on one particular ACR build.

Just five attachments can be picked and the CoD champ started with the Chrome-Lined Barrel to boost both Short Range and Medium Range power. As ARs are still solid from afar, this particular choice helps boost its potential when taking closer and mid-range gunfights, though it does come with a cost of movement and ADS speed.

From here, the overall goal of the build is to recoup the stats hindered by the top attachments. The Superlight Grip Front Rail helps bring ADS speed back up to par, though costs some recoil recovery. Meanwhile, the Quick Draw Rear Grip helps with ADS speed some more but reduces ADS stability. That’s where the Padded Stock helps regain on all fronts, boosting recoil recovery and ADS stability for a well-rounded loadout. 

Finishing it off, Shotzzy picked the Reflex Optic just to avoid the standard iron sights that aren’t always ideal.

You can find Shotzzy’s full ACR loadout for XDefiant below along with a detailed stat breakdown:

• Barrel: Chrome-Lined Barrel (Unlocked at Weapon Level 21)
  • +20% Short Range & Medium Range
  • -5% movement speed
  • -15% ADS speed
    
• Front Rail: Superlight Grip (Unlocked at Weapon Level 4)
  • +10% ADS speed
  • +2.5%^movement speed
  • -10% recoil recovery
    
• Optics: Reflex

• Rear Grip: Quick Draw (Unlocked at Weapon Level 35)
  • +10% Sprint Shoot Time
  • +10% ADS Speed
  • -15% ADS Stability
    
• Stock: Padded Stock (Unlocked at Weapon Level 7)
  • +15% Recoil Recovery
  • +10% ADS stability
  • +5% flinch control

It’s worth bearing in mind Shotzzy was testing this particular build in custom games against other FPS pros. While it helped shred in those lobbies, your results may vary in public matches, be it in casual or competitive playlists.

Shotzzy also has years of top-level experience to help with gunskill, so do factor that in if you’re looking at tweaking the loadout for yourself.