Call of Duty’s Weaponsmith allows you to customize your weapons to your play style with unlocked attachments. The system is very popular, but also separates the casual players from the hardcore grinders.

This is because the essays have to be unlocked in a long leveling process. This can take many hours, and during this time you have to use a weapon that has not yet reached its full potential – the important and powerful essays often come only at a high level.

Frequent players have the essays quickly, casuals then run around with the “weak” weapon for a week until they reach the max level. In Modern Warfare 2, that changes a bit.

The new “Weaponsmith 2.0” supports attachments that can be screwed onto multiple weapons without further leveling. In addition, new “Vault Blueprints” can be purchased, which make leveling a weapon almost completely unnecessary. We’ll explain the new weaponsmith in detail.

CoD MW2: Weaponsmith 2.0 – “Families” share essays

How does the new weaponsmith? There are no more weapon levels, it’s all done through the so-called “receivers” now. These form a kind of weapon family that consists of several receivers and can use their attachments among each other. Many new weapons are also unlocked via the receivers.

There are a total of 9 attachment slots and you can always activate 5 attachments at the same time. Thus, Modern Warfare 2 takes over the number of attachments from CoD MW 2019 again. 10 attachments can be mounted on a weapon in the current CoD Vanguard.

However, the receiver is not one of the 5 possible attachments – it has its own slot.

The attachments of a receiver can be screwed directly onto the new weapons that you have unlocked within the receiver family. This works even if the new weapon receiver is still level 0. This gives you a good amount of attachments to customize right when you unlock the weapon/receiver.

There should also be attachments that you can use directly for all weapons in the game. Unlock them once and use them for the whole arsenal.

In the example video, you unlock the M16 receiver via the M4’s receiver. The M16 can then use the attachments you unlocked via the M4 receiver. The M4 receiver itself can also be used with the M16, which in turn gives the weapon new features.

Within the receiver families, then, there are strong customization options. For example, the M4 and M16 assault rifles share receivers with submachine guns. You can use these with the assault rifles to create a hybrid weapon.

You unlock new receiver and receiver families via your account levels. Instead of unlocking all release weapons through your account like before, you get a receiver that unlocks multiple weapons.

All of this can already be tested in the beta, which starts on September 16:

Summary CoD Weaponsmith 2.0:

• There are no more weapon levels, only receiver levels
• Receiver is unlocked by your account level
• Every weapon has a receiver
• Each receiver is part of a weapon family
• The families share all the essays
• You unlock new weapons within a family via the receiver level
• Hybrid weapons are possible if, for example, an MP receiver is present in an assault weapon family

The system means you’ll have to grind fewer weapons overall. Instead of leveling up 70 levels with just the M4 for all the attachments, you level up weapon families at the same time and end up with about five finished weapons instead of just one.

The disadvantage may be that you have to play weapons you don’t feel like playing. Because to unlock all the attachments of a weapon family, you also have to play all the receivers. To get all the attachments of the M4, you also need points with a submachine gun receiver.

CoD MW2: Vault weapons are logical step, but somewhat Pay2Win

What’s the deal with Vault weapons? Another big new feature is “Vault Blueprints.” These are weapon skins that give you cosmetics for all attachments in your inventory in one fell swoop.

The FJX Cinder Weapon Vault is part of the €100 “Vault Edition” of CoD MW2 and the first skin pack of its kind (€110 for consoles). The pack will already be available in the beta.

A look at the preview image reveals that the receivers of a weapon family are also part of the Vault Packs. If you own a Vault package, you will have all the attachments for five weapons and you won’t need to level up anymore.

The advantages: In the past, many weapon builds were partially useless because they only looked good if you also had the appropriate attachments in the right look on your weapon. But if you wanted to use the strongest weapon attachments, you could only use your favorite skin extremely rarely. Now, when there are packages where each attachment matches the set, the problem disappears.

In addition, it accommodates gamers who have little time for gaming. You can quickly buy a package with all the attachments and possibly have an assault rifle and a submachine gun with all the attachments.

The cons: There’s a whiff of Pay2Win blowing through Weaponsmith. Because the blueprints used to contain only very specific attachments that were rarely “meta”, you can now buy an entire weapon outright.

The current Battle Pass discussion around Overwatch 2 shows how critical some players are of such “time” advantages. You can’t buy damage advantages or similar, but you can start with a clear advantage if the new weapon of a – Season is too strong.

While the others are still leveling their receivers, you are already hunting at the highest level with the new best weapon.

Tell us what you think about the new “Super Skin” packs:

On September 16, the beta of CoD MW2 starts, then on October 28, the shooter will be released. On MeinMMO we will keep a close eye on the developments around Modern Warfare 2, provide weapon service and tell you stories from the community.

If you want to find out more about MW2, check out our big special on the shooter: All info on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – release, beta, content and leaks.