Modern Warfare II weapon tuning downsides outweigh the benefits, for now
It’s not just you — the feature has been temporarily disabled.
Weapon attachment tuning is a new mechanic in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, allowing players to customize the way firearms function. On paper, it offers more personalization and can improve a weapon’s performance. However, weapon attachment tuning has caused confusion among players due to the system’s complexity. In this guide, we’ll show you how to unlock weapon attachment tuning, how the system works, and when to use it in Modern Warfare 2.
How to unlock Modern Warfare 2 weapon tuning
First, you need to reach a weapon’s max level to unlock attachment tuning. This level varies from weapon to weapon so be sure to check it from within the custom loadout menu. After you’ve reached the max level, all tunable attachments will have a “Tune” option above them — normally, that is.
As of October 29, 2022, Infinity Ward has temporarily disabled weapon attachment tuning. Strangely, there isn’t any sort of in-game notification about this.
The system was removed because it was causing the game to crash for players using five tuned attachments. It’s unclear when the system will be reintroduced, but it will return at some point in the future.
How to tune weapon attachments in Modern Warfare 2
The M4’s FTAC Ripper 56 attachment lets players prioritize recoil stabilization/ADS speed and aim walking speed/aiming idle stability.
From within an attachment’s tuning menu, you’ll see two different sliders that impact performance. For instance, the M4’s FTAC Ripper 56 gives players the ability to fine-tune the aim walking speed/aiming idle stability and recoil stabilization/aim down sights (ADS) speed.
Pushing the slider in one direction improves that particular stat while harming the opposite one. Moving the FTAC’s slider toward recoil stabilization will tank the weapon’s ADS speed.
Unfortunately, the game doesn’t actually tell you specifically how the attachment performs when changing the slider. For example, if you slide all the way toward ADS with the FTAC Ripper, there’s no way to know how fast, in milliseconds, the ADS speed is without manually testing it.
This means it’s often unclear just how tuning impacts an attachment.
Is Modern Warfare 2 weapon tuning worth using?
There’s certainly a lot more testing that needs to be done, but so far, weapon attachment tuning doesn’t seem too useful — and can, in many cases, hurt a weapon’s overall performance.
To get a sense of how weapon tuning impacts a firearm’s stats, YouTuber TheXclusiveAce performed testing on numerous attachments, with conclusive findings.
For instance, the VEL 46’s XTEN RR-40 muzzle offers the same ADS time of 300ms when prioritizing for ADS, recoil smoothness, and leaving it at default — which is surprising. It’s worth noting that there is likely some difference across the board, but at 60 frames per second, it’s so negligible that you won’t notice it.
Then, when utilizing four ADS-specific attachments on the VEL 46, TheXclusiveAce found that there was no difference between leaving the tuning at default and prioritizing ADS speed — both offered an ADS speed of 434ms. But navigating away from ADS speed penalized this stat by 11 percent, which is far more noticeable, and not recommended — even with the recoil improvements.
As it stands, weapon tuning is not recommended, though, it depends on your play style and the attachments themselves.
YouTuber JGOD had nearly identical findings. When building and tuning the M4 for the fastest ADS speed possible, the weapon has an ADS time of 367ms — whereas using the same attachments with the default tuning offered an ADS speed of 384ms — a marginal difference. Then, when prioritizing for recoil control, the weapon had an ADS speed of 434ms, which is definitely noticable. Ultimately, the downsides of prioritizing one stat over another outweigh the positives in many cases.
There are likely exceptions to this depending on your play style, the particular weapon, and the attachment you’re tuning, but in general, leaving everything at default is usually the way to go.
One clear caveat is that you can actually adjust how close your weapon’s optic appears, which is more useful. The closer the optic is to your eyes, the larger the attachment will appear, obstructing your view. So, it may be better to push the slider to “far,” allowing you to see more on-screen at any given time.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is available for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC now.
