Call of Duty: Warzone's confusing system of weapon names, explained
Why do they call the MP5 “Submachine Gun Charlie”?
Detailed weapons have always been at the heart of the Call of Duty series and, Warzone is no different.
Since Warzone launched, it has amassed an immense selection of weapons, including 85 primary options to choose from. Of these, typically the most frequently-used guns are tweaked periodically to keep the game balanced.
As part of a minor mid-August 2021 update, developer Raven Software’s patch notes confusingly refer to a weapon as “Submachine Gun Charlie (MW).” which received a notable nerf.
We’ve seen Raven use this terminology before, and it has always been puzzling since it’s unclear which weapon is being referred to. In this guide, we’ll explain what the Warzone submachine gun Charlie is, and why weapons are labeled this way within the patch notes.
What is the Warzone submachine gun Charlie?
There are duplicate weapons that stem from Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War.
Submachine Gun Charlie (MW) is the Modern Warfare MP5, a weapon that has been in Warzone since day one. This SMG received a major change on August 16, with its maximum damage reduced from 34 to 31, while its range was decreased by 5.4 percent.
If you look closely at the weapon list within the loadout section of Warzone, you’ll see each one is labeled by category, followed by a military phonetic letter of the alphabet. For example, the Modern Warfare AUG is listed as Submachine Gun Alpha, while the M4A1 is referred to as Assault Rifle Charlie.
These labels are easy to miss since their font is small within the game, and most players simply call each weapon by their name — rather than use these military terms.
Why are the Warzone weapons labeled this way?
There are two AUG weapons — one from Modern Warfare and one from Black Ops Cold War.
The only time Raven refers to weapons by their military phonetic alphabet label within patch notes is to differentiate between two of the same gun. For instance, in this case, there are two MP5s: one from Modern Warfare and one from Black Ops Cold War. The Modern Warfare MP5 was the one that received tweaks, so to attempt to avoid confusion, Raven listed the weapon as Submachine Gun Charlie (MW) in the August patch notes instead of just saying MP5.
There are a few other examples of this, such as the AUG. There’s a Modern Warfare AUG (Submachine Gun Alpha) and a Black Ops Cold War AUG (Tactical Rifle Charlie). You can see a clear example of Raven calling the Cold War AUG “Tactical Rifle Charlie” as part of the patch notes from earlier in 2021.
Another example is the AK-47, which appears in Cold War and Modern Warfare, as well.
Unfortunately, most players don’t know what each weapon’s phonetic military label is within the game, so these patch notes aren’t as clear as Raven probably would have hoped. It would be less confusing if the developer simply referred to each weapon by name along with the game it’s derived from — such as MP5 (MW) or AK-47 (CW).
The AK-47 appears in Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War.
In the future, if there’s ever a Warzone weapon that receives a tweak and you see it referred to by its military phonetic alphabet name in the patch notes, simply hop into the game to verify which one it is.
Given the confusion this has caused, it’s unclear if Raven will continue to refer to weapons this way in subsequent patch notes. With the upcoming release of Vanguard — set to take place during World War II — it’s possible there won’t be overlap with the weapons like there was with Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War, simply due to the time periods.
But at this point, Vanguard’s weapon list has yet to be confirmed, so we’ll have to wait and see. Call of Duty: World at War — which is set during WWI — featured a PPSh-41 SMG, which is also in Black Ops Cold War, so we could very well see duplicate weapons going forward, along with these confusing military phonetic alphabet terms.
