Call of Duty players are about to get a very different kind of experience in Black Ops 6 and Warzone with the PPSh-41. With this release, the classic SMG will receive an attachment that will, quite likely, break the game but in a fun way.
The article’s main focus was the PPSh-41’s Helical magazine that CharlieINTEL created along with the rest. It was highlighted that this attachment will give the PPSh considered infinite ammo. Yes, infinite ammo, or at least near infinite ammo. The SMG will have an overheat meter so you won’t be able to fire endless bullets to become the best bullet hose ever. The overheat build up will have to be controlled or you’ll get stuck with a gun that refuses to fire. The attachment will be an Event Reward in Season 5 Reloaded and like the other Event Rewards it will have to be earned.
Ok, now it starts to get really interesting. People in the comments started comparing the mechanics to older Call of Duty games. Several people remarked, “So basically the Cordite from Black Ops 4” and “So just another Cordite from BO4.” For those who may not have played Black Ops 4, the Cordite had an operator mod that gave it infinite ammo with an overheat mechanic. It seems that Treyarch is bringing back a fan favorite mechanic, but on a completely different weapon.
To add to the confusion, other people have argued on whether the Cordite even had infinite ammo or an absurdly high ammo count. I remember one user stating “It wasn’t infinite in zombies and I don’t think it was infinite in multiplayer either, just stupidly high.” Whereas a reply to that comment was “Cordite belt fed operator mod granted the gun infinite ammo with an overheat feature.” After that the whole discussion escalated with people throwing around numbers like 600 to 800 rounds. Classic COD community things.
And naturally there comes the misplaced outrage around realism. One user remarked “What? LOL, the PPSh-41 never had a helical magazine…troll.” In this case, yes, he is right. The PPSh-41 has a drum or stick magazine, and not a helical one. Helicla magazines are more in correlation to the Bizon. But since when has Call of Duty ever cared about realism in their mechanics? We have had laser guns, zombies, and a bunch crazier things.
Players have very different reactions. Some are excited, some expect it to be broken, and many have just given up on the game. One said, “I’m playing 2042,” which, that’s a little sad. That’s probably very disappointing for the COD developers. Another said, “Wow they continue to make the game worse,” and a different person said, “Sounds broken but will probably be terrible.” The common COD cycle of initial excitement followed by inevitable disappointment.
There also seems to be some conversation on whether of not the image that shows the attachment is real. A couple of comments suggested that it is fake. One said, “This is a fake picture. Please don’t spread misinformation.” and another person said, “This picture was made in Photoshop and people assumed it was real, so they added it to a wiki. You can even see that the so-called magazine is actually a suppressor.” So in the COD leak community, nothing is certain.
The most interesting aspect is some players comparing it to mechanics that are already in the game. Another user said “Belt feed lmgs have the same mechanics and I can guarantee you you’ve not complained about it,” and it’s true – many LMGs already have belt-fed attachments that give them massive ammo pools along with an overheat mechanic. So for COD, this is not breaking new ground; it is simply applying it to a SMG, which could be either great or horrible for balance.
We’ve seen this sort of speculation before in the lead up to Season 5 Reloaded. One user even asked “Does anyone know when season 5 reloaded is?” which, unsurprisingly, goes unanswered because everyone in the thread is just reacting to leaks instead of sharing actual information. Completely normal gaming community behaviour.
From what we have seen, it appears Treyarch wants to mess around with the weapon meta with some weird attachments. The PPSh-41 with infinite ammo could either become the new meta weapon that everyone uses or it could be one of those attachments that sounds cool but no one actually uses because the overheat mechanic makes it useless. Do you remember when they added the belt-fed attachment for LMGs and everyone thought it was going to be game-breaking only to realise that it was kinda meh? This might be the same situation.
Call of Duty is also continuously exploring new weapon mechanics. Think of the belt-fed LMGs and now this helical magazine SMG attachment; these are clear signs that the developers want to refresh gameplay and provide players with new approaches to combat. It’s still unclear whether this attachment will be good but the fact that it is causing a stir is very telling. In live service games, keeping a buzz going around the title is half the battle, so we can only hope for the release of Season 5 Reloaded where players can finally test it.
