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Black Ops 6’s most powerful gun gets nerfed ahead of open beta weekend

It's been terrorizing the first stage of the Black Ops 6 beta, so Treyarch is taking the Jackal PDW submachine gun down a peg or two.

Black Ops 6 Jackal PDW: a man in a grey hoodie and green balaclava fires a massive machine gun

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a good feeling about Call of Duty Black Ops 6. After playing the beta over recent days, it’s felt like a dynamic, slick new entry to the series that retains some of the strongest elements of recent CoDs as well. However, there’s been one gun in particular throughout the beta’s first weekend that’s been absolutely dominating, and ahead of the fully open beta weekend, Treyarch has moved in to deploy one of the earliest nerfs I’ve ever seen.

Yes, the Black Ops 6 release date isn’t even here yet, but already Treyarch has got the nerf hammer out and whacked the Jackal PDW with it. This SMG has been the star (or the villain, if you’ve been on the receiving end of it) of the Black Ops 6 beta so far thanks to its high damage output, agility, and large magazine size. It’s also been popular because a blueprint of it called The Scourge (which turns it into a purple, Lovecraftian monster) is dished out to players that pre-ordered the more expensive Vault Edition of the FPS game.

With so many people running their best Jackal PDW loadout, the kill feed has been looking very repetitive. It’s so dominant, that Treyarch has felt compelled to nerf it. While it announced the nerf in a post on X highlighting all the new stuff coming to the Black Ops 6 beta for its fully-open weekend, it hasn’t yet specified exactly what it has tweaked. However, detailed patch notes will be arriving before the next stage of the beta kicks off.

The second stage of the Black Ops 6 beta kicks off on Friday, September 6, at 10AM EST / 1PM PST / 6PM BST and ends on Monday, September 9, at 10AM EST / 1PM PST / 6PM BST. This will be your last chance to try Black Ops 6 before it launches in October, and it will be free and open to absolutely everyone.

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To further help reduce the amount of Jackal PDW abuse, a new SMG is entering the fold for the open weekend: the Tanto .22, which is unlocked at level 30. It’s not the only fresh weapon either, as it’s joined by the DM-10 semi-auto marksman rifle, which you can unlock at level 25.

New scorestreaks like the Interceptors (a squad of fighter jets that can take out enemy scorestreaks) and the Call of Duty classic that is the Chopper Gunner will also be added. New maps are also on the way as well.

If Black Ops 6 turns out to not be your kind of thing, here are some other brilliant multiplayer games you can get hooked on instead. Some of them are even the best free PC games around, so you may not even have to spend a dime to play them.

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