As the early access Open Beta launches tomorrow, Treyarch has announced it has “dialed down” the time-to-kill in Black Ops 6, making it “slightly faster” than in Cold War. The studio says it will closely monitor how these changes impact the game as the open beta progresses.
In an official Call of Duty blog post on Aug. 28, Treyarch explained the changes made to the TTK, which it claims were “fine-tuned” while making the game. The studio considered weapon balance and the new Omnimovement mechanic when reducing the average time-to-kill but still aimed to preserve players’ ability to “react to incoming damage” and participate in “meaningful engagements or disengagements.” It also clarified that enemy health bars won’t be visible, but players will have their own “contextual health bar” on the game’s HUD.
The studio also shared its plans for TTK on X (formerly Twitter) the same day, and, based on the replies, players aren’t exactly happy about them. “Nobody likes insta-death,” one X user said, adding that making the TTK longer is “okay.” Another user begged Treyarch not to include “three-shot SMGs” following the reduction to the TTK. SMGs, in general, have been a problem whenever the time-to-kill was reduced simply due to their mobility and fire rate, making any engagement with them quite lethal. This can shift the meta heavily in favor of such weaponry, making most other weapon categories inferior in such an environment.
Black Ops 6 aims to run an early access open beta for pre-orders from Aug. 30 to Sept. 4, and then again for everyone else starting two days later on Sept. 6 and finally closing on Sept. 9. We will see precisely how impactful the lowered TTK is and if SMGs are going to become the ultimate sort of weapon in the sixth installment of Treyarch’s long-running sub-franchise.
