Call of Duty Weapons, Attachments & Armor Terms

By Treesz · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Call of Duty loadout talk is full of names that mean nothing outside the game they come from: a handgun called the FTAC Siege, a sniper called the Victus XMR, a "Revive Pistol" that is not a pistol at all. This page explains eight of them in plain terms, says which game each one belongs to, how you unlock it and what it really changes, and gives short summaries of seven related handling terms.

It covers Modern Warfare II (2022), Modern Warfare III (2023), Warzone, Black Ops 6, Black Ops 7 and the newest release, Modern Warfare 4, which came out on 23 October 2026 with a DMZ mode. Attachment and perk effects are tuned per game, and Warzone readjusts them again when a new game is integrated, so always check the game version before copying a build.

Term	What it is	Main game
FTAC Siege	Full-auto handgun	MW2, carried into MW3
Victus XMR	.50 cal bolt-action sniper	MW2, carried into MW3
Aftermarket Part	Challenge-unlocked attachment or conversion kit	MW3; similar kits in Black Ops 7
Shadowstrike Suppressor	Muzzle suppressor	MW3 era, used in Warzone
Subsonic ammo	Quiet, slow ammunition type	Vanguard and Warzone; older subsonic barrel in MW (2019)
SZ Holotherm	Thermal optic	MW2, MW3, Warzone
Tempered Plate	Armor that fills with two plates instead of three	Warzone, MW2 DMZ, MW4 DMZ
"Quick Revive pistol"	Real name: Stim Pistol / Revive Pistol	MW2, Warzone 2.0, MW4 DMZ

Weapons

FTAC Siege

The FTAC Siege is a fully automatic machine pistol. It is the Modern Warfare II name for the TEC-9 and is classed as a handgun, not a submachine gun, which is the old Black Ops Cold War class of the same gun. It was added to Modern Warfare II on 10 May 2023 in the Season 3 Reloaded update and is also available in Modern Warfare III through the carryover of MW2 content.

Fact	Detail
Caliber and fire mode	9mm Parabellum, fully automatic
Magazine	32 rounds, with 20, 50 and 72 round options
Multiplayer unlock	Get 50 sidearm hipfire Operator kills using handguns
Other unlocks	Extract the weapon in DMZ or Zombies
In-game pitch	Compact, very high fire rate, fast weapon swap

In Modern Warfare III Zombies it can be taken into Operation Deadbolt through Create-A-Class at Common rarity, and Pack-a-Punch turns it into the Better OfTac. Because it is a sidearm, it is a secondary for close fights, not a primary. Ignore claims that it has a special aim-speed bonus: the in-game description only mentions fire rate and swap speed. Hipfire spread (explained under handling terms below) decides how well it performs up close.

Victus XMR

The Victus XMR is a .50 caliber bolt-action sniper rifle. It was added to Modern Warfare II in Season 1 (Sector A7 of the Battle Pass) and is carried into Modern Warfare III. It has a five round magazine, with 7 and 9 round options. Without the Battle Pass you unlock it in multiplayer with 15 headshot Operator kills using sniper rifles, or by extracting it in DMZ or Zombies.

Its signature attachment is the Raptor-FVM40, a 13x scope with a bullet drop indicator. In Modern Warfare II you unlock it by levelling the Victus XMR to 28; in Modern Warfare III it comes through Armory Unlocks. The scope is limited to sniper rifles, and its listed downsides are a very large sniper glint and slower ADS and aim walking speed.

The rifle can use .50 Cal Explosive, Armor Piercing, Incendiary and High Velocity ammunition. Explosive rounds are why people speak of one-shot kills against armored players, but treat that as an ammo-and-patch question: damage values change with seasons, so check the current numbers in the Gunsmith.

A fun detail: in Warzone 2.0 on St Patrick's Day 2023, a Victus variant named Shillelagh could be found at the end of a rainbow and killed or downed any player in one shot regardless of plates. It was an event item, not a normal build. The Victus is also unrelated to a Modern Warfare 2 campaign gun with a similar name: the campaign refers to the MCPR-300 as the Victus XMR.

Attachments

Most weapons in recent Call of Duty games share some unlocks. Universal attachments are the system where levelling one gun unlocks an attachment for a whole weapon class, or for every weapon that fits it. In Modern Warfare II and III this included muzzles, lasers, underbarrels and optics; in Black Ops 6 and 7 it is mainly optics and some underbarrels.

Aftermarket parts

Aftermarket Parts are a Modern Warfare III attachment type that sits in the Gunsmith like any other attachment but is not earned by weapon level. Some are single attachments, such as the JAK Purifier flamethrower and JAK Limb Ripper chainsaw underbarrels. Others are full Conversion Kits that change what a weapon is: the JAK Ferocity Carbine Kit makes the Renetti pistol a compact SMG, the JAK Tyrant 762 swaps the Longbow to 7.62 BLK subsonic ammo, and the JAK Outlaw-277 turns the BAS-B into a lever-action rifle.

How you get them in Modern Warfare III:

Weekly Challenges, or the Armory Unlocks challenges, in multiplayer, Zombies and Warzone.
In Warzone Mobile, they could be bought at the Arsenal Store instead.
The Armory opens at level 25 and each item needs a set number of daily challenges (see the Armory section below).

Some examples have clear trade-offs. The JAK BFB compensator greatly reduces recoil, but its muzzle report is much louder and puts you on the enemy radar. A conversion kit often stops other attachments from fitting, which is why a kit can lock slots.

Black Ops 7 uses the same idea under the name conversion kits. The MXR-17 ANVL Conversion was added on 19 March 2026 in the Season 2 Reloaded update, with a 100 round magazine and a very fast starting fire rate at the cost of damage and reload speed. You unlock it by finishing any 6 challenges from Week 7 of Season 2, and after 2 April 2026 via the Armory.

Shadowstrike Suppressor

The Shadowstrike Suppressor is a muzzle attachment from the Modern Warfare III attachment set that is also used in Warzone. The letter after its name shows the size class: XS for pistols, S for SMGs, no letter for intermediate assault rifles, L for large-caliber rifles and XL for .50 caliber weapons. The Shadowstrike Suppressor S, for example, is listed as unlocked at weapon level 11 on the Striker by one Warzone database.

Its job is simple: sound suppression, which in Warzone also keeps you off the minimap when you fire. An unsuppressed weapon shows up on the minimap in Warzone, so a suppressor is the usual choice for solo play. Guide sites list the Shadowstrike with no major pros or cons, which is its appeal: a suppressor with no added penalty.

Newer detail: when Black Ops 7 was integrated into Warzone, the wiki notes that attachments from Modern Warfare II and III were readjusted into categories. Every suppressor now gives suppression plus a small bullet velocity increase, with no difference from one suppressor to another. So the exact Shadowstrike name matters less in current Warzone than its slot. Another suppressor with a long history is the Monolithic Suppressor, which began in Modern Warfare (2019) and returned in Black Ops 6 and 7.

Subsonic ammo

Subsonic ammo is ammunition that is quieter and slower than normal. The best documented version is the Subsonic ammo type from Call of Duty: Vanguard, also listed for Warzone. It removes the ping from the minimap when you fire and lowers tracer visibility, at the cost of lower bullet velocity.

An older cousin, the Subsonic Integral Suppressor, is a barrel for the MP5 in Modern Warfare (2019) and Warzone. Its listed effects are sound suppression, no visible tracers, a faster ADS speed and no enemy skulls, with lower bullet velocity as the cost. That is where the claim that subsonic rounds hide kill skulls comes from; do not assume a modern ammo attachment does it.

What not to assume:

That every game has a Subsonic option in its ammunition menu. Modern Warfare II and III list ammo such as Frangible, Armor Piercing, Explosive and High Velocity, but no generic subsonic option on the Victus XMR or FTAC Siege.
That subsonic ammo always keeps you off the radar. In Warzone you still use a suppressor for that.
That some weapons are permanently subsonic. Some weapons use subsonic cartridges by design (the Longbow with the JAK Tyrant 762 kit, for example), but this is a weapon trait, not an attachment.

Tip: if you build with subsonic rounds, expect to lead moving targets more, because the bullet takes longer to arrive.

SZ Holotherm

The SZ Holotherm is a thermal optic made by SoloZero. Its in-game description calls it a holo-thermal sight that uses body-recognition technology to outline enemies. It appears in Modern Warfare II, Modern Warfare III, Warzone 2.0 and Warzone Mobile, and can be mounted on all weapon categories. The old description of it as a magnified holographic sight is wrong: the point of the optic is the thermal view, which you can toggle on and off.

Game	How to unlock
Modern Warfare II	Level the PDSW 528 to level 12
Modern Warfare III	Armory Unlocks

Pros: Precision Sight Picture. Cons: no tactical stance in Modern Warfare III; slower ADS speed and aim walking speed in Modern Warfare II.

When it was new, Warzone 2.0 players reported in Season 1 Reloaded that its thermal view could pick out enemies inside smoke, even those with Cold-Blooded. That was a community finding at the time of that season, and thermal behavior can change in patches. A related scope, the Thermo-Optic x9, is listed on the wiki as a variant of it.

Handling terms

These four terms appear in almost every attachment description. They are the stats behind buzzwords like "snappy" and "meta".

ADS speed is how fast you go from hip to aiming down sights. Heavy suppressors, long barrels and big scopes slow it. See ADS Speed.
Hipfire spread is how wide your bullets scatter when you fire without aiming. Lasers and some grips narrow it. See Hipfire Spread.
Flinch resistance is how much your aim is knocked off when you take damage. See Flinch Resistance.
Sprint-to-fire is the delay between ending a sprint and being able to shoot. See Sprint-to-Fire.

One underbarrel worth knowing: in Modern Warfare III the DR-6 Handstop underbarrel is known as a handling attachment that improves aim walking speed, ADS speed, sprint-to-fire speed and movement speed. It is not the recoil attachment its name suggests, and it is easy to confuse with the FTAC MSP-98 Handstop, a different battle rifle underbarrel.

Armor and revive

Tempered Plate

Armor in Warzone is a layer of 150 extra health made of armor plates. Normally you fill the bar with three plates. Tempered changes that: your bar fills with two plates instead of three, so each plate counts for more.

It exists in two forms, which is a common source of confusion:

Form	Where	Notes
Tempered perk	Warzone (added in Black Ops Cold War Season 5), Warzone 2.0 (returned in MW3 Season 1)	A Tier 2 perk in the original Warzone. Equipping it from a Loadout Drop also refills your armor.
Tempered Plate Carrier	Added with Season 3 of MW2 and Warzone 2.0 (April 2023)	Equipment found in loot. In MW2 it was in DMZ; in Warzone 2.0 it was in Battle Royale and Resurgence. It returns in the DMZ of Modern Warfare 4.

Both give you the same total protection as a standard three-plate setup, but you need only two plates to get there. Because the total stays at 150, the practical gain is in the time and plates spent. The Medic Plate Carrier is a different vest: it makes revives faster. In Call of Duty: Mobile the equivalent is called the Quick Plate Carrier, added in February 2026.

Quick Revive "pistol"

There is no weapon called the Quick Revive Pistol. Two separate things are mixed up under that name.

Quick Revive is a Perk-a-Cola in Zombies. It makes you revive teammates faster (half the time in World at War), and in many versions it also helps you recover. In Modern Warfare III it costs 2000 points, in Black Ops 6 between 2500 and 7500 points, and in Black Ops 7 between 2500 and 9000 points, depending on the map. In Black Ops 6 and 7 it can take Augments.

The pistol-shaped item is the Stim Pistol, a Field Upgrade from Modern Warfare II. Players call it the Revive Pistol, and Modern Warfare 4 uses that as its official name in DMZ. It shoots a stim at a downed player to revive them from a distance.

Fact	Detail
Games	Modern Warfare II (Spec Ops Medic class, Warzone 2.0 loot), MW4 DMZ as "Revive Pistol"
Starting ammo	1+3
Unlock in MW4	DMZ Level 25
Self-use	You can revive yourself, but you lose the pistol
Other squads	A player on another squad can only be revived once per player
Speed	Revive speed is higher with the Medic Plate Carrier

It was removed from the core Warzone 2.0 modes in Modern Warfare III Season 1 and came back in Season 3, only in High Trip Resurgence. The MW4 description reads that it can revive fallen allies from afar or heal them to full.

Armory Unlock in brief

The Armory Unlock system opens at level 25 in Modern Warfare III. Each item needs a set number of daily challenges, up to three items can be queued, and the game fills the queue in no set order if you do not pick. After the first three daily challenges you keep earning progress by winning multiplayer matches or finishing three Zombies contracts. The system also exists in Warzone 2.0, Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7.

Tips and common mistakes

Check the game, not just the name. "Shadowstrike" or "SZ Holotherm" can exist in several games with different unlocks.
Do not rely on an old unlock path. In Modern Warfare III many Modern Warfare II unlocks went through the Armory instead.
Do not buy a loadout guide that mixes Warzone and multiplayer values: Warzone re-tunes attachments.
Treat any "one-shot" claim as temporary until you test it in the current season.

Guides and services

For weapon and camo work that depends on these attachments, see our Modern Warfare 3 meta setups guide, the Warzone meta setups guide, the Modern Warfare 3 mastery camos guide and the Black Ops 6 camos guide. If you would rather have the grind done for you, Onlyfarms offers Modern Warfare 3 weapon leveling, Modern Warfare 4 leveling and Warzone services.

FAQ

Is the FTAC Siege a submachine gun?

No. In Modern Warfare II and III it is a fully automatic handgun. Its older name is TEC-9, which was a submachine gun in Black Ops Cold War.

Is there a Quick Revive Pistol in Call of Duty?

No item has that exact name. Quick Revive is a Zombies perk. The ranged revive tool is the Stim Pistol from Modern Warfare II, renamed Revive Pistol in Modern Warfare 4 DMZ.

Can I still unlock Aftermarket Parts after their season ends?

In Modern Warfare III, parts you miss can be earned through Armory Unlocks challenges, per the wiki. Black Ops 7 conversion kits also moved to the Armory after their launch week, for example the MXR-17 ANVL after 2 April 2026.

Does Subsonic ammo hide the kill skull?

The skull effect is documented for the Subsonic Integral Suppressor in Modern Warfare (2019) and Warzone. The Vanguard Subsonic ammo type is listed with no minimap ping and lower tracer visibility, not a skull effect.

Does Tempered give more armor?

No. You still end with 150 armor. You need two plates instead of three to get there.

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