You've probably seen the clips. Someone sprinting through the vents on Stakeout, swinging a wooden stick like a madman, only to get gunned down by a Jackal PDW before the animation even finishes. Honestly, the BO6 baseball bat camo challenges are a special kind of torture. It’s not just about getting kills. It’s about the sheer frustration of bringing a blunt object to a high-velocity gunfight where the Time-to-Kill (TTK) is basically "instant."
The bat is weirdly heavy. It’s a two-hit kill in core Multiplayer unless you use the heavy swing. If you've been grinding for Dark Matter or Nebula, you know the bat is often the "wall" that stops your momentum. But there are ways to make it suck less.
The Absolute Worst: Torment and Slip Challenges
Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of the Special Camos because that’s where most people lose their minds. For the Torment camo, you need 15 kills shortly after switching weapons. This sounds simple until you realize how slow the swap animation is.
I’ve found that the best way to cheese this is playing Hardcore. In Core, you swap and then have to hit them twice? Forget it. You're dead. In Hardcore, that bat is a one-tap. You can run a pistol, get a quick tag or just fire a shot to stay active, then swap and swing.
Then there’s the Slip challenge: get a kill without taking any damage, 30 times. This is basically a "flank or die" simulator. If they see you, you've already failed the challenge because even a stray bullet from a tactical or a scratch from a stun counts as damage.
👉 See also: Mass Effect 2 Classes: Why Your First Choice Might Be a Huge Mistake
Quick Tips for the Weapon Swap Grind:
- Use the Dexterity Perk: It makes weapon swapping and movement feel way more fluid.
- Don't just hit R3/V: Use the dedicated melee button (L2/Right Click) for the "heavy" swing. It has a better lunge and usually guarantees the one-hit kill in Core.
- Face Off Moshpit: Maps like Stakeout or Gala are small enough that you can actually reach someone after swapping.
Zombies is a Different Kind of Headache
If you thought Multiplayer was bad, wait until you try to get Opal or Afterlife. In Zombies, the bat actually starts off stronger than the knife in terms of "impact" (it staggers enemies more), but it falls off fast.
The Banished camo requires 300 kills at Rare rarity or higher. This is just a salvage sink. You have to spend your hard-earned green and blue salvage just to make the weapon "eligible" for the challenge.
But the real kicker? Contort. You need 30 Vermin kills. Finding those pesky screeching bats or hounds while specifically holding a melee weapon is a chore.
The "Opal" Strategy
To get Opal, you need 30 Special Zombie eliminations. Manglers are your best friend here. They are surprisingly weak to melee damage once you knock their arm cannon off. I usually wait until Round 11 or 12 on Liberty Falls, Pack-a-Punch the bat at least once, and then just go to town on the Manglers that spawn near the gas station.
✨ Don't miss: Getting the Chopper GTA 4 Cheat Right: How to Actually Spawn a Buzzard or Annihilator
The Mastery Road: Gold to Dark Matter
Once you finish the "basic" stuff, you hit the mastery tiers. The requirements for the BO6 baseball bat camo challenges at this level are basically tests of patience.
- Gold: 10 Double Kills. This is purely about timing. Don't chase people. Wait in a high-traffic building (like the center house on Nuketown) and wait for two people to rush in together.
- Diamond: 3 kills without dying, 10 times. This is where the Morphine Injector field upgrade becomes your best friend in Hardcore. If you get downed, you can sometimes get a kill to get back up and keep the streak alive.
- Dark Spine: 3 Triple Kills. This one is brutal. Honestly, you need a lobby that isn't paying attention. Or a lot of Smoke Grenades.
- Dark Matter: 5 kills without dying, 3 times.
It's a lot. Most players I talk to say the bat is the hardest melee weapon because the swing recovery feels just a millisecond slower than the knife. That millisecond is the difference between a clip and a death screen.
How to Keep Your Sanity
Seriously, stop trying to play "normal" Call of Duty while doing these. You aren't playing a shooter anymore; you're playing a stealth-horror game where you are the monster.
Run the Recon Specialty. Being able to see enemies through walls for a few seconds after spawning is the only way to plan your route. If you know exactly where someone is camping, you can slide around the corner and bash them before they can react.
🔗 Read more: Why Helldivers 2 Flesh Mobs are the Creepiest Part of the Galactic War
Also, use Smoke Grenades and Shock Charges. A shocked enemy is a sitting duck. It feels cheap, but when you're on your 9th death trying to get a weapon swap kill, "fair play" goes out the window.
The bat is a grind, but seeing that Dark Matter glow on a piece of wood is a pretty great flex in the pre-game lobby. Just take it one "bonk" at a time.
To speed things up, try building a class specifically for speed: use the Enforcer perk set if you prefer the health regen and movement buff after a kill, or stick to Recon to hunt people down. Once you finish the bat, every other gun in the game will feel like a literal cheat code.
Check your progress in the "Weapons" tab often because sometimes the tracking bugs out—nothing is worse than getting three kills in a life and realizing the game didn't count it because of a server hiccup.