Let’s be real for a second. If you played Sledgehammer Games' 2014 debut, you probably have a Pavlovian response to the sound of a certain assault rifle. That high-pitched, rapidly accelerating thwip-thwip-thwip of the Bal-27 is basically the soundtrack of the mid-2010s. Call of Duty Advanced Warfare guns weren't just tools for a digital scoreboard; they were a radical, often frustrating departure from everything we knew about the franchise. It was the "Exo Era." Suddenly, the guns had to keep up with players who were literally double-jumping over buildings and dashing mid-air like they were in a fever dream version of Quake.
The weapon sandbox in Advanced Warfare was chaotic. It was the first time we saw "Variants," which, looking back, was a total Pandora’s box for the series. You weren't just looking for an AK12. You were praying to the RNG gods for the AK12 Finger Trap or the R.I.P. It changed the DNA of the game. If you didn't have the "Obsidian Steed" version of the Bal-27 or the "Speakeasy" ASM1, you were basically playing at a disadvantage. That’s not hyperbole. The stats—damage profiles, fire rates, even range—actually shifted between variants. It was wild.
The Tyranny of the Bal-27 and the ASM1
You couldn't escape them. In almost every lobby, from Comeback to Solar, the kill feed was a sea of Bal-27 icons. This gun was unique because of its firing mechanism. The first few rounds came out slow, but then it ramped up into a literal buzzsaw. It rewarded players who could stay on target. But then there was the ASM1. Originally, the ASM1 was kinda "meh." Then Sledgehammer buffed it, and it became the "Speakeasy" era. With a 52-round drum magazine and a fire rate that shredded at close range, it turned the game into a submachine gun fest.
Professional players like Seth "Scump" Abner and Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag basically lived and died by these two guns during the Advanced Warfare season. The meta was rigid. If you weren't using the Bal-27 on a long line of sight or the ASM1 for a hill break in Hardpoint, you were throwing. Honestly, the weapon balance was a mess, but it was a fun mess. There was a certain rhythm to the "boost-dodge, slide, aim-down-sights" flow that only these specific weapons could facilitate.
The Weird Stuff: Directed Energy and Heavy Weapons
What most people forget about Advanced Warfare is how experimental it was. It wasn't just lead-based bullets. We had the EM1. It was a literal directed-energy beam. On consoles, it was okay, but on PC? It was a nightmare. Because the EM1’s damage was tied to the frame rate, players with high-end rigs could melt you in a fraction of a second. It didn't have a magazine; it just had a heat sink. You’d just track people with a giant red laser until they evaporated.
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Then you had the EPM3, which was basically a semi-auto version of the laser. It was terrible. Nobody used it. But it showed that Sledgehammer was trying to lean into the "2054" setting. They didn't want it to just feel like Modern Warfare with jetpacks. They wanted the guns to feel futuristic.
The heavy weapons category was equally bizarre. The XMGs allowed you to lock down into a "Lockdown Mode," turning you into a stationary turret with akimbo machine guns. In a game defined by 100mph movement, being stationary was usually a death sentence, but for defending the "B" flag on Domination, it was a legendary troll move.
Variants: The Loot Box Elephant in the Room
We have to talk about Supply Drops. This is where the Call of Duty Advanced Warfare guns discussion gets controversial. Before this game, a gun was a gun. In Advanced Warfare, a "Professional" or "Elite" variant could fundamentally change the weapon's viability.
Take the MORS sniper rifle. It was a railgun. Single shot, bolt-action (technically "bolt-pressure"), and it was the gold standard for quickscoping. But if you had the "The Doctor" variant, you had a faster bolt action. If you had the "Silver Bullet," you had more damage but a massive hit to your fire rate. This created a tier system where some players were simply "luckier" than others. It wasn't just about skill; it was about what fell out of your digital crate.
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The HBRa3 "Insanity" is a perfect example. The base HBRa3 was a solid, middle-of-the-pack rifle. The "Insanity" variant, however, increased the fire rate and damage to a point where it rivaled the Bal-27. The catch? You couldn't equip any optical sights. You were stuck with the iron sights. For many, that was a fair trade for the raw power. It’s these trade-offs that made the gunsmithing—or what passed for it back then—so addictive.
Why the Shotguns and Pistols Felt Left Behind
While the rifles were god-tier, the secondary market was a bit of a ghost town. The RW1 was cool—a single-shot railgun pistol that felt like a miniature sniper. If you hit your shot, it was a one-hit kill. If you missed, you were dead. It was the ultimate "high-risk, high-reward" sidearm. But the rest? The PDW and the Atlas 45 were mostly afterthoughts.
The shotguns suffered because of the movement. How do you close the gap with a Bulldog or a Tac-19 when the enemy can literally dash backwards thirty feet in the blink of an eye? You had to be a movement god to make shotguns work. The Tac-19 used sonic blasts instead of pellets, which was visually awesome, but its "one-shot kill" range was often inconsistent against the verticality of the maps.
Legacy of the 2054 Arsenal
Looking back, the weapons of 2054 were a bridge. They bridged the gap between the grounded "boots on the ground" shooters of the 2000s and the hero-shooter-adjacent stuff we saw later in Black Ops 3 and Infinite Warfare. They weren't balanced. Not even close. But they had personality. The M1911 and the STG-44 even made a comeback later in the game's lifecycle through DLC, showing that even in a world of lasers and railguns, players still craved the classics.
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The STG-44 in Advanced Warfare was actually incredible. It was a throwback that felt surprisingly at home in the future. It didn't have the fancy bells and whistles, but it had low recoil and reliable damage. It was a reminder that at the end of the day, CoD players just want a gun that shoots straight.
Tactical Insights for Modern Retro-Play
If you're jumping back into Advanced Warfare today—yes, people still play on certain platforms—the meta has settled into a very specific groove. You won't find much variety in high-level lobbies. It's still the Bal and the ASM1.
If you want to actually compete, you need to focus on these specific loadout tweaks:
- Prioritize "Toughness" and "Blast Suppressor": These aren't gun stats, but they affect how your gun performs. Without Blast Suppressor, every time you use your jump kit, you show up on the map. It makes your gun feel useless because everyone knows exactly where you're flanking from.
- The Foregrip is Non-Negotiable: On almost every Elite variant, the recoil is the primary enemy. Since the movement is so fast, you can't afford to miss two or three bullets because your gun kicked to the left.
- Learn the "Gung-Ho" Perk: This allowed you to fire while sprinting and sliding. For the ASM1, this is the difference between winning a gunfight and being a spectator.
The era of Call of Duty Advanced Warfare guns was a lightning strike. It was loud, messy, and totally changed the trajectory of the series. Sledgehammer took a massive risk by moving away from traditional ballistics and embracing the "weird." While the community eventually moved back to "boots on the ground" gameplay, the impact of the Bal-27 and the MORS can still be felt in how modern CoD titles handle weapon variants and movement-speed attachments.
What to do next:
If you still have a copy of the game, go into a private match and try out the ARX-160 Hole Puncher. It’s widely considered by stat nerds to be the "mathematically best" gun in the game, even over the Bal-27. It's a three-round burst that, with the Hole Puncher variant, becomes a consistent one-burst kill at almost any relevant range. Master the burst timing, and you'll understand why some people still defend this game's weapon design a decade later. Just stay away from the EPM3. Seriously. It’s still bad.