Treyarch has revealed plans to add a guaranteed way of getting a Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 weapon you don't already have to the game.
The upcoming Ultra Weapon Bribes reward a Black Market weapon you don't own, the developer explained in a blog post.
This is welcome, as Black Ops 4 currently locks most DLC weapons behind loot boxes, which carry an undisclosed random chance of giving you a variety of items - and they're not duplicate protected.
Once you own any variant (base version, MKII etc) of all Black Market weapons in the game, an Ultra Weapon Bribe will then reward a MKII weapon, Mastercraft (fancy skin) or other variant you haven't unlocked yet.
While the Ultra Weapon Bribe is sure to help people complete their weapon collections, it comes nearly nine months into the life of Black Ops 4, and Treyarch has remained vague on how many of the things will be available. All we know is an earnable Ultra Weapon Bribe will be released through Contraband (Black Ops 4's seasonal tier-based progression system that rewards various items) via a new special event set for later in the currently active Operation Spectre Rising.
Treyarch said it'll add additional Ultra Weapon Bribes in the future, but didn't specify when or how players will obtain them.
Treyarch has been heavily criticised for the way it's added DLC weapons to the game. It locked most of them behind loot boxes, and while it did include a dupe-protected Weapon Bribe in the current Contraband, this Weapon Bribe contains a DLC gun or a MKII variant, so you're not even guaranteed a DLC gun you don't already own.
Treyarch said its new Contracts system, which is designed to add new ways to get loot boxes, launches 25th June. You can have up to 28 Contracts available to complete at any given time, which sounds like a lot of loot boxes, but this doesn't tackle the underlying issue with Black Ops 4's monetisation: that DLC weapons are locked behind loot boxes in the first place. This has led to pay-to-win accusations, and it certainly was not a good look that one of the DLC weapons, the S6 Stingray, was deemed so powerful it had to be nerfed by Treyarch.
Which brings us neatly back to the Ultra Weapon Bribes. It's great Treyarch is adding a method to guarantee you get a weapon you don't already own, but it sounds like there won't be many Ultra Weapon Bribes at all, and those that are made available will require a grind to obtain.
Until then, back to look boxes! Good luck!
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