Ingenious Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Players Are Using Deadly Bouncing Blades to Kill Hapless Campers From Outside the Map

In the world of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 competitive multiplayer, there are thousands upon thousands of final kills captured and published online by players delighted with their online exploits. But few are better than this.

Ricochet Blades are unique ammo for the D1.3 Sector secondary weapon, introduced with the controversial Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles event last month. It wasn’t long after the ammo made its way in-game that the Ricochet Blades became a talking point for their unpredictable trajectory as they bounce off multiple surfaces.

Player kev99gh captured and published the final kill in a round of hardcore Search and Destroy on the Lowtown map in which they bounced a Ricochet Blade, affectionately known as a “pizza” by the community, out of the map then back inside for a one-hit kill on an enemy player who dared to peek out a window.

kev99gh’s astonishing clip may well be the longest Ricochet Blade kill yet, given it bounces outside the map itself. In the video we see kev99gh line up the shot from behind cover, then let fly, aiming out into the unknown. kev99gh then switches to the overhead map view to track the blade, which moves alongside the edge of the map before bouncing back towards the window for the kill.

Elaborate, seemingly improbable blade bounce trick shots like this aren’t just down to luck. Redditor SpawnTubing, who posted kev99gh’s clip to the platform, said the Black Ops 6 crew “look for and practice for common spots people camp.” And, as commenters have pointed out, the way the unsuspecting enemy player peeked just as the “pizza” flew in the window is “peak” Black Ops 6 timing. We’ve all been there.

Indeed, it seems Black Ops 6’s Ricochet Blades have sparked something of a bounce kill meta, with a number of not quite as impressive kills across the game’s various Multiplayer maps making their way online. Some of these kills, like the one below, involve multiple bounces before they make their way to their target.

Some players aren’t so impressed and have said the bouncing blades are frustrating and annoying to play against. These critics won’t be happy that developer Treyarch recently buffed the Ricochet Blades’ physics and bouncing speeds via an update, ensuring they one-hit kill on contact. There’s the relevant patch note:

D1.3 Sector

Our initial design for the D1.3 Sector Ricochet Blades revolved around quickly launching many high-speed blades, meant to perform best blind firing into enclosed spaces. We have been following your feedback and agree that, in practice, the use cases for this ammo type are too low. The Ricochet Blades will now do 100 damage to enable one-hit kills, and to compensate we are lowering the fire rate and projectile speed. We think the popularity of this ammo type will see some new interest with these changes and look forward to seeing more of your cross-map killcams in MP.

• Ricochet Blades
  • Increased damage from 75 to 100.
  • Decreased rate of fire.
  • Decreased projectile velocity.
  • Improved bouncing speeds and physics.

It seems the tyranny of the Ricochet Blades is set to intensify, then, with Season 3 and the much-anticipated return of Verdansk to Warzone waiting in the wings.

Image credit: kev99gh / YouTube.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.