Specialists are back in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4

Specialists system is back in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4! First introduced in Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Specialists are characters with unique abilities in multiplayer. Treyarch is bringing back some of the specialists from Black Ops 3 to Black Ops 4 and also introducing brand new specialists with abilities adapted to the game’s new play style.

Specialists, alongside their base ability that they have, now also have an option to equip a Specialist Equipment. In create a class, players can choose to use Specialist Equipment or other options (such as frag grenade, molotov cocktail, concession grenade, etc.). If you chose the Specialist Equipment option, each specialist has its own specific equipment. New to Call of Duty, you don’t have an amount of equipment you can equip (i.e. 2x concussion grenades); instead, there’s a meter on the item in your HUD. Once that meter fills and it lights up yellow, your equipment is ready to use again. The center of the bottom HUD screen shows your main specialist ability, which is activated with L1+R1, just like Black Ops 3. R1 alone activates the equipment, while L1 does health regeneration.

Ruin, a specialist returning from Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, gets the grapple hook if you equip the Specialist Equipment – allowing you to transverse across the map when the ability is available.

Seraph also returns from Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 with her annihilator ability. Her new specialist equipment that can be used is a tactical deployment: it allows you to place down a tactical deployment anywhere on the map (once available) and then lets your team spawn at the deployment location.

Firebreak returns from Black Ops 3 with the flamethrower in tow as the main ability. His new specialist equipment is a Reactor Core, which sets up a small area of death for enemies that venture near it.

There are also new specialists coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, including Crash – a medic specialist. Crash has abilities to assist your team in healing when needed. Another new specialist to the game is Tork. His ability is to put down razer wires which stops players from advancing forward in full pace. It slows you down, making it harder to move. Since there’s no boost jump, it’s either you push through it or shoot it out.

Another change with specialists in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 versus Black Ops 3 is that players select their specialists once the game loads up. And each specialist (in the current build of the game) can only be used once on each team. You can change your specialist choice during a match.