Best Black Ops 6 XM4 loadout and class setup

Black Ops 6 best XM4 loadout - the first-person view of a blue XM4 assault rifle — (Image credit: Activision)

Jump to:

Loadout
Class setup

Recent updates

January 2025: Despite all the new guns that arrived in Season 1 and Season 2, the XM4 remains a mainstay of Black Ops 6. It's the jack-of-all-trades rifle with easy handling, good damage, and a quick enough fire rate to carry you from your first match to your last.

The first weapon you’re likely to use in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the XM4, a jack-of-all-trades assault rifle. While it’s the default gun, don’t mistake its easy access for weakness. In fact, the best Black Ops 6 XM4 loadout is one of the strongest builds in the entire game, with great recoil control, rate of fire, and damage.

Sure, the XM4 might not be the best long-range rifle or close-range dueller, but it makes up for it by being surprisingly good at everything. This is definitely one of the best Black Ops 6 weapon loadouts that you can use. But how do you kit it out? Well, here’s the perfect XM4 build, alongside great perks, Wildcard, and more.

Best Black Ops 6 XM4 loadout

Black Ops 6 XM4 loadout - The weapon stat screen showing the impact of the chosen XM4 attachments. — (Image credit: Activision)

The best Black Ops 6 XM4 loadout is:

Optic: Merlin Reflex
Muzzle: Suppressor
Barrel: Long Barrel
Underbarrel: Vertical Foregrip
Magazine: Extended Mag 1
Rear Grip: Commando Grip
Stock: Light Stock
Fire Mods: Recoil Springs

The choice of optic is largely down to personal preference, though the Merlin Reflex, Volzhskiy Reflex, Kepler Microflex, and Merlin Mini all offer great visibility when aiming down sights.

Thanks to the Gunfighter Wildcard, you can deck out the XM4 with tons of attachments that take its base lethality to the next level. Firstly, the Suppressor will keep you off the radar when firing, which is great for staying hidden while flanking. If you’re not one for subtlety, then use the Compensator instead for added vertical recoil control.

Black Ops 6 XM4 loadout - Aiming down the sights of the XM4 to eliminate an enemy inside a plane hangar. — (Image credit: Activision)

On that note, the Vertical Foregrip reduces horizontal recoil while the Recoil Springs improve both vertical and horizontal control. In other words, your XM4 is effectively a laser beam with a sub-300ms time-to-kill value. You'll be surprised just how far out the XM4 can compete, negating the need for a specialised long-range weapon like a marksman rifle or sniper.

Next, the Commando Grip and Light Stock improve the overall handling and mobility of the XM4, letting you go toe to toe with SMGs in close range and ensuring you’re not caught out while sprinting. This pairs perfectly with the Extended Mag 1, which raises the magazine size to 45 without any of the movement penalties of the 60-round Extended Mag 2 or above.

Last but not least is the Long Barrel, which pushes the effective range to 9.8m for maximum damage and 64m for minimum damage. Surprisingly, this great boost comes with no downsides.

As a side note, while the CHF Barrel, which increases the headshot damage multiplier at the cost of recoil control, might sound appetising, sadly it won’t actually speed up the XM4’s time-to-kill. If that’s your goal, then I recommend swapping Recoil Springs for Rapid Fire instead. You'll trade recoil control for—you guessed it— an increased rate of fire that lends itself well to close-range shootouts. I prefer the ease of use of the Recoil Springs but it's a very popular alternative.

XM4 Class Setup

Black Ops 6 XM4 loadout — (Image credit: Activision)

Here’s my recommended class setup to pair with the XM4:

Secondary: Grekhova
Tactical: Flashbang/Concussion Grenade
Lethal: Semtex
Field Upgrade: Spring Mine
Perk 1: Gung-Ho
Perk 2: Assassin
Perk 3: Bankroll
Specialty: Enforcer
Wildcard: Gunfighter

You can’t really go wrong with any of the sidearms, though—being full-auto—the Grekhova comes in clutch during those butt-clenching firefights where you just need to unload a volley of bullets at your enemy. You can even equip it with Rapid Fire and a massive magazine.

Moving onto perks, it’s about what you’d expect from an aggressive, close-range setup. The goal is to activate the Enforcer combat specialty for a temporary buff to movement speed and health regeneration after kills. With this in mind, you need to pick three Enforcer (red) perks.

Black Ops 6 XM4 loadout - Holding the XM4 at the hip while earning Score, stood in the doorway of a snow-covered facility. — (Image credit: Activision)

For the first perk, I’m a fan of Gung-Ho as it gives added mobility while sprinting, ensuring you’ve always got an edge over your enemy. Dexterity is also a good substitute here, reducing weapon motion while jumping, sliding, and diving, as well as reducing fall damage.

The second perk is a lot more clear-cut, with Assassin being the only useful Enforcer perk in this slot; Bruiser is a melee-focused perk. With Assassin, you can earn bonus Score towards your Scorestreaks for collecting Bounty Packs dropped by enemies.

Finally, the third perk slot offers two middling Enforcer perks that are nonetheless necessary to activate the specialty. I prefer Bankroll as it makes it very easy to earn recon streaks like Scout Pulse, though Double Time is great for faster flanking.

With this XM4 loadout in your hands, you’ll be ready for any map and mode you’re thrown into, especially as the XM4 is still one of the best weapons in multiplayer, too. It’s also the perfect place to start the Black Ops 6 Mastery Camo grind if you’re up for the challenge.

Rory has made the fatal error of playing way too many live service games at once, and somehow still finding time for everything in between. Sure, he’s an expert at Destiny 2, Call of Duty, and more, but at what cost? He’s even sunk 1,000 hours into The Elder Scrolls Online over the years. At least he put all those hours spent grinding challenges to good use over the years as a freelancer and guides editor. In his spare time, he’s also an avid video creator, often breaking down the environmental design of his favourite games. If you can’t track him down, he’s probably lost in a cave with a bunch of dwarves shouting “rock and stone” to no end.