I'm going to begin by saying that I very much enjoy camping, in the real-life "back to nature" sense and also in the multiplayer shooter context, in which I wedge myself into a dark corner somewhere and make life miserable for anyone who crosses my line of fire. From a personal perspective, then, the advent of Modern Warfare 2's drill charge isn't great. But for players who hate campers and want nothing more than to see them eradicated—most players, in other words—it's an absolute godsend.
The drill charge is basically a high-explosive charge with an attached thermal lance that enables it to burrow into, or through, surfaces before it detonates. It sounds like the sort of thing that would take some time and careful effort to set up, and in real life I'm sure it would. But in Modern Warfare 2 you can just wind up and chuck it like a conventional grenade. It hits, it sticks, it digs, it blows.
What this means in practical terms is that if some guy in good cover or a hard-to-reach spot is irritating you to the point of distraction, you can turn the tables by tossing one of these on an adjacent wall, ceiling, or floor. Assuming your aim is true, you'll see one of two results: Either the camper gets blown to smithereens by the blast, or they're quickly flushed out by the threat (the drill charge provides plenty of notice that it's on the way, through both a UI warning and an audio signal). Either way, the camper problem is solved.
You can see the drill charge in action in the video below, in which our Modern Warfare Maestro Morgan runs into an opposing player who sprays some fire and then retreats behind a wall. Instead of pursuing, Morgan throws a drill charge at the wall—a second later, the bad man goes boom.
Drill charges can also be thrown ridiculously far, and if you attach one to a vehicle it will kill anyone and everyone who doesn't get out before it goes off. Very handy stuff.
Morgan's not the only player to find great utility in this high-explosive hole-maker. "Whether it’s 'innovative' or not I can’t say, odds are the idea was borrowed from somewhere—but it’s implementation into MW2 as a direct counter to the community’s biggest complaint about MW2019, its slower and more stationary pace, has been amazing so far," TylerNY315 wrote in an ode to the drill charge on Reddit. "I get multiple kills with it on a camper every game, and it gives me a smile each time.
"We’ve seen how incredibly wrong a new piece of equipment can go, like Vanguard’s incendiary grenade, but the drill charge is seriously a game changer imo and very rarely do I foresee myself removing it from my loadout. Good job IW."
Others quickly chimed in to agree. "Dude it's amazing when they camp in a small room with one entrance. You just throw on any wall you can find and just kill them," wulv8022 wrote. "On dom[ination] in the embassy B or A flag for example. I just go on the other side of the wall next to them and throw the drill charge. I shoot anyone running out and people that stay there get blown away."
"It will also really surprise you how thick of a wall you can throw it on and it still go out the other side, so don't be afraid to play around with it even if you think there's no way it will work," RunTheFrames added. "Drill charge is absolutely the best addition to CoD in a long time."
"You can even throw that mf from underneath them bro," _IratePirate_ wrote. "If you know their general area, throw it from the floor below them and just go on about your business as your kill is over night delivered to you."
Here's a good example of that particular tactic:
Making the drill charge even more useful, it doesn't just stick to walls, floors, and other inanimate objects: It also sticks to people, like a headcrab hand grenade. Here again is our man Morgan making an enemy player look like a Tactical Response Clown:
The real magic of the drill charge, though, isn't what it does but how it does it. One of the reasons I find camping so sweet is the rage it engenders in other players: They can't see me, or if they can see me they can't reach me, and in the meantime I'm popping skulls like they're overripe zits. By enabling players to force campers out of their hides from positions of relative safety, the drill charge turns the tables, and non-campers love it.
"Bruh, I had a riot shield guy camping with a teammate right behind him, so the shield dude would spot, and then the other guy would step out," BrobaFett242 wrote. "I stuck the shooter with the drill charge, and killed them both. Probably the most satisfying thing ever."
