Call of Duty Warzone is an unpredictable beast, but sometimes it really does defy expectations. We know that it’s foolish to assume that anything in Call of Duty Warzone – or within the community of players built up around the battle royale – makes sense, but this is one of the strangest things we’ve ever seen. Despite being hit with a significant nerf in the Season 4 Reloaded weapon balancing sweep, a tweak in the latest Warzone update has seen the KG M40 become the most popular gun in the battle royale by quite a large margin.
At the time of writing, on August 9 and almost a full week since its last update (on August 3), the KG M40 assault rifle has somewhat inexplicably become the most popular weapon in Warzone. This might not look like a big deal right now, but the KG M40 currently boasts a pick rate of over 10.3 – which has shot up from around 3.8 since the start of Season 4 Reloaded – according to WZRanked.
Yes, as much as that doesn’t make sense, it’s right. The KG M40 has shot up to become the most popular weapon in the Call of Duty battle royale shooter – despite not being anywhere close to the Warzone meta – after being hit with a nerf. Explain that one.
On almost all accounts, it doesn’t make much sense at all. In the Warzone Season 4 Reloaded patch notes, the KG M40 nerf reduced the weapon’s maximum damage range and minimum damage threshold. This assault rifle has also seen its headshot locational damage multiplier reduced twice, now 1.32 from 1.5. We know these seem like insignificant numbers, but they really do have a huge impact on how a gun performs in-game.
Interestingly, it looks like there’s one thing that can be attributed to this weapon’s unexpected climb to the top of this battle royale’s meta (and one reason why it’s finding a place in so many of the best Warzone loadouts out there right now): the Reisdorf 720mm Shrouded barrel attachment.
Despite the fact that this barrel attachment’s horizontal recoil control was decreased to just 20%, from a lofty 35%, during the Season 4 Reloaded weapon balancing update, it’s being used in almost every top tier KG M40 Warzone loadout right now. It defies logic, frankly.
Popular Call of Duty content creator ‘JGOD’ labelled the KG M40 a “meta-chaser” just a handful of days ago, claiming it would be the next ‘meta’ weapon and producing foresight that the most talented seers would be jealous of. ‘Ryda’, ‘KunjTV’, and ‘Klubo’ – all popular Warzone content creators – are leaning on this attachment as key to their builds. But, it’s hard to explain why given the fact that it was made objectively worse in the last update.
We know the argument here is that the KG M40 is just a good weapon right now, and we’re not denying that, but this gun’s unexplained jump from being a mid-table second-hand pick to one of the best Warzone guns is baffling. Still, the Warzone Season 5 release date is on the way and there’s no telling what changes Raven Software will bring to shake up the meta once again.