THE AEK-973 In Black Ops 6 is an all-new sniper rifle with a three-round burst.
One of its most notable abilities is that it often kills you with a single, well-placed burst, making it a three-hit kill almost anywhere on the body, usually even at longer ranges. As such, he quickly became a favorite in Black Ops 6.
To delve deeper into what makes this weapon work, we’re going to walk through the best accessories and construction AEK-973THE Best Class Loadout, Perks, and Equipment to associate with the gun, as well as how to unlock the AEK-973.
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Black Ops 6 AEK-973 best accessories and build
In all honesty, even without accessories, the AEK-973 is a powerful weapon, and very powerful at any range.
Of course, the further away an enemy is, the less likely you are to eliminate them easily. Generally speaking, at most ranges you’re likely to encounter in multiplayer matches, the AEK can take down enemies in a single burst, even if it doesn’t hit them directly in the chest and above.
However, with accessories, the weapon becomes even more reliable and accurate.
Speaking of which, here is our recommendation for the best accessories and construction AEK-973:
- Muzzle: Mouth rupture
- Barrel: Reinforced barrel
- Rear handle: Quickdraw handle
- Action: Balanced stock
- Fire Mod: Rapid fire
As mentioned, the AEK-973 is pretty strong on its own, but with these accessories the gun becomes even more powerful – testing them on the range amazed me at how fast the gun fires with Rapid fire team.
As such, it was perhaps the attachment that had the most instantaneous awareness of its power, and it still managed to kill in a single burst from a distance.
Combined with other accessories such as Balanced stockyou get a weapon intended for mid-range combat, almost as snappy as some ARs and SMGs. With these two attachments together, you not only get an increased rate of fire, but also increased movement speed in hip fire, strafing, and aim walk movement modes.
As for the other three attachments, Muzzle brake provides additional first-shot recoil control, as well as faster resetting of the gun’s recoil pattern. This even results in consecutive attacks that don’t cause many kicks with the weapon.
Even without this attachment, the gun is honestly pretty stable on its own, so for me personally, I might end up going with one of the cleaner red dot sights, like the Kepler Microflex.
To complete this version, we also recommend the Reinforced barrel for improved damage range and bullet speed, as well as the Quickdraw handle to make aiming faster thanks to faster ADS time.
Feel free to modify the gun accessories as you see fit. Ultimately, it doesn’t seem like you can go wrong with this one, considering how strong it is.
Black Ops 6 AEK-973: Loadout, Perks, Equipment, and Best Class Gear
Although the AEK-973 is best suited for ranged combat, it appears to be a weapon typically found in the assault rifle category. So it’s worth noting that there aren’t any burst assault rifles in the game yet, but with the AEK that’s essentially what we have.
You could go for a more Recon and Support role with this one – and there are some solid perk combos that can help you – but we’ll focus on unlocking the Enforcer combat specialty perks with our choices of loading.
Speaking of which, here is our recommendation for the best Black Ops 6 AEK-973 class gear:
Best Black Ops 6 AEK-973 Gear
- Secondary: Grekhova
- Tactical: Player Preference
- Mortal: Player Preference
- Field upgrade: Spring mine
- Advantage 1: Dexterity
- Advantage 2: Quick hands
- Advantage 3: Double time
- Combat specialty: Executor
- Wildcard: Perk Greed (with Gung-Ho)
We leave the tactical and lethal choice up to you, although you can turn to a more defensive or support role here if you wish, but for the field upgrade we opt for the Spring minejust as a backup in case enemies sneak up on you – mainly whenever you’re holding an objective or line of sight. Don’t hesitate to choose something else.
As for secondary, we are moving towards Grekhovamainly for its solid reliability as a backup pistol thanks to its high rate of fire which makes a perfect complementary sidearm to accompany the more precise nature of the AEK which will not be as effective at close range.
We had considered recommending Overkill and taking a shotgun, but that would require some perk reordering, so for this approach we’re sticking with Benefits of Greed like our Wildcard.
With that in tow, you can choose four perks. We are targeting three benefits Enforcer, Dexterity, double time and Gung-Hoall of which contribute to mobility, reducing fall damage and improving tactical spring rates when using equipment and reloading, as well as its overall duration.
This grants us the Executor bonuses for extra movement speed and health regeneration bonuses, and we also equipped Quick hands So weapons can be swapped out more quickly – handy when you need to switch to your Grekhova in response to a close-range enemy attack.
As always, feel free to swap out any of these perks or gear for something that best suits your playstyle and overall build.
How to unlock the AEK-973 in Black Ops 6
The AEK-973 is unlocked quite easily in Black Ops 6, although it will require a bit of investment.
More specifically, you will need to reach player level 34.
You can do this by earning enough XP which can be accumulated in multiplayer and zombies, as well as in Warzone if you play after the launch of Season 1.
Be sure to keep an eye out for any Double XP events, or even use a Double XP token if you have one available.
Keep in mind, however, that once Prestige is acquired, the weapon will relock until you reach the required level. However, if you have a blueprint for the weapon or a spare permanent unlock token, you will be able to keep it permanently unlocked.
Enjoy the AEK-973 in Black Ops 6!
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