Is There A Nuke In Black Ops Cold War?

Gameplay footage has emerged from the recent Black Ops Cold War alpha, so naturally we have some questions about what we’ve seen.

In one particularly compelling clip, the YouTuber Swagg is seen getting 26 consecutive kills, which brings up a controversial subject: the tactical-nuke scorestreak.

So, Does Black Ops Cold War Have a Nuke?

Here, we see KRNG Hero, who uploaded the video, reacting to Swagg.

At 20 kills, Swagg is awarded the “Relentless” medal. At 25, a “Brutal” medal.

After kill 26, his streak is broken when he loses a close-range firefight.

In Call of Duty: Mobile, a tactical nuke is unlocked by getting 20 consecutive gun kills.

Modern Warfare (2019) requires a streak of 30 kills to call in a nuke.

Back in the Modern Warfare 2 (2009) days, you had to get either 25 kills without dying or 24 with the Hardline perk active.

For now, there’s not much evidence pointing to a tactical nuke in Black Ops Cold War, and historically it’s been more of an Infinity Ward thing, rather than a Treyarch or Black Ops tradition. 

So don’t bet on it — but anything’s possible. Nuclear weapons in video games are controversial by nature, and Call of Duty’s been at the center of those kinds of discussions time and again.

Black Ops Cold War Scorestreaks

In Cold War, your scorestreak progression doesn’t reset when you die. You simply earn points based on your performance, rewarding killstreaks as well as objective play.

Tony Flame, a lead designer at Treyarch, explained the philosophy behind the game’s new scorestreak system in a recent Twitter post.

“The Black Ops Cold War Scorestreak System incentivizes a greater range of play styles,” Flame said.

“Earn low-tier streaks by contributing your part to a team victory. But to afford the juicy high-end streaks, you still need to rack up multiple kills in the same life to earn that streak bonus.