This comes up often enough in Call of Duty that it deserves a straight answer rather than a thread to scroll through.

Short answer

In most cases the straightforward approach works. The exceptions are specific and listed below.

Nothing here depends on a setting you are unlikely to have. Edge cases are genuinely rare, which is why the simple answer is usually the correct one. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you.

Why it works this way

It is worth separating what the game does from what players have concluded it does. Testing this yourself takes a few minutes and settles it definitively. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. Most of the disagreement online comes from people describing different versions of Call of Duty.

The mechanic behind it is simpler than the discussion around it suggests. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. The accepted community answer is broadly right and wrong in a specific way that matters here.

Worth knowing alongside this

If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about.

  • Check which version any conflicting advice was written for.
  • Test it yourself where testing is cheap.
  • Read the whole sequence once before doing the first step.
  • Try the straightforward approach before the elaborate one.
  • Do not build a routine around an edge case.

What to do instead

Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows.

It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. Call of Duty is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look.

When the usual advice fails

Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later.

Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing.

The practical answer

Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. Everything below is framed around the current state of Call of Duty rather than a launch-week impression. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see.

Where people go wrong

  • Trusting a video thumbnail that promises a result the video never actually shows.
  • Downloading a helper tool for something the game already does in its own menu.
  • Skipping the prerequisite because it looked optional in someone else's summary.
  • Ignoring the platform-specific note and then wondering why the steps do not line up.

Call of Duty FAQ

Is this still accurate after the latest Call of Duty update?

The method is; individual numbers may not be. If a value on your screen differs, trust the screen and keep the sequence.

What if none of this works for me?

Then something in your setup differs from the assumption — version, region or platform. Check those three before anything else.

Do I need any mods or third-party tools for this?

No. Everything described here works with the base game on any supported platform.

What is the short answer?

It is the paragraph near the top. Everything after it exists for the cases where that paragraph does not quite fit.

Anything that shifts with the next Call of Duty update will show up as a changed number, not a changed approach.