Putting together the best XM4 loadout in Black Ops 6 should be your first port of call if you want a weapon to dominate with while you rank up through the early levels.

As is the case with practically every Call of Duty multiplayer, the jack-of-all-trades assault rifle is one of the first guns you unlock, and also one of the best.

It’s essentially an M4 Carbine from Call of Duty games of old: a low recoil, fully automatic gun that is capable of fighting at basically any range as it deals solid damage. The build you want to use will play to the strengths of the gun which is that while it doesn’t excel in any particular area, it can compete with practically any other weapon in the game in the right hands.

Here’s the best XM4 loadout in Black Ops 6, how to unlock the gun in the first place, and the best class to use alongside it.

How to unlock the XM4 in Black Ops 6

Unlocking the XM4 is incredibly simple, because all you need to do is reach level four. This is the level you’ll unlock custom loadouts at and the XM4 is already there waiting for you as the first assault rifle.

In the meantime, you can use the Enforcer default loadout as the XM4 is also the primary weapon found there.

Best XM4 loadout in Black Ops 6

Here is the best XM4 loadout in Black Ops 6:

First things first, note that we can equip eight attachments here due to the Gunfighter wildcard which unlocks at level 33; more on that towards the end of this guide. If you don’t have that yet, just pick the first five attachments listed here.

The iron sight on the XM4 isn’t the greatest. Since you want to be able to compete at range, you want something with a little more zoom, but you also don’t want too much because you still need to be able to deal with enemies up close. The Dobrych MF Reflex sight is perfect for that, but we’d also recommend testing out a few to find the one best suited to you.

The rest of the build is all about accentuating the XM4’s existing strengths, so we’ve gone for the Compensator to improve the already fairly reasonable vertical recoil. Combined with the Long Barrel which improves the damage range significantly, these two attachments are essential for those longer range gunfights.

Then we have the Ranger Foregrip which buffs the horizontal recoil, but also improves your movement speed while sprinting. You could gear the weapon more towards long range engagements here, but as Black Ops 6 multiplayer is quite fast paced, the mobility buff is helpful. The Commando Grip also lends itself to this, with improved aim down sight and sprint to fire speeds.

With the additional three attachments, we’ve gone for the first Extended Mag as it increases the magazine size from 30 to 45 with no downsides, the Combat Stock to buff your flinch resistance and aim walking movement speed, and the Recoil Springs to manage the recoil even more.

Best XM4 class in Black Ops 6

Here is the best class to use alongside the XM4 in Black Ops 6:

For a jack-of-all-trades gun, you want a jack-of-all-trades class, so nothing here is particularly specialized, but it is a solid all-rounder. Go for the Grekhova pistol as it’s the only fully automatic sidearm in the game and can come in very handy when you need to switch quickly. The Concussion and Frag grenade choices are pretty standard, and the Trophy System helps defend either your location or the objective from incoming throwables.

The perk system in Black Ops 6 uses specialties, which essentially means if you have three of the same color, you get a bonus perk. In this case, we’re going for three blue perks: Ghost, Forward Intel, and Vigilance.

That activates the Recon specialty, which grants X-ray vision for a few moments after you respawn so you can see enemies outlined, you receive a HUD (heads-up display) flash when an enemy is just outside of your view, and you don’t leave death skulls when you kill enemies.

Ghost means you’re invisible to enemy radar pings and UAVs while moving or interacting, Forward Intel increases your minimap area and shows the direction enemies are traveling for revealed foes, and Vigilance shows a HUD icon whenever you appear on an enemy minimap, and it makes you immune to Counter UAVs, Scrambler, and Sleeper Agent.

Finally, as mentioned above, we have the Gunfighter wildcard. This permits three extra attachments on your primary weapon, allowing us to use eight in total. However, it isn’t unlocked until level 33, so you’ll need to do some grinding first.