The best AMES 85 loadout in Black Ops 6 firmly cements this fully automatic assault rifle near the top of the pecking order as one of the best in the game. Much like the XM4, this is a solid all-rounder that excels at mid-long range with the right attachments.

Sitting near the top of our list of the best guns in Black Ops 6, the goal with our AMES 85 loadout is to improve both the damage range, recoil control, and aiming speeds. You’ll want to hold down positions, picking enemies off from behind cover, taking advantage of the fast fire rate to shred through enemies.

Here’s our pick for the best AMES 85 loadout in Black Ops 6, alongside the best class to run with it and how to unlock the gun to begin with.

How to unlock the AMES 85 in Black Ops 6

To unlock the AMES 85 in Black Ops 6, you need to reach level 19. You’ll get your hands on the AMES 85 at the same time as the HE-1 launcher, so you can whack it on a custom loadout and start leveling it up right away.

If you bought the Vault Edition of Black Ops 6, you’ll also have the Plague Doctor blueprint of the weapon, or if you picked up the Endeavour Pack in the store you’ll have the Seaworthy Strength blueprint available instead.

Best AMES 85 loadout in Black Ops 6

Here’s the best AMES 85 loadout in Black Ops 6:

• Optic: Accu-Spot Ultra Holo
• Muzzle: Ported Compensator
• Barrel: Long Barrel
• Underbarrel: Vertical Foregrip
• Fire Mods: Recoil Springs

For this AMES 85 loadout, we’re leaning fully into the fact that we can essentially turn the gun into a laser beam with the right attachments, and we don’t even need to use Gunfighter to do it.

The Optic is mostly personal preference but since the aim is to fight at range, we’ve gone for the 3x zoom of the Accu-Spot Ultra Holo, but if you want something a little less zoomed in, the Volzhskiy Reflex is a good shout.

All the other attachments focus on killing enemies from a distance. The Ported Compensator buffs both the vertical and first shot recoil control, the Vertical Foregrip focuses on the horizontal recoil control, and the Recoil Springs – as you’d expect – buff both the horizontal and vertical recoil control. That’s a lot of recoil control. Meanwhile, the Long Barrel attachment massively buffs the damage range, so your shots deal more damage at a longer distance.

If you do decide to opt for Gunfighter — which adds an additional three attachments for your primary weapon — some other recommended attachments alongside these would be the Extended Mag I to save yourself from reloading as frequently, the Quickdraw Grip to buff the aim down sight speed, and the Combat Stock to help you stay on target when you’re being shot at.

Best AMES 85 class in Black Ops 6

Here’s the best class to use with the AMES 85 in Black Ops 6:

• Secondary: Jackal PDW
• Melee: Knife
• Tactical: Flashbang
• Lethal: Impact Grenade
• Field Upgrade: Trophy System
• Perk 1: Ghost
• Perk 2: Forward Intel
• Perk 3: Cold-Blooded
• Specialty: Recon
• Wildcard: Overkill

For the most part, this AMES 85 class is fairly standard to go alongside an assault rifle build, but there are a couple of things to highlight.

The first of these is — to jump to the very bottom — the fact we’re going to run Overkill as the wildcard, so you can equip the Jackal PDW in the secondary slot. Ideally the Jackal PDW is well-suited here because it’s built for close-range engagements, so you can switch to it whenever you find yourself in a sticky situation that the AMES 85 cannot deal with.

The Knife is always the best melee option, as is the Flashbang for the tactical slot. We’ve opted for Impact Grenades in the lethal slot here though as they don’t require cooking and you can use them to quickly flush out enemies behind cover. Using a Trophy System is recommended to protect you from incoming grenades, but if you find yourself running out of ammo regularly, go for an Assault Pack instead. 

With the perks, we’ve opted for the blues, solely for the Recon specialty which shows you the location of enemies through walls for a moment after you spawn. Ghost protects you from enemy UAVs, Forward Intel makes your minimap bigger and shows you the direction revealed enemies are traveling in, and Cold-Blooded stops you from being targeted by enemy killstreaks.

If you decide you’d rather run a different wildcard, replace the Jackal PDW with the Grekhova pistol as it’s also fully automatic, and go for either Gunfighter with the additional three attachments mentioned above, or Perk Greed to use Flak Jacket or Tac Mask on your class.

Elsewhere, we have explainers on maps and Double XP, as well as guides for the campaign, including safehouse puzzles and safe code locations.