Best controller settings for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Every year when the new Call of Duty comes out, it instantly rises to replace the previous year’s entry as the must-play multiplayer shooter. Black Ops 6 will no doubt repeat that trend, especially as it appears to be righting many of the wrongs the series has been plagued with in recent years. Multiplayer alone has been revamped with an all-new omnimovement system, return to the classic Prestige system, and is set to launch with 16 new maps.

With competition looking to be incredibly fierce, players are looking for any edge they can get over their opponents. However, before you go diving into meta builds or studying map strats, you’re better off starting with the fundamentals. How you set up your controller will determine how easily you can pull off the more technical moves Black Ops 6 allows for. There are a ton of options, sliders, and settings to tinker with, so here are my recommended settings to give you the highest potential on the battlefield.

Best controller settings for Black Ops 6

Everything from button layout to sensitivities

There are a lot of settings to cover, so I will list them all out here first and then explain the reasoning behind the important changes and which you may want to tweak based on your personal preferences:

• Button Layout: Tactical
• Stick Layout: Default
• Horizontal Stick Sensitivity: 8
• Vertical Stick Sensitivity: 8
• Simplified Controls: Off
• Low Motor Strain: Off
• L1 Button Ping: Off
• Controller Vibration: Off
• Trigger Effect: Off
• Ground Vehicles Sensitivity Multiplier: 1.00
• Air Scorestreak Sensitivity Multiplier: 1.00
• Tablet Sensitivity Multiplier: 1.00
• ADS Sensitivity Multiplier: 1.10
• ADS Sens. Multiplier (Focus): 1.00
• Look Inversion (On Foot): Standard/Inverted
• ADS Sensitivity Transition Timing: Gradual
• Aim Response Curve Type: Standard
• Custom Sensitivity Per Zoom: On (1x-5x Zoom = 0.75, 6x-9x & High Zoom = 1.00)
• Target Aim Assist: On
• Motion Sensor Behavior: Off
• Sprint Assist: Tactical Sprint Assist
• Mantle Assist: On/Off
• Crouch Assist: On/Off
• Automatic Airborne Mantle: Off
• Slide/Dive Behavior: Tap To Slide
• Auto Door Peek: On
• Grounded Mantle: Off
• Slide Maintains Sprint: Off

In older Call of Duty games, I’d generally recommend a button layout where your melee was on the right thumbstick instead of a button, but that isn’t the case with Black Ops 6. Since there are so many more advanced and complex movement options, you will get more mileage out of having melee on a face button and your slide/dive mapped to your thumbstick. This makes it very important to change your slide and dive behavior to Tap so that you don’t have to hold down your thumbstick to pull off these moves.

What remains the same is stick sensitivity. I choose 8, but you should aim to pick the highest number you can manage and still feel in control. The quicker you can snap to targets, the better. Turning your trigger effects and vibrations off is key, especially on PS5 with its haptics. It is only slight, but that little rumble can throw off your aim in clutch moments.

In the advanced aiming settings, the Gradual ADS transition feels the best to me, especially with how I have my custom zoom sensitivities set. Instant can work, but test each out to see which comes more natural to you.

For the assists, the only important one is Sprint Assist. I go with Tactical, but Off would be the only other one to take. If it is set to On, your character will sprint automatically after a set delay that you have no control over and can lead to accidentally overextending or exposing yourself. On the other hand, Mantle and Crouch assist are up to you. Mantle assist determines if you need to press a button to mantle over low or all obstacles, while crouch assist will make your character crouch if you approach a small opening you can crouch through.