Warzone bug turns the FR 5.56 into a ridiculous one-hit killing machine

cod warzone famas shotgun underbarrel
(Image credit: Infinity Ward)
Win more with these Warzone loadouts

(Image credit: Infinity Ward)

Best M4A1 loadout Warzone: Top all-purpose AR builds
Best MP7 loadout Warzone: Effective SMG setups
Best Grau loadout Warzone: Strong AR builds
Best M13 loadout Warzone: The attachments to choose
Best Bruen Mk9 loadout Warzone: Boost the LMG
Best Kilo 101 loadout Warzone: Enhance the punch AR

Managing a popular multiplayer game always comes with a trade-off of quality versus quantity. Developers are under constant pressure to release new updates, guns, and maps in games like Apex Legends and Fortnite, but the more new stuff that's implemented comes with a greater change of glitches. Then again, if the fresh content churn slows down too much for fans' liking to improve what's already there, they may lose patience and jump ship.

And so seems to be the case with Call of Duty since Warzone Season 5 kicked off two weeks ago. Players are noticing lost weapons and cash, plus the bizarre 'demon gun glitch' that looks like the bizarre offspring of an assault rifle and Assassin's Creed's Animus. Recently, however, a new issue has been spotted: the under-barrel shotgun in the FR 5.56 (FAMAS) is utterly broken, and Infinity Ward is working on a fix.

As highlighted by Call of Duty supremo, TheXclusiveAce, in the video below switching the barrel attachment to the FR 5.56 is wiping the floor with any unfortunate folk that happen to cross its path. Usually, as he points out, the FAMAS hardly holds a candle to better weapons like the Grau or M4A1, and its under-barrel shotgun tends to be a two-to-three-hit kill up close at best. For the moment, it's a different story.

Since season 5 started, one-hit kills with this shotgun attachment are now possible from up to 15 metres away. TheXclusiveAce tested the temporary super-weapon from this distance against a fully-armoured enemy in his video, and the target somehow went down in a single shot. This was then compared with the same attachment on other ARs like the M4A1, which only registered a kill from multiple shots even at a six-metre range. From the 41-kill game played by HusKerrs and the devastation wrought by NICKMERCS, you can see just how much damage can be done with the bugged boomstick in the right hands (read: not mine).

The FR 5.56 got a much-needed damage range buff at the beginning of the current season, but it seems as if this has been mistakenly passed onto the shotgun attachment. This could explain why the attachment is so powerful on this one particular gun.

You don't exactly want to be designing your next set of loadouts around the FAMAS, as this issue isn't likely going to be staying the game long. In the meantime, just pray you don't come across an FR 5.56-wielding player—at least the fact you can only get the special under-barrel shotgun shells from ammunition boxes or ammo dumps is minimising the impact of the bug.

When it comes to setups that'll remain relevant even after the inevitable patch comes, check out our best Warzone loadout list, and take a look at our gun-specific builds linked further up this page.

Harry Shepherd

UK — After collecting and devouring piles of print gaming guides in his younger days, Harry has been creating 21st century versions for the past five years as Guides Writer at PCGamesN and Guides Editor at PC Gamer. He has also produced features, reviews, and even more guides for Trusted Reviews, TechRadar and Top Ten Reviews. He's been playing and picking apart PC games for over two decades, from hazy memories of what was probably a Snake knock-off on his first rig when he was seven to producing informative guides on football simulators, open-world role-playing games, and shooters today. So many by now he steadfastly refuses to convey information unless it’s in clickable online form.

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