Delta Force Season Reorientation: The Guns Worth Building

Season Reorientation brought a new operator, two new guns and a string of balance patches through September and October. The meta settled faster in Warfare than in Operations, where the price of a build matters as much as its time-to-kill. These are the guns we'd build first.

Warfare: the three rifles everyone runs

In Warfare your class decides which guns you can use, and Assault gets the best rifles. Three of them stand out:

• CI-19: the most-picked rifle in Warfare. Forgiving recoil and enough range for most lanes.
• M4A1: cheap, unlocked early and consistent since its damage went up from 29 to 31 in April.
• AKM: the fastest time-to-kill of the three, if you can keep the recoil under control.

Playing Support or Engineer? The K416 holds lanes for Support, and the RM277 is the Engineer pick on open maps, thanks to its anti-armor rounds.

Operations: AUG, K437 and M7

Every operator can use every gun in Operations, so the choice comes down to performance per Tekniq Alloy.

• AUG: the most popular Operations build this season.
• K437: its Lancer barrel was buffed on September 8, and limb damage was trimmed on October 9. Still top tier, just less forgiving on leg shots.
• M7: a battle rifle that wins mid-range fights. The Operations build costs about 325k.

Budget builds

You don't need an 800k sniper to extract. The MCX LT is stable and costs around 228k, and the M4A1 is the best rifle for learning the mode without losing much when a raid goes wrong. Save the AWM (around 840k) for when you know the maps.

Patch changes that shaped the meta

• New Support operator Rover, with his dog Clover and the Dart Rifle.
• New guns: the MDR assault rifle (7.62x51) and the Thompson SMG (.45).
• M14 magazine handling and M82 handling buffs on September 8.
• Snipers lose more accuracy while moving.
• Nox toned down in Operations on September 17.

The full rankings are in our Delta Force tier list, and every build above has its attachments and share code on the weapon builds page. If you're not sure which operator to pair them with, start with the operator guides.