Best AMES 85 Gear and Class Building in Black Ops 6

The best AMES 85 gear in BlackOps6 firmly cements this fully automatic assault rifle at the top of the pecking order as one of the best in the game. Just like the XM4, this is a solid all-rounder that excels over medium distances with the right equipment.

Tops our list of the best guns in BlackOps6The goal of our AMES 85 gear is to improve both damage range, recoil control, and aiming speeds. You’ll want to hold positions, draw enemies out of cover, and take advantage of the high rate of fire to destroy enemies.

Here’s our pick for the best AMES 85 gear in BlackOps6in addition to the best class to run with it and how to unlock the gun to get started.

How to unlock the AMES 85 in Black Ops 6

To unlock the AMES 85 BlackOps6you must reach level 19. You’ll get your hands on the AMES 85 at the same time as the HE-1 launcher, so you can slap it on custom loadout and level it right away.

If you have the Vault edition of BlackOps6do you also have the Plague Doctor blueprint of the weapon, or if you have the Endeavor package in the shop you have the Seaworthy Strength blueprint available instead.

Best AMES 85 gear in Black Ops 6

Image: Treyarch / Activision via Polygon

This is the best AMES 85 gear in BlackOps6:

  • Optics: Accu Spot Ultra Holo
  • Snout: Ported compensator
  • Walk: Long barrel
  • Underrun: Vertical handle
  • Fire mods: Recoil springs

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

The Optic is mainly a personal preference, but since the intention is to fight at a distance, we opted for the 3x zoom of the Accu Spot Ultra Holobut if you want something a little less zoomed in, the Volzhskiy Reflex is a good shout.

All other attachments focus on killing enemies from a distance. The Ported compensator improves both vertical and recoil control on the first shot, the Vertical handle focuses on horizontal recoil control, and the Recoil springs – as you would expect – polishes both the horizontal and vertical recoil controls. That’s a lot of recoil control. Meanwhile, the Long barrel The attachment greatly increases the damage range, so your shots do more damage at longer ranges.

If you decide to choose Gunfighter – which adds three additional attachments for your primary weapon – some other recommended attachments in addition are the Extended Mag I to keep you from reloading so often, the Quickdraw Grip to improve aiming speed, and the Combat Stock to help you stay on target target when you are shot at.

Best AMES 85 class in Black Ops 6

The best AMES 85 class in Black Ops 6

Image: Treyarch / Activision via Polygon

This is the best class to use with the AMES 85 in BlackOps6:

  • Secondary: Jackal PDW
  • Battle: Knife
  • Tactical: Flashbang
  • Deadly: Impact grenade
  • Field upgrade: Trophy system
  • Advantage 1: Ghost
  • Advantage 2: Forward Intel
  • Benefit 3: Cold-blooded
  • Specialty: Explore
  • Wild card: Exaggerated

For the most part, this AMES 85 class is fairly standard next to an assault rifle, but there are a few things that need to be highlighted.

The first of these is – to jump all the way to the bottom – the fact that we are going to run Exaggerated as a wildcard, so you can equip the Jackal PDW in the secondary slot. Ideally, the Jackal PDW is well suited here, as it’s built for short-range assignments, so you can switch to it when you find yourself in a sticky situation that the AMES 85 can’t handle.

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

With the benefits, we opted for the blues, exclusively for the Explore specialty that briefly shows you the location of enemies through walls after spawning. Ghost protects you from enemy UAVs, Forward Intel makes your minimap larger and shows you which direction the revealed enemies are traveling, and Cold-blooded prevents you from being targeted by enemy killstreaks.

If you decide you would rather use another wildcardReplace the Jackal PDW with the Grekhova pistol, as that is also fully automatic, and choose Gunfighter with the three additional attachments mentioned above, or Perk Greed to use Flak Jacket or Tac Mask in your class.

Elsewhere we’ve got maps and Double XP explanations, as well as guides to the campaign, including safehouse puzzles and safe code locations.