A Guide to Leveling Up Fast in Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call of Duty : Black Ops is currently the hottest game on the market right now, raking in over $1 billion in sales within it's first week. Not everyone knows the ins and outs of leveling up in games (also known as "Exping/XPing" or "getting XP), but it's become a large part of online gaming today. Other popular games that are not even role-playing games have experience points systems integrated, including the incredibly popular Halo Reach, created by Bungie.

But lets be realistic altogether - people love leveling up and making progress in games. Gaining a new level feels like an accomplishment - and it's no different in Call of Duty : Black Ops. In Black Ops leveling up is relatively easy, and using these tips will expedite the process so you can obtain those level your Call of Duty spirit yearns for.

Use Different Guns
While you may not like every gun in the game, which is completely normal, you should at least try out a few different ones. Doing this will open a whole realm to obtain experience points from. Try finding guns that are similar in recoil, ammo capacity, damage, and so on. This way you won't have to alter your game play too much if you don't want to. For example, two guns that I like to use are the the Enfield and the Famas. Both of these guns have relatively similar recoil and are both assault rifles, so switching between the two doesn't alter my game play significantly.

So how does this essentially net you more experience points? Well, using different guns will net you more challenges completed. Every time you get a certain amount of kills with a specific weapon you complete challenge. While at first you may not get a lot of experience points from these challenges, the later ones will net you in the thousands. There's also another challenge for each category of guns (Example: Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifles, ect.) - When a player obtains a certain amount of kills in one of these categories, despite which gun(s) are used in the specific category, the player will obtain a certain amount of experience points. Once again, the experience points gained initially won't be too much, although every little bit helps, but the later levels of this challenge will net you a lot more.

An indirect way in which this tactic helps is that it helps you get accustomed to the guns and their feels. Once you switch over and get used to these guns you'll generally net more kills, and more kills means higher scores in games, and that means more experience points overall.

Complete Different Challenges
Many gamers don't understand how much completing challenges can help boost their experience points astronomically. Well, a decent amount at least. Any experience points gained in Black Ops helps, as it adds up quickly. I've been in games where I've neared nearly 20,000 experience points thanks to challenges and contracts combined (I'll bring up contracts next).

Challenges deal with an array of different areas - you can complete challenges that pertain to specific game types (Example: Team Deathmatch, Demolition, Domination, Free-For-All, ect.), different guns, different attachments on guns, killstreaks, perks, and much more. Treyarch made it relatively easy to string challenges together to obtain massive amounts of experience points. For example, if a player uses a specific primary and secondary weapon, runs the same killstreaks, and plays a specific game type, they will, over time, acquire these challenges. Sometimes you'll complete these challenges in one game, which leads to tons of experience points.

If you're relatively new to Call of Duty: Black Ops, or first person shooters in general, I highly suggest sticking to the lower-end killstreaks such as the Spy Plane, the Counter Spy Plane, RC-XD, and the SAM Turret. By using these killstreaks you'll acquire them easily, more easily than, lets say, a Gun Ship or the Attack Dogs, which will help you complete their challenges. Another way that will help move this along is using the Hardline perk, which allows you to acquire a killstreak with one less kill. So, lets say you have the Hardline perk equipped and one of your killstreaks is the Spy Plane, this means that you'll get the Spy Plane with 2 kills, rather than the normal 3 kills needed to obtain it. Plus, by doing this you'll also work towards your Hardline challenges, as well as your killstreak challenges.

Complete Different Contracts
Contracts are a new aspect to the Call of Duty series. Contracts essentially are challenges that Treyarcha adds daily through a specific menu. There are three different areas in which players can choose a contract, and there's an array of contracts to choose from. Generally these contracts will be "get X amount of kills with gun Y" or "win a game of X with more kills than death", and so on. Some contracts are harder than others, so naturally you get a better reward for completing these contracts.

Now, not all contracts offer experience points, but they all offer currency after completion. There is also a challenge that involves completing contracts, so look into that as well. Keep in mind that currency, although it doesn't directly helps you obtain experience points, indirectly helps. Gaining currency allows you purchase new attachments, guns, killstreaks, and more, which opens up doors to completing challenges. While it may not seem to help too much, in earlier levels this can help players level up extremely well. Branching off into different challenges help players get those small, yet helpful challenges done (usually worth under 1,000 experience points), but they add up. Plus, it's an investment for later levels so players can work towards those goldmine challenges worth thousands.

Closing Comments
Of course there's the obvious to leveling up fast - play well, and play hard. Sitting in one spot in Black Ops generally won't net you a lot of kills, unless it's a high traffic area. In most situations it is best to move around strategically, meaning don't just run out into the open. For the newer players - stick to cover, try and move with another teammate, use communication, and run Spy Plane (I cannot stress how helpful this is for newer players, both as an aid for game play and getting additional points, as well as progress towards challenges). Also, play Combat Training to learn the ins and outs of the maps, and to get a feel for the guns and equipment.