Specialist Profiles
There are nine Specialists in Black Ops III, each with their own story and a unique set of special powers you can use to impact the battlefield.
You eventually unlock new customization options for your Specialists—while you always have to play as one of the available Specialists, you can tinker with their appearance by selecting new head and body options to suit your tastes. Reaper can even change the color of its chassis!
Specialists and their attendant weapons and abilities unlock like other gear options, and you simply need to reach the appropriate level and spend an unlock token to gain access to a new power.
Battery
War Machine
Grenade launcher that fires bouncing grenades that detonate after a short time or by hitting an enemy directly.
A powerful grenade launcher, the War Machine gives you the ability to instantly clear out crowded interior areas or objectives with ease.
The grenades have a large and lethal explosion radius, and while the Flak Jacket perk can protect against a glancing hit, they are unlikely to survive a barrage or multiple direct hits.
Activate the War Machine just before you engage in an area that has a known enemy presence. You can also use it effectively to blockade an area (preferably an objective area) that an enemy team is rushing.
Kinetic Armor
Reactive armor that deflects enemy bullets away from the body. Still vulnerable to headshots and non-bullet damage while active.
Kinetic armor gives you a few seconds of doubled health, as long as the damage comes from bullets hitting your body. Explosions and headshots are not absorbed.
The extra health can win a single firefight, give you a precious second trying to score an objective, or allow you to survive a distant shot from a powerful weapon such as the Tempest or a sniper body hit.
Nomad
H.I.V.E.
Deploys trap pods that release a deadly swarm of nano-drones when triggered.
An indirect offensive weapon, the H.I.V.E. allows you to plant highly lethal proximity traps that kill any enemy player that gets too close.
Because you can lay down all of the pods from your H.I.V.E. without actually needing to see any enemies before using it, it’s fairly easy to get 100% usage from your special abilitiy, something not all of the other offensive weapons can claim.
The H.I.V.E. works best when you use it to mine doorways, ceilings over entrances, ledge approaches, and the space around objectives—anywhere an enemy must move through or is very likely to approach is a good candidate.
Rejack
Recover from the position of your death with an injection of nanoparticle serum. Cannot Rejack when killed by a Specialist Weapon.
Rejack allows you to return to life after being killed! Be careful when using this ability, however—it has a very visible green cloud that appears when activated, and an alert enemy can simply gun you down again when you stand back up.
Make use of Rejack to ambush players around an objective that thought you were gone after they return their focus to your teammates. A perfectly timed Rejack can give you the jump on defenders around an objective, easily clearing the area and letting you break a hard lock for your team to push in.
Outrider
Sparrow
Compound bow that fires bolts with increasing range the longer it is drawn. Enemies explode on impact.
This offensive ability gives you a compound bow that allows you to ‘draw’ explosive arrows by holding fire. When fully charged, you can shoot these arrows a good distance with minimal arc.
At close ranges, a short draw is sufficient to get your arrow on target at a nearby enemy (especially if they are unaware of you and immobile camping some cover).
At longer distances, you need to compensate for the travel time and trajectory of the shot, so be careful about engaging an enemy with a long range gun that has you in their sights.
The explosion from the arrow can kill nearby players, whether it impacts a target or not, and it is affected by the Flak Jacket perk.
Vision Pulse
Pulse the surrounding area to reveal all enemies within range.
A powerful utility ability, Vision Pulse sends out a seeking wave in a sphere around you, locating all hostile players, causing them to become temporarily visible through walls and on the minimap. The Ghost perk does not protect against this minimap signature, and it interacts with the H.A.T.R. scorestreak to give you perfect locational information, as well. When triggered, the initial pulse can also temporarily reveal Spectre even if it has Active Camo running.
Keep in mind that when activated, this power’s pulse shows up on enemy minimaps, as well, and it highlights their screen in red if they actually get tagged by the pulse. You can see them through walls, but they are aware they are tagged, and alert enemies can use the pulse to narrow down your location.
Going for kills through walls is effective with the right loadout, if you’re packing FMJ rounds or an LMG, you can drill targets with relative ease without exposing yourself to risk.
Otherwise, use the pulse to locate enemies and then either ambush them by moving quickly or avoid them entirely if you’re on your way to an objective.
Prophet
Tempest
Charge-shot weapon that fires an arc of electricity, lethally shocking targets and chaining to nearby enemies.
A one shot electrical ‘sniper,’ the Tempest requires a short charge time after pulling the trigger, then discharges a beam that is instantly lethal. Only Battery with her Kinetic Armor up can survive this zap.
On top of that, once you kill a target with the Tempest, the target remains electrified and automatically fries any nearby hostile players who are too close!
The Tempest works best if you keep your distance and pick off clustered targets—the charge before firing makes this a poor choice for assault in CQC, but it is excellent for nailing players from a distance.
Glitch
Flash back to a previous position while keeping all other conditions intact.
An unusual utility power, Glitch allows you to ‘rewind time,’ instantly teleporting you to a position you occupied a few seconds before.
Glitch won’t help if you’ve already been shot, so you need to be very proactive when using Glitch. It’s better to ‘waste’ a Glitch to pull yourself out of a situation that might have been fine than end up dead because you didn’t want to use it—the more often you use Glitch, the more chances you have to recharge it and use it again in the same match.
Good situations to trigger Glitch: You’re sprinting and you spot a distant enemy already lined up on you. Your minimap lights up with an enemy directly behind you. You get hit with a non-lethal grenade explosion.
The general idea is the instant you recognize an unfavorable situation developing, use Glitch. This lets you reset the situation and either simply walk away from it or occasionally get the drop on a nearby enemy to finish them off.
Reaper
Scythe
Minigun that transforms from the arm and delivers high damage in a tight cone of fire.
A very powerful weapon, the Scythe is a minigun that spins up after a short delay and then unleashes a lethal and highly accurate barrage of bullets at any target unfortunate enough to be in your line of sight.
The one disadvantage of the Scythe—the spinup time—can be mitigated by aiming the weapon. Doing so causes it to spin up without firing, allowing you to instantly fire at any target that appears.
The Scythe is essentially a juiced up LMG. Flank the enemy team and unleash it or set up behind hard cover and simply mow down anyone who tries to enter your space.
Psychosis
Spawn three decoy clones that run forward to distract enemies.
Psychosis is an unusual defensive power. Triggering it causes three decoy ‘clones’ to appear and begin to run around randomly.
These clones and your own model become shaded in a digital camouflage, so it’s impossible for an enemy to quickly identify you from the clones at a glance. However, your own behavior can give you away—performing thrust jumps, wall runs, or power slides is likely to draw fire. You’re often better off triggering the clones and simply walking in the midst of them, opening fire on any targets that engage you.
You can use the clones defensively, activating them just before enemies assault you near an objective or defensive position, or offensively, activating them just before you approach a similar position.
Psychosis isn’t a guaranteed win in combat, and it can be tough to gauge just how well you are fooling your opponents, so experiment with it and see if you prefer it to the raw power of the Scythe. Remember, like most defensive powers, you are likely to get more charges of Psychosis in a match than Scythes.
Ruin
Gravity Spikes
Spikes that create an explosive shockwave when slammed into the ground, destroying all enemies within close range.
Gravity Spikes let you slam into the ground with stunning force, killing any enemies unfortunate enough to be anywhere nearby.
Because there’s a brief delay before the Gravity Spikes impact, it’s not a good idea to rush a position in the open and try to trigger them. This is a good way to get shot while in mid-animation before you actually land and trigger a shockwave. Instead, either make use of a stealthy build to sneak up on an enemy position, or use wall runs and thrust jumps to surprise an enemy group from above.
Gravity Spikes are also a great instant solution for clearing an objective. If you really need a control point or bomb site cleared right now, you can get the job done with a single smash.
Overdrive
Cybernetic leg upgrades that enable a temporary burst of speed.
A simple and effective utility power, Overdrive gives you a speed boost for a short time. This is exceptionally useful in objective modes such as Uplink and Capture the Flag, and is generally useful in almost all objective modes.
Overdrive can also be used to gain an edge in combat, rapidly repositioning for a flank attack, or to escape a bad situation.
Be careful when using Overdrive while performing thrust jump and wall run combinations, the extra momentum can throw off your already practiced jumps—you don’t want to end up falling off a building!
Seraph
Annihilator
Massive high-caliber revolver that fires devastating rounds with increased bullet penetration.
An instantly lethal revolver, the Annihilator gives you a hand cannon that can kill targets in a single well placed shot. If you have a deft and steady hand, the Annihilator can be one of the strongest offensive abilities, as it allows you to instantly pick off multiple targets in the open as long as you can score a hit on any exposed limb.
The Annihilator also works quite well with mobile combat, as it is still pinpoint accurate while aiming even if you are mid thrust jump or wall run.
Combat Focus
While active, all score earned trigger a bonus multiplier toward Scorestreaks.
Combat Focus gives you a bonus to all score that you earn, with different targets providing varying amounts of bonus (destroyed ground equipment, aerial scorestreaks, enemy players, objectives, etc.).
It’s usually best to trigger Combat Focus when you know you’re about to start a scoring run in an objective game mode, or if you’re in an entrenched position with a long range weapon guarding a contested area.
Using it while on the offense in enemy territory is a high risk proposition, as it takes only one slipup to lose the bonus—you can usually get more points out of this move by destroying a mix of equipment and scorestreaks, completing some (safe!) objectives, and then picking off enemy players than by rushing and killing a few enemies and dying.
Another option is to intentionally run a set of fairly low scoring streaks and aggressively use Combat Focus every time it pops up. Combined with the Ante Up perk and you can blanket the map with UAV and Counter-UAV coverage, while calling in another low cost streak repeatedly.
Spectre
Ripper
Arm upgrade that equips a lethal blade for extended melee lunge attacks.
The Ripper power outfits you with an instantly lethal blade that has an extended lunging range. This attack is silent, off the radar, and kills in one hit.
It also requires being extremely close to the enemy team, so if you’re planning on using Ripper often, take a set of stealthy perks and play aggressively to get into close range.
This power is sometimes challenging to use well compared to the more brute force offensive options, so be aware of its limitations if you want to get the most from it.
Active Camo
Become nearly invisible for a short duration.
For a few seconds, Active Camo cloaks you with optical camouflage, making you almost impossible to spot by enemy players.
You can use this on offense to sneak past entrenched players and flank them, or on defense to ambush attackers even in terrain with little or no cover.
It’s also possible to trigger Active Camo in response to a Vision Pulse from Outrider—the initial sweep still highlights you, but you fade out of view after that.
In a straight firefight, Active Camo is strong enough to be used reactively if you’re quick—you can trigger it mid thrust jump, and unless your opponent is lucky, you can lose them easily behind any nearby cover, emerging from a random direction to strike back and finish the fight.
On offense, be sure to pair this with stealth perks—you don’t want to get spotted by a UAV while invisible!
Firebreak
Purifier
Gain control of a powerful flamethrower that can kill enemies at a short range almost instantly.
A short range weapon of devastating power, the Purifier is absolutely lethal in close quarters encounters. Used indoors or in tight quarters around objectives, you can clear rooms and toast the enemy team.
Out in the open, the Purifier is less impressive, and its damage can be slightly resisted by the Flak Jacket perk, so try to stick to enclosed areas and blind corners where you can melt enemies before they have a chance to retaliate.
Heatwave
Emits a massive heat blast that stuns enemies and destroys hostile equipment.
Heatwave projects a burning sphere around Firebreak, causing any enemies that come into range to suffer from blurred vision and limited mobility.
You can make use of this staggering effect to gain an edge in close range firefights, and like the Purifier, its effect is most potent when in tight spaces where enemies can’t avoid being affected by the Heatwave.