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Best Lockwood 680 loadout and class build for Warzone and MW3

How to upgrade the popular Lockwood 680 to secure devastating up-close kills in MW3.

Image credit: Activision

The Lockwood 680 in Warzone and Modern Warfare 3 is a top-tier shotgun.

In fact, we voted it the best Shotgun in Modern Warfare 3 for its ability to excel at dealing out damage to enemies, even at a longer range.

For the Lockwood 680 in Warzone and Modern Warfare 3, it’s a solid idea to take advantage of the Overkill and Gunner Vest perk to equip two primary weapons and run it as your close-range back-up. Although, there’s nothing back-up about the damage this shotgun deals out, which can dominate gunfights, especially in smaller maps.

We’ll delve more into that below, as well as covering how to unlock the Lockwood 680, the best perks and equipment for this class build, and a full rundown on the best Lockwood 680 attachments and how they support this class setup.

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Warzone and MW3 Lockwood 680 best loadout and attachments

Considering the Lockwood 680 is very much a close-range weapon, despite its fairly decent capabilities at a medium range, we’ll be focusing on making those close-quarter shots as devastating as possible in Modern Warfare 3.

For this, we’ll be working on your mobility across the board. We’re talking fire-rate, gun reload speed, movement, and more. We’ll also be focusing on damage to make sure the shots you land have high raw damage.

Before we go into more detail on each individual attachment, here’s the full rundown of attachments to equip for your Lockwood 680 loadout:

  • Muzzle: Crown Breaker Choke
  • Stock: Sawed Off Mod
  • Bolt: Express Light Bolt
  • Barrel: Bryson Hammerforged Long Barrel
  • Guard: Matuzek Xray Skeletonized Guard
Image credit: Activision

First up, Crown Breaker Choke is designed specifically to increase the accuracy of your shots by reducing spread with an impressive buff to hip fire and Tac Stance spread as well as tighter pellets.

The Tac Stance is a new mechanic in Modern Warfare 3 that improves mobility by finding the middle-ground between hipfire and ADS that will help improve your shots in both ways.

For the second attachment, we’ve opted for the Sawed Off Mod. This no-stock mod will increase your overall mobility in a big way. But, again, it will take from your gun kick control, recoil control, and slightly less on aiming idle sway and flinch resistance. Considering you’ll be incredibly up-close and personal when you use the Lockwood 680, to reward yourself with a lightweight shotgun while sacrificing some of the control, still works as a pretty deadly combination.

Next up, the Express Light Bolt is a great choice for continuing our full throttle pelt towards speed. It’ll lower the accuracy stats on the Lockwood 680, but when you’re so close to the enemy, it’s pretty hard to miss. What we’d instead opt for is making sure that when you are in close-quarters, you get those shots away fast.

With increased rechambering speed, you’ll see a significant increase in the Lockwood 680’s fire rate. Devastating shots, delivered quickly. We’re talking an almost 80% increase in rate of fire.

Image credit: Activision

To further improve mobility, the Bryson Hammerforged Long Barrel is a solid attachment. Plus, mobility isn’t the only thing this Barrel has to offer. You’ll also see increases in both range and damage in the Lockwood 680 to make those close range shots ever more impactful.

Finally, the Matuzek Xray Skeletonized Guard furthers mobility in rechambering, movement, and sprint. There’s a slight knock back on flinch resistance, but nothing to write home about. We’ve said it time and time again, aiming when you’re that close is a lot easier, so focusing instead on how devastating you can make your shots is key. Just don’t try to fire the Lockwood 680 too far away…

All these attachments combined create a deadly close combat shotgun that can deal out consistent one-shot kills, making it arguably one of the overpowered choices amongst the weapons on offer in Modern Warfare 3.

Warzone and MW3 Lockwood 680 best class build, perks, and equipment

For the Modern Warfare 3 Lockwood 680 loadout, our attachments were focused on mobility and damage due to the Shotgun’s close-range abilities. For the perks and equipment then, we will focus on supporting that with a mid-range weapon, thanks to the 'Vest' slot allowing for a two primary weapon class build.

We’ll delve into more detail on our Vest choice shortly, but here’s a high-level view of the perks and equipment we’d recommend for the Lockwood 680 class build:

  • Vest: Gunner Vest
  • Perk 1 – Gloves: Quick-Grip Gloves
  • Perk 2 – Gear: EOD Padding
  • Secondary Weapon: MCW
  • Field Upgrade: Trophy System
  • Lethal: Frag Grenade
  • Tactical: Flash Grenade
Image credit: Activision

First up, the Gunner Vest is one of two vests in MW3 (including the Overkill Vest) that allows you to carry two primary weapons. For such a close-range gun, we’d run support with a mid-to-long range Assault Rifle to cover ground when you’re not finding opportunity for those close-quarter gunfights.

For this, we’d equip the MCW, voted best-in-class in our best guns in Modern Warfare 3 rankings, as it boasts high bullet velocity, great range, and is just an all-round solid performer.

Before we jump onto our next piece of equipment, it’s also worth noting that the Gunner Vest will allow you to deploy with max ammo, as well as improving your reload speed, which works great with the Lockwood 680.

Image credit: Activision

Given the max ammo perk, for the Field Upgrade slot we’d opt for the Trophy System over the Munitions Box as it’ll protect you against nearby enemy equipment and projectiles when you may be holding out in a smaller space to lure enemies into closer range.

You’ll be sacrificing your Boots slot for the Gunner Vest, but there’s still the Quick-Grip Gloves to increase weapon swap speed and the EOD Padding to protect you against damage dealt by enemy’s non-killstreak explosives and fire. All great perks to have when you find yourself in the thick of battle with close-to-mid range weapons.

Finally, we’ve opted for the deadly combination of the Frag and Flash Grenades to cause confusion, slow pace, and deal damage when you reposition and use movement to get up-close and personal with the Lockwood 680.

How to unlock the Lockwood 680 in Modern Warfare 3

The Lockwood 680 is unlocked at player level 4 in Modern Warfare 3.

Level 4 is also where you’ll unlock customisation of your Lockwood 680, and all other weapons, in the Gunsmith. Here, you’ll have access to gear perks, equipment, and attachments that are pretty essential for the loadout and class build we get into below.

A silhouette of a soldier aims their weapon at a firey backdrop, bracing for combat.
Image credit: Activision

It’s important to note that in order to unlock all the attachments on the Lockwood 680, it’s not just about levelling up one gun. You’ll need to switch it up and play across a spectrum of guns, which have different unlockable attachments as you level up.

To check out how to unlock these attachments, head to the Gunsmith, hover over the attachment you’re after and you’ll find the unlock requirements needed in order to equip it to your Lockwood 680.

For more MW3 loadouts, we’ve got our recommendations on the KV Inhibitor, Striker, SVA 545, Renetti, and more. With the Lockwood 680 featuring as the best Shotgun in our best guns in MW3, it’s definitely worth taking a look at the other weapon categories if you’re considering a change.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023)

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