Overkill



Overkill is a Tier 2 perk in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World at War that allows the player to carry two primary weapons, instead of a primary weapon and sidearm (pistol). Overkill is unlocked at level 38 in Modern Warfare, and 56 in Call of Duty: World at War. Perks that affect weapons will affect both primary weapons a player carries, as all perks apply to the player and not their weapons. A player using Overkill will use an M9 during Last Stand in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, or an M1911 in Call of Duty: World at War. When using Overkill, the first primary weapon determines movement speed and character appearance, as it always does. The second weapon chosen when the perk is active cannot utilize any camouflage and has no effect on mobility or appearance, with the exception of the gun being visible on the player's back.

Multiplayer Tactics
This perk is best used by equipping two weapons that make up for each others' deficiencies. Choosing which weapon to designate as the primary is very important, as that is what character appearance and movement speed will depend on. In Call of Duty 4, sniper rifles can make good primaries on grassy maps, as this gives the player a Ghillie Suit. A good example of this is equipping a sniper rifle and an SMG. Sniper rifles are great for engaging long range targets but are not particularly effective at medium range and close range, while SMGs are good for close to medium range but are not very good for long range. Inversely, using two similar weapons is a poor way to take advantage of Overkill, as neither weapon would be specialized enough to warrant taking up the second Perk slot.

In Call of Duty: World at War, Overkill is unlocked at rank 56.

In both games, there will be a slight delay when switching to certain secondary weapons for the first time (just like if you pick up a weapon from a fallen player) where your character will pull back a bolt, fiddle with the weapon etc., so it is normally ideal to take it out when you spawn and then change back (if you want to). Good specialization is very important, and it is a very good choice in Hardcore where perks such as Stopping Power and Juggernaut are not needed, as the guns do a lot of damage already. It is very common to see people with SMG/Sniper (usually PTRS-41) combination or Grenade Launcher/SMG combination. In Call of Duty: World at War, a shotgun with a grip can be overkilled with a rifle grenade.Since both attachments share the first tier perk, this is highly advisable for shotgunners who insist on using grips.

When the MP40 is used (as it normally is with overkill), the gun will still do high damage at close range (50 damage). In hardcore most people use the SMG/Sniper with a Thompson and M1 Garand with a Sniper Scope, which allows them to do high damage close up and at medium/long range. It is advised that you usually make both of your weapons a gun that can be used in all situations. A shotgun and machine gun combination would help because a shotgun lacks the rate of fire and range of a machine while the machine gun has weaker damage, but high accuracy and range. An SMG and rifle combination besides the STG-44 as the STG-44 can be used as a SMG and rifle. A good combination would be the M1 carbine, double-barreled shotgun with sawed off barrel, and the flamethrower; use this with a sticky grenade or molotov cocktail and tabun gas so that the carbine acts like a long range gun and sniper, the double-barreled shotgun is a CQC killer, the flamethrower can kill enemies when used with tabun gas, and the sticky grenade and molotovs will weaken the target as if not killing them and a third perk like extreme conditioning can help the guy get back into cover after killing a target. If you have a flamethrower, it is advised that you don't use a weapon like a PPSH-41 as you will find yourself out of ammo extremely quickly. It should be noted though that if you're using a carbine and flamethrower, but you have stopping power, then change to overkill as the pistol gets pretty useless as you go on.

It is advised (in both games) to use a high powered weapon to ensure that even without perks such as Stopping Power and Juggernaut you will still do a lot of damage. Overkill is also effective when combined with Bandolier, this allows the player to last longer in the battlefield with the specific weapon he/she has chosen.

Trivia

 * In Call of Duty 4 if an AK-47 is used with the four grenade launcher grenades trick it will have 2 grenades and the other weapon will have 2 grenades but if the AK is not used the Primary Weapon will have 3 grenades and the Secondary 1. This is most likely because the AK-47 uses the GP-25 and the other rifles use the M203.
 * A camo cannot be applied on the secondary weapon, but an odd thing to note is that if any camo is applied on the player's primary weapon, the secondary will look as if it had the same camo in third-person. This is obviously a design flaw.
 * A good idea would be to combine a Machine gun with a shotgun, or a sniper with a Submachine gun.
 * This perk does not return in MW2, most likely due to the ability to now use Shotguns, Rocket launchers, and Machine Pistols in addition to just handguns as secondary weapons.