- For a similarly named submachine gun, see PDW-57.
The PDW (also referred to as VBR in the game files) is a three-round burst/fully-automatic handgun that appears in Call of Duty: Ghosts and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
Call of Duty: Ghosts[]
- "3 round burst. High rate of fire with moderate recoil."
- — Description
Campaign[]
The PDW can be found in the campaign missions Severed Ties and The Ghost Killer, and it is fully-automatic. This version also has a higher magazine capacity, making it comparable to submachine guns. This weapon is used by some enemies as their main weapon (unlike other handguns, which are usually used as secondaries).
Multiplayer[]
The PDW is the most expensive Handgun to unlock, costing seven Squad Points.
At any range short of 6.4 meters, the PDW will deal 45 damage per bullet, needing three shots to kill. Damage linearly decreases until 19.2 meters. At any range past 19.2 meters, the PDW will deal seventeen damage per bullet, needing six shots to kill. The PDW has a three shot kill range of 11.4 meters, a four shot kill range of 15.5 meters, and a five shot kill range of 17.8 meters. The PDW deals fifty percent extra damage on a headshot, and can reduce the number of shots needed to kill by one in most situations, and at long range, multiple headshots can reduce the number of shots needed to kill by two. The PDW has low penetration power.
The PDW fires in a three round burst configuration. The fire rate within the burst is 789 RPM. Due to burst delay, the PDW's maximum possible fire rate is 446 RPM.
The PDW has recoil values of 40 to the left and 40 to the right. The PDW has no downwards recoil, instead kicking up with each shot at a varying intensity. The PDW kicks up with a value of 12 or 50. The PDW has a centerspeed of 1200. The PDW has significantly faster and larger idle sway than the other handguns.
The PDW allows users to move at 100% of the base movement speed, or strafe at 80% of the base movement speed. The PDW allows users to aim down the sight in 200 milliseconds, and the PDW has the best hip-fire accuracy of all handguns, with hip-fire accuracy on par with an SMG. The PDW's reload animation is 2.96 seconds long. The user can perform a Reload Cancel after 1.33 seconds.
The PDW has a magazine capacity of twelve rounds. This gives four bursts per magazine. The PDW's starting ammo loadout is 36 rounds total.
The PDW's attachment selection is unusual, as Akimbo is not available. However, various optical attachments are available for the PDW.
Gold PDW[]
- "Gold plated PDW with Automatic Fire. Unlocked at Prestige 10."
- — Description
A patch on June 3rd, 2014 (June 4th, 2014 for some consoles) released the Gold PDW. Players that have reached Prestige 10 are able to access it immediately, and it can also be used in Private Match and Local Match immediately. Should the user restart their entire prestige, they will lose access to the Gold PDW.
The Gold PDW holds many of the same stats as the base version of the PDW, but with a few key differences. Instead of a 50% damage increase on a headshot, the Gold PDW only gets a 20% damage increase on a headshot. It is still able to get two shot kills to the head up close, but needs two headshots to achieve this instead of the regular PDW only needing one.
Instead of firing in burst-fire configuration, the Gold PDW fires fully automatically, firing at a rate of 857 RPM.
The Gold PDW has slightly worse hip-fire accuracy than the regular PDW, on a level more in line with that of the MP-443 Grach.
The last notable change to the Gold PDW is its magazine capacity, with an increased magazine capacity of twenty rounds, and a starting ammo loadout of sixty rounds.
On the Gold PDW, all of the same attachments are available that can normally be used on the PDW. Automatic Fire is an integral attachment on the Gold PDW.
Attachments[]
Sights[]
Barrel[]
Under Barrel[]
Mod[]
- Extended Mags
- Armor-Piercing
- Automatic Fire - Integrated to the Gold PDW only, unlocked at Prestige 10
Gallery[]
- For attachments images, see PDW/Attachments.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare[]
The PDW returns in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare as a fully automatic pistol by default.
Campaign[]
The PDW is the main secondary weapon of the Korean People's Army and the KVA. The magazine size is relatively small for an automatic weapon, so it is not recommended unless nothing else is available. Like the Ameli, it has no aim assist on consoles. It is also used by Atlas Hazmat Soldiers in the mission, Bio Lab.
Multiplayer[]
The PDW is unlocked at level 40. It is the last pistol to unlock.
The PDW has the lowest damage per shot of any pistol. At any range shorter than five meters, the PDW will deal 34 damage, resulting in a three shot kill. At any range between five meters and 12.5 meters, the PDW will deal 33 damage, resulting in a four shot kill, or a three shot kill if one bullet is a headshot. At any range past 12.5 meters, the PDW will deal 20 damage, resulting in a five shot kill, a two shot kill in Hardcore game modes, or a four shot kill if at least two of the bullets hit the head. The PDW has low penetration power.
The PDW fires in a fully automatic configuration at 750 RPM. Many variants of the PDW will increase the rate of fire.
The PDW's recoil pattern is very randomized. The net direction of the recoil will be either upwards or downwards, will vary in intensity, and isn't a consistent pattern. Due to this, the PDW's effective firing range when aiming down the sight is very short, as the recoil is very hard to predict and counteract. However, this inconsistency is not present when hip-firing, as felt recoil when hip-firing is almost completely absent.
The PDW will allow users to move at 100% of the base speed, and the PDW will aim down the sight in 125 milliseconds. By default, the PDW will take at least 1.37 seconds to complete a regular reload. However, if the weapon is empty or a Speed Reload was initiated, than the reload speed takes less than a second to perform. For the Akimbo version of the PDW, it will take 1.73 seconds to reload regularly, and the same speeds for the empty and speed reload of the solo PDW are the same on the Akimbo version.
The PDW has the largest magazine capacity in its class, with a 15 round magazine.
The PDW has an unusual assortment of attachments in the pistol category, as it lacks the Laser Sight.
The Condensed variant boosts the rate of fire to 923 RPM, and makes the hip-fire cone 20% tighter, contrarily to what the in-game stats would suggest. It has no direct downsides. As well, it is a Marksman variant, meaning the player is guaranteed to get the variant after 300 kills with the PDW.
Another good variant is the Chucker, it has the highest rate of fire out all of the PDW variants, at 1000 RPM. The Chucker has some very noticeable downsides though. Its long range damage is reduced to 19, meaning it requires six shots to kill a target at long range and it also has a slight range penalty, making it drop of in damage faster than the base PDW. Finally, the Chucker has 10% greater viewkick which is further emphasized by its high rate of fire, making it harder to hit targets at longer ranges.
Exo Survival[]
The PDW is also in Exo Survival. It costs two upgrade points to buy, and is unlocked at round 12, but comes with the Specialist Exo class by default.
It is a weak weapon, taking around 5 shots to kill even on the first waves. Like all pistols, it should be swapped out by the first drone wave, and in the PDW's case, probably even before then. Its recoil is inconsistent to say the least, with shots unpredictably causing significantly more kick than all the others. This makes killing drones difficult and killing enemies at range nearly impossible. If the player wants a pistol, the MP443 Grach and the RW1 are often better candidates.
Exo Zombies[]
The PDW appears in Exo Zombies. It is available via the 3D Printer. Its magazine size is increased to 28 rounds, with 175 rounds in reserve.
Compared to its multiplayer counterpart, the PDW has much lower recoil, making it very accurate, as well as a slightly lower fire rate. In spite of low ammunition reserves, it is a poor weapon, taking about ten shots to kill a single zombie on the early rounds. In addition to this, the player will run through ammo extremely fast, and thus will become dependent on Full Reloads for ammo or another weapon very quickly. The MP11 can be used for a similar style of play, only much more effectively.
It will gain a Red Dot Sight when upgraded to Mk 4, a Quickdraw Handle at Mk 7, and Extended Mags (which increases the magazine capacity to 42 and the reserve ammo to 262) at Mk 10.
Attachments[]
- Red Dot Sight - 20 Kills
- Auto Focus Sight - 40 Kills
- Target Enhancer - 60 Kills
- ACOG Scope - 80 Kills
- Tactical Knife - 10 Hip Fire Kills
- Akimbo - 20 Hip Fire Kills
- Extended Mags
- Advanced Rifling
- Suppressor
Supply Drop Variants[]
| Name | Rarity | Advantages | Disadvantages | Notes |
| Sub Cal | Enlisted | Fire Rate: 857 RPM | Damage: 34-33-19 | |
| Compact | Enlisted | Fire Rate: 857 RPM | Hipspread +10% | |
| Ion | Enlisted | Fire Rate: 857 RPM | Range: 200-425 | |
| CQB | Retired | Fire Rate: 857 RPM | Viewkick +10% | |
| Dead Eye | Professional | Viewkick -10% | Hipspread +10% | Integrated Red Dot Sight |
| Chop-Chop | Professional | Fire Rate: 857 RPM Range: 200-575 |
Damage: 34-33-16 | |
| Rage | Professional | Fire Rate: 857 RPM | Range: 200-425 | Integrated ACOG Scope |
| Crusher | Elite | Fire Rate: 923 RPM Mag capacity: 16 rounds |
Damage: 34-33-16 Viewkick +10% Hipspread +10% |
|
| Chucker | Elite | Fire Rate: 1000 RPM | Damage: 34-33-19 Range: 200-425 Viewkick +10% |
|
| Royalty | Elite | (Same advantages/disadvantages as Crusher) | ||
| Condensed | Permanent (Unlocked at 300 kills) | Fire Rate: 923 RPM Hipspread -20% |
||
Gallery[]
- For attachments images, see PDW/Attachments.
- For camouflage images, see PDW/Camouflage.
- For variants images, see PDW/Variants.
Trivia[]
Call of Duty: Ghosts[]
- The PDW has an unusable aperture sight on either side of the iron sights.
- In earlier stages of the game's development, the PDW was a four-round burst pistol. It was changed to three in the final game.
- The Create-a-Soldier image of the PDW has the retractable stock in the extended position.
- The Gold PDW's name is shown in gold when the name is shown on the HUD when switching to it.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare[]
- When aiming down the sights, the PDW is held much closer to the camera than other pistols, making the sights larger. However, when used with the Tactical Knife, the PDW is held further away when aiming, similar in size to the other pistols.
- Certain variants will have a warning sticker below the charging handle that says, "THIS IS A GUN. IT IS VERY DANGEROUS IF MISUSED. PLEASE READ MANUAL. THANKS", with the PDW's caliber of 7.92x24mm written below the sticker. The Deadeye has this sticker, but it cannot be read while aiming due to the integral red dot sight.
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