The RPK is a light machine gun featured in Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified.
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Campaign
The RPK is found in the missions "Operation 40", "S.O.G.", "The Defector", "Victor Charlie", "Crash Site", "Payback", "Rebirth" and "Redemption". It is quite accurate, and deals significant damage, enough to gib enemies. It can be found with an ACOG sight, Drum Mag, Dual Mags, and an Infrared Scope.
Multiplayer
In multiplayer, the RPK is unlocked at level 6.
The RPK as high damage per bullet. At any distance, the RPK will deal forty damage, needing three shots to kill, two headshots to kill, or one shot in hardcore game modes. The RPK has no damage dropoff over range, making the RPK one of the deadliest weapons at long ranges, where many assault rifles will have lost some stopping power. The RPK also has very high penetration power, losing little damage through most surfaces. Only the thickest of obstacles will prove challenging to shoot through.
The RPK's fire rate is good, shooting at 750 RPM. While this number isn't impressive compared to many fully automatic weapons in Black Ops, the fire rate is not a weakness by any means.
The RPK's biggest weakness is its accuracy. The iron sights are clean, but the RPK has heavy recoil. The RPK kicks heavily to the sides and has a varying amount of kick that always goes upwards, and the RPK will never kick downwards, meaning the player is responsible for counteracting all vertical recoil. For an LMG, the RPK also has a low centerspeed value of 1500. While 1500 is a value most assault rifles have, most assault rifles have lower kick values or rates of fire. The RPK combines a decent fire rate, a mediocre centerspeed, an inability to increase the centerspeed (an ability that the M60 has), and troublesome kick values. This recoil profile makes the RPK hard to use outside of medium range and is the main reason why players ignore the RPK.
The handling characteristics are a mixed bag of good and poor stats. The RPK moves slowly at 87.5% of the base speed, but just like the HK21, the RPK has the hipfire crosshairs of an assault rifle, making the RPK easy to use at close range without Steady Aim, a strength that the M60 and Stoner63 sorely lack. The RPK aims down the sight in a slow 350 milliseconds, and the reloads are slow, taking four seconds for a partial reload, 5.5 seconds for an empty reload, and 3.25 seconds to perform a Reload Cancel. The latter two characteristics can be heavily ameliorated with the selection of Sleight of Hand Pro, making the perk a very solid option.
The RPK has an above average magazine capacity, holding forty rounds per magazine, and the player will spawn in with three spare magazines for a starting ammo loadout of 160 rounds. This starting ammo loadout is enormous. Only the M60, G11, and Galil with Dual Mags sport better starting ammo loadouts.
The RPK has the typical LMG attachment loadout that also includes Dual Mags. Dual Mags gives the RPK swifter alternating reloads, taking 2.5 seconds to do a partial reload, 3.5 seconds to do an empty reload, and 1.65 seconds to do a reload cancel. Unlike Assault Rifles and SMG's, however, the RPK does not receive two extra spare magazines when selecting this attachment. While Dual Mags is certainly an upgrade over the base version, Dual Mags' value does not hold up against Extended Mags. Extended Mags gives the RPK an enormous eighty round magazine, a capacity only bested by the M60. This huge magazine capacity makes reloading very infrequent since the ammo pool is shared between just two magazines instead of four. Extended Mags is an extremely powerful attachment on the RPK that heavily accentuates a key strength of the weapon, and as such, proves to be the best attachment on offer.
The ACOG Scope and Infrared Scope are terrible choices on the RPK, lowering its already low centerspeed and accentuating its already plentiful accuracy issues. Said attachments are of the Russian design. The Red Dot Sight on the RPK is also of Russian design, having a larger lens than the typical Red Dot Sight. While the iron sights are simplistic and fairly easy to use, the Red Dot Sight is a good choice if the players feel the need to clean them up. The Reflex Sight has the same effect as the Red Dot Sight while having the typical design used on all weapons. There is little point to using the Reflex Sight since its lens is so much smaller than the Red Dot Sight while its frame is much bulkier than the Red Dot Sight.
Attachments
Zombies
The RPK can only be found in the Mystery Box and has a 100-round magazine with 400 spare ammunition. For the most part, it is quite similar to the HK21, however it has a higher rate of fire in exchange for a slightly smaller magazine and slightly lower damage. Its recoil also has been reduced compared to its multiplayer counterpart.
Speed Cola is necessary if the player chooses to keep this gun due to the slow reload time. Juggernog can be quite helpful when stuck in a corner with RPK's slow reload. Double Tap Root Beer (if the player can control the gun) is helpful but will increase recoil, and must be burst-fired for accuracy. Stamin-Up is also useful, due to low mobility.
When Pack-a-Punched, the RPK becomes the R115 Resonator. Its magazine capacity is bolstered to 125 per magazine with 500 extra rounds and becomes more powerful. A worthwhile primary upgrade, though the HK21 makes a better alternative upgrade. Having a light side weapon is recommended for quick getaways.
RPK vs R115 Resonator
| RPK | R115 Resonator | |
|---|---|---|
| Video of the weapon |  |
|
|
| |
| Damage | 130-90 | 180-130 |
| Fire mode | Automatic | Automatic |
| Rate of fire | 750 | 750 |
| Magazine size | 100 | 125 |
| Max ammo | 400+100 | 500+125 |
| Reload | 4, 5.5 empty | 4, 5.5 empty |
| Mobility | Low | Low |
| Sounds | ||
| Extras | Higher damage, slightly larger magazine, slightly more ammo |
Gallery
- For Attachment images, see RPK/Attachments.
- For camouflage images, see RPK/Camouflage.
Video
Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified
The RPK returns in Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified, using the same model as in Call of Duty: Black Ops. Two notable differences are that recoil has been reduced and magazine capacity has been increased to 45 rounds. The RPK acts as the middle power of the LMGs, as it has a higher magazine size than the Stoner63, but smaller than the M60. As well, it can fire faster than the M60, but slower than the Stoner63. A big advantage to the RPK is the early unlock of the weapon, allowing players to use this weapon at almost whatever time they desire.
Due to its low recoil, it is a good weapon to use at long range.
The RPK will also appear in Hostiles in some maps. It is recommended to use the weapon due to the large magazine size, the long range and rate of fire.
Trivia
Call of Duty: Black Ops
- When a camouflage pattern is equipped on the RPK, the handguard does not change color, except when gold is applied, in which case the handguard turns black.
- Although the RPK uses a magazine, when firing the gun empty casings as well as belt clips are ejected, similar to the M60.
- On the Nintendo Wii version, the handguard is black unlike the usual wooden guard.
- The RPK is the favorite weapon of Robert Englund.
- The Call of Duty: Black Ops Prima Official Strategy Guide confused the RPK with the RPG-7 in some sections.
- The Pack-a-Punched name, or "R115 Resonator", is a reference to Element 115.
- In Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies, the post from the front iron sight is missing.
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