Modern Warfare 2 Receiver & Weapons Platform Explained

What are Receivers in Modern Warfare 2? How do Weapons Platforms work in COD MW2? Our first look at Gunsmith 2.0 for Modern Warfare 2 is here, and there’s quite a lot to unpack. What stands out with the new Modern Warfare 2 Gunsmith are the Receiver attachment and the new “Weapons Platform”. In our guide, we explain in detail how the Receiver system works, and what are Weapons Platforms in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

How do Weapons Platforms in Modern Warfare 2 Work?

With the Modern Warfare 2 beta upon us, Activision has shared their first gameplay blog post, with an in-depth look at the game’s new gunsmith system. And there’s quite a lot to take in there. With quite a few changes and new features, some players might be confused over how this new gunsmith works in MW2. So, without further ado, let’s jump right to the two core new features of the Gunsmith 2.0 system.

The first major change is the introduction of Weapons Platforms. While sounding complicated, Weapon Platforms are what you might call “weapon families”. That is, they are from the same in-game weapon manufacturer. As such, weapons that share the same Weapons Platform can be any class of weapons – assault rifle, SMG, LMG, etc. However, they all share the same attachments and same progression.

In Modern Warfare 2, you will not need to level up and unlock each attachment for each weapon individually. Rather, you unlock attachments for a Weapons Platform by levelling up any weapon within that Platform. When you level up Weapons Platforms, you unlock two types of attachments:

• Attachments for the specific Weapons Platform – Receivers, Barrels, Stocks, Rear Grips, and Magazines. These are sharable within the Platform across all Weapons (Receivers).
• Attachments which witch you can use across all weapons that are able to equip them. These are Optics, Ammunition, Underbarrels and Foregrips, and Muzzles.

As you can see, this system allows much faster attachment unlocking not only for the weapons within a Weapons Platform but also across all weapons, classes and Weapons Platforms. The first unlocked Weapons Platform with which you start the game is the one from the Tempus Armaments manufacturer. You will unlock other Weapons Platforms from each manufacturer during your Military Rank (Rank 1 to 55) progression journey.

What is the Receiver attachment in Modern Warfare 2?

Now that we understand what are Weapons Platforms and how they work, let’s take a look at the Receiver “attachment”. Receivers are essentially just a fancy name for weapons within the same Weapons Platform. On a gunsmith screen, when you choose different attachments for your loadout, one of the attachments is called “Receiver”. But that’s not actually a real attachment. Rather, when you select it, it will open up a Receivers swapping screen in the Gunsmith. There, you can pick another weapon from their shared Weapons Platform, without losing previously selected attachments.

That’s because they can all use the same attachments and share the same attachment unlocking progression (Weapons Platform Progression). The receiver simply changes the weapon from that Weapons Platform that is receiving selected attachments. Just like attachments , you don’t get all weapons (receivers) from a Weapons Platform unlocked immediately. Rather, new weapons are being unlocked as you level up that Weapons Platform.

For example, the above-mentioned Tempus Armaments Weapons Platform starts with the M4 assault rifle. And, as you level up the Tempus Armaments Weapons Platform, you will also unlock the M16 AR, the 556 Icarus LMG, the FTac Racon Battle Rifle, and FSS Hurricane SMG. Each of these Receivers can be accessed either through their designated weapon categories (classes) in the Loadout Screen or via the Receivers swapping feature in the Gunsmith.

With that said, we’ve covered just about everything you need to know about Weapons Platform and Receivers in Modern Warfare 2. If you have any questions and there’s something you still don’t understand quite clearly, be free to ask us in the comments section below! Alternatively, you can also check out the official Modern Warfare 2 Gunsmith 2.0 deep dive blog post.