Scorestreaks are powerful support weapons in Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 that can be called into battle to aid allies.
For more help on Black Ops 3 Multiplayer, read our Best Perks, PC Performance Guide, Best Weapons and Attachments Guide.
Black Ops 3 Scorestreaks Tips
There are a huge number of scorestreaks in Black Ops 3 – some of them offer pure offensive power, while others give great utility and support.
HC-XD (400 points)
The Hover-Capable Explosive Device is a reliable remote controlled scorestreak that returns to Black Ops 3 with a few new tricks. It can now hover on walls, and can also be boosted, double-jumped, and wall-hovered to your foes.
Detonate the HC-XD near enemies to get plenty of kills at chokepoints and objectives.
UAV (425 points)
The basic and well-known scorestreak, UAV provides radar sweeps of the map to reveal enemies on the minimap. This simple yet extremely effective scorestreak is one of the most fundamental, and ideal to use in larger maps where enemies are difficult to come across.
Multiple UAVs can be activated at the same time by a team, which increases the speed of the sweeps. A good way to counter the UAV streak is the Ghost perk, which renders them undetectable.
Also, UAVs orbit around the edge of the map and can be shot down by launchers for the first few seconds they are present.
Care Package (550 points)
This is a simple yet effective scorestreak that calls in a support aircraft to drop a package on the map at a location of your choice. It will contain a random scorestreak in it. This is generally weighted towards cheaper streaks, but if you’re lucky, you can score a high streak without having to spend so much.
Care Package is quite useful if you’re finding it hard to achieve high streaks without dying. Use the Ante Up perk with this to increase your chances of acquiring a higher streak.
Overall, the Care Package isn’t the ideal scorestreak of choice due to its slow deployment rate and prone to being stolen or booby trapped by enemies.
Counter-UAV (575 points)
The counter-UAV is a powerful scorestreak that completely shuts down enemy minimap-coverage. While this might not sound like much on paper, the Counter-UAV is one of the most effective low-score scorestreaks in the game.
Keep in mind though that the Hard Wired perk ignores this effective, so don’t let your guard down even after deploying this streak. For this reason, it can be difficult to gauge the effect of the Counter-UAV, because it’s impossible to know how many players are using Hard Wired.
The perk is very popular and easily one of the best defensive ones in the game.
Dart (600 points)
The Dart is an anti-personnel drone that is equipped with missiles capable of locking onto enemies and Scorestreaks. The drone is equipped with three lock-on missiles, and you can launch strikes on either enemy scorestreaks or on players.
Hitting players with the Dart’s missiles can be quite difficult, as controlling the drone takes quite a bit of practice. Also, locking on often requires a clear path for the missile, and given the uneven terrain and buildings in Black Ops 3 maps, it can be hard to find one.
Once the three missiles have been fired, you can use the Dart drone as an explosive bomb by ramming it into the ground or towards enemies. It has a decent explosion that can kill multiple enemies.
Guardian (650 points)
The Guardian is a fairly simple yet pretty effective device. It is a placeable dish that projects a cone of radiation that can stun and damage enemies.
It’s an excellent denial of area scorestreak, and especially useful in defending objectives, especially effective in interiors or narrow checkpoints. Having said that, the Guardian’s radiation isn’t very strong, so it’s possible for enemies to move through its edges.
Hellstorm (700 points)
The Hellstorm is a remote controlled missile with a cluster bomb payload. This is the first of the truly heavy-duty offensive streaks. The control of the missile allows you to release the multiple seeking bomb-drones when you pull the trigger.
It’s also possible to boost the Hellstorm’s descent into an area. It’s also possible to steer the missile if you want to a specific target if you’re looking for high-precision damage.
The Hellstorm tends to work best in open areas, especially exposed objectives as it can be extremely effective in acting as artillery fire for your team. However, enclosed areas are nearly impossible to hit with this, so the powerful missile does have its limitations.
Lightning Strike (750 points)
The Lightning Strike allows you to pick three locations on your minimap for a powerful set of lightning strike impacts on the locations in rapid succession. The Lightning Strike is an excellent offensive scorestreak that combines brilliantly with an active UAV or HATR.
Unlike the Hellstorm, Lightning Strike is more precision based bombardment, and has the benefit of allowing you to move and fight after calling in the strike.
Hardened Sentry (850 points)
Friendlies love them, enemies despise them. Automated sentries are an absolute many in most games, and Black Ops 3 is no exception. The Hardened Sentry has a mounted Gatling gun that fires at a rapid rate.
The only thing you really need to do with this scorestreak is to place it correctly. Like the Guardian, the Hardened Sentry is an absolutely brilliant aerial denial scorestreak, and especially useful for guarding objectives or narrow checkpoints.
It can track enemies that don’t have the Cold Blooded perk on. If you do come across opponents with that perk, simply assume manual control of the sentry and take out anyone you like.
The Sentry is best placed where it has a wide, exposed viewing angle up front, preferably in a very large cone.
Rolling Thunder (900 points)
Rolling Thunder is a bombing run that consists of explosive drones rather than unguided bombs. This scorestreak summons seven pairs of drones that fall in a straight line that you designate on your minimap.
It’s an effective way to annihilate opponents in narrow, open areas, but usually the Hardened Sentry works way better. Rolling Thunder in general is best used to completely annihilate enemies in open areas, clearing way for your team to assault an objective or checkpoint.
Talon (975 points)
The Talon is a small drone that can either act as a support unit that flies in close proximity to you, attacking enemies nearby, or can be controlled remotely to hunt across the map.
The small footprint of this drone combines very well with its lethal machine guns, and is generally a much more effective scorestreak when controlled manually. It can be difficult to shoot because of its size and movement during manual control.
It’s not recommended to use the Talon in its automatic mode, as often it can give your position away.
Cerberus (1000 points)
The Cerberus is a ground robot armed with real firepower in the form of machine guns and rockets.
It shares a lot of traits with the G.I Unit. The difference though is that the Cerberus acts autonomously and can mow down enemies on its own. Of course, you always have the added luxury to manually control it.
The Cerberus is a great tanking machine when it automatic mode, as it pins enemies, and can give you ample protection. You should try to stick close to it while its busy killing things, either to give it ample protection or to use it as a shield to progress further.
Wraith (1100 points)
The Wraith is a sophisticated attack craft that floats around the battlefield, concealing itself in cloaking technology. This stealthy, deadly drone automatically attacks enemy players, making anyone in the open a viable target.
The Wraith is a great offensive scorestreak that allows you to push in objective modes.
H.A.T.R (1150 points)
Haters gonna hate the H.A.T.R. This is an advanced version of a UAV as it provides perfect enemy positional information, along with the direction of the enemy as well. Having an active HATR in the sky is a huge advantage for your team.
The real problem with the HATR is that it is extremely difficult to shoot down. It starts near the battle field but flies quickly very high and almost out of sight. Shooting it down needs swift targeting.
It’s important to note that Ghost does not protect against HATR’s scans of the battlefield, so it’s pretty much got no counter once it does escape your launcher’s range.
Take advantage of a HATR if your team deployed it and press forward, taking out as many unaware targets as possible.
R.A.P.S (1275 points)
This scorestreak deploys a ship that drops autonomous anti-personnel sentry drones. These aren’t ordinary drones though – they look like real torture devices. There are three sets of four dropped by an aircraft, and each one aggressively seeks out enemy targets and rushes towards them to detonate.
The kamikaze drones can be shot and destroyed fairly easily, but there are more than enough drones in a single deploy to cause confusion and terror among enemies, and can still result in multiple fatalities.
Power Core (1300 points)
The Power Core is an expensive support streak that disables all enemy electronics, shutting down equipment, scorestreaks, minimaps, and greatly weakening enemy thrust movement.
It’s an object that simply rests on the map. Because it’s stationary, it can be a fairly easy target for those who know its location.
It’s often advisable to have at least one teammate defending the Power Core, while the rest hunt down the completely blinded enemies desperately searching to destroy it.
Remember that players with Hard Wired do not suffer any minimap disabling from the Power Core, so they may have an easier time moving around. The Power Core is primarily used as a defensive measure to prevent enemies from deploying scorestreaks.
G.I. Unit (1550 points)
The G.I. Unit is a powerful, heavily armored autonomous robot that can turn the tides of battle on its own. This intimidating robot can be either set to Guard mode to protect the owner, or set to Patrol mode to defend a designated location.
Although the G.I. Unit is more than capable of defending itself quite well, it’s an extremely expensive investment, which means you should get the maximum out of it.
Try not to leave it alone on a patrol in a heavily contested area. Take care of this robot and let it wreak havoc around you.
The robot buddy is nearly unstoppable if it is provides the right kind of cover, and often enemies will be attracted to it like moths to flames because of the significant threat that it poses.
Mothership (1600 points)
The most expensive and arguably most powerful scorestreak of all is the Mothership. This is a VTOL weapons platform with a primary turret for the owner and two secondary turrets for teammates.
It moves in a low hover over the battlefield that gives players the necessary sight to unleash a barrage of machine gun and rocket attack. You can reposition the ship to fixed locations around each map, and also toggle between IR and normal vision to make it super-easy for you to see enemies.
The Mothership is not the most valuable scorestreak for no reason – it can completely dominate the map if it is left unchecked, making in nearly impossible for the opponent team to fight in the open.
The rockets are powerful enough to even dismantle players inside closed areas if you aim correctly. You should immediately switch to loadouts with a Blind Eye and a launcher if an enemy Mothership announcement is made.
