News Article: Contracts Announced With New Specialist: Blackjack

[Doppelgänger]

They're finally here. Contracts are making their way to Black Ops 3. Come June 14, players will have more opportunities to earn items from the Black Market by completing sets of challenges. These come as Daily, Weekly and Special Challenges. After completion, players will receive varying rewards, from Cryptokeys to Calling Cards and the chance to play as the brand new Specialist character, Blackjack.

 

Now, there is a very interesting way to which the new Specialist can be obtained. While completing Daily Challenges will net players Cryptokeys, Weekly Challenges however will give the players Cryptokeys and a special Mercenary Contract. This Mercenary Contract can be cashed in to play as Blackjack. These challenges can be stacked, so don't worry about having to use them all the time.

 

Blackjack, once chosen, lasts for 60 minutes of in-game time. abilities work a lot like we all assumed they would. However, he does not act like a typical Specialist in that he has no Weapon, and instead has two Abilities: Rogue and Gambler.

 

Rogue: Copy the Specialist Weapon of enemies that you kill when your power metre is full. You must get kills to fill the Power Metre. If the Power Metre is filled and the player has killed an enemy, the weapon can be changed by killing a different Specialist. For example, if you kill a Prophet and acquire his Tempest, you can change that to Ruin's Gravity Spikes if you kill him before activating your Ability. The weapon can be flipped an infinite amount of times and once the player finds the correct weapon, they can activate the Ability and use the specific weapon.

 

Gambler: Get a random Specialist Ability when your Power Metre is full. Power Metre has a faster than normal fill rate. The Ability you get can be re-rolled to change it to another Specialists Ability.

 

On top of these new Challlenges, a 'Side Bet' can be completed while using Blackjack where the player must do their best with his Abilities. Achieving this will grant the player exclusive Calling Cards.

 

This all arrives June 14. A little late for my liking, but I suppose it's better than nothing.

[Tac]

Damn, you beat me to it! I was about to publish it haha :p

 

Should be noted that all contract expiration times are 10am PST, and Weekly run Monday-to-Monday.  The Specialist you kill as your power meter goes from not-full to full is the Weapon/Ability you receive. For Gambler, the available Abilities you can re-roll to are determined by what Abilities are in your "Specialist deck," whatever that means.

[Doppelgänger]

30 minutes ago, Tac said:

The Specialist you kill as your power meter goes from not-full to full is the Weapon/Ability you receive. For Gambler, the available Abilities you can re-roll to are determined by what Abilities are in your "Specialist deck," whatever that means.

 

You do receive the most recent weapon when maxing the Power Metre with Rogue. But you can change it with each kill.

 

As for the "Specialist Deck" I would assume that works like Rogue. Only instead of Weapons, it's Abilities. However the Ability you receive is completely random. I gathered this because when the Specialist he kills prior to activating Gambler was Nomad, yet he received Active Camo.

[Tac]

24 minutes ago, Doppelgänger said:

 

You do receive the most recent weapon when maxing the Power Metre with Rogue. But you can change it with each kill.

 

As for the "Specialist Deck" I would assume that works like Rogue. Only instead of Weapons, it's Abilities. However the Ability you receive is completely random. I gathered this because when the Specialist he kills prior to activating Gambler was Nomad, yet he received Active Camo.

I was just clarifying that that's exactly how the first Weapon is determined; the kill that sends you over the threshold (not that it likely wasn't obvious, but to be on the safe side).

 

Yup, both the first Ability you receive and any one you gamble to are random (according to their blog post). I hope the "Specialist deck" is just a fancy name for what you're talking about haha. 

[Doppelgänger]

12 minutes ago, Tac said:

I was just clarifying that that's exactly how the first Weapon is determined; the kill that sends you over the threshold (not that it likely wasn't obvious, but to be on the safe side).

I'll be sure to add that in. Just to let those who might not have caught it know.

[Your Dearest Sailor]

I was looking forward to a new specialist coming into the game since there was that specialist display with only a king of hearts card in it on the map Gauntlet, but now I have to say i'm disappointed because I was hoping for someone who was permanent and had decent abilities even if we had to buy them with real money. But at least we get more opportunities to earn items from the Black Market which is great.

[Rissole25]

Really curious to see how this goes. I want to know what would happen if you just happened to get into a match with everyone as Blackjack. What ability would you get than?

[Doppelgänger]

6 hours ago, Your Dearest Sailor said:

I was looking forward to a new specialist coming into the game since there was that specialist display with only a king of hearts card in it on the map Gauntlet, but now I have to say i'm disappointed because I was hoping for someone who was permanent and had decent abilities even if we had to buy them with real money. But at least we get more opportunities to earn items from the Black Market which is great.

 

Considering his abilities, I like having him as a limited option. Firstly, Gambler charges super fast. So you could be dealing with multiple Heat Waves, Active Camos and whatever other abilities you find annoying in one game.

 

On the other hand, I'd like to see them bring a permanent Specialist to the game. I feel like there are a heap of assets in the Campaign that haven't been used. I still feel like we are going to see the Spike Launcher in the next Zombies map, but it would make an awesome Specialist Weapon. There's so many Abilities you could choose from as well. There's just too many things that haven't been used.

 

2 hours ago, Rissole25 said:

Really curious to see how this goes. I want to know what would happen if you just happened to get into a match with everyone as Blackjack. What ability would you get than?

 

The game will break. 

 

Nah, in all honensty I think it will work randomly. Once the metre is filled, the first kill will give you a random Specialist Weapon.