If you’re part of the group that’s already playing the early access Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War beta, scrolling through the available perks, you might have noticed something that wasn’t available in the alpha, and that’s the Black Ops Cold War Assassin’s perk.

What makes this perk stand out from the pack? Well, it seems it’s a new kind of ability, and one that targets someone going on a killstreak — something the community didn’t appreciate. If you don’t have access to the beta, the Black Ops Cold War Assassin’s perk does the following :

Assassin – Enemies on a killstreak have a crosshair indicator on your mini-map. Receive extra score for taking them down.

Naturally, that didn’t sit well with the community, as it seemed to penalize players going on a killstreak. Over on the game’s subreddit, multiple people have lamented about this, which prompted Treyarch dev “FoxhoundFPS” to give a statement and explain how it works:

Good luck being stealthy if you’ve got a constant marker on people’s minimap any time you go on any sort of killstreak.

FoxhoundFPS: Just to provide some clarity here: Players only receive the special indicator if they would have been identified on the mini-map. Using suppressed weapons or perks to stay off the mini-map will prevent you from being identified.

 

So basically, it just changes the shape of their indicator on the map, not constantly marking them?

FoxhoundFPS: Correct. A player would need to be using unsuppressed weapons, not using Ghost while a Spy Plane is active, or not moving/defusing/planting/controlling streaks while having Ghost equipped while a Spy Plane is active in order to be identified with the special indicator.

Just to further avoid confusion, Treyarch has updated the perk’s description in the game as well! Here’s what players will see now:

Enemies that appear on your minimap by shooting or when revealed by a UAV will have a crosshair indicator instead of a red dot if they are on a scorestreak. Receive extra Score for taking them down

I admit, the first time I saw the perk, it blew my mind on what it meant for someone going on streaks. With this clarification though, it’s fine, I guess, but it does make it kind of useless in a way since you’d be giving up an entire perk slot just to know who’s going on a killstreak in a match, provided they are firing an unsuppressed weapon and/or there’s a UAV (and they don’t have Ghost equipped).

Stay tuned to our beta impressions hitting the site soon! For those who haven’t played it yet, or aren’t gaming on a PS4, head on over here for the list of changes made from the alpha. There’s also an FOV slider available in the game as well.