Leveling weapons in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 - Endgame can feel like you are stuck on a treadmill. You jump into match after match, drop a few kills, finish some dull objectives, and that XP bar barely crawls forward, so a lot of players end up thinking they need some perfect meta build or a stacked squad to make progress, maybe even something like a CoD BO7 Bot Lobby, but the game is way more simple than that if you actually lean into how weapon XP is handed out.
Why HVT Missions Matter
The key thing the game cares about is what you are holding when stuff completes. If your gun is in your hands when the objective finishes, that is where the weapon XP lands. So when you load in, stop swapping guns every thirty seconds and stick with the one you want to level. Once the match starts, do not drift toward random contracts or the usual “safe” objectives everyone autopilots into. You are hunting one specific thing on the map: High-Value Target missions, the HVT icons that pop up clear as day when you zoom out. As soon as you see one, mark it and head straight there, even if your team is still looting a building or arguing over which route to take.
Running The HVT Loop
HVTs work so well because they are fast. You pull up, shred one chunky target with a couple of adds around it, and it is done in seconds. You barely settle into the fight before it is over. That tiny window of action drops a surprisingly big chunk of weapon XP and a solid hit of Combat Rating too. The catch is you cannot treat it like a one-and-done side quest. The second the target drops and the XP hits, you should already be opening your map, scanning for the next HVT. Standard zone missions look tempting, but if you are serious about grinding weapons, they are just time sinks that stretch out the match without giving you much back.
Staying Mobile And Avoiding Time Traps
What really makes this work is how you move between areas. A lot of people clear the HVTs in one zone, then just hang around checking crates, arguing over loot or waiting for something new to spawn. That is where progress dies. Instead, the moment your current area dries up, rotate. Push over to the next region on the map, even if it means driving a beat-up vehicle or sprinting across open ground. You will usually find another HVT ready to go, and if it is not up yet, it will appear before you are done clearing a couple of stragglers on the way. The goal is to never sit still long enough to get bored or to start doing low-value tasks just to pass time.
Turning Boring Grind Into Real Progress
Once you get into that rhythm of chaining HVTs, the grind feels completely different. You are always heading somewhere, always taking quick fights, and your weapon levels start ticking up in a way you can actually see from match to match. Guns that felt like a chore go from level one to fully unlocked way faster than if you were playing “normal” objective modes or chasing random kill records. The setup is simple: keep the weapon you want in your hands, ignore the filler content, run the HVT loop, and stay moving, and if you ever pair that mindset with something like a well-organised Bot Lobbies BO7 style session with friends, you will watch those weapon levels fly in a fraction of the time you are used to.
