The Only Skins That Don't Scream Your Position In Call Of Duty: Warzone

The next time you reload, turn a corner, and get shot down in a game of "Call of Duty: Warzone," you should try to remember that it doesn't have to be this way. In case you weren't already aware, your opponents can hear all of your character's voice lines. Unfortunately, once you learn that some "Warzone" skins are completely silent, hearing a one-liner from Snoop Dogg while you play becomes a little less fun.

Character skins aren't the craziest idea the "Warzone" devs had, but they've become one of the wackier parts of the game. The entire "Call of Duty" franchise is known for being a realistic shooter, but that realism goes out the window when a human-sized rabbit goes running across the battlefield. Most skins, including the default ones, include some voice lines for the character, but there are a handful of options that come with a built-in gameplay advantage. The skins based on mute or "stealthy" characters are better for competitive play because they aren't constantly broadcasting their location to anyone within earshot. If you want to silently stalk your way across the battlefield, you should choose one of these skins:

• Velikan

• John Black Ops

• Michael Myers

• Black Noir

• R0-Z3

• Silent Bob

• Vortex

• Goliath

• CDL Operators

It makes sense for certain characters to stay quiet, but it also feels wrong for Silent Bob to have a tactical advantage over trained soldiers. Making matters worse, there's some confusion in the community about how voice lines in "Warzone" work — plus getting one of those silent skins is likely to cost some money.

Many "Call of Duty: Warzone" players think that character skins are a purely cosmetic feature. Even though most skins come with some lines that they shout throughout a match, many players don't realize that those lines can give their location away to an enemy. 

One player on the "Warzone" Reddit page confidently asserted, "I'm 100% sure that only your team can hear your operator," but that simply isn't the case. Another commenter on that same post claimed that turning off the vocal lines in your settings will mute them for everyone, but that doesn't work either.

If you're using a skin that comes with voiced lines in "Warzone," then teammates and enemies alike can hear what your character says as long as they're within range. There is a toggle option for the character voices in the game settings, but that option only affects your own audio. No matter what you do, everyone else in the game will still be able to hear your skin's lines anytime they're triggered.

Character skins are incredibly popular in "Call of Duty: Warzone," but the way that the game handles character voice lines isn't quite so popular. Skins are meant to be goofy and fun, so naturally some "Warzone" players don't appreciate the fact that skins have a real gameplay effect. 

"Wait the characters say audible voicelines that enemies can here [sic]? This was literally an issue in ['Call of Duty: Modern Warfare' 2019], removed, and they brought it back?" wrote one player on Reddit, adding, "These devs I swear." True "Call of Duty" fans love the game for its fierce competition, and the silent vs. voiced character skin issue is a particular problem because the silent skins aren't just given to players for free. 

The fact that paid character skins like Black Noir and Silent Bob come with genuine in-game advantages means that there's currently some amount of pay-to-win in "Warzone." No one is arguing that these character voice lines are determining the outcome of every match. At the same time, there's no denying that players who shell out for a silent skin will get a small advantage in every game they play.