How to use an enemy as a Body Shield in Black Ops 6

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is full of new features for veteran CoD players and newcomers alike to enjoy, including the ability to use a Body Shield.

Sometimes known as a “meat shield,” like in Gears of War, this new gameplay mechanic allows you to pick up an enemy player and hold them in front of you as a human shield to absorb enemy gunfire. It’s classic action movie stuff.

This feature is not a throwaway addition. It’s fun to troll your enemies with, but it’s also pretty useful to save yourself from a couple of gunshots from the enemy. And that’s all the difference you may need to stay alive in a big one-vs-one gunfight on an objective.

Taking a Body Shield in BO6 is easy once you know how. You also need a little bit of guts and some luck to sneak up on an unsuspecting enemy who doesn’t know you’re there so you can grab them from behind and take control of the situation.

Here’s everything there is to know about how to use a body shield in BO6.

How to use a Body Shield in Black Ops 6

To use your enemy as a Body Shield, or a “Meat Shield,” in BO6, approach them from behind and hold the melee button to pick them up and hold them hostage. While doing this, you can use them to absorb gunfire coming your way and use a weapon with one hand to defend yourself.

This is the default setting. But you can change this setting by going into Settings, Controller or Mouse & Keyboard, Combat, Combat Advanced Settings, and finally, Swap Body Shield and Execution Behavior.

If you have this toggled On, you hold the melee button to use a Body Shield. If you have it toggled off, you double-tap the melee button to use a Body Shield. The opposite button input will then be used for an Execution finishing move.

I prefer “Prioritize Finishing Move” because holding melee will do a finisher while double-tapping will grab the body shield. I do this because grabbing a shield is better than going into a finisher animation if you double-tap on accident.

Make sure you check out this setting within your game before you head out onto the battlefield trying to take Body Shields and instead end up in a long execution animation, only to be finished off by the enemy’s teammate.

While holding the enemy as a shield, you can fire your weapon with your off-hand, but it will be inaccurate. Keep this in mind when trying to engage enemies at long range, and try to keep your distance if you can.

Black Ops 6 Body Shield tips

To make it easier to take an enemy as a body shield, we suggest using the Ninja perk. This will make your footsteps make less sound, allowing you to sneak up on enemies more easily. Since you need to be behind them, this is the best way to do so without being heard.

Certain modes, such as Domination or Search and Destroy, are also better for body shields. In objective modes, it’s a bit easier to sneak up behind enemies defending a position (or just camping) for an easy hostage capture.

Use the outskirts of the map to flank the enemies in their spawns to come up behind them and capture them for a body shield. What you do from there is up to you, whether you want to just talk trash into your mic or kill them and go on to the next foe.