Modern Warfare 2 Best TAQ-56 loadout: best perks and equipment

The TAQ-56 is one of the starting assault rifles you'll unlock in Modern Warfare 2, and it packs more of a punch than you may expect! Great across almost all ranges, and even better when attachments are taken into account. However, if you use our best MW2 TAQ-56 loadout, you can really see it shine.

Thanks to the sheer number of attachments available for the TAQ-56 thanks to the new gunsmith, you can really tweak this gun to work at any range, however we’ve opted to build it for mid-range fights.

Follow our Best Modern Warfare 2 TAQ-56 loadout to the letter and you’ll be able to handle most firefights with ease. In addition, we’ve listed out great lethal, tactical and secondary options to best compliment the M4.

• MW2 best TAQ-56 Loadout: attachments and why you use them
• Best TAQ-56 build: secondary, equipment, perks and field upgrade
• How to get the TAQ-56 in Modern Warfare 2

MW2 best TAQ-56 Loadout: attachments and why you use them

Here is our best MW2 TAQ-56 Loadout:

• Muzzle: Cronen PR44
• Barrel: 14.5" Tundra Pro Barrel
• Optic: Cronen Mini Red Dot
• Stock: Tactiqque Brute Stock
• Rear Grip: FSS Combat Grip

The Cronen PR44 reduces vertical recoil for the most part, with a little bit of horizontal recoil reduction to boot! By default, the Cronen PR44 has a bunch of vertical recoil and also drifts to the right. With the Cronen PR44, not only do you make a big blow in that vertical bump upwards and off-target, you also take a big chunk out of that nasty right drift, allowing you to focus primarily on holding straight down to keep shots accurate.

As for the Barrel attachment, the 14.5" Tundra Pro Barrel is a great pick. Damage Range, hip fire accuracy and bullet velocity are the perks, and while the damage range is obviously the big win with this attachment, the other two positives aren't too shabby either. The ADS speed reduction isn't ideal, but thanks to a combination of other attachment it works itself out.

As for the Optic slot, the Cronen Mini Red Dot is a brilliant sight for short and mid range fights, since it doesn’t obscure your view too much at all. You can still see your surroundings for the most part, and it doesn’t slow down your ADS speed enough to matter in most cases. Also, the red dot itself being so small means you maintain a clear view of the person you’re shooting. All in all a brilliant sight.

For the Stock, we have the Tactique Brute Stock. It slows you down in a variety of ways, but the added aiming stability and recoil control are really useful for taking longer range fights. SInce we're not building the TAQ-56 as a mid-range fighter, we're bot be rushing around corners with it anyway.

Finally, the rear grip slot is taken by the FSS Combat Grip. Pretty standard here, you gain recoil control at the cost of aiming stability. A simple attachment, but one that comes in handy for our build.

With all of these together, you’ll have an MW2 TAQ-56 loadout that’ll let you take on anyone as long as they're in the right range. While you can use this up close you'll lose out to SMGs and purpose-built ARs, and you can take on marksman rifles and snipers at long range but it's a long shot (zing).

Best TAQ-56 build: secondary, equipment, perks and field upgrade

Now that we’ve got a brilliant mid-ranged assault rifle primary thanks to our MW2 best TAQ-56 loadout, we’ve got to build a class around it to best compliment the star of the show.

• Secondary weapon: Lachmann Sub - brilliant close-range SMG that makes up for TAQ-56's weaknessess
• Perk 1: Overkill - allows for two primary weapons and more overal versatility
• Perk 2: Scavenger - allows for ammo pick ups off dead players, keeps you stocked up for far longer.
• Perk 3: Fast Hands - quick weapon swaps and reloads. Life saver, great for high intensity moments.
• Perk 4: Ghost - keeps you off UAV. Life and killstreak saver.
• Tactical: Stim - isntantly triggers health regen. Keeps you alive when under fire.
• Lethal: Drill Charge - great way of breaching through walls and killing campers.

How to get the TAQ-56 in Modern Warfare 2

Thankfully, you won’t have to put in too much time to get the TAQ-56. It’s acquired at level 19, so all you need to play for an hour or two and you should have it land safely in your loadout page.

That concludes our guide for the best MW2 TAQ-56 Loadout! For more Modern Warfare 2 content, check out our pages on people spending upwards of £30 on Burger King skins, as well as Modern Warfare 2 turning out to be a pretty good PC benchmark!