If you played Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare back in 2014, you probably still have the sound of the ASM1 firing burned into your brain. It was everywhere. You couldn't escape it. Whether you were flying through the air with an Exo Jump or trying to hold a hardpoint, someone was inevitable going to melt you with that specific, chugging fire rate.
Honestly, the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare ASM1 wasn't just a gun. It was a meta-defining era. It’s rare for a single weapon to completely overshadow an entire class, but the ASM1 managed to make every other submachine gun feel like a pea shooter by comparison. People called it the "Speakeasy" or the "Rigged," mostly because the variants were so incredibly powerful that the base version felt like a different weapon entirely.
What Made the ASM1 So Dominant?
It wasn't just one stat. It was the math. The ASM1 had this unique firing mechanic where the first few rounds came out slower, but with significantly higher damage, before the fire rate ramped up. This meant that if you were accurate, you were dropping people in three shots at ranges where an SMG has no business winning.
Most SMGs in Call of Duty history follow a specific rule: high fire rate, high recoil, low range. The ASM1 threw that out the window. It had a massive magazine—standard was 45 rounds, which is huge for an SMG—and recoil that was almost entirely vertical and easy to predict.
Back in the day, Sledgehammer Games actually had to buff the weapon because, at launch, it was overshadowed by the BAL-27. But they overcorrected. They gave it a damage buff that turned it into a monster. Suddenly, the MP11 and the SN6 were forgotten. Why would you use a high-recoil pea shooter when the ASM1 offered assault rifle range with SMG mobility?
The Variance Nightmare
We have to talk about the supply drops. This was the first year CoD introduced stat-changing weapon variants, and it changed everything. The "Speakeasy" variant of the ASM1 is arguably one of the most famous guns in franchise history. It had a built-in extended mag and an increased fire rate.
If you had the Speakeasy, you were playing a different game. You didn't even need to aim half the time; you just sprayed and prayed, and the game rewarded you for it. Then there was the "Magnitude," which was an Enlisted variant that almost everyone could get through a challenge. It increased the range. Because of how the damage drop-off worked, the Magnitude actually allowed you to out-gun people across the map. It felt cheap. It felt unfair. But man, it was satisfying if you were the one holding it.
The Professional Circuit and the "Two-Gun" Meta
If you go back and watch the 2015 Call of Duty Championship, the killfeed is a sea of ASM1s and BAL-27s. That’s it. That was the game. Pro players like Scump or ZooMaa became synonymous with this weapon because it allowed for a hyper-aggressive playstyle that the Exo-movement system demanded.
The ASM1 allowed players to "break" hills in Hardpoint because you could slide-cancel (well, the 2014 version of it) into a room and clear three people without reloading. The competitive balance was a mess, but it created a very specific, high-speed flow.
Why It Still Matters in CoD History
A lot of people look back at Advanced Warfare with mixed feelings because of the jetpacks, but the weapon design was actually pretty bold. The ASM1 was modeled after the Thompson submachine gun, but futuristic. It looked cool. It sounded heavy.
However, it also represents the moment the "Power Creep" in Call of Duty became a real problem. When one gun is so much better than everything else, the variety dies. You'd see lobbies where all 12 players were running the exact same ASM1 Magnitude setup.
The Technical Breakdown
Let's look at the numbers because they explain the "feel" of the gun. The ASM1 dealt 35 damage at close range. In a game with 100 health, that's a three-shot kill.
- Fire Rate: Starts at roughly 600 RPM and ramps up to over 700 RPM.
- Reload Time: About 2 seconds, which is incredibly fast for a gun with that much ammo.
- Range: The 3-shot kill range was roughly 10-15 meters, which sounds small until you realize most engagements in CoD happen within that bubble.
Compare that to the KF5, which had a "break" mechanic where the first five bullets did extra damage. It sounds good on paper, but if you missed one of those five bullets, your time-to-kill plummeted. The ASM1 was just more forgiving. It was the "Old Reliable" of the jetpack era.
Misconceptions About the Nerfs
People often say the ASM1 was nerfed into the ground. That’s actually a myth. Sledgehammer did "nerf" it by increasing the hip-fire spread and slightly adjusting the damage drop-off, but it stayed the best SMG in the game until the very end of the life cycle. They couldn't kill it without making it unusable, so they just tweaked the edges.
The real shift only happened when players started experimenting with the SAC3 (the akimbo SMGs) or the Royalty variants, but even then, if you wanted to win a high-stakes wager or a ranked match, you put on the ASM1.
How to Play Advanced Warfare Today
Believe it or not, people still play AW on Xbox because of backward compatibility. If you jump into a match today, the meta hasn't changed an inch. You'll still see the Speakeasy everywhere.
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If you’re hopping back in, here is how you actually maximize the weapon without relying on luck-based supply drops:
- Use the Magnitude: It's a free unlock. Don't chase the Speakeasy if you don't have it. The extra range on the Magnitude is statistically more consistent for winning gunfights.
- Foregrip is Mandatory: Even though the recoil is predictable, the Exo-movement makes targets jittery. You need that stability.
- Advanced Rifling: This stacks with the Magnitude's built-in range boost. It makes the gun feel like an assault rifle.
- Don't over-reload: You have 45 rounds. Use them. The "Reload-itis" habit kills more ASM1 players than anything else because you're vulnerable during the animation.
The Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare ASM1 is a relic of a time when CoD was trying to find its identity in the "advanced movement" era. It was overpowered, frustrating, and iconic all at once. It taught the developers a lot about weapon balance—specifically, that giving a submachine gun the range of a rifle usually ends in a broken game. But for those who mastered the movement and the chugging rhythm of the ASM1, it was the most fun you could have in 2014.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Check your old Xbox or PlayStation account to see if you have the "Speakeasy" or "Strider" variants sitting in your armory.
- If you're playing on PC, look for the "S1x" community servers, which often unlock all weapons and variants, allowing you to test the ASM1 at its peak without the supply drop grind.
- Compare the ASM1's fire-rate ramp-up mechanic to modern weapons like the Tempest or certain LMGs in newer CoDs to see how the "Introductory Fire Rate" logic has evolved.