Call of Duty – Black Ops: What You Keep and Lose When You Prestige

In Call of Duty: Black Ops for the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, and PC, there is a mode called Prestige Mode that most people know about, but don’t quite know all the details.

The way Prestige works is that you level up to 50, and at level 50 you can choose to enable Prestige mode, which will give you a prestige and take you back down to level 1 to start again. You can keep going through this process if you wish, all the way up to 15th prestige.

What some people don’t realize though is that you lose a lot of things every time you go up a prestige, and you have to get them back the same way you did before. The only thing you really gain however from gaining Prestige is is a few more unlockables for your playercard, and more custom class options. All of the weapons, equipment, etc. are all unlocked with levels, not Prestige, so if you don’t care much about unlocking every single icon for your playercard or having more custom classes, then Prestige might not be worth it for you.

So what exactly do you keep and what do you lose when you prestige? I’ve put together a list so you can determine whether it’s worth it or not.

What you keep when you gain Prestige:

Clat Tag
Custom clan tags on guns
Custom emblems on guns
Playercard Emblems
Playercard Layers
Playercard Titles
Playlists
Reticles
Reticle Colors

What you lose when you Prestige:

Attachments
Camo
Challenges (except for career/lifetime, etc.)
COD Points
Equipment
Face Paint
Grenades (both lethal & tactical)
Guns
Lens Colors
Perks
Prestige Leaderboards

That’s a lot of stuff you lose in my opinion. All of those weapons that you worked hard to purchase, all of the pain in the ass challenges you completed (Ghost Pro, ugh!!), it’s definitely not an easy decision. But, if you want bragging rights, and all of the unlockables that online play has to offer, then you don’t have much of a choice.

If you’re in it for the long haul, then you might as well. You’ll be putting time into the game anway, and if you’re good then you can probably win fights without the best weapons anyway.

Most of the stuff you keep still has to be unlocked as you level up again if it’s level dependent, but you don’t have to purchase them again, so it’s probably in your best interest to unlock as much of that stuff as you can and set your playercard the way you like it, that way you don’t have to worry about it.