Intel Card — Search & Destroy

Mode Details

Team Size: 1–6 Players

Mission Parameters: Search & Destroy is a round-based objective game mode where each player has only one life per round.

At the start of each round, one team is put on offense and one team is put on defense.

Offensive Team Goals: The offense has a single bomb — which spawns in front of them and is marked with a “Bomb” icon — that must be planted at one of two sites (marked A and B on the minimap). One player must pick up the bomb, and it will be dropped if the player is eliminated, or the device is planted at a bomb site. Players can also choose to drop the bomb at any time.

The planting process takes a few seconds and leaves the Operator without a means to defend themselves. Once the bomb is down, the offense must defend it for 45 seconds (in a standard game) before it explodes to win them the round.

Defensive Team Goals: The defense must defend both bomb sites from the offense. If the offense does not plant the bomb within the round’s time limit, the defense wins the round. The defenders can also defuse the bomb once it is planted to win the round, but the defusal process takes longer than the time it takes to plant the bomb and with zero methods of self-defense.

Additional Tactics: Finally, both teams can win a round by eliminating the other team before a bomb is planted. Attackers can also eliminate all defenders after a bomb is planted to win, since nobody would be around to defuse the bomb. However, if the defending team eliminates all attackers after a bomb is planted, they must still defuse the bomb to win a round.

Match Win Conditions: The first team to win six rounds wins the Search & Destroy match. Some highly competitive matches can lead to a high-stakes, high-pressure “Round 11” that has defined many a professional Call of Duty® series.

Main XP Gains:

-       Eliminating enemies.

-       Planting and defusing the bomb.

Key Terms and Definitions

XvX (e.g., 1v2): A quick way of saying how many players are alive on both teams.

Attacker: A member of the team who needs to plant the bomb to win. While on this side, bomb sites not in use are marked in red.

Clutch: When a player or players wins a round despite having a disadvantage in the number of alive players on their side. For example, a 1v2 Clutch is when the one player wins the round against the two. An impressive feat when pulled off.

Defender: A member of the side that is preventing the bomb from being planted. While on this side, bomb sites that are not in use are marked in blue.

Defusing/Defuse: An interaction that any member of the defending team can do to prevent the bomb from exploding. By default, this action takes seven and a half seconds and prevents the person from using their weapons or equipment.

Ego Chall/Challenge: When a player, despite a disadvantageous position or situation such as a 1v2, chooses to engage with the enemy. Their “ego” is them thinking they have far more skill than the enemy and can win that engagement. Often, they do not.

Kill Trade: A common statistic in S&D where, after one player eliminates an enemy, the enemy’s squadmate eliminates them. This effectively cancels out, or “trades,” the eliminations, rather than one side gaining an Operator advantage.

Last Alive: The designation given to the player who is the last member standing on their squad.

Ninja Defuse: Disarming the bomb as the last defending player while the attacking team is alive.

Planting: An interaction that a member of the attacking team does while they hold the bomb at a bomb site. By default, this action takes five seconds and prevents the person from using their weapons or equipment.

Topline Tactics: A winning Search & Destroy player:

-       Plays the objective.

-       Values their in-game health.

-       Works with teammates.

Recruit Tactics

Play the objective: Playing the objective is how you win Search & Destroy. Either eliminate all the enemy Operators or complete the assigned task for the attackers or defenders. Knowing these simple win conditions and the complex ones (e.g., the attacking side winning off an exploded bomb despite being eliminated) is the basis for all tactics. 

Play your life: Knowing your win conditions ties into the second key to success: “Play your life.” Year after year, professional and highly skilled players recommend this as their number-one piece of advice. So long as the bomb and bomb site are still in play, ensuring your squad isn’t outnumbered should be your overriding focus. Learn and use the cover within the map you’re playing, take advantage of lopsided engagements, and remember that taking an extra second to Stim heal can save your life . . . and the round.

Play with teamwork: Being a good teammate is just as important as surviving in-game. Communicate with allies — either by voice, text, or ping — and remember to be encouraging, rather than dismissive. Your squadmates are there to win the match, too, and working together always beats in-fighting. 

Advanced Tactics

Lethal and Tactical: Even the most professional players sometimes forget this tip: Use your entire Loadout. Each round, Tactical and Lethal Equipment pieces automatically refresh. That means, for example, you can throw a Flash Grenade at the opposition to blind them for an advantage. Or every round, you can bounce a Frag Grenade into an area where a camper enjoys a view over the bomb site. Remember to use these pieces or they lose their utility.

Audio cues: Planting and defusing bombs comes with one additional drawback outside of being left completely open to attack: It makes noise. Check your audio settings to ensure you can hear the opening of the device and the clacking of numbers being punched in; then use that audio cue to quickly locate and eliminate that foe.

Enemy prediction: In Search & Destroy, knowing where the enemy is — or is likely to be — can help determine the bomb site that is less well defended, or if a foe is leaving a section of the map wide open for a flank. 

Clear communication is the key to victory. An example of great communication is when someone on your team announces that the last member of the enemy attacking team is far from the bomb site where the bomb is planted. They may have just engaged with them, or they were able to see something you couldn’t. Either way, you know that you likely have enough time to defuse the bomb instead of engaging in a fight. This is what we call a “ninja defuse.”

Be unpredictable: Search & Destroy is built on predicting the other squad’s moves, using their last known locations to best situate yourself for the inevitable engagement.

Every top Search & Destroy player knows the routes — even the most convoluted or inconvenient ones — to each bomb site. If this means waiting 30 seconds to start moving out of your spawn, then do it. If it means switching back and forth between bomb sites, that’s also an option.

From round-to-round or second-to-second, don’t be afraid to change strategies, especially if you see an enemy across the map, because more often than not, they also spotted you.

In other words, refrain from trying the same tactics twice, though think about mixing it up by repeating a successful strategy an additional time during a match, just to fool the opposition.

Stay calm: Are you the last player alive on your team? Whether the bomb is dropped or far from the site, any clutch player knows that the preferred plan in these situations is one that’s fully outside of the game: your mental headspace.

If you’re the last alive, try not to lose your cool at the situation, or at your squadmates. Take all the information from their deaths, as well as where you saw enemies, and if you have the time, take the extra second to think.

The best chance you have at survival in a lopsided situation is to either pick off foes one by one or coax and funnel enemies down a route and drop them as they reach your position. Use your map knowledge and the objective locations to get in that mental “zone,” and don’t forget to breathe!

Watch the clock: At the highest levels of play, some rounds are won due to time expiring, whether it’s the in-game clock for defenders or the bomb timer for attackers.

Learn the length of time it takes to plant and defuse a bomb; then use it to trap enemies in a “no-win situation.”

For example, if there’s one defender and 15 seconds left on the clock, let them make the first move toward defusing the bomb or distract them away from it. If they wait until the final seconds, they won’t have enough time for the defuse.

Alternatively, if the attackers haven’t planted the bomb with 10 seconds left and they are nowhere near either site, keep drawing them out and force them to get desperate for eliminations.

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