How to Lean / Peek From Behind Cover in Call of Duty: Warzone

It took a while but it seems we may finally have another major player in the battle royale space, which means we have yet another BR to learn. Call of Duty: Warzone, while available as a free, standalone game is essentially an extension of Modern Warfare, so the learning curve here isn’t as steep for those who’ve put a few hours into the base game. For those switching over from other BR titles may need a bit more time to learn the ropes, however.

The game borrows heavily from BR front-liners the likes of Fortnite, Apex Legends, and PUBG, but it does a few things very differently. For instance, the game allows players to lean out from behind cover, just not in the same way PUBG does. There is no separate key binding for leaning; the action is actually a part of the game’s cover mounting system. Here’s how it works.

If you completed Warzone’s tutorial, you should be familiar with the aforementioned cover system, which allows you to prop your gun over cover for significant recoil reduction. Move up against cover, closer to the edge, and you should see a Mount prompt close to the bottom of the screen. On PC, you can change the key bound to the action from the Options menu, under Keyboard & Mouse > Weapons & Equipment. Scroll down to find Weapon Mount option and assign it a key of your choice. By default, the action is bound to “z” or Mouse 5 on PC. On console, weapon mounting is done by aiming down sights and hitting the melee button near cover.

If you mount near either side of cover instead of over it, you will automatically peek left or right while aiming down sights. This makes you a smaller target and, as mentioned earlier, stabilizes your gun.

There is a catch, though – you can’t adjust your position behind cover while you are mounted or leaning. Moving, even slightly, will almost immediately demount your gun from cover. You can use this to your advantage, however, quickly peeking in and out from behind cover. If you find yourself consistently demounting your gun on accident, you may want to change the default behavior by disabling the Weapon Mount Movement Exit option under Options > Keyboard & Mouse > Weapons & Equipment or increasing the Weapon Mount Exit Delay.

You can lean out from behind most surfaces, including some forms of natural cover, such as trees. The mechanic is best put to used in situations where your flank is covered, however, such as indoors, peeking out of windows or doorways, or while covering the exit or entrance to a compound, peeking around walls or pillars.

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Sameed Khan

I write, game, design at times, and revel in sarcasm. You can find me on Twitter.