How to Not Die to the Martyrdom Perk in COD4

Posted date: May 03, 2008 In: Strategy | comment : 18

Martyrdom is probably the most hated, and most played Perk for slot three. It is the only perk in Call of Duty that actually rewards getting shot in the face by conjuring a grenade out of thin air. After that grenade falls you have exactly 2.5 seconds before it explodes. So what can we do to avoid dieing to Martyrdom?

Anticipate – Assume every single enemy you kill is using Martyrdom unless you have information to the contrary. It is better to be cautious and waste a little bit of time than rush in and get yourself exploded. This means don’t sprint everywhere just to get into combat faster. By over sprinting you give yourself less time to react and diminish your ability to escape if a grenade does fall. After you get a kill don’t relax and think it’s over, pay attention if you do you can see and hear the grenade fail. Anticipating Martyrdom is the most important thing because it keeps you from getting into dangerous situations in the first place.

Decide – Anticipating and preventing Martyrdom will not always work so you need to be able to decide what to do if you are in danger. Once that grenade drops you have 2.5 seconds to decide whether to run or to pick up the grenade. It takes approximately 1.25 seconds to pick up a grenade and throw it outside of lethal range, so if you cannot get to the grenade in under 1.25 seconds you should run. If you are playing with Friendly Fire off you have another thing to consider, whether or not the grenade is a threat. An enemy grenade will kill you no matter what, but an allied grenade will only hurt you if transfer it’s ownership by picking it up and throwing it. That said if an allied grenade drops close by, you should still try to throw it assuming you have the time. If you don’t know the origin or age of a grenade your default action should be to sprint away.

React – After you make all those difficult decisions you still have one last thing to do, physically react and carry out your chosen action. This means staying calm and not flip flopping on your earlier decision. Hopefully things will work out in your favor and you won’t get obliterated by a grenade.

These methods won’t 100% protect you from Martyrdom, but they should cut down significantly on your deaths. Some of these methods can also be applied to normal grenades in Call of Duty with 5 second fuses. Remember the only thing worse than using a “noob perk” like martyrdom is dieing to a “noob perk” like Martyrdom.

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Shinobi

Can you please mention in huge bold letters that is completely unadvaisable to bring martyrdom into a HARDCORE type game. How often I get killed by someone on my own team cause of it…. People should remember you spend more time with your allies than your enemies so grenades that drop at your corpse arent going to be helpful that often.

I normally let the grenade kill me as it makes them loose points and doesnt count as death for me. Sometimes I will hunt the ally down and knife them and then let their grenade kill me. After a few times they learn their lesson and change kit
HoucK

all you can do is run… but if your on top the person you killed pick it up and throw it at the other team xD
martyrdomisforidiots

you all forget about when u kill 2 enemies and ur stuck between 2 martyrdom idoits?
rmp5s

Martyrdom = n00b perk? Nah. My top 3 n00b/cheap tricks: — Juggernaut. My number one most aggrivating perk…ESPECIALLY when paired with last stand…HOW LAME!? — N00b Tube. Duh…that’s why it’s called the n00b tube! — But…there is a tie for the end all, be all, most annoying, cheap, lame, n00b-ish move on COD4…A) Spawn killing and B) throwing random grenades up in the air. NOTHING is lamer than these 2 weak moves…except maybe some ass spawn killing by shooting random n00b tube rounds with last stand and juggernaut…lol. And I know someone’s going to be like “well…it gets me kills and that is the name of the game, isn’t it?! You’re the n00b, bitch. Quit whining cuz you suck.” and blah blah blah. I know the drill. For the record…I am NOT good at COD4 by any means…but I bet I’d get more kills than I do if I used these lame moves. Like, if we’re both shooting at eachother and you can’t outshoot me, don’t be a pussy and chuck a grenade at me and run away. Die like a man or shoot me. One or the other. That toss-and-bail crap is just lame.

–Brent
NDF

Martyrdom is annoying, but it is in the game and has valid tactical applications. However, unless you’re playing domination on a map like shipment, the utility of martyrdom is so low that I think any other perk would probably be better.
I don’t understand why using things that IW put in the game are ever lame. People complaining about martyrdom or noob tubes, camping or the fact that people actually use grenades are just really scrubby gamers. There’s no reason not to use any tactic in the game as long as it is intended to be possible in the game.

Also, I agree with Shinobi. Martyrdom in hardcore is dumb and should be banned for realism’s sake.
G

Martyrdom is good i think.
Reidza

I agree with NDF that “the utility of martydom is low” unless on shipment, because having martydom is like i saying, well im expecting to die, personally i find steady aim or extreme conditioning to be far superior to martydom because with these u can either flank ur enimies = easy kills in the back, or u can head straight inand have an easier time aiming ( Steady aim ), over all i think it comes down to how good u are at Cod, i am personally rather good ( in my opinion ) and dont use martydom, maily because it contradicts using bandolier ( which is my most used perk ), there is also the fact that martydom dosint actually always get u a kill, Steady aim makes it much easier ( although like i said i am rather good ) …. Anyway i hope i havint repeated myself too much, thanks !
Glen11

Martyrdom is a cheap tactic for people that know they r going in2 a match to getting owned
u must be good if u need to die to get a kill
Anonymous

Martyrdom iz the worst perk in the game! >:(
Anonymous

(Martyrdom is a cheap tactic for people that know they r going in2 a match to getting owned
u must be good if u need to die to get a kill)

^^^^
very very true!
having to die to get a kill isn’t really that good
just shows you how bad the people using it are at cod4
panzerwagoneer

I think it a mistake to call Martyrdom a noob perk. Plenty of good players use it with great results. Rush into a room and kill 3 out of the five people in there and get the other two when they die due to a grenade…5 kills for one death. Sure it is a cheap thing to do, no one is disputing that. Calling someone a noob because they do something YOU don’t approve of; come on, get over yourself. Part of playing any game is understanding that it is a game. As such people will use anything they can, do anything they can to get an edge. If you can’t handle that then you are the noob, and would likely be happier playing solitaire.
Rexton

To be honest Martyrdom can be used but I think they just need to tweak it slightly! I mean they can easily tweak it so that Martyrdom takes up your grenade on your belt rather than spawning a grenade on your corpse, if you end up throwing your grenade then your Martyrdom perk becomes Null as you have ran out of grenades. This will stop grenade spammers as it will make them think “shall I randomly throw a grenade over a 3 store high building to get a kill or keep it for when I die?”

Ok you can put the 3x grenade perk with Martyrdom and you get both but that takes up 2 perks! Sacrificing some good perks for extra grenades. This should balance game play in hardcore mode and normal.

It’s either that or replace the Martyrdom perk with a decreased pause in between knife slash perk. Which would be quite nice…

I don’t condemn the perk I just think it needs a tweak to make it less irritable.
Anonymous

martyrdom is the dumbest perk in the game. 2 many ppl using it with frag x3 4 grenades how wack.ppl die just 2 throw their grenades and use martyrdom
Anonymous

Martyrdom is not even that annoying. More than three quarters of players don’t even use the perk, they realise that there are others which serve a better purpose.
And besides, using Martyrdom makes the player really ‘cocky’, I’ve tried it for challenges purposes and I went into the frame of mind that I am invincible, and that I’ll always get a kill. I fail horribly, and I don’t take the extra caution I would without the perk especially during Search and Destroy or Domination.
Also, check out the person’s score who is using martyrdom. There’s a likely chance that he’ll at least twice more deaths than kills, as I’ve seen from experience.

Martyrdom requires deaths, and believe me, THEY HAPPEN.
Uncle

Have you noticed the individuals posting here possess the intelligence of a rock and have the spelling and grammar of a 5 year old child are complaining about martyrdom?
You morons are the reason why I use Martyrdom as my 3rd perk in most of my custom classes, because I get thrills from greatly annoying and angering imbeciles like you.
If I were more serious I would equip other 3rd perks like Steady Aim and I would be even more dangerous.
Martyrdom is simply a fun way to restrain my superior abilities, the point of CoD4 is just to have fun!
AzureAcerbus

It’s for sure a Noob perk. There are many other helpful perks in the 3rd class that can help you over a wider range of situations.

How ever that being said it is quite easy to avoid. Really the main thing to do Is just run. And the trick to Running away is knowing the map, and moving properly so you don’t get snaged on any corners or obstacles

Don’t try to throw these back, sure is looks just STRAIGHT UP BAD ASS if you can kill your enemy pick up his noob perk and use it to Own some other unfortunate person, BUT ANY hesitation on your part and you just doomed your self.

Really the only way i get killed by this Perk anymore is by 3rd party situations. I hear a fight going on, i run around the corner, just to find that the fights ,Over with me standing over the dead noobs body thats about to go off.

But Part of every game is an element of luck, and that particular situation happens to be bad luck. Which no matter how good you are will happen every so often.
Highlander

Personally, bouncing bettys are the perk I find most annoying out of any Call of Duty. You find the majority of people just use them to cut off routes so the only way you can face them is to enter through the tight enterance that has 3 campers posted up on it.

Not going to deny I have had bettys, martydom and last stand amongst my perks, if I feel I am getting enough benifit from a perk for a certain map then I am going to use it. I do however find using a perk to increase you chances of killing someone without dying more handy than having to die to “maybe” get a cheap kill.

Yes it can be irriating trying to run from the two martyrdom users you have just dropped only to blow up in the doorway from the betty that was left there but if you can’t refrain from yelling abuse down your mike at people because of it then please either take your issues to a private chat or unplug your headset and find something more important in life to take so serious, these people need to get a grip and remember how irrelivant it is. There is nothing more irritating online than finishing a game only to hear the drivel of 6 or so pre pubescent kids squealing at each other over essentially nothing.

I’d remove this perk and others like it for the simple fact it ain’t worth the earache.
Kev

Ha forget noob tube the most effective and hilariously fun weapon is….. Rpg!!!! I was in vacant loads of enamies in one place shot the rpg and. Boom four kills! Yes it takes longer but u don’t have to be accurate just hit near them and they’re dead!!