Emotes in Black Ops 4 are a little different than they were in Black Ops 3. In the previous Black Ops game you could use these emotes in a winner’s circle after the match where everyone would see you. In Black Ops 4, things are a little bit different and it’s a little bit riskier to use emotes as you need to use them while playing in either multiplayer or Blackout.
Regardless of which mode you are playing in Black Ops 4, using emotes is going to function exactly the same. You can access your emote wheel by pressing and holding right on the d-pad and then using the right stick to select the emote you want. As soon as you release the d-pad you will do whatever emote you have highlighted.
You won’t have access to all of your emotes within this menu. You will need to set-up a load-out of emotes that you want for each character in the game. You can do that by heading into the Personalization menu and then heading to the gestures option to select which four emotes you would like to have equipped to each character. If you would like to equip an emote for every character, making it a universal emote, you can do that from this screen as well.
So when is the right time to use emotes in Black Ops 4? Competitive multiplayer doesn’t give you many opportunities to use emotes give the pace of the game. Blackout mode does seem to give you a little more breathing room when it comes to using emotes. Since players will often spectate in Blackout you will have the opportunity to show off your emotes to recently killed enemies if there are no others around you.
Since it does take a few moments to transition out of an emote, it’s not always wise to use them in certain situations. Especially when other players are around and trying to shoot you because you will be an easy target.
