TL;DR
The Gramophone Relic appears to grant only a 5-10% damage buff, far lower than many players expected.
Every trigger pull consumes two rounds, effectively cutting both magazine and reserve ammo in half-making CoD Black Ops 7 Bot Lobbies an appealing way to level weapons without the extra grind.
High-capacity LMGs and hard-hitting rifles survive the downside best, while SMGs and akimbo builds get hit hard.
Wonder Weapons behave inconsistently, and some seemingly ignore the relic altogether.
Community sentiment? Most players think the relic is more of a handicap than a reward.
Black Ops 7's Gramophone Relic Looks Powerful-But the Numbers Tell a Different Story
If you've been using the Gramophone Relic expecting huge DPS gains, you might want to rethink your loadout. The relic sounds OP on paper, but after extensive testing, its biggest feature may actually be its biggest trap.
The surprise? The hidden damage multiplier isn't the problem. It's what the relic quietly takes away that has players debating whether it's one of the weakest Grim Relics in the game.
The Community Finally Has Real Damage Numbers
Black Ops 7 doesn't display direct damage values, making relic testing surprisingly difficult.
Instead of relying on guesswork, extensive testing compared Legendary Triple Pack-a-Punch weapons against known zombie health breakpoints. By tracking exactly which rounds weapons stopped one-shotting enemies, it became possible to estimate the relic's true damage multiplier.
Multiple weapons were tested, including:
MXR17 Semi-Auto
AK-27 Battle Scar
Warden .308
M34 Novaline
MPC25 SMG
Each weapon was upgraded to maximum rarity before entering multiple Cursed matches for consistent results.
The goal wasn't simply finding bigger numbers-it was discovering whether the relic actually changes gameplay.
The Damage Buff Is Smaller Than Most Players Expected
Here's the headline:
The Gramophone Relic appears to increase weapon damage by roughly 5% to 10%.
That sounds decent...
Until you remember every shot now fires two bullets instead of one.
For most tested weapons, the relic only extended one-shot potential by a single round. That places the hidden multiplier comfortably inside the 5-10% window.
Anything above 10% would have pushed weapons into noticeably higher round breakpoints.
Anything below roughly 5% failed to match the observed results.
In other words:
You're spending 100% more ammo to gain at best around 10% more damage.
That's an L for almost every ammo-hungry build.
Ammo Economy Is the Real Nerf
The biggest misconception is thinking this relic is about damage.
It isn't.
It's actually an ammo-management relic disguised as a DPS relic.
Every trigger pull consumes two rounds, which effectively means:
Magazine capacity feels cut by 50%
Reserve ammo disappears twice as fast
Reload frequency skyrockets
Sustained DPS drops despite slightly stronger bullets
Players quickly discovered that reloading-not raw damage-became the largest source of lost DPS.
Reddit reactions have been almost identical:
"The ammo isn't killing me. Reloading every five seconds is."
Another player summed it up even better:
"This relic feels like permanent Hard Mode with extra paperwork."
That pretty much captures the community mood.
For players focused on weapon progression, many are instead looking toward buy CoD Black Ops 7 Bot Lobbies to unlock attachments faster instead of constantly fighting the relic's severe ammo penalties.
Some Weapons Handle It Better Than Others
Not every weapon suffers equally.
Large-magazine LMGs remain surprisingly usable because they can absorb the doubled ammo consumption.
Heavy-hitting rifles like the AK-27 Battle Scar also hold up better thanks to their strong per-shot damage.
Weapons that struggle include:
SMGs
Fast fire rates burn magazines almost instantly.
Several SMGs dropped to only a handful of kills before requiring another reload.
Burst and Akimbo Weapons
These builds already consume ammunition aggressively.
Adding the Gramophone Relic simply accelerates the problem.
The result feels janky rather than rewarding.
Low-Capacity Precision Weapons
Snipers and marksman rifles technically benefit from the damage increase, but repeated reload animations erase much of the theoretical advantage.
It's classic "spreadsheet DPS" versus "actual gameplay DPS."
Wonder Weapons Produce Strange Results
Testing became even stranger with Wonder Weapons.
The Ray Gun Mark II appears to receive the doubled-shot effect.
The Necrofluid Gauntlet also consumes two projectiles per attack, dramatically increasing ammo usage.
However, other special weapons tell a different story.
The LGM1, despite using infinite ammunition, showed virtually no interaction with the relic at all.
Melee weapons also appear unaffected, although additional testing is still needed.
That's left players wondering whether the relic is bugged-or simply inconsistent.
Either way, the lack of transparency has fueled plenty of copium across social media.
Is the Gramophone Relic Actually Worth Using?
For most players, probably not.
A maximum 10% damage increase simply doesn't justify:
Half the magazine
Half the reserve ammo
Constant reloads
Lower sustained DPS
Worse performance for many popular weapons
Ironically, the relic works best with weapons least affected by ammunition limits.
Infinite-ammo or special-case weapons can minimize the downside, while large-magazine LMGs remain respectable choices.
Everyone else will likely notice the penalty long before they notice the buff.
If your goal is simply reaching higher rounds or unlocking camos efficiently, some players are even choosing cheap Black Ops 7 Bot Lobbies instead of dealing with one of the game's harshest self-imposed handicaps.
Final Verdict
The Gramophone Relic isn't broken.
It simply isn't nearly as powerful as its description suggests.
A hidden 5-10% damage boost sounds nice, but halving your effective ammunition changes every firefight into a reload simulator. Unless future patches rebalance the relic, it's difficult to recommend outside of challenge runs or experimentation.
Jump in and test it yourself, keep an eye on future balance updates, and let us know if you've found a setup that actually makes this relic shine. And if your reload key starts wearing out before your controller does... well, at least now you know why.
