Black Ops 2 Bot Lobbies Guide: XP Farming Methods

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is back on PS4 and PS5, and with everyone starting fresh at level one, the race to prestige is real. Two distinct methods exist for farming XP against bots: a LAN Party lobby glitch that requires a friend and some timing, and a Combat Training Objective route that works solo but delivers half the XP of a normal match. Neither is a magic button, but both are worth knowing.

How does the LAN Party bot lobby glitch work?

This is the more involved method, but it produces a proper offline-style bot lobby where every kill counts toward both Player Level and Weapon XP. Before starting, you need at least one friend and ideally four other players to hit the 6-player lobby cap.

Here is the full setup sequence:

1. Have your friend open the Multiplayer Lobby (the public match waiting area) and set their Players Part Limit to 6 via the Part Privacy Settings (press Square on PlayStation).
2. From your own console, go to the main Multiplayer Menu.
3. Confirm the Friends Menu option appears in the bottom-right corner of your screen. If it does not show up, disable your internet connection in the PlayStation network settings, or navigate to Zombies and back to the Multiplayer Menu.
4. Go to LAN Party, then hover over Create Game.
5. Press Triangle to open the Friends Menu, locate your friend, and join their session.
6. Once the 'Joining Session in Progress' message appears, press X and then Circle immediately after it disappears. Repeat this a couple of times until you land in the Multiplayer Lobby with your level visible and a 0 next to your name.
7. Invite your friend. When they join, their name should display as 'Matched Player' and the game should start automatically. End that match.
8. Back in the lobby, configure Bots, adjust the Time Limit, and pick whatever mode you want.
9. Invite four additional players to reach 6 total, or use Splitscreen to fill the slots.

Once the match starts, every bot kill feeds both your player level and weapon progression.

LAN Party lobby setup screen

What is the Combat Training Objective method?

This route is simpler but comes with a significant caveat: it is not a full XP lobby. Combat Training Objective is an online playlist where real players can leave mid-match and the game backfills their empty slots with bots. You are not loading private offline bots; you are entering a live playlist that may eventually become bot-heavy depending on how the lobby behaves.

The step-by-step path is short:

1. From Multiplayer, select Find Match.
2. Choose Combat Training.
3. Select Objective.
4. Wait for the lobby to populate with real players, then keep playing as those players leave.
5. Once empty slots backfill with bots, the match becomes farmable.

The lobby typically starts as a 3v3 mixed session with real players. Heavy scorestreak pressure tends to accelerate quitting, which is when the bot backfill kicks in. Backing out the moment you see real players means you may never reach the farmable phase.

What XP can you actually earn?

The gap between these two methods matters a lot if you are grinding hard.

A strong Combat Training Objective run can land around 18,000 XP, with well-coordinated sessions reaching roughly 20,000 XP when streaks chain cleanly. If the match does not develop well and you cannot maintain pressure, returns can drop to around 10,000 XP, at which point regular public lobbies may serve you better.

How to maximize Combat Training Objective farming

Running this solo works, but a three-player party makes the method significantly more consistent. With coordinated teammates, you can control objectives, cycle support streaks, and keep the opposing team under constant pressure.

Orbital V-SATs are the key support streak for this approach. They make every enemy position visible, which keeps the lobby readable and helps your team chain into bigger streaks. Once the lobby starts thinning out, high-end streaks like K9 Unit and Swarm continue scoring even as real players drop out, which is the core loop that makes this method worthwhile.

High-end scorestreak loadout setup

For pure weapon farming, prioritize whatever gun you are trying to unlock camos or attachments on. The reduced stat tracking in Combat Training Objective means your overall KD stays clean while weapon-specific progress still accumulates.

For players who want to track every unlock and trophy along the way, the full Black Ops 2 PS4 and PS5 trophy list breaks down all 91 achievements across the base game and DLC packs.

What about older XP lobby glitches?

Older BO2 bot lobby methods typically relied on party manipulation, host-migration behavior, or XP exploit setups. Update 1.04 (also listed as 1.004 on PS5) addressed multiplayer stability and host-migration workarounds. Its patch notes do not specifically list XP exploit fixes, so the relationship between that update and older glitch methods is unclear.

Treating any pre-patch exploit as guaranteed to still function is a bad assumption. The Combat Training Objective route and the LAN Party glitch described above are the current working methods.

What are the alternative options for new players?

If the LAN Party glitch setup feels too complex, two additional routes exist:

• Bootcamp Combat Training: Available only for players at levels 1 through 10. This is the most accessible entry point for brand-new accounts.
• Objective Combat Training: Available to everyone, but XP earn rates are halved compared to normal multiplayer.

Bootcamp is worth doing while it lasts since the level cap cuts you off automatically. After level 10, the Objective playlist becomes your primary Combat Training option.

Players who want to pair fast leveling with a solid multiplayer build should check out the best Ballista class setup guide for a ready-made sniper loadout that performs well once you hit public matches. The Zombies bank system guide is also worth bookmarking if you plan to run Zombies between multiplayer sessions, since carrying points across sessions changes how you approach early rounds.

For everything else Black Ops 2 has to offer on PS4 and PS5, the full Black Ops 2 guides collection covers class setups, Zombies Easter eggs, weapon camos, and more.