For those of you not keeping up with the on-going story line, Adler disappeared after a fateful encounter with nemesis and Perseus agent Stitch. Frank Woods and his team tracked a series of clues to Laos, not knowing that this is all part of a ruse by Stitch. Adler is secure and being shipped to Verdansk, however another Perseus agent called Naga is present in Laos, waiting to hunt down and slay Woods & co while making it seem like Stitch is actually involved because of Nova 6 shipments, thus concealing their involvement with Adler’s disappearance. Jump into the new content with some new operators, one of whom will be available right from launch while the other three will be released during the season. First up we have the season’s main villain, Kapano “Naga” Vang - a warlord native to Laos his brutal tactics and hands-on approach attracted the attention of Perseus, who recruited the guerrilla into his operation. New members of Woods’ team will follow during the season, including Maxis who is a familiar face from Zombies, Wolf sporting his strange arm-fishnets and Rivas who was featured wielding the new crossbow in the cinematic trailer.
You’ll be able to equip these new operators with some new toys as well, as Season 2 brings 6 new weapons to the field. The FARA 83 Assault Rifle will be available at launch, unlockable for free at Tier 15 with the potential of being a new favorite. Sporting a long effective range, high rate of fire and packing a punch, skilled players will mow down opponents using this weapon easily. Joining the FARA 83 in the first week of Season 2 is the new LC10 SMG with a higher than average fire rate and viability at all ranges. You can unlock it at tier 31.
Later on during the season, you’ll be able to unlock the brutal Machete for your special slot, the E-Tool shovel for melee, the special R1 Shadowhunter tactical crossbow for silent long-range kills and the ZRG 20mm sniper rifle that packs so much power it can one-shot Operators with head, chest and shoulder hits from any range. These weapons will be tied to certain challenges coming later on in the season - completing these will let you unlock the associated weapon for free, but if you’re impatient you can always buy their blueprints. Treyarch will reveal more Battle Pass and store bundle details on the 23rd of February. The biggest addition, however, is definitely the all-new Outbreak game mode. Continuing the Zombies story, Requiem agents must face a new threat and extract a crucial specimen from a huge open-world play area set in the Ural Mountains. In Outbreak, Operators will need to deal with all sorts of objective types during matches, such as hunting down power-armor wearing, flamethrower wielding elite zombies, protecting a vehicle with portal sensor technology, extracting valuable data, survive against an encroaching horde near a Dark Aether zone or braving a Portal to explore the fearsome other side.
Assisting in your exploits in the Outbreak game mode is the new Field Upgrade called Frenzied Guard. When the Operator with Frenzied Guard activates the upgrade, they will briefly become invincible with only armor taking damage. This comes at the cost of maximum threat generation, meaning all enemies will only attack that Operator while the upgrade is active. Upgrades for Frenzied Guard can increase its duration, restore all armor upon activation and slow the movement speed of enemies. It’s interesting to see Treyarch implementing parts of the classic RPG tank/healer/DPS trinity in Call of Duty, and we’re interested to see more of this later on. There’s also a new Ammo Mod in play, which is sure to come in handy against those new armored up zombies - Shatter Blast. Using Shatter Blast is like firing explosive rounds on steroids; not only does every shot deal additional explosive damage, the rounds you fire have a chance to explode twice, in which case they pierce armor alongside dealing extra damage - and that’s before you upgrade it. Head over to the closest Pack-a-Punch or Elemental Pop machine to apply Shatter Blast to your weapon.
New Aetherium crystal types have been discovered, allowing Requiem operators to upgrade their skill tiers to IV and V, adding a new dimension of strategy to Zombies modes. Acquiring these crystals is more difficult due to their value, but you definitely get your due as Tier IV and V will be dynamic upgrades that can change under some circumstances - Treyarch will be releasing additional details before the launch of Season 2.
Players who own Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will have access to 4 brand new multiplayer maps, starting off with Apocalypse set in a Laos Cartel base, offering 6v6 action upon launch. Later in the season the roster will increase with Golova for Multi-Team, Mansion for 2v2 and 3v3 and Miami Strike for 6v6. New game modes are also joining the fray, including fan favorite Gun Game which removes all custom equipment and has contenders work their way down a pre-determined list of weapons, changing each time you score a kill.
Gun Game will launch alongside Season 2, later to be joined by Stockpile wherein two teams of 6 must collect the dog-tags of slain enemies like in Kill Confirmed, but also deliver them to score sites like in Hardpoint before the kill counts towards your progress. If you manage to deposit multiple dog-tags in one go, you’ll get a score and XP bonus - but keep in mind, carrying many dog-tags makes you a prime target. Speaking of Hardpoint, a new version of that game mode designed for Multi-Team is also going to be released later on during Season 2. There is a bevy of additional equipment coming with the launch of the new season. We correctly predicted that the minigun featured in the cinematic trailer will be a Scorestreak, named Death Machine. This beast of a gun will also be available in Zombies as a support weapon. The Sedan and Light Truck vehicles will also help operators traverse the battlefield, both of which will be available right off the bat. Hardcore players will be able to sink their teeth into 20 new Season challenges across multiplayer and Warzone, as well as another 20 exclusive to Zombies. Four new Prestige levels are also available if you want the absolute strongest bragging rights with in-game rewards to match:
Level 50: New Prestige, Emblem, Prestige Key, Weapon Blueprint, and Battle Pass Tier Skip Level 100: New Prestige, Emblem, Prestige Key, and Battle Pass Tier Skip Level 150: New Prestige, Emblem, Prestige Key, and Battle Pass Tier Skip Level 190: All Season Challenges Available Level 200: New Prestige, Emblem, Prestige Key, Battle Pass Tier Skip, Master Prestige Calling Card Level 250-1,000: New Prestige Key every 50 levels
If you were excited about the prospect of Zombies content in Warzone following the alleged hints discovered in-game, don’t despair - Outbreak isn’t what those were teasing. There is something dark approaching both Rebirth Island and Verdansk; the seemingly derelict Vodianoy is slowly drifting towards the island with unknown cargo, while strange quakes emanate from deep underground below the Kastovian city. Some kind of Zombies content for Warzone seems inevitable, though we suspect it won’t launch on the 25th alongside the other Seasonal content.
That said, we do know about other new content hitting the standalone battle royale mode - the Verdansk map has been updated with new points of interest with new loot distribution and lore, and a new seasonal game mode called Exfiltration will be made available later during the season. Launching on the 25th is a special Warzone game mode called Rebirth Island Resurgence Extreme, allowing players to respawn while increasing the maximum player count to 90, meaning the relatively small Rebirth Island map is going to get very crowded, ensuring non-stop action. To help players jump into the action immediately on release, the new content will be deployed as a rolling update first for Black Ops Cold War on the 23rd and then for Warzone on the 24th of February, meaning everyone has the chance to be ready for action at launch on the 25th. The updates will also include traditional patches, including bug fixes, quality of life improvements and anti-cheat improvements. Stay tuned for more details and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War & Warzone Season 2 guides!
