Call of Duty’s free battle royale Warzone launches today

Thanks to someone forgetting not to share details of what I can only imagine must have been heavily-embargoed information, yesterday finally saw confirmation of Call of Duty’s new battle royale mode Warzone. For a while at least, until Activision’s PR managed in waking the chap up and getting him to list his video as private. So what’s the difference between that story and today’s one?

Official assets and double-official confirmation! Yes sir, Call of Duty is dipping into battle royale once again with Warzone, and it’ll be launching today! It’ll be a mere 20 gigglebytes in size (if you’re up to date on your Call of Duty updates for Modern Warfare) when the download is made available from 11AM ET time in the US, which works out to 5PM locally here. Which is way past my bedtime so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to play it. Damn it mom, let me be cool like the other kids and give me an 8PM curfew.

If you ever wanted to feel entirely insignificant about your place in Africa, here’s the global rollout map which paints the BEST continent as a dark zone of NO TIMEZONES FOR YOU!

Anyway, here’s the laundry list of features straight from Activision’s lips:

At launch, players can squad up in trios with their friends on Playstation® 4, Battle.net for PC, or Xbox One across two game modes: Battle Royale and Plunder. In Battle Royale, fight to be the last squad standing while escaping the deadly gas in the swiftly closing circle with up to 150 players.

In Plunder, the race is on to collect the most in-match Cash by looting across the map, taking down enemies to steal their Cash, and completing in-match Contracts.

Warzone takes place in Verdansk, an expansive city with multiple named zones and well over 300 points of interest. Each zone features distinct landmarks like the Gorengard Lumber Yard or the Gora Dam; the zones take place across different environment types like cities and rural areas for unique engagements. Change up your drop location in each match to get a better lay of the land and take advantage of what Verdansk has to offer.Need to escape the gas in the closing circle or get to another zone? Take a vehicle.

The Vehicles of Warzone

If you need to get somewhere fast in Warzone, the best method is a vehicle. There are five vehicles all with varying levels of protection, speed, seating, and off-roading capability. Each vehicle has a health meter and when it reaches zero, the vehicle explodes and flames out. Needlessly to say, if the health of your vehicle is depleting, bail out before the impending explosion.

Here’s an overview of the five vehicle types that are populated throughout the world in Warzone:

• ATV – two seater, provides minimal protection, good at offroading, fast.
• Tactical Rover – four seater, provides minimal protection, solidly fast, solid at off-roading.
• SUV – four seater, provides good protection, medium speed, not ideal for off-roading.
• Cargo Truck – holds the squad plus equipment, excellent protection, not for off-roading, slowest.
• Helicopter – four seater, decent coverage, flies.

The Mechanics of the Warzone

Warzone features some unique mechanics that keep each match interesting and give you plenty of strategies to try for a new experience every time you drop in. Here’s a list of some of the new and game-changing mechanics players will find in a Warzone match:

The Gulag (only in Battle Royale)

Upon your first elimination, you will be taken as a “Prisoner of Warzone” and thrown into the Gulag. There you will await your fate and watch other prisoners fight to the death. When your turn is up, you’ll enter the Gulag and face-off against a single opponent in a 1v1 to earn the ultimate reward – redeployment.

Win in the Gulag and earn redeployment back into Verdansk. Lose and hope that your squad completes Contracts and earns enough in-match Cash to redploy you.

Contracts

Contracts are objective oriented tasks players can find and activate across Verdansk. A squad can activate one Contract at a time and completing it rewards you in-match Cash and other loot items. Multiple types of Contracts exist including Scavenger Contracts where you have to find and open a series of Supply Boxes and Recon Contacts where you must secure one location, similar to Call of Duty’s Domination mode.

In addition to in-match Cash, Contracts can give you special rewards like the ability to see the next circle collapse location before it starts to close.

Buy Stations

In Battle Royale where collecting in-match Cash isn’t the objective, Cash can be used to procur beneficial items at Buy Stations. Denoted on the Tac-Map with a shopping cart icon, head to a Buy Station to spend your in-match Cash. For varying prices, you can purchase Killstreaks, Redeploy Tokens to bring back fallen teammates, Self-Revive Kits, and more.

In Plunder, Buy Stations hold all of these items to help you gain an advantage over other teams, plus a unique game mode item – the Cash Deposit Balloon. Want to securely deposit your in-match Cash, away from the threat of enemy teams trying to kill and steal? Get a Cash Deposit Ballon, a portable Field Upgrade, that allows you to deposit Cash, from anywhere.

Seamless Play

Call of Duty: Warzone shares Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s crossplay and unified progression. For players that already own the full version of Modern Warfare, all content already earned including Battle Pass items, Operators, weapons and customization items will carry over to Warzone, and all progression earned in Warzone will counts toward overall Modern Warfare progression.

For players who do not own the full version of Modern Warfare, all progress and items they’ve earned in Warzone will be rewarded across Multiplayer and Special Ops in Modern Warfare, should they ever choose to purchase it.

There are no level caps in Warzone. Jump in.

In-Depth Information On Downloading

For owners of the full version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Warzone will replace the previously named ‘Classified’ panel in the Main Menu. A one-time early access will give Modern Warfare owners the ability to download Warzone at 8AM PDT. For Modern Warfare owners who are current and have the most recent title updates, the download will be a 18-22GB. Once download is complete, Modern Warfare owners will “unlock” the Warzone panel, which was previously classified, and can enter the lobby and play.

Last Updated: March 10, 2020