Call of Duty: Warzone has well and truly settled into Caldera now, after it waved goodbye to the original map, Verdansk, upon the launch of the most recent mainline Call of Duty game, COD Vanguard.
Call of Duty Warzone tips and tricks: Essential hints to dominate the COD battle royale
Now we’re partway through Season 4, which brought the first new map to the game since Caldera: Fortune’s Keep. Find out all the key details about the mid-season update, right here.
When did Warzone Season 4 Reloaded launch?
The mid-season update for Season 4 dropped on 27 July 2022, and is now available to play.
You’ve survived the gold rush so far… but what about the Zombie apocalypse?
Rebirth of the Dead, the new #Vanguard map Desolation and much more are available now in Mercenaries of Fortune: Reloaded. pic.twitter.com/4ktb8yiuVs
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) July 27, 2022
There are plenty of new details to sink your teeth into, and we’ve gone into all the main changes below.
What’s new in Warzone Season 4 Reloaded?
This mid-season update isn’t necessarily the most seismic in terms of new content, but there’s still a fun new mode to enjoy and a fair amount of balance tweaking to get through. You can read the full patch notes online here for all the tiny details you might like.
New mode – Rebirth of the Dead
Rebirth Island has been overrun by zombies, in another return for the undead in Warzone. This is a fun, frantic mode that sees your team come back as zombies when they die, earning to the right to a full respawn by collecting antiviral vials.
What’s worse than being overcome by the horde? Becoming part of it…
Zombies are coming to #RebirthIsland on July 27. Learn how to survive to the end in Rebirth of the Dead with tips from the #CODBlog: https://t.co/QdhQNlHUF7 pic.twitter.com/3hrU14UQ0p
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) July 26, 2022
Expect truly crazy endgames as teams fight to be the last group with a fully alive member standing, and a way more action-packed pace than Warzone normally offers.
New weapon – Vargo-S: Assault Rifle
This assault rifle is easy to unlock and offers great recoil control, making it ideal for long-range encounters, although its damage profile is lower in order to counteract that strength.
Gameplay tweaks and balancing
The portable redeploy balloon deployable is now available in-game as a rare drop to help you rotate when you need to. Bomber planes are also back in Caldera, which will be interesting for the balance of matches.
There have been a variety of balance tweaks for weapons, including a long-awaited full nerf for the dominant NZ-41 assault rifle, which should be less of a universal pick for players now. Older guns like Modern Warfare’s Kilo 141 and CR-Amax have got welcome buffs to help them compete.
New operators
There are a bunch of new skins coming to the store, with the most amusing being a pair of Terminator options to let you dress up like the killer robots from the popular movies. There are some in-game events running along that theme too, to let you earn calling cards and other rewards.
When did Warzone Season 4 launch?
Warzone’s fourth season of Vanguard content launched on 22 June 2022.
#Warzone Season Four launches at 9AM PST!
New Map – Fortune’s Keep, Mercenaries of Fortune Event, new POIs – Storage Town, new Modes, Gameplay updates, new Weapons & adjustments, new Operator, and more!
The Patch Notes are available at:https://t.co/K9Mn58Ses6 pic.twitter.com/vcM5lvWVBN
— Raven Software (@RavenSoftware) June 22, 2022
That means you can drop into the game right now (after what could be a chunky update if you haven’t played in a few months) to check out the new map and other changes.
What’s new in Warzone Season 4?
We now know plenty about Season 4 including one big headline – it’s dropping an entirely new map into Warzone. You can find out more below, or check out the official blog post for more details (the patch notes are also now out, and have things down to the percentage point).
New map – Fortune’s Keep
A new map arrives for the first time since Caldera, and Fortune’s Keep is added to the rotation. It’s a little bigger than Rebirth Island, but therefore still way smaller than the main Battle Royale map.
It’s a vibrant-looking criminal haven with a few main zones including a vineyard, a castle and a quaint coastal town for us to rampage through.
The map will host Resurgence game modes like Rebirth Island, letting you get back into the action quickly after being killed, with the same player counts at first. Raven will experiment with higher player counts once we’ve had time to learn the map a little more.
There are plenty of easter eggs being uncovered throughout Fortune’s Keep, from hidden treasure to be dug up to a grave where you can “Press X to pay respects”, and the map also has a whole bunch of different routes and climbing spots to uncover, too.
Caldera map changes
A frequent gripe among dedicated Warzone players since Caldera launched was that the amount of vegetation could make it really challenging to work out where you were being shot from at key times, especially in between points of interest.
That’s been listened to, seemingly – Caldera has been given a once-over that’s shaved away 50 per cent of all of its vegetation.
Battle Royale players – we got you
A few of next season’s updates to the Caldera include:
New micro-POIs and more looting
Secret underground Mercenary Vaults
50% less vegetation & better visibility
Plenty more surprises in-store pic.twitter.com/Ux3kR69RX3
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) June 15, 2022
The map has also been drained of much of its water, too, with a few changes to points of interest and the addition of some new areas, albeit not huge ones for the most part.
One very welcome return comes in the form of Storage Town, which is dropped in near Mines and Dig Site, letting veterans of Verdansk tear up a point of interest they know like the back of their hand.
This all means that the main battle royale mode wasn’t ignored for this season’s update. You can check out a really detailed showcase of all the changes, as well as details of Fortune’s Keep, on the Call of Duty blog here.
New weapons
As always there are some new weapons to unlock and explore, this time in the form of the Marco 5 SMG and the UGM-8 LMG.
The Marco 5 is highly mobile (like that was an issue on other Vanguard SMGs!), and is also the first Vanguard SMG that you can use akimbo. The UGM-8 sounds like it could have massive magazine sizes, and seemingly is also more mobile than most LMGs.
New items
Some new items are entering the game, with some very interesting potential uses. There’s a new EMP grenade to scramble enemies’ vision and disable vehicles for a short amount of time, as well as a portable redeploy balloon that fills your field upgrade slot, which could be a huge boon if you need a rapid relocation.
When did Warzone Season 3 Reloaded launch?
The mid-season update for Warzone’s third season of Vanguard content came out on 25 May 2022, and brought with it a surprisingly deep set of changes to how the game plays.
There’s a new way to get around Caldera faster than ever before
Study up on #Warzone’s new Underground Transit System, plus learn about all the new changes coming to #Vanguard and #Warzone in Season Three Reloaded https://t.co/XSH0dlifbN pic.twitter.com/PS3GU8Gmj8
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) May 23, 2022
You can read the full details in the patch notes, but we’ll also break down the key additions, below.
What’s new in Warzone Season 3 Reloaded?
There were plenty of changes in this mid-season update – here are the key ones.
New fast-travel
There is now a range of tunnels under Caldera that will allow you to quickly travel around the map, freeing up more ways to rotate away from the gas. Be warned, though – they’re all accessed by a single ladder, so can easily be ambushed.
New squad HUD
An all-new look has been added to the squad HUD in the bottom left of your screen when playing with teammates – you can now see how many plates they have, whether they have a gas mask or killstreak, and whether they’ll go to the Gulag when they die or not. It’s a huge amount of new information that you no longer have to call out to discover.
H4 Blixen SMG
There’s a new SMG to unlock, with a slightly onerous requirement that you get three sliding kills in 15 different matches to get access to it. It’s a slower-firing SMG that can also be made to use a burst pattern.
New perk – Serpentine
Another perk comes across from Vanguard to Warzone, reducing incoming damage by 20 percent if you’re sprinting, which is great for getting away from snipers and covering fire. It takes up a blue perk slot, though, so you’ll have to sacrifice something like Cold Blooded.
New items
There are four new items to find in loot boxes and on the ground – a Gulag Entry Token, Redeploy Extraction Token, Speed Boost and Radar Jammer. The first two give you another opportunity to fight back into the game, or an automatic immediate redeploy.
Speed Boost gives you a short period of super-speed, which is always a bonus, while the Radar Jammer makes everyone’s minimaps go screwy, albeit in a way that signposts you’re in the area.
Gameplay tweaks
Alongside these additions, there are some seriously big changes to gameplay that are more miscellaneous. For example, buying a player back now only costs $3,000, while everyone also moves more quickly once they’ve been downed.
You’ll keep 80 percent of your money when you die, so getting back into the game is a little easier from a few angles, while Self-Revives are also more commonly found now. Lethal equipment like grenades and throwing knives have been buffed in the damage department to keep up with raised player health totals.
When did the Godzilla vs King Kong event end?
The long-awaited and much-rumoured arrival of Godzilla and King Kong on the island was part of a limited-time event called Operation Monarch. The mode saw both monsters roaming the island while players peppered them with damage to unlock items and killstreaks.
You can find full details on Operation Monarch in the official blog post about it, here. It was a fun game mode to try out, changing up the pace of Warzone a great deal.
The event started on 11 May, and it ran for a full two weeks before it ended on 25 May.
When did Warzone Season 3 launch?
Season 3 of Warzone, subtitled Classified Arms, launched on 27 April, so you can tuck into it in-game now.
This monster-sized season is now declassified
Here’s everything coming to Season Three of #Vanguard and #Warzone: https://t.co/xsn4yK1UU5 pic.twitter.com/tdxCejh5hn
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) April 21, 2022
There’s a bunch of detail in the above image about what’s arrived in the season, but we’ve broken it down below.
What’s new in Warzone Season 3?
There are a host of changes as part of the season, so we’ve separated them out into sections for you. You can check out the update’s full patch notes to get all the granular detail.
New weapons – M1916 and Nikita AVT
There are four new weapons for Warzone and Vanguard. A new marksman rifle, the M1916, is joined by the Nikita AVT assault rifle and you can get both for free by levelling up your battle pass.
Later in the season, a new melee option will appear, in the form of a hammer called the Junkyard Jet, likely inspired by King Kong’s brute strength. Finally, an SMG called the H4 Blixen will also appear at a certain point.
Map changes
Some changes have come to Peak, the top of Caldera’s central volcano, finishing off the in-progress building work and turning it into a more complete fortress. This should make it even more of a hot drop-spot than it already was.
Also new is a point of interest called Dig Site, where huge skeletons hint at a crazy past for Caldera, while the Runway and Lagoon areas are getting more points of cover added to them, to make them a little less open and vulnerable.
New gulag
The gulag, Warzone’s last-chance saloon, has received a new map, seemingly set in the hold of a cargo ship. It’s been a while since the gulag got a new rotation, so this could be welcome for those who tend to die a lot as they play.
When did Warzone Season 2 Reloaded launch?
The previous update for Warzone came out on 23 March after a few days of teasers from Raven Software about what it would entail.
#Warzone Season Two Reloaded launches at 9AM PST
A new LTE – Rebirth Reinforced, Weapon Trade Stations, Deployable Buy Stations, new Modes, a new Weapon, new Operators, new Gameplay, and more!
The Patch Notes are available at: https://t.co/oX0RLkVUU1 pic.twitter.com/GJZBHH2Xiv
— Raven Software (@RavenSoftware) March 23, 2022
That means if you haven’t played since before the update, you’ll want to ensure you get the patch downloaded regardless of what platform you’re on.
What’s new in Warzone Season 2 Reloaded?
This update for Warzone was mainly focussed on Rebirth Island, the smaller map that plays host to some of the game’s less time-consuming and more casual playlists, but there were a fair few telling changes that apply to Caldera as well.
Arms Race, Rebirth Reinforced, and the COD-Father
Check out everything coming to #Vanguard and #Warzone in Season Two Reloaded.https://t.co/6N7IqzBbYk pic.twitter.com/7adVQ7uZRj
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) March 21, 2022
Rebirth Island refresh
The Alcatraz-flavoured island has been a mainstay since it launched alongside Verdansk a couple of years back, and this is the biggest set of changes that have hit it since then. There are a fair few new points of interest to help add cover to spots like the prison courtyard that were previously very open.
The map’s lighting has also changed substantially, while the decor all over the island has been updated to reflect the supremacy of Stitch’s Nova 6 gas manufacturing bad guys, in the slightly complicated canon of the Call of Duty world.
New weapon – Armaguerra
There’s a new SMG to try out, the Armaguerra, which hits nice and hard at close range but also seems to have manageable enough recoil to work at slightly farther out distances, too. It’s also in the ground loot rotation for both Rebirth and Caldera, so you can try it out there.
Deployable buy stations
You can now find very rare drops that let you spawn in an air-dropped buy station that sticks around for a few minutes – a hugely useful option if you need to buy someone back into the match or get your loadout but you don’t have a buy station within range.
Armour satchel and gas mask changes
Small tweaks to gas masks mean you can now drop a mask for a teammate, while armour satchels now display the number of plates they contain, making it easier to manage your armour once you already have a satchel.
Balance changes
There are a few balance tweaks to weapons and their attachments, although these are granular enough that they’re not causing a dramatic shift in the meta at this point – you can find out more detail in the full patch notes here.