There is no winning formula when it comes to the new Warzone Battle Royale mode in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Out-shooting and out-maneuvering everyone else is just one factor — even a newbie can last until the final circle if you keep a few important tips in mind.
There’s a whole lot the tutorials don’t explain when it comes to Warzone, and a few secrets you might never see. Did you know that you can transport vehicles in the bed of your truck — creating a mobile secondary escape vector for your squad? Did you know that you can actually end Gulag matches peacefully so everyone wins? Yes, seriously.
I’m exploring all the tips and tricks I’ve picked up in the opening hours of the game — it took a whole lot of experimentation, and a heck of a lot of dying. Some of these tips are specifically for new players of Battle Royale, while others are 100% specific to this game, that you might never realize in 100 hours of gameplay. There’s a lot to explore here, so let’s get started.
More Modern Warfare: Warzone guides:
15 Of Your Biggest Questions Answered | What You Need To Know | How Respawning Works | Gulag Guide | How To Enable (Or Disable) Crossplay
#1: Play aggressively and don’t get into a prolonged gunfight. Your health regens instantly after a kill — so you’re better off trying to score kills fast. There are no health pick-ups in the game, just a Stim. You’ll regenerate health no matter what you do, but kills regen you instantly.
#2: Just because you see someone, doesn’t mean you should start shooting. Avoid contact, and always imagine you’re being watched — move carefully, get to cover, and try to engage when you’re in an advantageous spot. In a shootout, don’t lean out of the same spot twice. When you’re exchanging fire, it’s better to move in close and get the flanking kill. If you’re stuck at a disadvantage, in bad cover while your opponents are accurately shooting from a great position, it might be better to simply retreat.
#3: Practice makes perfect. If you want to practice your shooting skills, drop directly into a hotspot — an area where lots of other players are dropping at the same time. You’ll learn to loot fast, take down opponents faster, and improve your Battle Royale skills. It’s a good way to get a good burst of gameplay — and it’s important to build up your skill. You don’t want to hide until the end only to get crushed by a well-equipped team.
#4: Double-tap Ping to create a hostile ping marker. Press [Up] on the D-Pad to ping — you can mark your map, objects in the environment, enemies, or just spots on the ground. Normally, a single-tap Ping will create a green ping-marker to a location, telling your team to move here. If you want to mark a dangerous location where you’ve spotted enemies, lay down a hostile ping marker with the double-tap.
#5: Stay with your team! Before dropping into the map, mark a location by bringing up your map and pinging a spot. Work together, drop ammo, share loot locations, and revive your teammates when they’re down. It’s better to fight together. You will die if you split up.
#6: You can set a load-out with all your unlocked weapons / gear before even beginning a match. Why? Because of Load-Out Drops. To summon a Load-Out Drop, you’ll need to find or purchase a Load-Out Drop Marker. You can buy them from Buy Stations, or find them. They’re rare, and only appear after the first circle collapse, and before the final circle collapse. Load-Out Drops are dropped into the map much, much faster than Care Packages. No matter who interacts, even if you didn’t call the drop, any Operator can make use of Load-Out Drops.
#7: Hilariously, you can transport other vehicles with the truck. The truck bed is large enough for the ATV, Tactical Rover, or the SUV to fit in the back. Drive it up back there, and you’ll have yourself a secondary escape vehicle your team can use. The vehicles will actually stay in the back. You can also instantly swap between the driver seat and a passenger seat — allowing you to lose control of the vehicle for a few seconds, but giving you a chance to heal with a Stim, throw a grenade, or shoot an enemy before swapping back.
#8: Vehicles aren’t always the best choice. Not only do they have a high-profile, and they’re noisy, vehicles instantly appear on enemy mini-maps. Watching for red vehicle markers is a great way conquer your enemies — when the vehicle marker disappears off your mini-map, you’ll know exactly where the team has disembarked.
#9: The new Gulag mode pits you against players in randomized 1v1 battles to claim a Redeployment Token, but sometimes a little kindness is the best option. If both players refuse to fight and wait out the timer together, both players will earn a Redeployment Token. Seriously. It takes some serious trust to pull that off, though.
#10: There are Buy Stations everywhere — you’ll see them on your map. You can buy Killstreaks, Loadout Drops, and Redeployment Tokens. You earn money by completing Contracts, looting, or scoring kills. You should always save your cash for valuable Redeployment Tokens — you can’t trust your teammates to win one themselves in the Gulag! Save money and get those tokens when you can.
#11: Buy Stations are prime spots for campers. Buy Stations are marked on the mini-map, and players will be distracted while searching for the exactly location. Make sure your team is watching your back while using a Buy Station, and carefully approach Buy Stations — crafty campers won’t just sit ontop of the station itself, they’ll hide in a nearby building and ambush you.
#12: The collapsing circle is extremely deadly in Warzone. You can’t use the collapsing circle to hide, and you won’t see any firefights taking place outside the circle. The circle is pretty slow, so you’ll always be able to outrun it — but if you get caught outside you’ll be dead in seconds. Gasmasks can be equipped, and those only give a few extra moments in the green gas.
With these simple tips, you should have a fighting chance in Battle Royale. Lock and load, Operator.
