Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0 - Everything New at the Launch of Season 3

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0 is set to release their Season 3 Update on April 12. Not only are two popular characters from the game’s campaign set to become playable characters but there is also a large collection of new content for players to dive into! This new content includes new maps and modes across both the multiplayer mode of Modern Warfare 2 as well as both the Battle Royale mode and survival-extraction mode DMZ in Warzone 2.0. Also included are new weapons and events for players to complete. With this being possibly the biggest single content drop for the game so far, fans are going to want to know everything that is heading their way. This article will break down everything being added to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0 at the launch of Season 3.

Everything In The Season 3 Update In Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0

Overall Additions

This section will cover all the content available to both Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0 players. This includes an update to the season-long Event that has been present in both the multiplayer and the Battle Royale, an all-new weapon, and other content.

New Battle Pass: Alejandro and Valeria As Playable Operators

Just as in the previous seasons of Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0, Season 3 will see the new premium Battle Pass. This 100-tier Battle Pass will include over 100 pieces of content including new cosmetics for Vehicles and Operators, Calling Cards, Emblems, and Weapon Blueprints. Also included in the Pass is the introduction of two popular characters introduced in the campaign of Modern Warfare 2: Mexican Special Forces Operator Alejandro Vargas and Special Forces turned Cartel leader, Valeria Garza.

Along with the introduction of these new characters, the Task Force 141 members that are already available in the game will see new outfits available in the Battle Pass.

Battle Pass BlackCell

While the normal Battle Pass has been present throughout the existence of Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0 will still be present, a new type of Battle Pass is being introduced at the start of Season 3 known as BlackCell. This new Battle Pass will cost $29.99 and will give players access to the regular Battle Pass as well as a new BlackCell Sector that will have its own unique rewards and will function as a new starting point for players to go through the Pass. Some of the new content included in BlackCell includes the BlackCell Operator, a new playable character with an animated skin, a new Weapon Blueprint, Vehicle Skin, and Finishing Move, and unique BlackCell Skins for every Operator Skin found in the Battle Pass, which is 12 in total. It will also give players 20 Tier Skips, with PlayStation players getting 25 Skips, and 1,100 COD Points instantly.

Trophy Hunt Event

Just as Season 2 had two versions of the Path of the Ronin Event, Season 3 will also feature its own event called Trophy Hunt. This is a fairly simple event in concept but will see players having to play a bit differently to get all of its rewards. Across all modes from Modern Warfare 2‘s multiplayer to Warzone 2.0‘s Battle Royale and DMZ, enemies will drop trophies on the ground when they are defeated. In non-round-based modes in Modern Warfare 2, players will need to walk up to the body and pick up the trophy to bank it while in round-based modes like Search & Destroy and Cyber Attack, these trophies will be instantly banked upon killing an enemy.

In Battle Royale, all enemies (both players and AI) will drop trophies that will need to be collected. Simply picking up the trophy will not bank the trophy, however, as players will need to bring the trophies to a Buy Station or win the match to keep the trophies collected during a match. DMZ function in a similar way with players and AI dropping the trophies and players having to either bank them at a Buy Station or extract them from a match to keep the trophies.

With the trophies, secured, players will be able to spend the trophies on items found in the Event section on the main menu. The rewards that can be bought with trophies include new Calling Cards, XP Tokens, and Weapon Blueprints. During the Season, new items will be added to the store. The 2 Completion Rewards are Operator Skins, with one being unlocked when 10 items are purchased and the other when all 15 items are purchased. Any leftover trophies will be converted into XP at the Season 3 Reloaded Update in May.

New Prestige Levels

Season 3 sees the level cap once again increase as four new Prestiges will be along with 200 new levels for players to grind to. With the current highest level being 450 at Prestige 9, players will now be able to go up to Prestige 13 with Prestige 10 being unlocked at Level 500, Prestige 11 being unlocked at Level 550, Prestige 12 being unlocked at Level 600, and Prestige 13 being unlocked at Level 650

New Sniper Rifle: FJX Imperium

A classic fan-favorite Sniper Rifle is set to join the arsenal in Season 3 as the Intervention from the original Modern Warfare 2 will be making its highly requested return, though under a slightly different name. The FJX Imperium is a bolt-action sniper that longtime fans will find themselves right at home with.

New Battle Rifle: Cronen Squall

The other new weapon in Season 3 is known as the Cronen Squall, a Battle Rifle that is described as being “designed for distance shooting and exceptional damage output.”

Modern Warfare 2

Season 3 is bringing back several fan-favorite modes to Modern Warfare 2 as well as a few new maps to battle across.

Gunfight Returns

The fan-favorite Gunfight mode which has been sorely missed in Modern Warfare 2 is finally joining the game. The 4-player mode sees two teams of two placed into small maps as they try to eliminate each other with each round giving all players the same randomized Loadout. A round ends when both members of a team are eliminated. If the timer expires, a flag will spawn at the center of the map with the first team to capture it being named the winner of the round. The first team to 6 wins is declared the victor of the match.

Gunfight will have 4 maps to play on at the launch of Season 3 with 3 new maps and one of the classic Call of Duty maps that is already present in Modern Warfare 2 also being in the rotation. That returning map is Shipment, the close-quarters arena first introduced in 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The other maps are Alley, a market found in Warzone 2.0‘s Al Mazrah; Exhibit, which will be part of the Valderas Museum multiplayer map; and Blacksite, a secret training ground that will also serve as the new Gulag in Warzone 2.0.

Cranked Game Mode Returns

Another returning classic mode is Cranked. First introduced in Call of Duty: Ghosts and appearing in both Modern Warfare (2019) and Black Ops: Cold War, Cranked is a twist on the popular Team Deathmatch mode that places players on a timer when they get a kill. The timer will reset after each subsequent kill. If a player can’t get a kill within the allotted time they will blow up. While on the clock, the player is Cranked, giving them additional perks and bonuses as well as having each kill worth 2 points instead of non-Cranked kills being worth only one. The first team to 150 points wins!

New Ranked Play Rewards

The Ranked Play mode has been a major success since it was introduced during Season 2 and players that really grind out the competitive part of Modern Warfare 2 will have the chance to get several all-new and unique rewards for playing. These rewards include new cosmetics and camos and even a Weapon Blueprint. You can check out Gameranx’s full breakdown of the Ranked Play rewards here.

2 New Core Maps; 2 New Battle Maps

The multiplayer will see two new maps for the regular 6v6 modes that take place under the cover of night. One of the maps is known as Black Gold and takes place at the Rohan Oil area from the Al Mazrah map and is the first map that will see players using night vision goggles to navigate. The other map takes place on a stormy night but won’t have players using equipment to help them see. This map is called Pelayo’s Lighthouse and is based on the area found around the lighthouse at the end of the campaign mission “Recond & Fire.”

Along with the core maps, there are also 2 Battle Maps for the game’s large-scale game modes Ground War and Invasion. Rohan Oil takes the large region at the north end of Al Mazrah and turns it into a multiplayer map. The other Battle map also takes a part of the Battle Royale map and transforms it into a multiplayer map. This second map is called Sattiq Cave Complex, sharing its name with the part of Al Mazrah with the downed plane that utilizes the layout of the original Modern Warfare 2 map Afgan as a framework.

Warzone 2.0

Season 2 saw the introduction of an entirely new map in the form of Ashika Island along with the return of the popular Resurgence Mode and Season 3 continues the trend of game-changing additions and reworks as it will introduce a whole new Gulag along with equipment from DMZ and even the original Warzone making their way into the Battle Royale.

Massive Resurgence Comes to Al Mazrah

Season 2 introduced players to Ashika Island and saw the return of the fan-favorite Resurgence mode to the Battle Royale title. The mode that sees players getting the chance to respawn as long as their squadmates are alive or if they stay alive long enough in Solos is beloved by the community because it incentivizes everyone to play faster since a single death doesn’t send you back to the main menu. The mode makes sense for the smaller Ashika Island, but Season 3 will see the mode brought to the much larger Al Mazrah map!

New Gulag: Blacksite

The previously mentioned Blacksite that will be appearing as a Gunfight map will also serve as Warzone 2.0‘s new Gulag. Infinity Ward’s blog post about the Season 3 describes the map as a ” roughly rectangular, asymmetrical map has several interior spaces and long external routes.”

Redeploy Drones

The Redeploy Drones have already appeared in Warzone 2.0 as part of the Season 2 Reloaded Update for Ashika Island, but Season 3 will see the extremely useful item become available in Al Mazrah. These Drones allow players to zipline upwards and fall from the sky to cross a lot of ground quickly.

UAV Towers

A feature that is a major component of DMZ will be arriving in the Battle Royale mode of Warzone 2.0. These UAV Towers are special structures that players can interact with in order to scan their area for a brief period of time, marking enemies on their minimap like the regular UAV killstreak, though it will alert nearby players that the Tower is in use.

Tempered Plate Carriers

Returning from Warzone 1‘s Caldera map, the Tempered Plate Carriers is a different armor system that will see armor plates divided into two half-bars instead of three-thirds, making replating to full quicker and easier.

DMZ

The extraction mode of Warzone 2.0, DMZ is set to see a massive overhaul at the start of Season 3. Not only will new mechanics be present during matches, but there will also be a new system where you will have multiple Operators to choose from, each with their own selection of on-person equipment. This is the biggest single content drop for the DMZ mode and aims to completely reshape the mode going forward.

Active Duty Operator Slots

As DMZ is now, you have a single character that can change their loadout of weapons, grenades, equipment, and Field Upgrades but cannot change their on-person equipment such as backpacks, Plate Carriers, etc. This new system known as the Active Duty Operator Slots will allow you to have up to 3 characters that you can choose between and customize their on-person items in the pre-game menu. This means that you can craft specific characters for specific tasks and missions. If you have a character that is more expendable that you want to use just to go into a game and collect items, you can give them some of your less impressive gear while saving things like Level 3 Armor, Self Revives, and Durable Gas Masks for your more important, more dangerous infils into the DMZ.

New Barter System

One of the central parts of the gameplay loop in DMZ is finding items, selling them at a Buy Station, and then using that cash to purchase strong equipment like new weapons or other important items that are key to surviving the Zone. Now, players will have the chance to talk to the Trader at Buy Station, who will offer you items that can be traded for rather than bought. The regular purchasing of items will still be available but this Trader will add a new vendor and new collection of items for players to acquire, for the right items of course. NOTE: This is not a trading system between players, though you can still drop and give items to other players if you like.

Workbench

One of the defining mechanics of DMZ as it was in the first two seasons is the difference between the Insured Weapons and Contraband Weapons. The former were weapons that you could customize and, if lost upon death, would eventually come back via a timer that could be cut zone by extracting with cast and items. The latter were weapons found in the world while playing, either by looting them from enemies or buying them from shops, and would permanently disappear upon death and couldn’t be edited. While these Contraband Weapons will still be permanently lost when a player is eliminated in the DMZ, the new Workbenches found in the game will allow players to edit these weapons for a cost. This means that weapons found in the world can be crafted to fit a player’s needs.

New Bosses

Just like the previous seasons, Season 3 will introduce new Boss and HVTs into the DMZ. While details are currently scarce on what these enemies will be, if they are anything like the Juggernaut or Bombmaker, they will provide unique challenges for players to overcome while also providing unique and sought-after rewards.

Heavy Chopper and New Exfil Options

While there have already been multiple vehicles available since DMZ’s launch, the newest addition is set to completely change the way the game is played. This new vehicle is the Heavy Chopper and will allow players to fly around the map. This Heavy Chopper might be familiar to players who pay attention as it is the same type of helicopter that flies in to exfil players from the DMZ and that isn’t a coincidence. The added benefit of this vehicle is that players that decide to fly out of the map in this vehicle will be able to just extract without having to go to the designated Exfil Point. This and the new Private Exfil that can be bought at Buy Stations, which will mark one of the unused Exfil Points in your game for you and your Squad to use exclusively, are new ways to leave a game to circumvent extraction campers.

New Faction: REDACTED

The start of Season 3 will also see the introduction of the fifth faction in DMZ known as REDACTED. Just like Legion, White Lotus, Black Mous, and Crown, the faction with have some lore pertaining to the story of DMZ as well as several new unique missions.

You can check out the Infinity Ward blog post regarding the new content in Season 3 linked here. This is all just scratching the surface of what Season 3 will hold as the Season 3 Reloaded is set to introduce much more content in May, including new weapons, game modes, and the third Raid event. Stay tuned to Gameranx for future news, updates, and guides on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as well as Warzone 2.0.

More Call of Duty Guides:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0 – Everything New at the Launch of Season 3 | Season 3 Overview

Everything In The Season 3 Update In Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0

Overall Additions