Hot off this week’s announcement of Call of Duty’s reworked battle-royale experience, Black Ops Royale, Treyarch has detailed what players can expect from its other multiplayer modes, including competitive multiplayer, Zombies, and the rest of Warzone. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7: Season 02 Reloaded offers new maps and modes across its various game pillars.
As part of this mid-season update, players will receive new maps and modes for both Zombies and multiplayer, as well as Glitch Fractures and Nightmare Skills in Endgame, plus new weapons, blueprints, Operator skins, and more through events and weekly challenges.
Warzone
In Call of Duty’s flagship battle-royale experience – in addition to the new Black Ops Royale – players can look forward to a new Perks refresh for Momentum, Berserker, and Hunter in both Battle Royale and Resurgence. Momentum will now improve close-quarters movement for tight-space warfare, and will improve weapon handling. Berserker gains a short burst of action speed after you eliminate a player. Hunter gets enhanced tracking, such as seeing the footprints of enemies you damage with your bullets, sensing enemies within 30 meters, and sensing when you’re being aimed at. Meanwhile, Ghost Perk is being adjusted so you stay hidden for five seconds instead of one and a half seconds.
Zombies
For the wildly popular Zombies corner of Black Ops’ package, players can expect a new round-based map called Paradox Junction. Here, The Warden traps the team in a temporal prison, and players must fight through a time loop to figure out how to escape – wow, typing that sentence really made me realize how far Call of Duty has come since I first played it as a straight-laced World War II game more than 20 years ago. In this new map, players will face down the Rad-Hound, which can move quickly and detonate radioactive explosions.
However, players have a new way to combat the new threats, with the new Wonder Weapon, the returning Blundergat. The Blundergat uses its four barrels to shred hordes of encroaching enemies. You can also upgrade it to the Sundergat, which can rip souls free, blast charged Purges, and fire a focused Exile beam that obliterates whatever is in its way. And finally, Season 02 Reloaded introduces the Lockshot Scorestreak, which can eliminate multiple enemies with a single pull of the trigger, as well as the Turncoat GobbleGum, which can be used to turn nearby zombies temporarily into your allies.
Multiplayer
In Black Ops 7’s competitive mode, players can now join the fight in the new 6v6 map Torque, a remastered take on The Battle of Los Angeles from Black Ops 2, and another 6v6 map, Cliff Town, which is a reimagined version of Black Ops 2’s Yemen. In its new form, Cliff Town is a town in Avalon. But it’s not just 6v6 maps joining the rotation, as Mission: Peak, which joins 20v20 Skirmish, while the skatepark Grind and Firing Range training grounds both return from Black Ops 6.
On the modes front, players can take part in Gauntlet mode, where they fight as a team across five different game modes played in rapid succession. Each mode lasts two minutes, so you’re really bouncing between the modes to prove who is the most well-rounded in the group, jumping from Domination, Kill Confirmed, Hardpoint, Team Deathmatch, and Roulette. Meanwhile, Infected, where a single player is chosen at the start of the match with the goal to infect every other player, while the rest of the players fight to avoid getting infected. These additions are all capped off by a new Scorestreak, which offers a low-cost (costing 650) smart gun that can target multiple enemies at once.
Endgame
Glitch Fractures occur when you defeat a Strike Boss in a Nightmare Zone in the Avalon map to create a Glitch, which takes you to a completely separate arena with multiple waves of enemies and an intense Glitch Boss. If you defeat that Glitch Boss, you can further evolve your Operator’s specialization with Nightmare Skills. These Nightmare Skills include explosions that are triggered when you’re low on health, a trail of incendiary explosions when you wingsuit over an area, or even spawning a snowstorm that pulls enemies into it.
Meanwhile, Endgame players can find Exotic Fabricators to upgrade their loadout and field acquisitions to Exotic rarity. Your first upgrade brings a weapon to Exotic rarity and damage, while subsequent upgrades add extra Utility Bonus and random Exotic Effects. If you’re already fully upgraded, you’re given the option to re-roll some elements, allowing you to work towards the Exotic weapon with the traits you’re searching for. However, each Exotic Fabricator can only be used once.
All of these updates arrive in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Call of Duty: Warzone beginning on Wednesday, March 11, at 9 a.m. PT across all platforms. For more on Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, be sure to check out our review here.
