With Season 3, the developers introduced a hefty XP bonus in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone. The community has expressed dissatisfaction, and solo players feel disadvantaged.
On Wednesday, April 3, 2024, Season 3 launched in CoD: MW3 and Warzone, bringing a bunch of new content to the shooter. Multiplayer will receive additional game modes and new maps, and Rebirth Island returns in Warzone.
One change in Season 3 affects XP when playing in a group: a bonus has been added to provide you with more XP based on group size. However, solo players seem to feel disadvantaged as a result.
You can watch the Season 3 trailer for CoD: MW3 here:
“A big middle finger to solo players”
What is the community complaining about? On Reddit, players are complaining in a post from April 4 for two reasons regarding the bonus:
- Only players who play in groups receive the bonus, while solo players miss out.
- The lobbies are automatically dissolved after each match, making it difficult to team up with people in a party unless you have friends playing along.
“barnesnoblebooks” writes in his comment that developers should not dissolve the lobbies so that players can find friends. One user notes, “I reject all of CoD’s efforts to bring me together with other players… I already have enough toxicity at work!”
Several users note they have no friends to play with – or those friends have switched to other games. “I’m not going to join any random party every time I want to play,” writes “TheGreatBenjie”.
And “slayer-x” states that he is not a fan of this, as it only encourages playing in a full group and punishes solo players. Someone else comments, “Well… as a solo player, this is garbage.” And “SirJimiee” writes: “This is a middle finger to solo players.”
Sledgehammer Games points out in the comment, by the way, that “this feature cannot be combined with double XP events.” So far, the developers have not responded to the other comments in the thread.
The following bonuses are available in Multiplayer and Warzone
How much is the XP bonus? In the patch notes for Season 3, it is clarified how the XP bonus works. The game rewards you with more XP the larger your team is:
- 2 players: +25% XP on rank and weapons
- 3 players: +25% XP on rank, weapons, and Battle Pass
- 4+ players: +30% XP on rank, weapons, and Battle Pass
Is there a bonus in Warzone as well? According to the patch notes, there is a “Squad Play Bonus” in Warzone. The system rewards players with an XP bonus for levels, weapons, and Battle Pass. The individual bonuses gradually increase when players finish a match and at least one of the following conditions is met:
- The player has at least one friend in their group
- The player is searching for a match with “team fill” enabled
- The player is searching for a new match with “stay in team” enabled after a round
The bonuses for consecutive matches are:
- first match: 1000
- second match: 1500
- third match: 3000
- fourth match and beyond: 5000
In Season 3, you can currently unlock three new weapons – a submachine gun, a sniper rifle, and a melee weapon. Another one will be added during the season. The sniper rifle “MORS” has already made its way into the meta lists for multiplayer and Warzone. You can find out how to unlock this weapon here.
