Players of the Call of Duty: Warzone are reporting strange behavior of their maps, and a leak shows the “Counter-UAV” as a purchasable item. Will the killstreak make its way to the buy station and regularly force soldiers to rethink their strategies?
What is the Counter-UAV? This drone is the counterpart to the Recon Drone. Instead of helping you spot enemies, it prevents opponents from detecting you.
If you’re not playing the realism or hardcore mode, the mini-map and map provide valuable information about the surroundings and enemies:
- Firing enemies without silencers are briefly visible
- Outlines of the map are recognizable
- Contracts, buy stations, and vehicles in Verdansk
- Recon drones show enemies without “Ghost” on the map
- Progress of the gas circle is visible
During the duration of an enemy Counter-UAV, some of this information is lost. This could become a really strong new killstreak for the Warzone when it is available at the buy station. Teams that heavily rely on the maps might have quite a headache with the new killstreak. With the right settings, the mini-map in the Warzone becomes even more powerful.
Update July 10 – Apparently, it was a mistake that you could find the Counter-UAV as loot in the Warzone. With the update on July 9, the Counter-UAV is no longer found as a directly usable killstreak in the battle royale.
Counter-UAV likely to be available for purchase at the Buy Station soon
What did the leak look like? The user “TwitterWWE” posted not the latest events of the wrestling league on reddit, but found an image of a buy station in the Warzone offering a “Counter-UAV”.
The description states: “A drone that encrypts all enemy mini-maps, regardless of distance, and progressively interrupts the HUD the closer you get to the target area.” The price of the C-UAV is therefore $4,500.
What would this mean for the Warzone? The regular drones would lose some of their value as a result. According to the description, you’ll still see the enemies on the large map. However, it becomes more cumbersome to go into the map view and spot the enemies instead of being able to locate them directly via the mini-map.
The same applies to the gas circle. If you move with the circle or fight near the edge of the play area, it leads to more uncertainties as you can’t always check the gas progress on the mini-map.
Since the description mentions a “target area,” you’ll need to select an area in Verdansk when launching the Counter-UAV. The drone hovers in the sky until the time of its deactivation or destruction and disrupts enemy displays. The closer the enemies get, the greater the disruption. A missing HUD will also lead to uncertainties that you can exploit to your advantage.
All in all, it seems to be a sensible expansion of the killstreak arsenal in the Warzone, forcing players to rethink and possibly adjust their current strategies.
Counter-UAV currently rare and expensive
Although you can’t buy the Counter-UAV yet, there are already several videos showing that the drone is already in the game and is one of the rarest items you can currently find. YouTuber “MrTheRevertz” lists in his English video two methods on how you can already obtain the drone:
- As a very rare loot drop on the ground or from crates
- If you call 4 UAVs in a row
“MrTheRevertz” himself has not yet found a C-UAV, but shows in his video a scene where a Counter-UAV pops out of a crate in the Warzone and can be used. However, he is not quite so sure about the second method, as you can hardly check whether the enemies’ maps are being disrupted. He states that according to data miners, it is already in the game.
You can already use Counter-UAVs now, but not very reliably or cheaply. If the killstreak becomes available at the buy stations, it might have a significant impact on the gameplay. So far, however, there has been no official announcement as to whether the Counter-UAV will become a regular item in the Warzone or remain an irregular disruption that sometimes annoys your mini-map.
Even without the counter-properties of the Recon Drones, the devices are intriguing. With a bit of luck, you can even organize an upgraded Warzone drone until the end of the round.
