Call of Duty revealed its plans on the night of December 11 and provided all the information about the introduction and content of Season 1 of Cold War & Warzone. MeinMMO summarizes the information for you and shows what is planned for the release and beyond.
Season 1 of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War starts on December 16. On that Wednesday, just under a week before Christmas, CoD will deliver a huge content drop, connecting Warzone and Modern Warfare with the CoD from 2020 and ensuring that CoD fans have plenty to do over the holidays.
With two new blog posts (Season 1 Blog / Warzone Blog), the developers have now revealed more details about the release schedule, which MeinMMO presents here in overview form. We will show you the planned content based on game mode and release date. Some content will only arrive later in the season – many, however, will already be available at launch.
All gameplay-related content of the new season is free for players of Cold War & Warzone.
Update December 16: Season 1 is live. Here you can find the most important information in summary.
Cold War Season 1 – General Content
What is coming at launch? The start of the new season and its further development resemble the process of the predecessor Modern Warfare. Except for the introduction of the new prestige system, there are very similar innovations as usual at the start of a new season:
- Battle Pass with 100 tiers
- Several new operators
- 2 new weapons via the Battle Pass
- The new prestige system
- Mastercraft skins return
What about the Battle Pass? From December 16, a new Battle Pass will be available. Here you can secure more than 100 mostly cosmetic rewards in exchange for experience points, which are divided into a free and a premium path. For 1,000 CoD points (around 10 Euro), you can unlock the premium part. The complete content of the pass is not yet known.
Since Cold War is following a similar path to CoD MW, the Battle Pass is likely to have a similar structure. You will get a new operator (Stitch), a handful of weapon blueprints, enough CoD points to buy the pass again, and smaller cosmetics like stickers, calling cards, and charms for your points and playtime.
What about the new weapons? The free branch of the Battle Pass will also unlock the new weapons: the MAC 10 submachine gun and the Groza assault rifle. You need to unlock 15 tiers of the pass for the SMG and the Groza is yours after 31 “Battle Pass” tiers. Here is a brief look at what the guns might be capable of.
What about the prestige system? With the start of the first season, the new prestige system goes online completely. So far, it has been in pre-season mode with “only” 200 additional levels in 3 prestige ranks above the 55 military ranks. Once the new season goes live, there will be an additional 200 levels for 4 new prestige ranks, followed by another 1,000 levels for anything beyond that. You can find a detailed explanation of the prestige system here. You can level up this rank in Cold War, CoD MW & Warzone.
What about mastercraft skins? In the blog post about the season content, the developers also indicated that mastercraft skins from Black Ops 4 will return. This will allow you to further visually enhance specific weapon blueprints to obtain special handcrafted weapon skins marked with the rarity “Ultra”. They are thus one level above “Legendary”, which was previously considered the highest rarity. However, more details about this will not be available for now.
General Content – Coming Later
What is coming during the season? Later in the season, there are more new weapons scheduled to arrive:
- Streetsweeper Shotgun
- Sledgehammer
- Wakizashi (Sword)
Once they are available, you will be able to unlock them through gameplay challenges. In addition to a shotgun, CoD is bringing two large melee weapons into play, which will certainly find their place on the battlefields right away.
As additional general content, the CoD creators at Treyarch announced that 2 more operators will come during the season:
- Zeyna
- Bulldozer
Cold War Season 1 – Warzone Content
What is coming at launch? The battle royale Warzone benefits the most from the new season launch. On December 16, a lot will be happening, in addition to the merging of the progression systems of 3 CoDs.
- Warzone map Rebirth-Island
- Game mode “Resurgence” for Rebirth-Island
- New Gulag experience (Verdansk & Rebirth-Island)
- Over 30 new weapons from Cold War
What about the new Warzone map? Warzone will get its first new map just under 9 months after its release. Rebirth-Island is a Soviet base producing bio-weapons, particularly the dangerous Nova-6 gas, which has already been known from the “Black Ops” storyline. The island is half bio-weapons facility, half prison. The first gameplay trailer is provided by Treyarch – check it out here.
The blog post reveals that games on Rebirth-Island are more oriented toward the action mode “Mini Royale” and generally have fewer players landing on the map than in Verdansk. With the launch on December 16, there will also be a temporary event where you can acquire cosmetics through challenges – probably similar to the Halloween event.
What about the new game mode? The new Warzone game mode “Resurgence” takes place on Rebirth-Island and resembles the earlier game mode from the Alcatraz map, which was then released as a DLC for the spiritual predecessor Blackout – but without zombies. There is no Gulag, but a global respawn timer. If you go down, you come back when the timer runs out and your team is still alive. Additionally, you see the entire enemy team when you eliminate one of the opponents.
What about the Gulag? The Gulag gets a new paint job, as there will be an entirely new map for Warzone’s crazy respawn mechanic. You will fight in a large warehouse in Verdansk and in a small prison on Rebirth-Island. Otherwise, everything operates as usual: If it’s not your turn, you stay up and watch the fight. Once it is your turn, you go down for the 1vs1 fight. The blog post does not specify whether the old Gulag in Verdansk will disappear completely or if the maps will rotate.
What about new weapons? To top it all off, with the start of Season 1, a completely new arsenal will be available. Warzone will actually receive all weapons from Black Ops Cold War in one sweep. That means: 30 new weapons for the battle royale. Among them are 2 sniper rifles, 5 assault rifles & SMGs, and the new weapon class “Tactical Rifles”, which includes the powerful burst weapons M16 and AUG. Additionally, new weapons will be added each season.
Not officially announced, but seen in the gameplay trailer and earlier in a leak, a new contract is set to be introduced alongside a killstreak from Cold War. The RC-XD will likely find its way into the battle royale at launch as well. However, it might also be released later.
As an additional small bonus, the previous Warzone challenges will remain. You can still work on tasks that you have not completed. The developers make it clear in the blog that they want to keep as much content in the game as possible. However, they also mention that it is possible that some old elements may disappear from the game for a certain time or permanently over time.
Warzone Content – Coming Later
What is coming during the season? For the further course of the season, the CoD creators announced the “Assault Helicopter” as a new vehicle for Warzone. The aircraft closely resembles the existing helicopter but offers its passengers a mini-gun on both sides that can be manned by team members. The new helicopter will be available on Rebirth-Island and in Verdansk.
Cold War Season 1 – Content for Cold War Multiplayer
What is coming at launch? Next up is the multiplayer mode of Cold War. The number of maps available at launch was rather limited, but with Season 1 there is a substantial addition. However, most new maps are intended for the smaller gunfight mode.
- Fresh multiplayer modes
- 2 new 6vs6 maps & Nuketown holiday map
- 4 maps for 2vs2
- New scorestreak H.A.R.P.
What about new modes? The popular gunfight mode from Modern Warfare is going online with the new season. Here you mainly fight in 2vs2 battles alongside a teammate for victory. CoD MW had this mode available several times with different modifications – sometimes with 3 players on a team, sometimes with random weapons, or occasionally just with sniper rifles.
As a second mode for the release week, Treyarch also announced “Prop Hunt”. In this party mode, one team transforms into typical objects that can be found on a CoD map and must hide from the other team. This has already appeared in earlier CoDs, and a leak even found data about it in Warzone.
For the larger 12vs12 mode “Combined Arms”, with Season 1, there will also be “Domination”. You will play the Domination mode on the usual maps, where the objective point regularly changes and must be held for points.
What about new maps? As new 6vs6 maps, Treyarch showcased the two maps “The Pines” (Mall) and a rework of the older map “Raid”.
“The Pines” is described by the developers as a medium-sized map with many levels. The outdoor areas provide engagements at close range while the interior offers space for fights at greater distances. “Raid” offers the classic 3-lane system and takes place in and around a large mansion in Hollywood. The map debuted with Black Ops 2 in 2012. As a Christmas extra, there is also a holiday version of the cult map “Nuketown”.
Since most regular multiplayer maps are too large for the smaller gunfights, the mode will feature its own maps. In total, there will be 4 unique maps at the start of the season:
- Game Show
- ICBM
- KGB
- Subway
The Pines 
Raid 
Holiday Nuketown
What about the scorestreak? Finally, with Season 1, a new scorestreak is being introduced. With the H.A.R.P. (High-Altitude Reconnaissance Plane), you can acquire an improved and high-flying recon drone that displays enemies on the mini-map along with their direction of movement.
Multiplayer Content – Coming Later
What is coming during the season? During the season, another mode will be added: Dropkick 6vs6. Here, teams must secure and hold a briefcase containing nuclear material. As long as one team holds the briefcase, there are no respawns for that team. However, the other team without the briefcase can continue to respawn and pressure the team that is carrying it. Points are awarded for holding the briefcase and the holder receives a powerful handgun and cannot use their own weapons.
Additionally, another map is planned. The “Sanatorium” will be released during the season as a new map for the large 40vs40 Fireteam mode. It takes place in a large hotel area in the Ural Mountains. There will also be a new vehicle: Tactical Raft – a watercraft that allows you to explore the picturesque lake.
Cold War Season 1 – Content for Cold War Zombie Mode
What is coming at launch? The zombie mode is the least served, but still not completely forgotten.
Season 1 brings you the mode “Jingle Hells” and trims the launch map “Die Maschine” to holiday spirit. Plague hounds with Rudolph noses, zombie-killing snowballs, crazy Christmas power-ups, and much more await you in the crazy Christmas version of the endless mode. Here you can find our beginner’s guide to zombies in Cold War if you want to familiarize yourself with the mode until then.
What is coming during the season? Later, the mode “Cranked” for zombies will be added. Here you will receive a buff when you eliminate zombies, and a timer will run down. If you fail to eliminate some zombies before the timer expires, you will go out in a classic fashion.
Schedule & Release Details
When does the new season go live? It is planned that you will have access to the new season from December 16 at 8 a.m.
How large are the downloads? This is still uncertain. The developers explain that a total of 3 downloads will be necessary to access all the content of the season:
- Update 1.07 from December 7 for Cold War
- Season update on December 15 for Cold War
- Season update for Warzone on December 16
The first update, which paved the way for the new season in Cold War, went online already. The other two can only be downloaded when the season starts. If you only play Warzone, you do not need the “Cold War” updates. Learn here what advantages you can benefit from being a Warzone player with Cold War.
The first season of Cold War is extensive and it will be exciting to see how the experience expands with the new content – especially in the battle royale Warzone. Overall, however, it looks like a great content package for the upcoming holidays.
