Call of Duty: Warzone is set to receive a major Season 3 update on April 22 – widely expected to see the existing Verdansk map being nuked – which will arrive as part of a 25GB patch.Revealed in a bumper post on the Call of Duty blog, the update will first address the games’ metanarrative, introducing a “Hunt for Adler” event where players will have to complete in-game challenges across Black Ops Cold War and Warzone to learn of the character’s whereabouts, unlocking skins and charms in the process.
Three new Operators will also be brought to the game across the season, including the “alpine warfare specialist” Wraith, a Dublin-born MI6 operative called Knight and an ex-hitman called Antonov. Wraith is available at Tier 0 in the Season Three Battle Pass, with the remaining Operators unlockable via Season Three Store bundles. A special Cold War variant of Captain Price will also be provided to players who own or purchase Black Ops Cold War when the season starts.
The April 22 update will also introduce six new weapons to the game, including the PPSh-41 SMG, the Swiss K31 Sniper Rifle, The CARV.2 Tactical Rifle, the fully-auto AMP63 Pistol and two new melee weapons. Players will be able to wield a Ballistic Knife that can “silently fire lethal retrievable blades” and a Baseball Bat which is good for walloping miscreants. The return of the Ballistic Knife coincides with the return of the melee/projectile-focused Sticks and Stones game mode popularized by earlier games in the Black Ops series.
Black Ops Cold War multiplayer fans will also be pleased to hear that the update is set to introduce new Prestige Levels up to Prestige 15 as well as four new maps. Yamantau (6v6) and Diesel (6v6/2v2/3v3) will arrive during launch week, whereas Black Ops II’s Standoff (6v6) and Duga (Multi-Team) will arrive within the season. The Multi-Team tag also alludes to the new Multi-Team Elimination mode coming during the season, where “multiple teams of four will fight to survive ever-expanding radiation zones” on some of the game’s biggest maps. Season Three will also introduce a new Strafe Run Scorestreak, a Cargo Truck vehicle in large Multi-Team maps and a new Field Upgrade and Outbreak map for Zombies fans.
For Warzone in particular, the blog post explains that the zombie map invasion has “hit a critical level.” The update notes tease that the combat zone “has become too dangerous for even a Tier 1 Operator to survive in” and ponders whether a “conflagration” (a huge fire) could be imminent. Players have been asked to make themselves available for “Operation Rapid Sunder,” which is said to kick off on April 21, with first instructions arriving at 12 PM PT.
It’s thought by many that this could be when the Warzone map will be nuked and, according to leaks, revise the Verdansk map with a style closer to the 1980s theming of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War.
Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.Source