CALL OF DUTY: NEXT COMMS AND THE BLACK OPS 6 BETA

The following Blog is one of five Deep Dives into the announcements at the 2024 Call of Duty®: NEXT showcase, as well as bringing you a wealth of free, official guides to every aspect of the Black Ops 6 Multiplayer Beta that starts on August 30**. Be sure to read all the following content to ensure you’re up to date with breaking news and Beta content:

• Blog 1: Black Ops 6: Global Gameplay Systems. Detailing content – like Omnimovement, Gunsmith changes, Global Weapon Builds, Classic Prestige, and Mastery Camos – applicable to all the different games and modes, mainly focused on innovations across Multiplayer Zombies, and Call of Duty: Warzone™.
• Blog 2: Black Ops 6: Multiplayer Intel. All of the specific announcements related to Black Ops 6 Multiplayer from Call of Duty: NEXT.
• Blog 3: Black Ops 6: Zombies Intel. All of the new details regarding Round-Based Zombies in Black Ops 6, including information on Liberty Falls, Wonder Weapons, and more, straight from Call of Duty: NEXT.
• Blog 4: Black Ops 6: Call of Duty: Warzone Integrations. Important information regarding the brand-new Area 99 Resurgence Map, as well as new gameplay innovations, Mastery Camos, and more. You’re reading this blog now!
• Blog 5: Black Ops 6 Beta: Everything You Need to Know. Ready to drop into the Multiplayer Beta? Prepare yourself with this game-winning overview and guide to leveling up to ensure you unlock all the Beta Rewards, including the two exclusive Operator skins!

BLOG 4: THIS IS CALL OF DUTY: WARZONE

Call of Duty: NEXT brought the very first live gameplay of the all-new Call of Duty: Warzone map coming to Season 1 later this year. Designed by Treyarch with meticulous attention regarding movement flow, visibility, and narrative direction, let’s take a closer look at the Resurgence Map set firmly in the Call of Duty: Black Ops world.

Set against the unrelenting heat of the Nevada desert, Area 99 – or more specifically, the Echo Ridge Weapons Station – was a top-secret government site constructed in the 1950s, concealed from the public just miles away from the original Nuketown testing site. Designed to push the bounds of radiation testing and cement American dominance, the entire region was subsequently abandoned after an unfortunate reactor leak, and the project erased by the government.

This is the birthplace of Nuketown. Welcome to Call of Duty: Warzone and Area 99.

AREA 99: NEW WARZONE MAP OVERVIEW

Inspired by the rapid and unrelenting gameplay of the Multiplayer map Nuketown, Treyarch deconstructed a lot of what made that map special and applied it here while increasing the size and scope of Area 99 to accommodate the lore and Warzone gameplay mechanics, which is revealed in the various points of interest across the map as well as keeping the gameplay extremely fast and tactical.

Much of the scenery and landscape across Area 99 will be familiar to fans of Nuketown, but on a much larger scale. The landscape has main roadways to traverse on foot and in vehicles (though motorized transport wasn’t in the Alpha build on show at Call of Duty: NEXT), while other points of interest on the map are linked by open trenches of sand, pipework, and wiring. The central Reactor bullseye, and the huge crane balancing a Nuketown house in the air, seem to be vying for hot-drop locations, though much of the action is likely to take place in the center of the map.

Area 99 may be much larger than Nuketown – it is, after all, a Warzone Resurgence Map – but it is still a focused and compact location, with a similar-sized footprint to Rebirth Island.

Archie Atom Says “Stay Positive!”

With unique gameplay flare, Area 99 celebrates the retrofuturism art style, both in the use of materials and architecture of the map. There are locations featuring curved rooflines and once-grand conference rooms with a nod to the Art Deco movement. One of the biggest nods to a future of curved plastic housing with the 1950s Diner aesthetic are the remains of the Pod dwellings, where garish wall colors and compact kitchens collide.

Ruling over the remains of this military compound is Area 99’s official mascot, Archie Atom! Relentlessly chipper, Archie appears on signs and billboards across the site, cheerfully reminding you of the stringent safety protocols, dangers of unsupervised conduct, and threats to the nation if the site’s secrets are exposed. None of this did any good apparently, as Area 99 was seemingly abandoned in March 1962, and has been slowly decaying (and the reactor leaking radiation) ever since.

A Sightseeing Tour of Area 99

Here’s a quick tour of Area 99’s many Points of Interest:

Mannequin Assembly

Not the place to visit if you suffer from automatonophobia, a large-scale mannequin plant – established in 1949 – dominates the northern part of the map. The plant has been overproducing mannequins unsupervised for years since the facility was abandoned, leading to comically large piles of mannequin parts. Thousands of torsos, heads, and arms are strewn everywhere, as the decades of extreme heat and encroaching sand cover the exterior cargo bays with plastic body parts and dune piles.

The interior of the connecting assembly buildings is a dilapidated maze, featuring giant molding vats, a mold preparation system, conveyor belts, a large assembly chamber with rusting, automated robot arms frozen in time, a hydraulic press that’s seemingly operational, and the pervading stench of melting plastic.

Test Site and Bunker

Workers from the Advanced Technologies and Applications Division conduct a variety of highly dangerous tests from the B-207 surface-testing viewing station location, and the connected mainframe war room beneath the sands. Up top, you can easily spot this area due to the helipad, and what was once a live-fire test site with containers, rusting buses, and a central trench. Before being abandoned, it appears the military were testing something called the “Guardian Weapon Platform”….

Delve a little deeper, via either bunker entrance or the metal trapdoors, and you’ll reach a rabbit warren of subterranean subterfuge. A large armory, loading docks for highly combustible ordnance, a War Room with annotated plans to uncover, and the Mainframe where weapon system testing is recorded via cutting edge 1960s tape technology.

Reactor and Cooling Towers

The main source of experimental weaponry, the roof of the central reactor building acts as a bullseye for Operators dropping into the action. This main reactor tower – which was cracked open and has been slowly leaking for the past 30 years – features more vertical gameplay both inside and out, with ascenders and gantry steps providing the access in and out of the core chamber, adjacent computer banks, and curved corridors leading to the Turbines room and Hydro Pumps.

Spread out to the connected radial buildings around the tower as they provide more cover opportunities. Working clockwise from north, this includes Research Station 02, a mechanical bay and motor pool, Research Station 01, a thermal energy storage bay, general storage building, and a gas station, and two concentric circular routes complete with rusting vehicles, crates and other dilapidated machinery. Between the Reactor and the Mannequin Assembly plant are a trio of cooling towers, shut down decades ago and gradually disintegrating away in the inclement weather.

Factory: Warehouse and Manufacturing

Scour the southern part of Area 99 for a uniquely Black Ops location. This isn’t a normal factory, but a unique construction zone where all the basic elements of a Nuketown house – from the walls, interior decoration, and even the infamous red sign – are built, ready for shipping to other possible Nuketown sites being constructed elsewhere.

The construction begins within the red-and-white factory structure – known as “Warehouse” – where raw materials were delivered, house components were constructed and ferried via giant ceiling conveyors to a main shop floor where entire Nuketown houses where prefabricated and moved in their entirety to the transportation gate. Don’t forget to explore the teal-colored factory building – known as “Manufacturing” – as there’s a rooftop conference room, lockers and worker kitchens as well as the huge house-building bays.

The main reason to explore here is a giant bay where the sections of Nuketown houses are pieced together. Roam the long conveyor belt halls, marveling at the sections of walls, home appliances, furnishings, and signage that still sit, waiting for assembly. Come for the Nuketown history and stay for the parkour opportunities and exploration within the large conveyor belts, shipping warehouses, and factory floor corridors.

Loading Bay

The Echo Ridge shipping yard is dominated by a single, gigantic crane structure – and likely power position – that sits above the main loading dock. Big rigs with flatbeds would arrive here, receive entire housing units or other scenic items, and transportation from the site would begin. Close by is a receiving warehouse, but the main attraction is an entire, finished house still fully suspended from the crane winch, with many traversal points whether you’ve used a parachute or ascenders to get here.

Nuketown Shipping

Further along the eastern side of the map are a collection of Nuketown dwellings, some with the remains of their flatbeds and big rig cabins still visible and rusting away in the sweltering sun. These were waiting for transportation paperwork, though the decades of neglect have taken a toll on the buildings and vehicles alike. This is now a boneyard of half-buried homes, slowly consumed by the creeping sand.

Pods

The latest in retro-futuristic pod housing served the community of workers who kept Echo Ridge Weapons Station functioning, and a quartet of brightly colored housing units are still standing today, though in various stages of decrepitude. Each pod features a central pillar (and elevator) with branched living, kitchen, and dwelling chambers cantilevered out from this central column.

Now neglected for 30 years, the peeling walls, half-destroyed roofs and windows, still hold faded memories, though Operators may find long-range sniping opportunities as well as close-quarter room clearance duties if they explore the pods and the stepped exterior pathways. The only survivors are the desert scrub, cholla cacti, and Joshua trees.

THE FUTURE OF CALL OF DUTY: WARZONE

Integrated Innovations

The arrival of Area 99 to Call of Duty: Warzone later this year is one of the many changes and innovations to the game that Treyarch and Raven have planned. We can confirm the following additions to the game, including the integration of Black Ops 6’s global gameplay systems, which we dive deeper into in another blog. Here are some highlights:

• Omnimovement: Seamlessly chain combat maneuvers together, like sprinting, sliding, diving and a newly enhanced supine prone, all with a full 360 degrees range of motion.
• Black Ops Ordnance: All of the Primary and Secondary Weapons (Assault Rifles, SMGs, Shotguns, LMGs, Marksman Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Pistols and Launchers) coming to Black Ops 6 will also be available at the launch of Season 1. A selection of Equipment, including Tacticals, Lethals, and Field Upgrades are also scheduled. Expect more information in the weeks to come.
• Dedicated Melee: You are allowed to bring a third weapon into the warzone as well as your Primary and Secondary guns; a Melee Weapon. This is a close-quarters armament with no ranged ordnance, usually taking the form of a knife or bat, and is an alternate and more proficient attack compared to the Gun Butt strike, which can be equipped by holding the melee button.
• Global Weapon Builds: This Loadout and Gunsmith upgrade effectively allows you to make a change to any build or blueprint in any game, and it permeates across all modes (Black Ops 6, Zombies, and Call of Duty: Warzone). This applies to Black Ops 6 weapons only.
• Carry Forward Content: Expect Call of Duty: Warzone to include the weapons, blueprints, Operators and Skins, and vast majority of the cosmetics from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare® II and Modern Warfare III, as well as full integration into the gameplay and cosmetic content of Black Ops 6.
• Classic Prestige and Relocks: This is an incredibly in-depth levelling system coming to Black Ops 6 Multiplayer and Zombies at launch, and to Call of Duty: Warzone at Season 1, that rewards your dedicated grind with dozens of truly spectacular and unique rewards.
• Relocks: To continue progression through the Prestige system, your Military Levels from 1-55 are reset (also known as “relocked”), and must be unlocked again. However, your weapon progress is kept, there are ways to access your favorite items with Permanent Unlock Tokens, and there’s a Prestige Hub where you can easily keep track of your Prestige progress.
• Emotes and Sprays: Adding to the personalization of your Operators are the return of Emotes and Sprays (iconography you primarily daub on walls, either to tag them or to tactically flag a location for your teammates). Emotes are accessible anywhere you have control over your character.

Pick-3: The Plan for Perks

Though the majority of the Black Ops 6 Loadout system is coming to Call of Duty: Warzone, the way Perks are organized and chosen works a little differently. Welcome to Pick-3.

The current way that Call of Duty: Warzone utilizes Perks isn’t changing drastically; Raven is simply bringing you the elements of the Black Ops 6 experience that work best in Call of Duty: Warzone to this next iteration of the game. This includes retuning past weapons, balancing the Perks and other equipment on offer, and dropping in Rotating and Lootable Perks into matches:

• Pick-3 Perks: Before dropping into a match, you’re able to pick any three Perks from your Loadout.

• Wildcards: In addition, you can further augment your favorite Loadouts by adding a single Wildcard. Last utilized in Black Ops Cold War and for the first time in Call of Duty: Warzone, these allow you to add a modifier that would normally bend or break the rules of the Loadout system.

• Lootable Pick-3 Perks: If you’re eliminated in-game, your equipped Pick-3 Perks Pack is dropped, like the current experience, and the Pack can be looted.
• Lootable Perks: During a match, you can gather more than your Pick-3 Loadout Perks by finding valuable Perks in caches and other locations across the map.
• Rotating Perks: To keep the game fresh, sets of Perks will be rotated in and out of the loot pool.
• Specialist Remains: The rare and impressive Perk Package will remain in the game.

More Challenges That Ever Before

• Weapon Mastery Camos: As part of the Global gameplay systems, you have a separate set of Call of Duty: Warzone Mastery Camos to earn for every Black Ops 6 weapon. Consult the Global Gameplay Systems Blog to see them in action!
• Reticle Challenges: Customizable reticles are back for any weapon with an Optic sight, and there’s a set of Challenges to unlock Call of Duty: Warzone-specific aim-markers that you can use on any sight, in Black Ops 6 Multiplayer, Zombies, or Call of Duty: Warzone!
• Dark Ops Calling Card Challenges: This wouldn’t be a Black Ops game without Dark Ops Calling Card Challenges! These involve tasks so fiendish, the unlock criteria is [[REDACTED]] until you complete them! These are the ultimate, classified set of Calling Card rewards available!

GAMEPLAY ENHANCEMENTS

Backpack to Basics

Raven has been studying the gameplay and learnings from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) era of Call of Duty: Warzone, and focusing some of this year’s Call of Duty: Warzone iteration on simplicity. One of the key results is the return of the classic in-game inventory system. What does this mean?

No more backpacks.

Allowing for easier muscle memory, when you enter your non-Loadout Inventory in the game, you have a simple series of slots that veteran players will recognize as being laid out in a very similar way to the original equipment inventory. Your inventory has spaces for the following:

• Cash on hand
• Gas Mask
• Armor Plates
• Killstreaks
• Field Upgrade
• Primary, Secondary, and Melee Weapons
• Your AR, SMG, Shotgun, Sniper, and Launcher munitions.

It’s now an extremely simple matter to select equipment, as well as request it from your squadmates. In fact, the only limitation is the amount of inventory you’re allowed to carry.

That problem has a solution with the return of Satchels.

Increased Inventory: Satchels

Satchels were first introduced into Call of Duty: Warzone just over a month after the initial game’s launch in 2020. They are key examples of keeping the inventory simplicity from the early years of Call of Duty: Warzone, but with some added depth (and carrying capacity) for those that need it. The Satchel system returns to Call of Duty: Warzone:

Satchels are optional, lootable equipment that increase the storage capacity of the dedicated inventory slots within a Call of Duty: Warzone Match. These provide Operators with duplicates of the same items to increase your storage capabilities, thus increasing your effectiveness. Satchels can’t be (and don’t need to be) dropped, and one or both of the individual Satchel types can be found and equipped once per match. If an Operator carrying one or more Satchels is killed, all their Satchels are dropped and can be looted. Expect the following Satchel types:

• Armor Satchel: This substantially increases your Armor Plate carrying capacity.
• Munitions Satchel: This increases the Ammunition capacity for AR, SMG, Shotgun, Sniper, and Launcher ammunition.

Other Expected Changes

Raven Software continues its ongoing changes to the game, with hundreds of more minor refinements. Any major changes will be updated and explained thoroughly at the consistently updated Call of Duty Patch Notes website. Here are a few highlights, all expected to drop at the start of Season 1:

• Ascend to Greatness: Accessing both Ascenders and Ziplines, and the animations as you start, use, and complete an ascent or zip, have been modified to be more seamless than ever. There’s a pleasing rapidity to the entire maneuver.
• Live Ping Durations Decreased: The time a ping sits in your field of vision has been decreased, giving you clearer visions of an important location once an area of interest has been ascertained.
• In and Out Again (Part 1): As part of the streamlining of the Call of Duty experience, Call of Duty: Warzone’s menus and in-match user interface (UI) system will be simplified, enabling you to get into a match more quickly, and gain an understanding of the situation more rapidly,
• In and Out Again (Part 2): Expect some entertaining changes to both the Infil and Exfil sequences in the game, and some additional [[REDACTED]] surprises during the launch [[REDACTED]].

BIG MAP LOWDOWN

The Black Ops 6 integration into the next chapter of Call of Duty: Warzone isn’t only about Resurgence-sized maps, as Operators will continue to drop into Urzikstan at the start of Season 1. As Raven ensures the new global content smoothly transitions into Call of Duty: Warzone, prepare for Big Map Ranked Play:

Ranked Play Returns!

Battle Royale Ranked Play: During Season 1, Ranked Play makes its triumphant return to the big map, bringing Ranked Play to Call of Duty: Warzone earlier in the seasons than ever before. Prove your prowess by outsmarting, out-maneuvering, and outlasting the opposition and earn exclusive Ranked Play rewards as you go.

ADDITIONAL INTEL

Black Ops 6 Beta Rewards

Earn cosmetic rewards by reaching Player Level milestones throughout the Multiplayer Open Beta that will persist through the launch of Black Ops 6 when it releases on October 25***.

The rewards and required levels follow:

• Level 2: “Beta Tester” Animated Emblem

• Level 6: “Beta Tag” Spray

• Level 11: “No Bugs” Weapon Charm

• Level 15: “Quick Draw” Emote
• Level 20: “Squish” Westpoint Operator Skin (only unlockable during Weekend One)

• Level 20: “Squash” Westpoint Operator Skin (unlocked during either Weekend)

• Level 23: “The Truth Lies” Loading Screen

• Level 27: “Beta Expert” Animated Calling Card

• Level 30: “Bug Smasher” Weapon Blueprint

Pre-purchase Digitally and Get the Reflect 115 Camo Pack, Vault Edition Available

Pre-purchase Black Ops 6 today, and you’ll receive a variety of pre-purchase benefits, including the brand-new Reflect 115 Camo Pack for Modern Warfare III and Call of Duty: Warzone!

Pre-purchase the Digital Edition on PC to receive the following:

Reflect 115 Camo Pack (New!)

Woods Operator Pack*

Early Access to the Open Beta**

Pre-purchase the Vault Edition on PC and receive the previous rewards as well as the following:

Hunters Vs. Hunted Operator Pack

BlackCell Season 1

Mastercraft Weapon Collection

GobbleGum Pack

PLEASE NOTE! Those players who pre-purchased the Vault Edition will be able to gain access to the Hunters Vs. Hunted Operator Pack, as well as the Mastercraft Weapon Collection, during the Black Ops 6 Beta.

Game Pass Subscribers are set to receive all Digital Edition benefits, and those who upgrade for $30 (or local equivalent) to the Vault Edition will receive all Vault Edition benefits.

Those players who have already pre-purchased Black Ops 6 will receive the Reflect 115 Camo Pack automatically.

The Reflect 115 Camo Pack consists of the Reflect 115 Mastery Camo for use in Modern Warfare III and Call of Duty: Warzone. In addition, you receive three Flawless Aetherium Crystals, three Legendary Aether Tools, and three Ray Gun Weapon Cases for immediate use in Modern Warfare Zombies. All content does not carry forward into Black Ops 6.

Official Comms Active: Stay Informed. Not Misinformed

Misinformation is everywhere: Ensure you stay one step ahead with the latest official Black Ops 6 information by checking the Call of Duty Blog in the weeks up to launch with important comms you won’t want to miss.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is published by Activision. Development for the game is led by Treyarch, in partnership with Raven Software. Additional development support provided (in alphabetical order) by Activision Central Design, Activision Central Technology, Activision QA, Activision Shanghai, Beenox, Demonware, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, and Sledgehammer Games.

The Truth Lies.

*Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III / Call of Duty: Warzone on the pre-purchased platform required to redeem Woods Operator Pack and Reflect 115 Camo Pack. Sold / downloaded separately. Must be redeemed by October 25, 2025.

**Actual launch date(s) and platform availability of Open Beta subject to change. See www.callofduty.com/beta for more details. Minimum Open Beta duration is 2 days. Limited time only. Internet connection required. Online multiplayer subscription may be required.

***Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 required to redeem. Sold separately.

© 2024 Activision Publishing, Inc. ACTIVISION, CALL OF DUTY, MODERN WARFARE, CALL OF DUTY WARZONE, and CALL OF DUTY BLACK OPS are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners.

For more information, please visit www.callofduty.com and www.youtube.com/callofduty, and follow @Activision and @CallofDuty on X, Instagram, and Facebook. For Call of Duty Updates, follow @CODUpdates on X.