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Call of Duty: Warzone's New Map Gets a Huge Reveal, Gameplay Changes Announced

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A slew of new details about Call of Duty: Warzone's new Pacific map has been revealed. A new blog post from Activision shows off numerous new pictures and the actual in-game map of Caldera, the Pacific island replacing the fictional eastern European region of Verdansk.


At a glance, the map looks roughly the same size as Verdansk, which was already pretty huge. The image also shows off the named points of interest, such as the mountain "Peak" sitting in the northern center, the sandy shores of the "Beachhead" to the east, and a new airfield to the southwest. Why an oceanside resort is placed next to a submarine pen, I can only guess. Caldera is set in the Pacific theater of 1944, so expect plenty of familiar WWII iconography.


If you're wondering what these points of interest will look like in action, Activision released numerous new screenshots showing off each major location.


Activision also announced that Call of Duty: Vanguard owners will receive access to the Caldera map 24 hours early, on December 8. Players who don't own Vanguard will simply be dropped onto the smaller Rebirth Island in the meantime. Once Caldera releases for all players, Rebirth Island will be disabled for an unspecified time, but Activision says it will return later in season one.

Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific will also attempt to streamline Warzone's meta. The new battle royale map will launch with 40 weapons, 38 of which are from Vanguard, and more than a dozen operators based on Vanguard characters.

Loadouts will only be able to contain Vanguard weapons, and players will only be able to find Vanguard weapons scattered around the map. So don't expect to bring your near-future weaponry into battle. Activision is also altering the speed and radius of circles to account for aerial dogfighting.


Other new features and changes include:

  • Any player who wins a gulag match will respawn with any weapons and equipment they acquired in the gulag, rather than a default pistol.
  • The Dead Silence perk is receiving a nerf.
  • Stopping Power Rounds are disabled.
  • Nerfs to stun grenades, heartbeat sensors, and dual-wield melee weapons like the Kali Sticks and Sai.
  • Loadout Drop Markers can only be purchased from Buy Stations after the Loadout Drop event occurs in-match.
  • Buffs for the snapshot grenade, the stim, decoy grenade, and increased damage to "most lethal equipment."
  • Gas masks won't interrupt "as many" actions as they previously did.
  • The addition of gas canisters containing the same poison gas in the circle, but with a much smaller radius. You can also pick up and throw gas canisters.
  • Shallow water can hide footsteps (although not entirely), even on players you're tracking via the Tracker perk. Crouching in knee-high water will give you the Cold Blooded perk. Fire-based weapons will also trigger smoke when making contact with water.

New Contract types include:

  • Supply Drop, which drops a single crate of valuable loot for all players onto the map, but only the team who started the contract can see its exact location on the map.
  • Big Game Bounty: Targets the player with the highest kill count, but only once per game.
  • A "Top Secret" Contract that Activision has redacted any info on.

Keep in mind that the previously announced kernel-level driver will be required for all PC players in Warzone's next update, and will come to Vanguard's multiplayer at a later date.

Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific launches on December 8 for Vanguard owners and December 9 for all other players. In the meantime, Activision is handing out some serious bans for Warzone cheaters, including all past, present, and future Call of Duty games.


Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/operator for IGN.

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