Everything you need to get started in Call of Duty: Warzone. The ultimate guide for new players dropping in for the first time.
Your mission, survive until every other player or squad has been eliminated from the game. How you accomplish this mission is up to you and following this guide will not guarantee a win, but it will teach you what you need to know to get started. It’s time to commence your training.
Prebrief
Welcome to Call of Duty®: Warzone™, a large scale, action-packed, battleground where players drop onto the core map and must fight to survive to be the last player or team standing. There are many ways to play and win a match, and this guide will give you the tools to get started in learning the intricacies behind playing through Call of Duty: Warzone. From your first drop to your first win, nothing is guaranteed except for some exciting engagements and the fact that someone must win. Will it be you?
Top Tips for Beginners
1. Loot up, Operator: Looting is not the only way to get weapons and cash, but it is one of the best ways to get started. When you land on the map at the beginning of a match, you start with a pistol and a fighting chance, but looting Supply Boxes while playing will likely drop you better weapons.
2. Cash is King and Queen: Cash won’t win the game for you, but collecting as much as possible allows you to buy the tools you need to create your own success. When you have some cash be sure to visit a Buy Station, where you can buy a Loadout, redeploy a squadmate, or keep the rest of your kit fully equipped — you’ll always have a better chance of survival when you have right tools for the job.
3. Know your Loadout: Whether you’re in a squad or running solo, it’s important to know what your equipped weapons and Equipment’s strengths are before you decide to engage. Call of Duty: Warzone is about picking your fights carefully, and part of that is not taking a long-ranged fight when you have an SMG or a Shotgun equipped.
Getting Started: Battle Royale and Resurgence
Are you ready to get started in learning the ropes of Call of Duty: Warzone? Before jumping into a match there are a handful of tasks it’s recommended that you complete. You should build your Loadout and fine tune your settings, but you’ll also need to know what you’re building your Loadout for, exactly. There are many modes within Call of Duty: Warzone, but the two most popular and main modes are Battle Royale and Resurgence.
Battle Royale
Battle Royale is the classic Call of Duty: Warzone experience with a high risk/reward bottom line that allows you and your squad one full round of life, which will be explained later, and ends with one winner. Battle Royale normally takes place on one of the current Big Maps.
Resurgence
Resurgence is a little more lenient on members of your Squad being eliminated because as long as someone in your Squad is still alive, you can redeploy back into the fight after a timer. That is until the resurgence timer is up, then free redeployment becomes impossible for the rest of the game. Normally taking place on a smaller map, Resurgence can be significantly more intense, but it is just as rewarding as Battle Royale and will also end when there is only one player or squad left alive on the map.
The Gas
The objective of Call of Duty: Warzone is to survive until you’re the last player or squad on the map. In phases, the map will force players into one isolated location by releasing poisonous gas from the edges of the map. You can survive in the gas for a short amount of time, and even longer if you have a Gas Mask. Gas Masks do have a durability and will break when exposed to gas for too long, however you can either equip or stow Gas Masks in your Backpack, giving you useful choice depending on the situation.
Tip: Hold or press the corresponding button/key to stow an item in your Backpack instead of the button/key to equip it. You may not want to swap out a mask that may still have some use when it's possible to keep both. If you don’t have a mask equipped, when you enter the Gas your Operator will automatically equip one, so long as it’s in your backpack.
The Gulag
The most important thing to remember is that survival is the key to victory, however if you’re eliminated for the first time in a match you will have a chance to earn your way back into the match via The Gulag. Every player in a Call of Duty: Warzone Battle Royale match has one opportunity in The Gulag, as long as the gulag hasn’t closed. There is no Gulag in Resurgence due to the automatic redeploy mechanic.
The Gulag is a 1v1 faceoff with someone else who was recently eliminated as well. You’ll drop into a room with cover obstacles and a simple Loadout. Both players will start with the same Loadout and must eliminate the other or use the ascender to exfil that appears in the middle of the room. The winner will automatically be redeployed back into the fight where they can find a safe place to land and attempt to regroup with their Squad.
Top Tips for The Gulag
1. Learn the layout: There are several different variants of The Gulag, but they are easily learnable after a few sessions of fighting for you life. Once you get the hang of which obstacles exist, you can use this knowledge to outsmart your opponent.
2. Check your weapon: Make sure you pay attention to the weapon that you’ve been given for The Gulag, not every weapon is the same and you don’t want to get caught using it improperly in the middle of battle.
3. Gather info and use your equipment: Opponents can be elusive in The Gulag, be sure you defeat them or at the very least tell you where they are.
Casual Playlists
For learning the ropes, there’s no better playlist than Casual Playlists. Drop into either the Battle Royale Casual or Resurgence Casual Playlists with your Custom Loadout and battle for control of the various zones around the map. Experiment with all sorts of weapons, killstreaks and equipment, making every match unpredictable.
Earning Cash (Loot and Contracts)
On the most technical basis, Cash is not a totally required element to win a Call of Duty: Warzone match, but it does make it extremely difficult if you are not collecting Cash and spending it on tools to support your success. Cash can buy you almost everything you would need to succeed in a match, including the redeployment of fully eliminated teammates.
Supply Boxes
All over each map are many different Supply Boxes that contain a variety of different type of loot. Emitting a unique sound, Supply Boxes are located mostly in buildings and semi-secure locations. If you listen closely, you can tell when you’re near one, you’ll just have to look for them. When you open a Supply Box, out will pop a handful of items which can but is not guaranteed to include weapons, ammo, various equipment, killstreaks, gas masks, and most importantly cash.
Supply Boxes aren’t the most lucrative form of gaining cash, but they are the easiest and will still net you enough to get you started. Be sure to pick up the cash as it does pop out the front of the box which means if you’re not standing in the right spot, you can walk away from it without having collected your loot.
Reminder: There is much more to the usefulness of a Supply Box than just earning cash, like the possibility to upgrade gear, replenish armor plates, stock up on ammo, etc. Just because there are better ways to gain a cash stockpile, this method has many other advantages.
Contracts
The most lucrative task to increase your cash flow is to complete Contracts. Contracts must be started by interacting with physical devices located all over the Call of Duty: Warzone map. To find these devices, bring up your Tac-Map and look for a Contract Icon near you. You can select it via your Tac-Map to tag it so that it shows up on your HUD, as well. There is a variety of Contracts that you can choose to begin such as Scavenger, Bounty, and more. Some Contracts task you with interacting with other players, and some don’t, however because this is Call of Duty: Warzone there is always a chance that completing a Contract will place you into a firefight with a squad or two. Once you’ve completed a Contract, you’ll be automatically rewarded with a significant amount of cash, giving you the resources you need to equip yourself properly.
Buy Stations
Buy Stations are the only spots where you can spend your Cash in a match. Due to this, they have a significant chance to have enemy players nearby. Indicated by the Shopping Cart on the map, Buy Stations are where you can buy items like Armor Plates, Killstreaks, loadout weapons and perks. Some of these items you can find by looting Supply Boxes, however they can be rare so a Buy Station is where you can guarantee you’re equipped with a proper setup so long as you have the Cash.
Redeploying Teamates
When your teammate is eliminated for the first time, they do get the chance to earn their way back via The Gulag in Battle Royale, however if they do lose their 1v1 fight or have been eliminated before, they’ll have to be redeployed. To redeploy your teammate, you must find a Buy Station and purchase the redeployment for each individual teammate that had been eliminated. It can get expensive, so be sure to collect as much Cash as possible.
Tip: When a player is redeployed, the Buy Station in which the redeploy was purchased will launch a red flare. This flare will be visible to anyone in visual range and is an indicator that players are likely nearby.
Loadouts
If you’ve played Call of Duty multiplayer, you may be familiar with the general idea of how a Loadout is set up. In Call of Duty: Warzone Loadouts are only slightly different, mostly in what’s available as well as how to equip them. Before loading into a match, you can select the “Weapons” tab at the top of your screen to set up custom Loadouts. Create a few based on what you’d like to use in a few different situations. For instance, in the early game you may want something that’s a little longer ranged and can pick targets from a safe distance. However, in the later portion of a match, you might want something built for a bit of close quarters combat due to the gas shrinking the playable area. You also have the option of setting up a Loadout that you’ll want to use for the entire length of a match because it’s less risky than attempting to buy and collect multiple Loadouts in a single match. Below are some Loadout suggestions that can help you get started.
Every Loadout consists of the following:
- Perk Package
- Primary and Secondary Weapon
- Tactical and Lethal Equipment
Perks
Unlike in Multiplayer, Call of Duty: Warzone Perks work as Packages, where you can choose a selection of Perks to run after placing them into one of three slots, all of which become active once the Loadout with said Perk Package has been claimed. There are Custom Packages (where you can choose your Perks) or Preset Packages.
Vehicles
The maps in Call of Duty: Warzone are quite large, especially on the Big Maps, and sometimes you need a mode of transport that isn’t by foot and is a bit safer than a horizontal or vertical zipline. There is a plethora of vehicles located all around the map for this very reason, and they all have slightly different strengths and weaknesses. For instance, the Armored vehicle is guarded and more difficult to destroy but is not quite as fast as the smaller transports. Vehicles do appear on the Tac Map, which makes things easy when you’re looking for a vehicle nearby, but it also turns red when you enter one which can alert players in close vicinity when an enemy is driving a vehicle.
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