Call of Duty Season 3 will arrive in Warzone on April 3 with a season themed around nostalgia and the return of Verdansk. Activision revealed tons of new details about the season, including OG weapons in the Season 3 battle pass, changes to Warzone’s omnimovement, and the new modes arriving for Verdansk. Here are all the major highlights for Warzone’s Season 3 update.
Activision revealed that Season 3 will be split into two separate days. Multiplayer and Zombies content will arrive a day early on April 2, while Warzone content will drop on April 3. The publisher says information on Black Ops 6, Ricochet anti-cheat updates, and more Season 3 battle-pass details will be provided in the coming days.
Fan-favorite weapons return
Every season of Call of Duty adds a new battle pass to level up. Season 3’s battle pass will include nostalgic weapons made popular during Verdansk, including the CR-56 AMAX assault rifle and the HDR sniper rifle. The Kilo 141 assault rifle is included as a reward in the upcoming Return to Verdansk event, as detailed below.
Return to Verdansk event
Launching with the map, players can take part in the Return to Verdansk event from April 3-15. This is a fully free event (no paid event pass) with 20 rewards to unlock.
This event includes a series of challenges all across Verdansk, including discovering map locations, looting safes, and more. The rewards include items like operators from Modern Warfare 2019 and the Kilo 141 assault rifle weapon unlock.
Verdansk map remake
Verdansk was rebuilt from the ground up to be a faithful remake of the original 2020 launch map, but designed with better technology than the original version. This is meant to add better lighting, visibility, and overall graphics.
Activision describes it as the same map, with a vast majority of the structures, roadways, and scenery being a one-to-one duplication, but there are some “beneficial adjustments.” These small changes include things like extra ladders, open windows, and such to make the map flow better.
The water at Dam is no longer frozen. It’s only ankle deep, but now players will need to listen for splashes of enemy footsteps. Speaking of water, Verdansk also didn’t originally have swimming mechanics, but now that it’s a feature in this current version of Warzone, the southern combat zone has been extended out into the Kastovian Sea. This makes the coastline accessible and a small section of water is swimmable.
Lighting is adjusted even in the darker areas of the map. Activision says this should minimize the advantage of hiding in dark corners wearing a Roze skin, which is a playful reference to the all-black Roze skin that created tons of controversy for feeling pay-to-win, as the operator became very difficult to see in shadowy corners and dim stairwells.
It’s also worth noting that ascenders will arrive at a later date for standard battle royale. The ascenders to reach the rooftops weren’t originally added until Season 5 of Modern Warfare 2019, but they’ll arrive in the remake sometime in Season 3. Activision says they won’t be available all around the map at launch in standard battle royale to keep the classic feel. The only exception here is Stadium’s rooftop, which will have the ascenders available to avoid roof exploits.
However, the ascenders will be available in Plunder mode at launch.
Seasonal map changes
Verdansk will evolve as Season 3 continues, with a few points-of-interest changing at first. Activision says the map will change over the seasons to come, including the addition of a moving train, underground locations, and even something teased as “redacted.” New Easter eggs are also teased for the future.
Ominmovement adjustments
Warzone originally had the exact same movement mechanics as Black Ops 6, but now the developer has slightly adjusted the game’s omnimovement to better suit the battle royale.
Season 3 will fine-tune player movement by slightly scaling back some of the speed increases introduced over the past several months with omnimovement. The publisher says this change is meant to capture movement that is “more in line with what players experienced in the early days of Warzone.”
Urzikstan And Area 99 are gone
Returning back to Verdansk means saying goodbye to Modern Warfare 3’s Urzikstan map. Activision says this man will be “retired” in Season 3. It’s not mentioned if this map will ever return, but players shouldn’t hold out hope for big map rotation, as our recent interview with Raven Software and Beenox developers discussed the complications of having more than one big map in Warzone.
Additionally, Black Ops 6’s Area 99 Resurgence map will temporarily disappear, leaving only Rebirth Island, which was Warzone’s first Resurgence map.
150-player classic Verdansk
Verdansk returns with the original 150-player count for battle royale, as recent versions have only included 100-120 players per match. Season 3 includes the original Warzone announcer, and it returns the ability to shoot while free-falling onto the map.
Players can expect the return of floating loot, the original armor plate satchel, and the OG Buy Station with its original inventory and UI. The original Prison Showers Gulag returns as one of three Gulag variants.
Verdansk will also have Plunder mode at launch, and the Ranked Play competitive mode arrives later in the season.
New “casual” mode with bots
Warzone is introducing a casual mode with bots. Battle Royale Casual will be a new mode available at launch. This mode features 148 “players” with 28 real players and up to 120 bots. This mode will also have the same ruleset as standard battle royale matches on Verdansk.
Of course, this mode comes with some caveats. Like Warzone’s Bootcamp mode, game progression is limited in this mode and results will not count towards or against player stats. This mode also doesn’t count towards a player’s eligibility for accessing Ranked Play.
Classic-vehicle rebalancing
Verdansk was notorious for providing over-the-top plays with helicopters and the cargo truck known as “Bertha.” The developer is bringing back all those vehicles, and they’ll be available in the same set of locations as they appeared in the original map.
Additionally, there are no tire punctures or fuel-refilling to worry about from the Warzone 2.0 days. Instead, Activision says each vehicle has a health meter and when it reaches zero, it explodes just as it did originally.