Call of Duty Warzone 2's battle pass is getting a major shake-up
Activision is ditching Warzone's old battle pass system in the name of player freedom
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Warzone 2.0 battle pass
🆕 Warzone 2.0 will launch with a brand new battle pass system
⛔ The linear progression track of the first game has been replaced
🔀 Players will have more freedom to choose what items they unlock
😮 A new Prestige Rank will also let you maintain progress across seasons
Activision has shared a heap of new details about Warzone 2.0 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 ahead of their first multiplayer season, highlighting some major changes coming to the series’ battle pass system.
While the original Warzone featured a linear battle pass system, in which players progressed through 100 tiers to unlock in-game content, Warzone 2.0 will include a branching system that gives players more freedom to decide which items to unlock.
“Instead of a linear stream of tiers set out in a scrolling row along the bottom of your screen, your Battle Pass takes the form of a multi-sector map,” Activision said in a blog post.
“Players will unlock items using earned Battle Token Tier Skips across this map, which is themed within the current season. Each map has at least 20 sectors with five items in each sector — tokens can be used to either unlock adjacent sectors or earn more items within an unlocked sector.”
Players will be able to chart their own progress through the battle pass, beelining a specific item they really want rather than having to unlock loads of tiers before they can get to the good stuff. If you have your sights set on a specific Operator Skin or Weapon Blueprint, you can start acquiring tokens to unlock it, leaving the rest of the battle pass to clear up later.
When Season 1 rolls out, its battle pass will add two new weapons to Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer – the Victus XMR sniper rifle and BAS-P submachine gun. Two additional weapons, Chimera and M13B Assault Rifles, will be added later during the season.
A new Prestige system is also coming. After reaching rank 56, you’ll be able to earn a persistent Prestige Rank that will tick up across seasons, rather than resetting at the end of each. Pump that Prestige Rank up to level 100, 150, 200, and 250 to earn a bunch of rewards and challenges.
Warzone 2.0 is set to launch on November 16, and won’t come quietly. Modern Warfare 2 achieved the biggest launch in Call of Duty history, so Activision will be hoping a lot of those fans will jump over to its new battle royale. As well as the new battle pass system, players can also expect a whole new map, a bunch of new combat mechanics, and the return of an iconic Call of Duty easter egg.
That should tide fans over until next year when the next Call of Duty title releases, although no one’s quite sure what it’ll be.