Everything we know about Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone Pacific Season 1
Ready up for Vanguard’s first season.
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Looking for details around Warzone Pacific Season 1? TheLast Hours of Verdanskevent has come and gone and it’s almost time to head to the sandy shores and blue waters of the Pacific. There’ll be new locations, weapons, and playlists to take part in asVanguardfinally gets its integration with the battle royale.
Thenew Warzone map, Caldera, will provide plenty of opportunities to explore, with over 200 points of interest, and landmark-based regions spread across the whole island. It’ll also be fun to find out if there are anybunker-like challenges to tackle.
So, if you’re ready to dive into the details, here’s what we know about Vanguard and Warzone Pacific Season 1, including release date, map, as well as weapons, vehicles, and planned playlists.
Release date
When is the Warzone Pacific Season 1 release date?
The Warzone Pacific Season 1 release date isDecember 9, thoughif you own Vanguard, you get ‘24-hour exclusive access’ to the new map, starting the day before on December 8.Here are the Caldera unlock timesin your region.
The name is also officially changing on that date to ‘Warzone Pacific’ instead of just plain old Warzone—perhaps to make things a little less confusing.
Update: Season 1 of #Vanguard and Warzone Pacific will now release Dec. 8. Vanguard owners will have 24-hour exclusive first play access to the Caldera map. Open access begins on Dec. 9. pic.twitter.com/GnnYCp6g75November 19, 2021
Check out the Warzone Pacific trailer
If you haven’t seen the new Caldera map that’s arriving in Warzone, the trailer above gives you a good idea what to expect. Many of the new locations—listed in full below—are included, and you get a glimpse at the airborne Dogfighting combat towards the end.
Map changes
Warzone Pacific Season 1 map changes
The new season ushers in the new Caldera map, which will replace the long-running Verdansk. Caldera promises to be roughly the same size as the map it’s replacing and will contain 15 distinct areas to explore.
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We’ve had afew glimpsesof the new map over the last few months, but we’ve since had a closer look at some of those Calderalocations. They are:
Best M4A1 Warzone loadout:Top all-purpose AR buildsBest MP7 Warzone loadout:Effective SMG setupsBest Grau Warzone loadout:Strong AR buildsBest M13 Warzone loadout:Attachments to chooseBest Kilo 101 Warzone loadout:Boost the punchy AR
The newRicochet anti-cheat systemwill also be introduced to Warzone, along with the new Caldera map. The Season 1 update will “deploy the server-side upgrades”, as well as “new, internally developed kernel-level driver on PC to assist in identifying cheaters.”
Rebirth Island returns
Rebirth Island will also return shortly after the start of Warzone Pacific Season 1 onDecember 16, along with its associated playlists. You can expect the smaller map to continue supplementing the main Warzone map.
Vanguard weapons, playlists and vehicles
Vanguard weapons and playlists in Warzone Pacific Season 1
The new playlists for Season 1 areVanguard RoyaleandVanguard Resurgence. You’ll only be able to use Vanguard-specific weapons in loadouts for these particular playlists to help “streamline the meta, granting new players an opportunity to jump in without facing fully maxed-out loadouts right at launch.” Only fair, right?
If you’re keen to use your old loadouts, you can still use your Cold War and Modern Warfare weaponry in Standard playlists, as well as the 40 weapons from Vanguard. In addition, all Operators from Vanguard, Cold War, and Modern Warfare can be used across all playlists, Standard or not.
Included in #Warzone Pacific Season One:40+ New Weapons! And adjustments to Melee Weapons. pic.twitter.com/Vr35rZP7ZBDecember 8, 2021
New vehicles
A new machine gunfighter aircraftaims to add strategy and firepower to your dogfighting pursuits and help your squad come out on top. To counteract this, ananti-air truckgives you the means to shut down opponents that have taken to the air—in addition to the traditional launchers or stationary AA turrets.
New Operators
New Operators
We know there’ll be new multiplayer maps and Operators arriving in Season 1, but until today, we’ve only had rumours suggesting possible candidates.
The three new Operators have now been confirmed as Isabella, Lewis, and Francis. You can check out the tweet below for details on how to acquire them, which is either from the Season One Battle Pass or via featured Bundles.
Included in #Warzone Pacific Season One:New S.O.T.F. Trident Operators: Francis, Lewis, and Isabella. pic.twitter.com/MQOo6bdraIDecember 8, 2021
Contracts and public events
Contracts and public events
You’ll have new contracts to complete during a match, such as a Supply Drop Contract that anyone can pick up, but only the squad with the contract knows the drop location. Another new contract is a Big Game Bounty, which tasks you with taking out the operator with the highest kill count.
The Restocks and Resurgences events from Rebirth Island will come to Caldera, and perhaps more intriguingly, we’ve been given this tease of another upcoming event:
“There are also rumours of [[REDACTED]] Weapon Crates that can appear around the island, which contain the coveted [[REDACTED]] Weapon Blueprints seen in Verdansk, and armaments extracted from the meta-forward galaxy brains of the studios’ Gunsmith gurus.”
Other
Other changes
GulagIf you win a Gulag in Warzone Pacific Season 1, you’ll be able to drop back in with the weapons you gained during the duel. Essentially, any ammo or remaining equipment carries over between the Gulag and the redeploy.
Loadout Drop MarkersYou’ll have to buy Loadout Drop Markers from Buy Stations, and only after the Loadout Drop event has happened in a match after the first circle closure.
Gas Mask changesGas Masks will no longer interrupt as many actions as they did previously, though you’ll still be at a combat disadvantage to someone standing in the circle.
Shallow waterOperators will be able to wade through shallow water, which can help hide footsteps from those with the Tracker perk. Crouching in water will also give you the benefit of the Cold Blooded perk, though you won’t be able to go prone if you’re spotted.
Sarah started as a freelance writer in 2018, writing for PCGamesN, TechRadar, GamingBible, Red Bull Gaming and more. In 2021, she was offered a full-time position on the PC Gamer team where she takes every possible opportunity to talk about World of Warcraft and Elden Ring. When not writing guides, most of her spare time is spent in Azeroth—though she’s quite partial to JRPGs too. One of her fondest hopes is to one day play through the ending of Final Fantasy X without breaking down into a sobbing heap. She probably has more wolves in Valheim than you.
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