It's almost time for a fresh new crop of seasonal content for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. While most of the community has been focused on the April 3 return of Verdansk as the big map in Call of Duty: Warzone, there are some of us out here still looking forward to what BO6's multiplayer has to offer for the next two months.
With Warzone and Verdansk serving as the primary focus for Season 3, it may seem like content for multiplayer is a little light. Thankfully, there are still some new maps and modes coming to look forward, as well as new weapons and a fresh new battle pass.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Multiplayer Season 3 — Release date
Well, this was unexpected. After originally delaying Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 3 content, Activision and the Call of Duty team have bumped up the date for multiplayer and zombies content to release. Players will be able to load into Season 3 in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on April 2 and 9 AM PT/1PM ET. At that time, Call of Duty: Warzone will go dark for 24 hours to prepare for the launch of Verdansk.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Multiplayer Season 3 — Maps
It's not a new season of Call of Duty without some new battlefields to bloody up. Season 3 is no exception, as five new maps and one new map variant will release during the season's lifetime.
New map: Barrage
Hudson may be dead, but his influence on the Rogue Black Ops team is still very much alive. After having left behind clues for the team about a Summit Watch in 1968 Vietnam, the crew finds themselves back on the battlefield in Barrage. This medium-sized core map features a Command Center and Barracks, both of which have been damaged to open up new pathways.
There are plenty of little nooks and crannies on the Watchtower, Overlook, and the second floor of the Command Center to offer snipers ample cover and long sight lines, so choose your route carefully. Or flank around to the edges of the map by taking cover behind artillery pieces.
Barrage will join the playlist rotation at launch.
New map: Nomad
This one's for the small map fiends. Nomad joins Strike, 6v6, and 2v2 playlists by opening up a new playground in Afghanistan where Pantheon moles encountered our dear friend Frank Woods in 1986.
Your mission will have you fighting around the ruins of a fortified settlement, alongside a parked missile carrier facing the valley. Use the ruins' archways and walls as cover, or take the battle to the lone building that towers over the middle of the map. Watch your back, though, as enemies can easily sneak up on you using the zip lines.
This brand-new map will be available at launch.
Returning map: Firing Range
Finally! The oft-requested Firing Range is returning to Black Ops in a faithful remaster that includes the entirety of the beloved map. The Shoot House and Garage offer vantage points over the map, but nothing compares to the tower overlooking the dirt road. The moving practice targets behind the office offer useful distractions when trying to call in score streaks, and there's no shortage of ambush points to keep things interesting.
Firing Range will be available as a core 6v6 map at launch.
Midseason maps
Mid-sized map fans can look forward to the brand-new Haven map coming with Season 3 Reloaded, which will center around a KGB safehouse from 1991. A crude command center can be found in the dilapidated compound's former Ballroom, surrounded by copious amounts of wires and generators in the Hall. Despite being a mid-sized map, there's no shortage of tight spaces for close-quarters combat, so keep your head on a swivel while exploring the gardens.
Eagle-eyed members of the community may have noticed that the minimap in the Haven reveal images resembles the ones previously used for Modern Warfare 3 and not at all like the others from Black Ops 6—giving weight to the theory that some DLC maps from Modern Warfare 3 were ultimately shelved for later use in Black Ops 6.
Haven will be joined at the mid-season update with the small map, Signal. Set in 1968, Signal serves as a connection point between the Pantheon moles of Black Ops to the infamous numbers station seen in past releases. Fight it out in the control room, but be mindful of the dangerous flames in the upper wing. The broadcast station and the communications landing are sure to be high-traffic combat zones, so you won't have to wait long if you're looking for a fight.
Last but not least, players can look forward to Blazetown with the mid-season refresh, a special Nuketown variant that will be available for a limited time. In the past, I listed an option to turn off the weed and 4/20 themed additions as being on my wishlist of 6 things I wish Black Ops 6 would change in Call of Duty. Sadly, it seems like that request fell on deaf ears.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Multiplayer Season 3 — Modes
Like new maps, new modes to keep things fresh in Multiplayer are an important part of seasonal content drops. Season 3 is a little light on brand-new modes, but some fan-favorites are returning.
New mode: Sharpshooter
A new free-for-all party mode? For us? Treyarch, you flatter us —oh, this is basically Cranked meets Gun Game. That's fine, I suppose. Every 45 seconds, every operator gets a new loadout consisting of a scoped sniper rifle, akimbo pistols, a dedicated melee, as well as tactical and lethal equipment.
Earning kills stacks the bonuses below:
- 1st Elimination: Increased movement speed.
- 2nd Elimination: Increased reload speed.
- 3rd Elimination: Increased sprint recovery speed.
- 4th Elimination: Increased ADS speed.
- 5th Elimination: Earn double score for eliminating enemies.
Die, and you start over at the bottom to work your way back up to double score again.
New mode: Demolition
"New" is doing some heavy lifting here, but Demolition is an old school game mode returning sometime around the launch window for Season 3. Players will alternate between attacking and defending two separate bomb sites, and will need to work together as a team if they're intending to actually detonate either location.
All operators spawn with a bomb, and respawns are active for both teams. Defenders will need to figure out how to keep attacking players at bay long enough to run down the clock. The first team to win two rounds win, but in the event of a tie, a special round will kick off where both teams must race to detonate a neutral bomb.
Midseason modes
While at least 30-some-odd days are lingering between the start of Season 3 and the mid-season refresh, the Call of Duty team has shared plans for a limited-time mode titled Joint Operations. Joint Operations will take the pentathlon mode we saw during the previous Squid Game event and repurpose it with a blunt instrument to create five new Core game mode variants:
- Head Stash (TDM)
- Inhalation (Domination)
- Hotbox (Hardpoint)
- Very High Target (HVT)
- Munchies (Kill Confirmed)
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Multiplayer Season 3 — Loadouts
New battlefields require new solutions, so we need to take a second to look at the new perks, weapons, and score streaks that are going to change our favorite loadouts and encounters with Season 3.
New perk: Close shave
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 leaned into the idea of a dedicated melee button at launch, but for many players, it just seems like melee is no longer a viable attack method because of the delay when attempting to use it.
This new enforcer perk will take up your first slot, but it allows you to return to the golden days of COD when you could execute a melee attack in place of a weapon butt attack. Simply click the Melee button.
It might've been easier for them to just bring back this functionality overall, but hey—at least we can sacrifice a perk slot for it now, I suppose.
New perk: Vendetta
Were you taken out by an enemy, and now you have an axe to grind? This perk is for you. Vendetta will mark your killer's last known location briefly upon a fresh respawn, giving you a chance to go back for revenge. Players using the Vigilance perk are immune to Vendetta, however.
New score streak: Death Machine
Another Black Ops classic returns with Season 3, and yet for some reason I'm still sitting over here with my beloved Black hats. At least with a score of 825, I can now easily mow down the opposition with oppressive hellfire from a large magazine and a high rate of fire.
New weapon: Kilo 141
This classic assault rifle returns to Black Ops with 3 mags of 30 bullets, 42 levels to power through, and an array of attachments and customization options. The Kilo will unlock automatically when a player jumps into Warzone for the first time in Season 3.
New weapon: CR-56 AMAX
Also a returning weapon, the CR-56 AMAX requires extra effort to unlock, as it appears on Battle Pass Page 6 as an HVT tier reward.
With 42 levels, 3 mags with 30 rounds each, and a healthy assortment of attachments and customizations, the CR-56 AMAX will keep you busy for the camo grind. However, it shouldn't take long with this versatile AR eliminating enemies in just three to four shots up to 25 meters.
New weapon: HDR
Scoot over, Kar98, there's a new meta sniper in town. The HDR returns with 38 levels to work through, packing 3 mags with 5 rounds each. This high-powered, Modern Warfare-era sniper rifle is a bolt action weapon with lower muzzle velocity, but it will still take out an enemy in a single shot at nearly any distance.
The HDR can be unlocked on Battle Pass page 3 as an HVT tier reward. Protect your necks out there, folks!
New weapon: Kali Sticks
The return of the Kali sticks is sure to strike fear in the hearts of some players, as these extremely fast two-hit kill melee weapons can cause a lot of sudden, quiet damage. These will return at launch as an event reward.
New weapon attachments
The following attachments are coming to Black Ops 6 and Warzone in Season 3:
- Monolithic Suppressor (Launch, battle pass page 7)
- Swat 5.56 Grau Conversion (Launch, battle pass page 5)
- C9 10mm Auto 30-Round Mags (In season, event reward)
- Goblin Mk2 7.62 Mini-Rocket Conversion (Midseason, event reward)
Midseason weapons
Two additional weapons are expected to show up as event rewards once the midseason refresh launches sometime around late April to early May. The Ladra, a mighty little SMG with a ridiculously high rate of fire and range, packs a punch despite its initial low damage numbers. The Nail Gun's return is sure to enrage plenty of Hardcore fans, who will find themselves constantly peppered by this embarrassing weapon.
New feature: Camo hub and blueprint swap
If you've wanted to have more control over your weapon blueprints and camos, this is for you. You will now be able to customize any Black Ops 6 base weapon or Weapon Blueprint with a skin you've unlocked or purchased in all three Call of Duty modes. Base weapons will only allow you to change the weapon skin, not any attachments, but blueprints will allow you to customize the skins with other existing attachments.
A new user interface is also coming to Call of Duty shortly after the launch of Season 3 that allows players to view the challenges needed to complete to unlock weapon camos all in a single location — no more endlessly scrolling right on an individual weapon's camo screen.
The new camo hub can be found in the Barracks under the Challenges Menu once it launches.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is available now on Xbox and PlayStation consoles, PC via Steam, Battle.net, and the Microsoft Store or Xbox App. The game is also available on the Xbox Game Pass subscription service at no extra cost.
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