After all the leaks, rumors, and predictions, we finally have our first official look at Modern Warfare’s Warzone mode. You can see the trailer down below:

The battle royale mode, which was first teased about a month ago during the beginning of Modern Warfare season 2, will be released tomorrow, and it’s set to implement several new interesting features. Here’s everything you need to know before hot-dropping:

What is Warzone?

If you’re a fan of Modern Warfare, who is continuously on the internet, there’s a good chance you probably already know the answer to this question. For those with far better social lives than myself, here’s the gist.

Warzone is Modern Warfare’s free-to-play battle royale mode that houses up to 150 players. Meaning, you don’t need a copy of Modern Warfare to play Warzone. On top of that, the mode will be cross-platform, and it’ll feature unified progression. If you’re someone who has been on the fence about purchasing Modern Warfare and you love Warzone so much that you want to pick up the full game, your overall progress will be carried over. The same goes for the people who already have the full version of Modern Warfare. You’ll still earn XP regardless of any mode you play.

Onto the map itself. Verdansk is a huge map full of many easter eggs, and some of it resembles former legendary Call of Duty locations. You’ll drop into the map with up to two of your friends in Warzone Trios. This is unfortunate for the many people who were hoping to hot-drop into Verdansk with a full four-player squad or just running solo.

From there, the goal is pretty simple and is the standard battle royale formula. Get loot, outrun the storm/gas, shoot things, and be the last team standing. However, Warzone does have a few things to make it stand out among other battle royale games.

Looting and New Features

First off, Warzone is very simplistic with its loot system. As we’ll touch on later, this is most likely due to Infinity Ward wanting to achieve a fast-paced style for its gameplay. Attachments will vary depending on what color tier your weapon is. Green is uncommon, blue is rare, purple is epic, orange is legendary, so on and so forth with Red and Gold tier weapons being the best. Along with this, there is a chance that you can get a custom loadout into a Warzone match kitted with all your favorite attachments and perks. This can be done via a Loadout Drop that is available to see for everyone on the map or spending $6,000 (the in-game currency) to purchase a personal drop.

While we’re on the subject of the in-game currency, that’s pretty much what you’re looking for in Warzone. Well, that and weapon ammo. There are Buy Stations all over Verdansk that can be used to purchase equipment, self-revive, killstreaks, and you can even revive teammates by buying a token at one of these stations.

The Gulag

There is another way to revive a fallen squadmate, and it is possibly Warzone’s best feature. The Gulag. Unless you’re too far into the endgame of a match, you’ll be transported to The Gulag and forced to compete in a 1v1 matchup. If you win, you get back into the fight. If you lose… let’s just hope that your teammates have enough money to buy a revive token. While you’re waiting for your turn in The Gulag, you’ll actually be placed on the upper floor of the small arena, and you can hurl rocks at the competitors.

Other New Features and Core Gameplay

Throughout the map, you can find contracts that will give you different rewards such as XP or cash. Some contracts could be as simple as capturing an area or as difficult as hunting down another player.

Finally, let’s talk about the gameplay and what vehicles you can use. From most people who got the chance to try out Warzone, the battle royale is extremely fast-paced and plays like a Call of Duty game. Whether or not this is a good thing is, of course, up to your personal taste. Instead of other battle royale games that divide their armor up into three tiers, Warzone just has armor plates that will add on to your overall health. You can have up to three armor plates equipped at a time.

As for vehicles, there are five different vehicles in Warzone. Here’s the full list (via a blog post from Activision):

  • ATV – two seater, provides minimal protection, good at offroading, fast.
  • Tactical Rover – four seater, provides minimal protection, solidly fast, solid at off-roading.
  • SUV – four seater, provides good protection, medium speed, not ideal for off-roading.
  • Cargo Truck – holds the squad plus equipment, excellent protection, not for off-roading, slowest.
  • Helicopter – four seater, decent coverage, flies.

Download Times and Exact Release Dates for Warzone

We’re almost done, I promise. So, we know that Warzone releases on March 10th, but what time will it launch exactly? Thankfully, Infinity Ward has posted this info on their Twitter account:

Plan accordingly. #Warzone arrives tomorrow.#FreeCallofDuty pic.twitter.com/qQ9XpAYrXt

— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) March 9, 2020

And that’s everything you need to know before going into Modern Warfare’s Warzone update. There’s also another new game mode being added alongside Warzone called Plunder. In this mode, the primary goal is to get cash by any means necessary. Unlike Warzone, you’ll be able to respawn at will in Plunder and take your custom loadouts with you.

For more Modern Warfare content, check out our impressions on Modern Warfare season 2 and our full review of the game.