Controversy has surrounded Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 over its choice to lock weapons and other gear behind loot boxes or other paywalls. Following a deluge of player feedback, Tryearch has revealed they’re now planning on introducing new ways for players to earn weapons just through playing the game.
The first of these methods is the Contracts system, which will reward players for completing challenges. More Contracts will be available every day with daily challenges available in Multiplayer, Blackout, Zombies, and League Play modes. More details on this mode will arrive next week before the mode launches at the end of June.
There will also be more chances to earn Reserves in all game modes, as well as Wepaon Bribes that are protected against duplicates. However, the first of all of these changes is the new Community Challenge that’s gone live as part of the new Days of Summer event. Across the entire Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 community, players must complete a total of 15 million matches to earn the Grav assault rifle to use in Multiplayer.
The event also brings along a range of new content. Multiplayer mode gets a returning map in the form of Grind from Call of Duty: Black Ops II, a Venice Beach skate park with a half pipe to add verticality to the battle and a pro shop to provide some cover. The classic Capture The Flag game mode has also returned to the game. If you’ve never played the mode before, players must capture their enemys’s flag and carry it back to their base, all while trying to stop the enemy from returning the favour. Finally, there’s a new Barebones Objective Moshpit playlist that includes Barebones variants of Domination, Control, Hardpoint, Safeguard, and Search and Destroy modes.
The Blackout map has received a lot of changes now the flood has receded and the summer sun has arrived. The Hydro Dam is still inaccessible, but other flooded areas are now being renovated. The Hijacked boat is now moored by the cove on Nuketown Island. The skies are blue and there’s a new party atmosphere with BBQs, lawn ornaments, party blaoons, pool floats, and beach umbrellas. Party coolers can contain paint cans and character-unlock items, water balloons can deal small damage, and the zombies are now wearing duck floats.
There’s also the new Ground War mode where two large teams of 50 players consisting of numerous squads do battle on a map with an initial circle that’s only 33% of the size of the entire map. Each platoon can pick one of two infiltration paths: head along your enemy’s flight path or head directly towards them. Once the match begins, the circle reduces in size at its normal rate, and players can redeploy until the final circle as long as their squad is not wiped out. A new vehicle, the Attack Helicopter with two turrets, has been introduced for this mode too.
In other changes, Outrider’s Drone can now be found during Blackout matches. Players can reduce the amount of time they spend while downed by holding down the USE button to get to the redeploy screen quicker. Finally, the Killcam also displays what perks your killer was using when they dealt the final death blow.
Zombies mode doesn’t lose out either. There’s a new Labours of Hercules Gauntlet that takes place on the Ancient Evil map, new friends leaderboards, and new weapons to be found in the Mystery Box — the Peacekeeper, Ballistic Knife, and S6 Stingray. The Rampage, VAPR, Switchblade, and Spitfire get new MKII variants, while there are four new Elixirs too:
- Perkaholic: Grants the players all the Perks in the map.
- Near Death Experience: Revive (or be revived) simply by being in close proximity to other players. Revived players keep all their loadout perks after being revived.
- Shopping Free: Instantly activated and all purchases are free for one minute.
- Reign Drops: This drop spawns one of each of the nine core power ups (Nuke, Death Machine, Double Points, Fire Sale, Insta-Kill, Random Perk Bottle, Max Ammo, Carpenter, Personal Points).
To see a full list of all of the changes and bug fixes, check out the full patch notes. You can get a glimpse of the above content can be seen in action in the trailer below:
The patch and Days of Summer are available now. Contracts will arrive at the end of the month.