Old Enemies, New Alliances: Black Ops 6 Season 04 is Here!
Season 04 Overview: Keep Your Enemies Close…
Though he once had the chance to end Vikhor “Stitch” Kuzmin’s reign of terror, Adler spared his nemesis after they met at the culmination of Black Ops Cold War. Latest intel reveals Kuzmin was later captured and locked up in an Icelandic CIA black site until he might prove useful. Following the events and evidence uncovered by the deceased CIA Agent Jason Hudson, that day has come, and in an unlikely team up, Adler and team have broken Stitch out from his confinement, seeking his help to crack the codenames needed to find the Pantheon moles.
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With Verdansk once again an area of operations for deployment, what other plans might Stitch have in store? For now, Adler needs him to complete the mission at hand.
To succeed, the two must put their past behind them in pursuit of a new goal. Get in on the action when this stacked offering of free and premium content comes to Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6, launching in Season 04 on Thursday, May 29 at 9AM PT.
Nomenclature Note: Throughout the blog, you’ll see references to when gameplay content launches. Here are what these various suffixes mean:
“Launch”: Expect to access this content immediately at the Season launch.
“Launch Window”: Expect to access this content between launch and up to 72 hours after launch.
“In Season”: Expect to access this content during the season, but before either the mid-season or next season arrives.
“Mid-Season”: Expect to access this content at Mid-Season or later.
All content timing may be subject to change.
Season 04 Multiplayer Content
MULTIPLAYER CONTENT SUMMARY | [/tr]
| Five MP Maps: Drop into Icelandic AOs with three new maps at launch including the Shutdown and Fugitive 6v6 Core maps and the Blitz Strike map. In the mid-season, party it up in Eclipse and play a reimagined Fringe. | [/tr]
| New and Returning Modes: Pick up dog tags to drain the enemy’s reserves in Team Elimination, a fun new twist on the Kill Confirmed formula. Make every bullet count with the return of One in the Chamber and get festive in the Party Ops Limited-Time Mode. | [/tr]
| Additional Equipment: The Grim Reaper Scorestreak returns from the original Black Ops, offering an explosive payload that’s guaranteed to blow the competition sky high. | [/tr]
| Season 04 Ranked Play: Challenge the best of the best, get those wins, and climb the Ranks in a new season of Multiplayer Ranked Play, with all-new rewards and bragging rights. | [/tr]
Multiplayer Maps
Shutdown (Launch)
Brand-New, Core, 6v6, Small-Sized
Before breaking out Stitch, Adler and team first need to cut off the power to the black site prison, bringing them to a hydroelectric plant built on the rugged volcanic terrain of Iceland. Fight in and around the central building housing the now wrecked Turbine or dive down the Sluice into the Lake, its waters hugging the plant’s south end by the Transformers. Jump up by the red container to target enemies from far out or swim back onshore to reach the Atrium and Parking.
Head to the north side to fight in the rugged Yard, away from the shoreline and bookended by the Pumphouse and Canteen. It’s a quick run to the Turbine from here, giving you good map coverage down the middle. If things get too hot, you can always drop down the Chute and swim your way to safety.
Fugitive (Launch)
Brand-New, Core, 6v6, Medium-Sized
Deploy to a secret CIA black site in a remote part of Iceland, the very location where Stitch has been imprisoned until Adler brings him in as an unlikely ally for an urgent operation. With the power out, Adler and his crew seize their chance to infiltrate the prison, climbing, zipping, and battling their way through the frozen compound.
Upon reaching their target, Adler and Stitch strike a deal. Following the jailbreak, the alarms are blaring and warnings of a power failure light up the Cell Block.
Though the area may appear smaller than expected when first glancing at the minimap, the prison’s intricate layout presents multiple levels and shortcuts to the various outside areas including the Checkpoint, Courtyard, and Recreation Yard. In the upper Cell Block, newly opened cells present the danger of ambush. Be on guard and look for ziplines for quick access to your next target.
Blitz (Launch)
Brand-New, Strike, 6v6/2v2, Small-Sized
Traffic comes to a halt as Pantheon reinforcements race toward the prison but get ambushed by the Rogue team. Leave the road and seek out targets over the rugged terrain of the Cliffside or move inland, ambushing enemies at the Waterfall.
To approach the battle head on, move down the central Bridge, using the scattered convoy for cover. Jump down from the center to move underneath the Bridge, a great means of pivoting to a new location. Though a small map overall, Blitz’s long lanes leave room for marksmen to shine.
Eclipse (Mid-Season)
Brand-New, Strike, 6v6/2v2, Small-Sized
Stitch and the team arrive in Avalon, slipping into the shadows of an underground nightclub to discuss business. The neon lights flicker as they form a plan to break the Pantheon codenames, but the meeting is cut short when Pantheon agents storm in.
Show off your best moves on the dance floor, dodging shots and flanking targets down the sides where seating offers party goers a chance to rest and order a drink from the bar. Ambush passing enemies from the DJ booth and then break through the broken façades on the walls, escaping into the halls.
Fringe (Mid-Season)
Remaster, Core, 6v6, Medium-Sized
Revisit Fringe from Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, reimagined for the first time ever in Black Ops 6. Attend the grand opening of the Rolling Hills distillery, established in an idyllic setting with several navigable buildings and the surrounding grounds.
Battle along the main Road or dive into the Bar for a closer fight. Watch for sharpshooters in the upper Barn and along the Bridge and relive the thrill of trying to make it out alive through the narrow Loading route.
Multiplayer Modes
The first half of Season 04 brings two exciting Multiplayer modes: Team Elimination and One in the Chamber. In the mid-season, loosen up in the Party Ops Limited Time Mode.
Team Elimination (Launch)
In this twist on Kill Confirmed, two teams are given a limited amount of lives each round as they fight to be the last surviving team. Players drop a dog tag on death that can be picked up by the enemy to confirm the kill or by a teammate to deny the opposing team. Survive longer than the other team or hold the most remaining lives when the timer ends to win the round.
Balance aggression and defense as you seek out enemy dog tags while preserving your life. Dig in with your teammates to counter enemy attacks and then ask for cover while you collect the droppings. Picking up tags is a great way to earn your next Scorestreak, so stay aggressive and keep up the momentum. Once your team’s life pool is drained, your remaining teammates can still revive you where you were last killed in a last-ditch effort to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
One in the Chamber (In-Season)
Another Black Ops fan-favorite mode returns as One in the Chamber shows up in Season 04! In this free-for-all mode, each Operator is given one pistol, one bullet, a knife, and three lives. Precision is king, as bullets always eliminate on impact and the only way to earn another bullet is to get an elimination.
Stay cool, aim true, and preserve your lives while aiming for the highest score. UAV scans keep the action moving, so don’t try to hide. At the end of the match, the top three scoring Operators will step up to the Winner’s Circle.
Party Ops (Mid-Season)
Get the party started with a new Limited-Time Mode arriving later in the season: Compete in a randomized set of party themed minigames. The player with the highest score at the end of the match wins it all.
Additional Gameplay Content
The devastating Grim Reaper Scorestreak is back from the original Black Ops, unleashing massive hits on other Operators and Scorestreaks alike.
New Scorestreak
Scorestreak: Grim Reaper (In-Season)
Type: Lethal
Score: 725
Mastery Badges: Yes
Powerful semi-automatic launcher that can fire up to four rockets in one load.
Wield the Grim Reaper, a quad tube loaded Launcher capable of inflicting heavy damage on enemies. Whether targeting Operators or locking on to enemy Scorestreaks, the Grim Reaper’s payload delivers a huge explosion. The weapon is lost if you’re taken out, so save it for the right moment and bring backup to ensure you have the protection needed to unleash havoc.
Multiplayer Ranked Play (Launch Window)
Season 04 Ranked Play Overview
Prove you’re the very best by dedicating your Multiplayer match time to Ranked Play, using the same settings, maps, modes, and weapon restrictions used by the Call of Duty League™. Win matches to earn SR (Skill Rating) and progress through the Ranks while earning career rewards like Rank Skins and Win Challenge rewards.
As usual, match wins ensure you progress through the Ranks throughout Season 04 to earn new seasonal rewards like a new Pro Issue Weapon Blueprint, Rank-themed Calling Cards, Ranked Charms, and more:
Season 04 Ranked Play Rewards
- Get 10 Wins: “Pro Reissue AMES 85” AMES 85 Weapon Blueprint[/*]
- Get 100 Wins: “Ranked Season 4 – 100 Wins” Large Decal[/*]
- Silver: “Ranked Season 4 – Silver” Calling Card[/*]
- Gold: “Ranked Season 4 – Gold” Calling Card and Charm[/*]
- Platinum: “Ranked Season 4 – Platinum” Calling Card and Charm[/*]
- Diamond: “Ranked Season 4 – Diamond” Calling Card and Charm[/*]
- Crimson: “Ranked Season 4 – Crimson” Calling Card and Charm[/*]
- Iridescent: “Ranked Season 4 – Iridescent” Calling Card and Charm[/*]
- Top 250: “Ranked Season 4 – Top 250” Calling Card and Charm[/*]
- Season 04 Champion: “Ranked Season 4 – Top 250 Champion” Calling Card[/*]
Note: Multiplayer Events: Check the General section later in this blog to uncover the full complement of events for this mode across Season 04.
Season 04 Zombies Content
| ZOMBIES CONTENT SUMMARY | [/tr]
| Grief Returns! Drop into this epic 4v4 competitive battle on all maps, outlasting the opposition while securing Capture Zones to debuff and Grief your opponents. The last team still standing wins! | [/tr]
| Additional Gameplay Content: Crack open the armored undead and create area-of-effect explosions with the Shatter Blast Ammo Mod, chew over the impressive effects of three new GobbleGums, and create even bigger explosions with the Grim Reaper Support launcher. | [/tr]
| New Modes and More: Unlock hidden rewards with more Dark Ops Challenges, then prepare to face down a powered-up Abomination, survive as long as you can in the Starting Room LTM, and prove your Leaderboard worth by zombie slaying for bragging rights and rewards! | [/tr]
Grief (Mode, Launch)
4v4 competitive mode where two teams outwit and outlast each other. Capture zones to debuff enemies. No damage against other players. Respawns every third round.
Available Maps: Liberty Falls, Terminus, Citadelle des Morts, The Tomb, Shattered Veil.
Restricted: Wonder Weapons, GobbleGums: Exit Strategy, Idle Eyes, Wonderbar!, Time Out, and Flavor Hex (Season 04 GobbleGum).
Not seen since Black Ops 2, Grief returns to Zombies! This fan-favorite mode pits two teams of four against each other, with both sides vying to out-survive the other. As the battlelines are drawn between S.A.M. and Director Richtofen, each team pledges their support to one of these rivals at the start of a match, subsequently receiving handler comms support from one of them throughout the ensuing chaos.
Indirect PvP Combat
The action is almost immediate as both teams drop into either side of the same Grief Arena within the chosen Zombies map, and indirect PvP combat comes into effect: The two teams of four players can’t outright kill members of the enemy team, but can interact with them by body-blocking, or slowing them by using melee, bullet-based weapons, or projectiles.
Victory Conditions: The winning team is the one that manages to “Grief” their rivals into being killed or entering a downed state. As long as one or more team members are upright, the match continues!
Grief Arena Features
The action is constant and can get incredibly chaotic, due in part to your proximity to your opponents and the hordes of undead encroaching on your team, thanks to the Arena being a sub-section of the main Zombies map. These are known as “Grief Arenas.” Within a Grief Arena are a variety of features:
An Open Environment: Grief Arenas are clearly defined areas where any critical doors have already been opened, and the power will already have been turned on. All other Door Buys are inactive. Both teams spawn on opposite sides of the Arena, each in a group of four.
Player Respawning: Any team members that are downed – provided one or more of their team are still alive – can be revived at any time, though rival teams, undead enemies, and Shock Charges can hamper this action! Additionally, a Wave Respawner triggers every third round, automatically reviving any eliminated teammates from both teams.
Join In Progress: Any player not in the game can join up until Round 10 has been completed and has a small grace period to orient themselves before they’re swarmed by zombies. Additionally, if a team has won back-to-back Capture Zones (see below), join-in-progress is not available.
Essence and Salvage: Unlike in Standard playlists, Salvage pickups in Grief are worth 100 Salvage, visible to all players, and can only be picked up by the first player to grab it.
Zombies: Rounds will progress faster than usual and the amount of zombies per round has been increased to account for 8 players! All undead entities – except for bosses – are to be expected. If players fail to kill zombies, the round will turn.
Core Mechanics: The Arsenal, Pack-a-Punch, Mystery Box, Crafting Tables, Perk machines, GobbleGum machine (with Exit Strategy, Idle Eyes, Wonderbar!, Time Out, and Flavor Hex restricted), Armor Wall Buys, and Der Wunderfizz machine are available in a Grief Arena where they normally reside, or in a new location if they don’t normally exist in this portion of their respective maps. Note: While the current GobbleGum restrictions are in place to keep matches dynamic yet balanced, additional restrictions may be made in the future as the developers keep an eye on game balance, similar to Ranked Play.
Capture Zones: Appearing at a regular cadence during a match, these are smaller areas within a Grief Arena where players are required to stand and earn specific types of kills to trigger a Grief on the opposing team.
Plan A: Survive! Plan B: Capture Zones!
Keeping your team upright and focused on undead slaying for longer than your rivals is the main plan in this mode. However, there’s an important secondary focus you need to plan for: Capturing zones and “Griefing” your rival team!
Capture Zones appear at regular intervals throughout a match, and after stepping through the glowing perimeter, you and your team can secure the Zone by staying inside it and dispatching zombies. Beckon your crew into a Zone to quicken the zombie slaying, and once your kill count meets the requirement, a Grief is triggered on the opposition. Note that if neither team reaches this requirement within the countdown inside a Capture Zone, the Grief is applied to both teams.
What is a Grief? It’s a temporary debuff, penalty, or negative gameplay mechanic that you can inflict on your rival team at a Capture Zone.
The type of Grief is shown at the objective tracker within a Capture Zone. Here are the possible Griefs you’re aiming to inflict on your foes:
Weapon Nerf: The affected players inflict considerably reduced damage to zombie enemies.
Ammo Drain: All ammo-based weapons, including those stowed, receive an ammo drain with bullets or shells being removed constantly while the Grief is active.
Zombie Ambush: An Elite zombie is summoned, and it solely focuses its killing power on the enemy team until either the Elite or the team are defeated, or the timer runs out.
Weapon Carousel: The rival players’ weapons are randomly swapped every few seconds.
Frozen: This Grief reduces the enemy players’ movement, along with frost and ice coating the characters.
Griefs and Capture Zones also introduce new score types, including:
Capture Zone Kill: Awarded to a player who defeated a zombie type during a successful Capture Zone completion.
Capture Zone Win: Awarded to all players on a team who successfully commandeer a Capture Zone.
Capture Zone Elite Kill: Awarded to a player who slays an Elite spawned in a Capture Zone.
Available Grief Arenas (11 Arenas, Launch)
A total of 11 different Grief Arenas are available in this mode. Here’s a list along with a brief description of the points of interest within each one:
Liberty Falls Arena 1: Pump & Pay, Motor Lodge, and Fuller’s Liberty Lanes
Liberty Falls Arena 2: Dark Aether Church, Cemetery, Hilltop
Terminus Arena 1: Bio Lab
Terminus Arena 2: Crab Island
Citadelle des Morts Arena: Courtyard, Ramparts, and Entrance Hall
The Tomb Arena 1: Dig Site, Mausoleum
The Tomb Arena 2: Dark Aether Nexus
Shattered Viel Arena 1: Garden Pond, Lower Terrace
Shattered Viel Arena 2: Upper Terrace, Shem’s Henge, Motor Court
Shattered Viel Arena 3: Mansion Foyer, Overlook, East Foyer, Library
Shattered Viel Arena 4: West Hallways, Southwest Balcony, Bottlery
New Challenges and Limited Time Modes
Access the following new content within all five Zombies Maps (unless otherwise stated) throughout Season 04:
Dark Ops Challenges (Launch)
A mysterious new set of hidden Calling Cards and bounteous amounts of XP are available at the start of Season 04, thanks to a fresh drop of Zombies Dark Ops Challenges. Who knows... maybe there’s even one for Grief. All further information is [[REDACTED]].
New LTM: Starting Room (Mid-Season)
Inspired by the starting room in the classic “Moon” Zombies map, drop in with up to three of your Zombies crew into a more straightforward but challenging experience where you’re locked into the first zone of a map. Raptor One is gone, and those undead hordes are only getting stronger, but all doors in the initial zone are unlocked. Survive to the highest round you can!
New LTM: Abomination Challenge (Mid-Season)
Enter a warped version of Liberty Falls during this new Mid-Season Event, and hunt down an ultra-powered-up Abomination. Perhaps it’s wise to bring backup.
New Gameplay Content and GobbleGums
Wreck even the most battle-hardened undead threat with the explosive power of the Shatter Blast Ammo Mod, then drop even more devastating firepower on the hordes with the Grim Reaper Support launcher. There’s three new chewables, too!
Ammo Mod: Shatter Blast (Launch)
Available: Augments Menu, and In-Game (Pause Menu)
“Bullets deal explosive damage. Each bullet has a chance to create an explosion that destroys armor.”
Modify your ammunition to explode the toughened armor of certain normal and Special undead enemies. This mod also has a second benefit, creating an area-of-effect blast radius at the same time, whether any armor is shattered or not.
Due to the somewhat chaotic nature of this modification, there is a random chance of the Shatter Blast effect triggering, and it won’t happen every time you fire. Also expect a cooldown period after the effect. Note that Shatter Blast doesn’t directly affect Elite enemies (pending some Augment research!), but area-of-effect explosions can still damage them.
You are wise to wrangle your undead into hordes so they’re near each other, to really inflict some damage!
Shatter Blast: Major Augments
Research the following Augments to further customize this Ammo Mod.
Big Game
Shatter Blast can be used against Elite enemies. Expect an impressively sized explosion.
Blast Chain
On explosion, three additional explosions occur in rapid succession.
Blast Repair
For every enemy that has its armor destroyed by Shatter Blast, armor health will be restored for the player.
Shatter Blast: Minor Augments
Blast Zone
Increase the size of the explosion.
Blast Boost
Increase the explosion damage.
Blast Wave
Normal enemies are knocked down by the explosion.
New GobbleGums (Launch)
Crack your teeth on three new GobbleGums, available across all maps once you earn or unlock them and equip them in your GobbleGum Loadout Pack.
Explosive Flourish (Epic): Reloading your weapon creates an explosion around you. GobbleGum lasts 2 minutes.
Flavor Hex (Legendary): Activates a random Ultra GobbleGum.
Rainburps (Whimsical): Zombies killed belch sparkly rainbow bubbles. Lasts 3 minutes.
Additional Support Weapon : Grim Reaper (In-Season)
Available: Rivals Event reward
Salvage: 2000
Hammer away at the Crafting Table and assemble a powerful semi-automatic launcher known as the Grim Reaper, which deals out lethal damage to the undead with up to a quartet of missiles fired in one load. With a capacity to carry up to a dozen rockets, and the ability to fire them individually or as a quartet of devastation, this can level a courtyard of undead with a single launch! Unlock this Support weapon once you’ve earned it via the Rivals Event.
Note: Zombies Events: Check the General section later in this blog to uncover the full complement of events for this mode across Season 04, including the King of the Dead Leaderboard challenge!
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