What can we expect from Call of Duty: Cold War and Warzone Season 2? The series has had a strong start to the year thanks to the steady stream of Season 1 Reloaded goodies. New Warzone weapons, Cold War Multiplayer modes, and a fresh zombies map has kept us busy so far, but now there's a new season just around the corner.
As there's still a week to go before Season 2 begins, I've collected all the leaks and rumours surrounding Cold War and Warzone in one place. It's important to remember that some of the information below hasn't been confirmed by Activision, and may well change. Anyway, here's everything we know about Call of Duty: Cold War and Warzone Season 2, including the release date, new maps, and more.
The Call of Duty: Cold War and Warzone Season 2 release date is February 25. This gives us a week to grind through the remaining tiers of the Season 1 battle pass. If you're close to unlocking some COD Points, or a nice skin, be sure to claim them as soon as possible to avoid missing out when the current battle pass concludes on February 24.
Strange events in Verdansk hint that Warzone could be getting Zombies mode in Season 2. Trial Machines have spawned in Hospital and Stadium in the Warzone Rumble playlist. If you haven't heard of these before, Trials feature in Call of Duty zombies modes, including the current Die Maschine and Firebase Z maps. While we can't interact with the machines, hovering over them displays the message: "ZAI/ACTIVATE_ZOMBIES".
A few secrets have also been uncovered on Warzone's smaller map, Rebirth Island. Redditor u/Soggy_nugget86 shared a clip recorded in the office next to Rebirth Island's Headquarters. The screen distorts, and Russian voiceover can be heard in the clip. u/Wolf-of-icewrack kindly translated the VO in the comments:
"Dispatch, this is russian ship 'Vodyanoy' channel 1-2, over
-This is dipatch, requesting shipping permit to Verdansk, over
-Dispatch, cargo secured, all systems are fine. Get ready to go. Over."
The Vodyanoy ship has already been spotted off the coast on Rebirth Island, and the current theory is that it's carrying Nova 6. This is a biochemical weapon which featured in the original Black Ops zombies mode, as well as Cold War's Desperate Measures mission.
The Cold War and Warzone Season 2 cinematic trailer gives us a good idea of where we'll be heading next, but it's unclear whether the area shown in the trailer is Warzone's next map, or a new multiplayer map intended for Cold War. Judging by the leaks we've seen so far, the latter is more likely.
New Cold War Multiplayer maps
In January, Call of Duty dataminer WarzoneNewz shared details on what could be new Cold War Multiplayer maps called Apocalypse, Echelon, and Dune. Apocalypse is believed to be set in a jungle, and the trailer shows a team of operators touching down in Laos. WarzoneNewz's leak is even more persuasive now that the region has appeared in the cinematic trailer.
Fellow Redditors are also convinced that while the cinematic trailer has the Warzone tag slapped on it, the content is likely focused on Cold War material. If we take a look back at the Season 1 cinematic, we can see a few cheeky snippets of Rebirth Island. However, there's a heavier focus on Mall at the Pines map, which turned out to be a Cold War MP map. This further strengthens the theory that Laos is probably intended for Cold War.
Will Warzone take us to the Ural Mountains?
While we may not be heading to Southeast Asia in Warzone, I wouldn't give up hope on a new Warzone map dropping this year. There's no official word from Activision yet, but previous leaks from ModernWarzone and TheGamingRevolution suggest that a new Warzone map will release in March 2021, coinciding with Warzone's first anniversary. The map is rumoured to be larger than Verdansk, and set in the Ural Mountains in Russia. Dataminers also believe that it'll borrow POIs from existing Cold War Fireteam maps.
This next part contains spoilers, so turn away now if you don't want to know how the Firebase Z mission ends.
To lend even further evidence that a trip to the mountains is on the horizon, right at the end of the Firebase Z mission, we learn that Ravenov has some business to attend to in the Ural Mountains. While this could be more DLC for the zombies mode, the entwined nature of Cold War and Warzone means this could easily be the next Warzone setting.
As Morgan has already pointed out, there are nuclear missiles below Verdansk, and the story so far leads us to believe these will explode sometime soon. If the recent hints at a zombie outbreak in Verdansk are true, the map may transform into a wasteland. The zombies link with Warzone and the Ural Mountains would then make sense.
A new season usually means more guns, and we counted three new weapons in the Season 2 trailer:
However, Call of Duty leaker TailsDoll553 reckons there may be more weapons arriving this season. They already mentioned the AI-LC10, which has now been confirmed, so here are the other weapons we may see in Season 2:
The most interesting potential new weapon is the Sykov Pistol, which was recently discovered in Warzone's Plunder mode. Redditor u/RestlessGoats was able to access the pistol blueprint by using weapon drops. According to ModernWarzone, it's modifications include additional rounds, making it fully automatic. It can also be dual-wielded.
In the cinematic trailer, we can see three new operators: Naga, Rivas, and Wolf. Frank Woods is also present, and it looks like the team are in Laos to rescue Russell Adler, after he was captured by Stitch. Although, as we learn from Naga, it seems as though Adler is already en route to Verdansk. This marks yet another crossover between Cold War and Warzone.
New scorestreaks have been on the cards for a while, and we can see the Minigun in action towards the end of the cinematic trailer. ModernWarzone also spotted the Hand Cannon, which briefly appeared in the Cold War menu back in November. This scorestreak was previously leaked along with the Flamethrower, although there's no sign of that just yet. We should also keep our eyes peeled for the K-9 unit scorestreak, which was previously datamined by WarzoneNewz, along with the new weapons.
