Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – Latest Updates, Game Modes, Warzone News, and More (Season 2, 2025)

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• State of the Meta
• New Multiplayer Maps
• New Multiplayer Game Modes
• New Weapons
• Season 2 Events and Rewards
• Multiplayer Weapon Balancing
• Warzone Season 2 News
• The Tomb – New Zombies Map

State of the Meta (Season 2)

Multiplayer: For BO6 multiplayer, the meta hasn’t changed much. Since there weren’t any major nerfs, Assault Rifles and SMGs are still the best weapons by far. There are a handful of each you can use, but the best Assault Rifles are the XM4, Krig C, and AMES 85. For SMGs, the Jackal PDW is still my favorite, but you can really use most of them. The new PPSh-41 is also going to be popular, even though it takes a while to unlock. Snipers and LMGs just don’t really fit the fast-paced nature of most maps, but in modes like Search and Destroy where it’s more tactical, they’re quite good.

Warzone: Warzone is a little different this season thanks to the nerfs to the XM4 and Jackal PDW. With the XM4 now doing less damage, I’d recommend something like the Model L, Krig C, AK-47, or AS VAL. It’s good that they did buff some of the other ARs, so now there will be some more variety. The Saug or either KSV/C9 can easily replace the Jackal in most loadouts, too, so it shouldn’t change things too much. Snipers are always good in Warzone as well, and I don’t even mind LMGs right now either.

New Multiplayer Maps (Season 2)

• Bounty
• Dealership
• Lifeline
• Bullet (later this season)
• Grind (later this season)

Bounty is a large map that puts you at the top level of a skyscraper. It seems clearly designed for more “strategic” game modes like Search and Destroy or Control, due to the large size and various levels. It’s really good for these kinds of modes, but it does suffer in more general ones like TDM or Kill Confirmed. Since it’s such a large map, I personally find it very annoying without an objective to work towards. There are just too many places for snipers and such to hide and not enough areas for good 1-on-1 gunfights.

Dealership is a pretty standard 6v6 map set in a car dealership with some fun city streets surrounding it. While not anything super exciting in terms of map layout, I appreciate its simplicity and fun aesthetic. I think it’s the most well-balanced overall for 6v6, and I could definitely see it being good for just about any game mode.

Lifeline is definitely the most chaotic map of the three new ones added this season. It places you on a ship with a couple ways to go, but ultimately you’re just running straight at the other team. It reminds me of Husky Raid from Halo–tons of chaos, very little strategy. If you like the chaos then you’ll like this map, but it can be kind of overwhelming. I think it’s best for 2v2 game modes, but it can be fun in 6v6 as well.

Later this season we’ll get two more new maps–Bullet and Grind. Bullet seemingly takes place on a bullet train and is optimized for both 6v6 and 2v2 game modes, while Grind is set in a skate park and balanced mainly for 6v6. Once they come out, I’ll give some thoughts on them. But for now we’ll just have to wait and see.

New Multiplayer Game Modes (Season 2)

• Overdrive
• Gun Game (week 2 of the season)
• Couples Dance Off (around Valentine’s Day)
• Third Wheel Gunfight (around Valentine’s Day)

Overdrive is the most interesting new game mode in my opinion. It’s basically a form of Team Deathmatch but with an additional modifier. As you get kills, you’ll gain stars which increase your Overdrive level. Each level gives you new buffs, and once you reach the highest level you’ll earn even more points for your team. It’s fun and rewards aggressive playstyles, so it’s definitely worth trying.

Later in the season, we’ll get a few new game modes. At the start of week 2 (probably around February 7) we’ll finally get Gun Game in Black Ops 6. Took long enough. If you’re not familiar with Gun Game, it’s simple to explain. Everyone starts out with a specific weapon, and every time you get a kill, you get a new one. There are usually somewhere between 18-20 different weapons to progress up through, and once you get a kill with the final one (usually a knife), you win. It’s my personal favorite game mode in Call of Duty, so I can’t wait to play it again.

Then around Valentine’s Day we’re getting two Valentine’s-themed game modes. While we don’t know everything about them yet, we can make a few assumptions. One of them is called Couples Dance Off, and according to the patch notes will be a modified version of 2v2 Face Off with game modes like TDM, Domination, and Kill Confirmed. Then there’s Third Wheel Gunfight, which seems to just be 3v3 Gunfight, but there might be more to it than that. Or maybe not.

Season 2 Events and Rewards (Season 2)

So far, two events have been announced for Season 2. The first one is called The Terminator and lasts from Feb 6-20. Then we have one called Shadow Hunt, which will last from Feb 13-20. I’m not sure if this is a typo on the patch notes page or if they’ll actually overlap, but we’ll see. We don’t know a ton about the rewards from each yet (there are some data leaks, but I’m not going to delve into them since they’re unconfirmed), but we do know two of the rewards–one perk and one scorestreak.

The new perk, Slipstream, is an Enforcer (red) perk that raises your base sprint speed but removes your ability to use tactical sprint. It doesn’t release until the Shadow Hunt event in late February, but I see a lot of potential for it. I think it’ll be best in game modes where you want to be sprinting long enough that you might typically run out of tactical sprint. So on larger multiplayer maps and Warzone, I could see this being really helpful. On smaller maps I think the burst sprint speed of tac sprint will be more useful, but we’ll just have to see when we get it.

Then there’s the new War Machine scorestreak, which releases during the Terminator event in mid-February. As a fan of the Terminator series (the old ones, at least), I’m really excited to try this thing out. It’s a burst-fire grenade launcher with a “large magazine” so it’ll be interesting to see if it’s actually good. I’m guessing it will play like a gun with a grenade launcher underbarrel, but with more ammo. It costs 1300 score to use, so hopefully it’ll be worth the hefty cost.

Once these events actually release and we have know all of the info about them, I’ll update this section and feature it more prominently with all of the rewards and how to claim them.

Multiplayer Weapon Balancing

This season sees some significant weapon balancing including plenty of buffs and a surprising lack of nerfs. I won’t go super in-depth on recapping every one of them, but I’ll give a brief overview. If you’re interested in a full breakdown, you can see that here.

Buffs:

• AS VAL (better reload speed)
• Goblin Mk2 (increased range)
• Kompakt 92 w/ 3-Round Burst Mod (increased range)
• Marine SP (increased range)
• ASG-89 (increased range)
• Maelstrom (increased damage and improved range at most distances)
• PU-21 (improved sprint-to-fire speed)
• DM-10 (increased bullet velocity)
• LW3A1 Frostline (increased damage)
• SVD (increased damage)
• LR 7.62 (increased damage)
• AMR Mod 4 (increased ADS speed with the Quickdraw Grip attachment)
• Stryder .22 (increased bullet penetration)
• Sirin 9mm (improved stats of Extended Mag I and Fast Mag I)
• Cigma 2B (general speed buffs)
• HE-1 (general speed buffs)

Warzone Season 2 News

Quite possibly the most important thing to know about Warzone this season is that console players can now disable crossplay matchmaking with PC players in ranked play. This is being done since Activision can’t figure out how to combat hackers on PC, despite most games being able to figure it out. But regardless, it is at least a decent idea to help console players get away from some of the hackers.

There are also a whole bunch of weapon changes, including buffs and nerfs to several popular weapons. The biggest nerfs, in my opinion, are to the XM4 (decreased damage) and Jackal PDW (slower ADS and sprint-to-fire speed).

And of course, we have to go over the available game modes for this season (so far):

• Battle Royale
• Area 99 Resurgence Quads (New)
• Resurgence Rebirth Island
• Plunder Quads
• Ranked

The Tomb – New Zombies Map

So far I’ve been really impressed with both the quantity and quality of Zombies maps in Black Ops 6. The Tomb is the fourth Zombies map added to the game in less that five months. The theme here is pretty simple, but a lot of fun. It’s set in an ancient tomb, where we progress further and deeper into it to discover ancient secrets. While the gameplay here is the same as always, it’s always good to have new environments to experience it all in. I haven’t had time to go through the entire map and find all the easter eggs yet, but the aesthetic alone already makes it one of my favorite maps in Black Ops 6 so far (even if Terminus is still my favorite).