by
Cody Perez
in Call of Duty | Aug, 12th 2021

Call of Duty Warzone is expanding to offer new content in the fifth season of its connection with Black Ops Cold War. Call of Duty Warzone Season 5 offers players the latest batch of new weapons, changes, locations, and more to enjoy for the next couple of months. 

Call of Duty Warzone Season 5 launches today, Thursday, Aug. 12, and will be available for the next couple of months as likely the second-to-last season to connect with Cold War before the next mainline entry drops, potentially sometime in November of this year. 

With the release of the fifth season, players have a lot to look forward to this season, like a new game mode, some new locations to visit on the Verdansk map, a midseason limited-time event that has been teased, some new guns to unlock, and much more. 

What is worth noting about this particular season is that it is a lot smaller and less content-heavy than what we have had in the past. This is possibly due to many factors. For one, Cold War has more content than ever this season and perhaps that is a possible reason. 

Another is that because this is the second-to-last connection with Cold War, there is the possibility that much of the content saved for Season 6. Or, worse, there isn’t much left to introduce in Warzone until the release of Call of Duty Vanguard later this year. 

Whatever the reason may be, Call of Duty Warzone Season 5 is a bit disappointing in terms of content, so players should prepare themselves for that. This is especially true since many of the best additions this season are not even out yet. Here’s everything that you need to know about the new season. 

For starters, the Call of Duty Warzone Season 5 content begins with two new perks that have been released in the free-to-play battle royale game. What you likely already know is that Warzone shares much of its gameplay features, like perks, tactical, and lethal equipment with Modern Warfare. 

That is because the battle royale title was built on the same engine. Many of the same assets were reused. Though the Warzone has the same weapons as the Cold War, much of everything else is shared with 2019’s Modern Warfare release. 

However, this season introduces two new perks to the battle royale title exclusive to this game for the first time. They are not found in Modern Warfare, nor are they available in Cold War. We are also unsure if these are from the upcoming Vanguard title or not.

The first of the two new perks that players can get this season is Combat Scout. This is one of the best communication-based perks we have ever heard of and will be a must-have for many squads that drop on Verdansk, especially for randoms. 

What this new perk does is highlight an enemy player for a short time in bright orange color when you damage them, even if only a single shot, and will automatically ping them for the rest of your squad. This is an excellent new perk for just about anyone who wants to team up. 

It will allow the user and their teammates to see enemy players that they shoot, which is great for playing with randoms who might not be using voice chat and your friends for easily showing them locations of other enemies. I highly recommend this perk moving forward for squads, or at least for one or two of the more scout-like players on your team. 

The other exclusive new perk this season is called Tempered. Like the first one, this is also a game-changer and in a pretty bizarre way. How it works is that it trades out your normal armor in Warzone for a reinforced armor type that is both the same and different (it’ll make sense in a moment). 

Normally, as you know, you have three armor plates that you can wear at one time. If your armor goes out, you’ll have to pick up some plates and equip them per usual. But with Tempered, you have stronger armor, so you only need to wear two armor plates instead of three. 

These two plates will take 75 points of damage each, instead of the regular 50, which still nets out to 150 in the end anyways. This does save you some time as you only have to equip up to two armor plates at a time instead of three, but it also comes at the cost of your second perk slot if you equip this. 

In my opinion, Tempered could be a pretty sweet perk if it was buffed some, but it has too many negatives at this time with the elimination of your second perk slot in your loadout. Adding the ability to give you slightly more armor or speed up the process of putting on plates, plus not taking away your second perk slot, would make this a great one to use, so hopefully, some changes come to it in the future. 

In Call of Duty Warzone Season 5, players will find some minor map changes to Verdansk 84. The Perseus enemy has taken his world domination a step further by bringing some mobile broadcast stations to the map and deploying them in various locations. 

Though the mobile broadcast stations are new to the map, they will be randomized in every single match where they are located. So, while you might find one by a particular point of interest in one match, they could be on the other side of the map in another match. 

Furthermore, there are likely to be multiple mobile broadcast stations around Verdansk that you can find. These locations will offer players plenty of loot rewards to pick up. They are going to be great landing spots in Season 5, but be careful as they will likely be quite popular with players simultaneously, so expect some chaotic firefights when you get there. 

The mobile broadcast stations are the bulk of the new map locations at the launch of the new season, but other destinations will arrive later in the season. Raven Software is a little coy about them currently with some redacted statements, but some secret locations will arrive later in the season, potentially as part of the tease for the next Call of Duty game. 

The new Rush Gulag is another location that is not necessarily on the Verdansk map itself, but within the matches, you do on the map. Raven likes to shake up the Gulag. That place is changing again this season to reflect a popular Black Ops 2 map known as Rush. 

Rush launched last season in Cold War as one of the latest Black Ops 2 maps to be remastered there, and the fan-favorite location will now be where you fight your way to earn a respawn back into the battle royale match. The duels are the same general one-on-one fight to the death as they always were, but now in the Rush map. 

The part of the map used for this new Gulag location is, specifically, the paintball arena that makes up the core of the location and is what it is known for. Get to know the hefty amounts of cover that it has here, as your opponent could be waiting for you around the very next wall. 

A single new game mode is coming to Call of Duty Warzone Season 5, and, unfortunately, it will happen later on in the season. That new mode is called Clash and is the Warzone Rumble experience that we already know about but amped up with some major changes. 

Clash will bring back that classic 50 on 50 large-scale Verdansk Deathmatch warfare, but this time around on a smaller scale and with some significant changes to the overall experience. This time around, it will have different quads face off against one another in a respawn match where the goal is to be the first team to reach 200 points. 

Every elimination you get in the match will net you a single point, so you are looking at 200 kills in total that your team will need to claim the victory in the Clash match. You will have starting loadouts in this mode, so feel free to customize it to your liking, grind out some new weapons if you want, and test your skills in this new respawn Verdansk mode. 

What is different in Clash, though, is taking a lot of cues from battle royale and implementing them in this game mode. For one, you will only fight at certain, randomized locations around the Verdansk map and not in the entire map itself. 

You will also have the same contracts and public events that you will find in normal battle royale here, letting you enjoy the scenery and engage in some side activities if you want some extra cash. That cash will be available for use in the buy stations that will be around the map. 

Other battle royale features are available in Clash, like the vehicles, armor plate drops, the ping system, etc. Clash will offer a Team Deathmatch-like experience that blends well with what makes Warzone unique, so here’s hoping that it is a permanent addition when it drops part way through Season 5. 

While this is not new at the launch of Call of Duty Warzone Season 5, there is a midseason event that Raven is already teasing. In the middle of the season, players can look forward to a Red Door-themed event that will be happening for players. 

The broadcasts that Perseus is setting up around the map are causing the Red Doors to become more volatile than ever before, leading up to some crazy destinations that were previously not visited. There are new locations that players can head to by going through the doors, so watch out for new mysteries and surprises. 

This is all building up to the midseason event that will be revealed soon. It has to do with the mobile broadcast stations. Though we have little to go on, for now, it is presumed that this new event is teasing the next Call of Duty game. 

Last year around the same time frame in the summer, Warzone announced Black Ops Cold War after months and months of leaks and rumors. This year, the same is happening with Warzone, but this time to announce the highly rumored Call of Duty Vanguard title. 

Presumed to be a sequel or successor to 2017’s WWII entry, Vanguard is being developed by the same developer, Sledgehammer Games. It will feature a return to the World War 2 atmosphere, but likely on a different front of the war than was experienced. Stay tuned for its possible full reveal later this season. 

The new Call of Duty Warzone Season 5 would not be complete without some new skins and weapons, and there are plenty of those, fortunately. Three new operators drop this season, starting with Kitsune, who is headlining the battle pass. 

A key Perseus operative, Kitsune, is a Japanese thief who will be unlocked at tier 0 of the battle pass and has an ultra-rare skin that unlocks at the end of the pass at tier 100. Secondly, we have Stryker, who is dropping later in the season, a one-man army available in the store. 

And then there is Hudson, the popular character from the main campaign of the Black Ops series, which will be arriving later in the season. Players will finally be able to run around as Hudson if you pick up his bundle in the store later this season. 

Season 5 launches with two weapons in the battle pass, starting with the EM2 assault rifle. Unlocked at tier 15 in both the free and paid passes, this new rifle has a slower fire rate than most and great range and accuracy that is a solid longer-range companion for fights. 

The other battle pass weapon is the TEC-9 SMG unlocked at tier 31 of the battle pass. This semi-automatic SMG has longer ranges, good accuracy, solid damage, but a slow fire rate to make it more of a mix between an SMG and an assault rifle. 

For melee fans, there is the cane weapon that will drop later in the season for you to have a classier way of bashing your enemies in the head online. And last but not least, later this season, players can unlock the Marshal pistol that will feature a powerful double-barrel gun with the potential for one-hit kills in close range.