Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has been out for quite a while now. However, despite the fact that the game is almost half a year old at this point, Infinity Ward has continued to consistently push out new content updates that keep the experience fresh and exciting. Like most multiplayer games these days, big Call of Duty: Modern Warfare updates are pushed out in the form of Seasons with Season 3 being the latest one.
The Season 3 update for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is arguably the biggest update to the game yet as it not only brings new content including weapons and maps to the main game but also freshens up the new talk-of-the-town Battle Royale game mode, Warzone. Call of Duty: Warzone, despite being a part of the main game can be downloaded separately as it is a free-to-play experience.
It is quite nice to see that Call of Duty: Warzone is also getting content updates alongside the main game and has integrated nicely into the main game’s Seasons. It is due to Activision and Infinity Ward’s continued support for the game that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone have managed to reach the heights they are at today.
With the game developer moving away from the entire futuristic sci-fi premise for the game and focusing on what made the Call of Duty franchise so popular in the first place, Modern Warfare has managed to become the best-selling Call of Duty game of this generation. In addition to that, Call of Duty: Warzone downloads are through the roof as well with people making the switch over to the game from the likes of Fortnite and Apex Legends.
While Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/Warzone is still an arcade first person shooter game with more emphasis on player reactions than strategy, there is still tons of depth to be found within the gunplay and game mechanics since this is a much slower game than its predecessors. The biggest difference between this and the previous instalments of Call of Duty is arguably the weight of the guns and the movement of your character that can make all the difference in the world.
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Another thing that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/Warzone introduces is bigger maps which is something that hasn’t been done in the series before, especially when you consider the vast expansive map of Warzone. These bigger maps completely alter the way you play and require a lot more thinking and communication rather than the traditional run and gun playing style of the previous Call of Duty games.
Building upon all of these newer game mechanics, Season 3 for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/Warzone brings some even finer tweaks to the gameplay in addition to Alex, who is a new operator making the switch over from the campaign, a quads mode for Warzone, 3 new maps and other new cosmetics for players.
In fact, even Riley from Call of Duty: Ghosts is making a return to the series with the new Season 3 update alongside the Season 3 Battle Pass. You can check out the full patch notes for Season 3 at the end of this post.
However, the Season 3 update is thankfully not as gigantic as some of the previous updates that Infinity Ward has pushed and is only around 12 GB. The update has fixed some much needed balancing issues and has added some newer gameplay quality of life improvements that will certainly alter the overall meta of the game. We have already seen players experimenting with newer strategies and trying to get ahead of the curve.
If you’re still relatively new to the game, going up against players who have been playing for months can be a daunting task. Don’t worry though as it doesn’t actually take much to catch up to most of those players and there are some very basic things that you can try out to get better at the game and improve your success rate.
So, here are some of the best tips and tricks that will set you on your way to success in the Season 3 of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/Warzone.
1. Play around and experiment in Gunsmith
One of the best features of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is the gunsmith feature that allows you to put additional attachments on your guns and customize them to your heart’s desire. Some of these attachments can completely change the way a weapon behaves. Furthermore, mixing and matching different combinations of attachments can actually fetch some incredible results.
Gunsmith isn’t only limited to Modern Warfare players either as those that solely play Warzone can also customize their weapons for the in-game loadouts. While the weapon loadouts do carry over between Modern Warfare and Warzone, you’d be better off by just creating separate classes for the normal and battle royale game modes.
In Warzone, players have a much higher total health and it takes a lot of bullets to strip down their shields and eventually kill them. In addition to that, the map is also massive and requires you to constantly move in order to stay within the closing circle. This is in stark contrast to the usual formula of most Modern Warfare game modes. Therefore, the guns that work in Modern Warfare will not necessarily translate as well in Warzone.
The best thing to do then is to experiment with different weapon attachments and learn about every individual weapon. The game has incredible depth when it comes to these attachments and a singular weapon can actually be modified to suit multiple playing styles. For instance, you can modify the AK-47 to be a long-ranged powerful assault rifle or turn it into an AK-47u, which is essentially an overcharged sub-machine gun.
So, in a nutshell, you should have separate classes for every playing style you can think of adopting in a match. Ideally, you should at least have a run and gun class, a sniper class, a rifle class and a powerful shotgun class. You can switch between these classes as the situation between the matches and game modes changes. Furthermore, having ready-made classes can actually go a long way since you’d be able to get to grips with your weapons much easier.
Another great thing about gunsmith is the fact that you don’t have to stick to a single build for an entire match as you can actually access the gunsmith menu from within a multiplayer match. This allows you to quickly swap out your attachments and experiment on the fly to find something that suits your style perfectly.
However, if you’re not sure about where to begin with your guns, you can check out our best guns and loadouts guides for both Modern Warfare and Warzone down below.
Best Weapons and Loadouts in Call of Duty: Warzone
Best Weapons and Loadouts in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
2. Tweak your sensitivity and settings
Most beginners coming to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare or Warzone play the game with default settings. While those settings are perfectly fine for learning the game mechanics and knowing what you’re dealing with, you should start to alter them to your liking pretty quickly.
Whether you are playing on a console with a controller or playing with a PC, you should always adjust your sensitivity and button layout to suit your playing style. With a mouse, things are much more complicated since everyone runs a different DPI setting and has a specific preference for how sensitive they want their aim to be.
However, the overarching rule is still the same for both controllers and mice. If you’re someone who likes to play a long-ranged game using sniper rifles, assault rifles or LMGs, you should lower your aim sensitivity. This will allow you to tweak your aim with much more accuracy at a distance since the farther an enemy is, the finer your aim adjustment needs to be.
On the flipside though, if you’re someone who is more comfortable with using SMGs or Shotguns and likes to engage in close combat more, you’re going to want to turn your sensitivity higher. Run and gun playing styles require quick movement and since enemies are closer to you in most scenarios when you’re playing like that, you need to adjust your aim quick motions.
However, since the faster turning is only required for horizontal aiming, you’d be better off by turning the horizontal aim sensitivity higher than your vertical aim sensitivity since that would allow you to still accurately aim for headshots while also being lightning fast.
Another thing that you can change with the control scheme is setting the layout to tactical mode, especially if you’re playing on your controller. In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, you rarely ever get to melee an opponent since the maps are more expansive so this will allow you to quickly drop shot by just tapping your right thumb stick.
As for the aim assist on a controller, you’ll be fine by just keeping that on standard since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/Warzone have a pretty generous assist and player hitbox.
3. Manage your perks and killstreaks
Killstreaks and perks make a return in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with some being naturally much more powerful than the others. For instance, the overkill perk or the cold-blooded perk is a must have if you’re diving into a game of Call of Duty: Warzone. However, while there are some obvious choices to be made in terms of your perks and killstreaks, there is still a lot of room for experimentation as well.
If you’re a beginner, chances are that you’re struggling to rack up kills within a single life and can’t quite manage to hit your killstreaks. In that case, the best option would be to downgrade your killstreaks to something much more achievable. For example, the Personal Radar, UAV and a Cruise Missile are a good place to start. Once you start to get better, you can swap out the Personal Radar for something much more powerful like a Chopper Gunner.
However, if you feel like you’re even struggling to hit the lower killstreaks, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare actually allows you to swap out a killstreak in favour of a 4th perk slot. Furthermore, sometimes your teammates are already spamming lower killstreaks like the UAV so it can actually be better if you switch to specialist get a 4th perk that can really enhance your normal gameplay and rack up more kills for higher levelled killstreaks.
4. Learn your surroundings
While map knowledge has always been important in Call of Duty games, it has never been as important as it is in Modern Warfare and Warzone. The latest instalment in the Call of Duty franchise has some of the biggest maps the series has ever seen. Not only that, the addition of a massive 150 player Battle Royale has really turned the classic Call of Duty strategy of fast paced run and gun on its heels.
Now, the environment Is not forgiving for players who run in blind into their encounters. You need to carefully evaluate your surroundings and move with caution. The game’s emphasis on the sound of footsteps and cover mechanics has never been greater.
In Modern Warfare and Warzone, a cover is going to be your greatest ally. The covers not only provide you with safety against the enemy bullets, they can also be used to mount weapons and get better stability for shooting accurately. This will not only give you a greater advantage in terms of firepower but will also keep most of your body hidden from the enemy.
Mounting up your weapon against cover isn’t a tedious process like some other games either since it only requires you to aim at a wall and press the crouch button (or tapping aim twice). In Warzone, the way you move through open spaces can really make or break your match when you’re trying to get to the next circle. The trick is to always stay behind or close to some form of cover.
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In case there is no cover to hide behind, just stay low and make yourself smaller and harder to hit. However, this isn’t something that you can master on day 1 and it will probably require a lot of practice and learning. Once you get the hang of the maps and strategies though, you’ll feel much more confident in your fights.
5. Communicate and strategize with your teammates
Many people ignore this but it is quite possibly one of the most important things in not only Call of Duty but ever other competitive team-based game. You can still be successful without communication with your team but with it, you’d be able to reach heights you didn’t even know existed.
In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and especially Warzone, the maps are pretty big and strategy plays a key role in determining the outcome of your match. A team with better coherence and communication will always have a higher chance of winning a match. Sometimes, you can eliminate an enemy without even engaging directly.
For example, if you see an enemy in the distance and you know that your teammate is over there as well, you can call it out and have your teammate flank that enemy getting you closer to that win. However, the importance of communication is not only limited to bigger maps and battle royale.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has introduced a bunch of smaller game modes as well like the 2v2 gunfight that, despite being set in an extremely small map, require some serious strategy and communication. In fact, most games of gunfight are win solely because of good communication between the teammates.
If you see an enemy running through a corridor, you can call it out to your teammate on the other end so they can be ready for the enemy to emerge. If you see that a corner of the map is clear, you can tell your teammate to stay vigilant since the chances of an enemy being on the other side are higher. The possibilities are endless and the key is to let your teammate know about your status at all times.
Another thing that Call of Duty players do a lot is try to get the most kills while ignoring the objective. While that can help you rack up kills and improve your K/D ratio, it is not very sportsman-like and can actually hurt your win/loss ratio. Despite being so heavily reliant on individual skill, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is still a team-based game and you’re only going to win if your team wins as well.
So, while watching eSports players pull off incredible solo kills is great, the lone wolf mentality will not really get you anywhere in the long run. You need to strategize with your team and assign positions whether it is to defend or attack objectives, especially in game modes like Domination. Furthermore, Modern Warfare really rewards good team play with the more cohesive team wining matches more frequently.
6. Adjust your audio settings
Audio is quite possibly the most ignored area of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/Warzone. However, it is absolutely crucial when it comes to actually getting good at the game. People just don’t stress enough on how important it is to focus on the audio within the game. Hearing an approaching enemy’s footsteps and reacting in time can make all the difference in the world.
However, the audio profile for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone is not great out of the box and needs to be adjusted a bit. The game is riddled with announcer voices, in-game music and other sound effects that don’t actually help with gameplay at all. While these are important in terms of creating a spectacle, you’re better off without them if you’re serious about getting better.
So, I would suggest some changes to your in-game audio settings starting with setting the audio mixer to the Boost Low setting. This will boost lower frequencies within the game which mostly includes footsteps and other bass heavy sounds. In addition to that, you should also turn down your music volume to zero to eliminate any distraction from music during gameplay.
You should also set your effects volume to around 70. This will lower other distracting sounds such as the announcer voice and other character voices. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare provides a lot of freedom and control when it comes to mixing your audio.
In fact, you can even turn off the hit marker sound to hear better while shooting. However, that is not advised since the hit marker provides a crucial audio cue for when you’re hitting an enemy.
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In the end though, it all comes down to practice and persistence. You may feel intimidated by other players being so much better than you at the start but you need to remember that they started from zero at some point as well.
You also need to learn common tropes of being good at first person shooter like having full awareness of your surroundings. Once you incorporate all of these things in your gameplay, you’ll start to feel like you’re getting somewhere in terms of having success. From there, the sky is the limit.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/Warzone Season 3 Patch Notes
The Season 3 update for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, despite being smaller in size than other updates brings a lot to the table, especially when it comes to balancing out weapons and fixing some major flaws within the game. However, it does add some exciting new content to the game as well.
The update is now live on PS4, Xbox One and PC. Here are the full patch notes for the Season 3 of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/Warzone:
New Content
New Operator + Battle Pass, featuring Alex / Echo 3
New Multiplayer Maps:
- Talsik Backlot – In the middle of the Urzikstan desert lies an urban city with a major construction project taking place at its center. With its citizens long evacuated, combat takes place from door-to-door as teams fight for control of the various overlooks and buildings.
- Hovec Sawmill – A sleepy farming village is under peril, as its main sawmill building has caught fire. Operators will fight within the burning wreckage and around it, visiting the local businesses such as the butchery, the mess hall, and even the beekeeper’s area, which includes a couple of active hives!
- Aniyah Incursion – You’ve experienced it in 10v10 and in Ground War – now fight within a more enclosed version of the area based around the central palace in Aniyah Incursion.
New Warzone Game Mode: Quads
New Weapons:
- SKS
- Renetti
New Skins:
- Vehicle Skins
- Mil-Sim Skins
GENERAL FIXES:
- Lowered the max amount of XP and score given for Decoy Grenade assists
- Backend fixes to help Memory Error 13-71 issues. If you’re still experiencing this error, please reach out to Activision Customer Support
- Fixed a bug where more than one dog would be present in the squad walk in the main multiplayer menu
- As an owner of a regiment, players could sometimes see an error when selecting another player in their regiment. This has been fixed
- Fixed an issue where players were unable to skip cutscenes in the campaign while using keyboard and mouse controls
- Fixed a bug where players were sometimes unable to see Clan Tags for other players in the Social Menu after restarting app, or going through a power cycle
- Fixed an issue where some players could encounter graphical corruptions, causing their screen to have a black ‘shadow’ that followed them. This has been fixed
- Fix for an area on St. Petrograd that lacked collision and allowed the Recon Drone to fly out of bounds
- Fixed a bug that made clan tags appear twice
- Fixed a bug that could prevent players from speaking to their team in a custom match if they switched teams after the match has started
AUDIO:
- Lowered the volume of the plane audio during infil
- Lowered the audio once you enter the Gulag
- Reduced the volume of occluded far and distant weapons
- Some footstep sounds while ADS and crouched were cut short on the distance you could hear them, depending on the surface type
WEAPONS:
- Fixed an issue where “The Line Breaker” variant of the EBR could out perform the base version of the same weapon
- Players with the “Cherry Blossom” variant of the Akimbo handguns could have broken animations while ADS on ladders. This has been fixed
- Firing a smoke grenade with the under barrel 40mm smokescreen launcher did not emit any smoke from the grenade. This has been fixed
- Attaching the Sniper Scope to the MK2 Carbine while in the Gunsmith would show a white, opaque lens. This has been fixed.
- Tightened the pellet spread on the Slug 6-R Mags for the Model 680
- Akimbo weapons now start with 2 extra magazines of ammunition instead of 1
- Tightened up the hip spread on the VLK Rogue Shotgun
- Decreased ADS spread for shotgun slugs
- Added descriptions to slugs noting that longer barrels and chokes improve ADS accuracy
- Updating names of weapons to match weapon logos
- 725: “FTAC Equilibrium” renamed to “Cronen Equilibrium”
- SA87: “FSS SA87 Heavy Stock Pro” renamed to “XRK SA87 Heavy Stock Pro”
- RAM-7: “XRK Ranger” renamed to “FSS Ranger
- Grau 5.56: “FSS 26.4″ Archangel” renamed to “Tempus 26.4″ Archangel”
SPECIAL OPERATIONS:
- Added on screen text to call out when a player’s vehicle is damaged
- Operation Headhunter: Fix for an error that could occur after launching the drone
- Operation Headhunter: Fixed a bug where the minimap could overlap the Objectives on screen
- Fall damage is now the same in Co-Op as it is in Warzone
WARZONE:
- We now tell you how far away you are from your teammates while in a match
- Fix for the gas mask animation interrupting and blocking players from deploying their parachute
- Various exploit fixes
- Fix for a bug where players were unable to revive teammates after getting interrupted during the initial revive animation
- Fixed a bug where players could be killed by vehicles without being near the player
- Fixed an issue that could display the incorrect rank on screen after the player’s game application had been suspended and reopened
- Fixed an issue where deploying a Recon Drone would use the VO lines for a Personal Radar. That VO was also heard by all players on the map. This has been fixed
- Fix for a bug where players could become invincible if they become downed while switching seats in a Tac Rover
- While spectating a player in the Gulag, the option to redeploy your teammate would appear on screen, even though they cannot be redeployed. This has been fixed
- If a player spectates the winning team of a BR match, the After-Action Report will display the winning team’s score in the scoreboard tab. This has been fixed.
- Fixed a bug where placing a Shield Turret on a teammate could kill them
PLUNDER:
- Fixed a bug where players couldn’t swap out the M13 for any other weapon in the Plunder tutorial
BATTLE ROYALE:
- Fix for players unable to self-revive in Solos
- Increased price of Loadout Drop within the Buy Station to $10,000
- Removed Blood Splatter and Screen Shake when being punched in the Gulag waiting area
- Removed Loss Column from BR Leaderboard and replaced with Top 10s
- Fixed issue with final circles occurring out of bounds or in undesirable areas
- Fixed issue with Armor plates and Killstreaks being unusable under certain conditions
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is out on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. You can download the free Battle Royale game mode for Modern Warfare called Warzone right here.