Call of Duty season 4 raises the stakes with ‘Mercenaries of Fortune’

Call of Duty: Warzone’s (and Vanguard’s) fourth season, the somewhat redundantly titled “Mercenaries of Fortune,” gets going on Wednesday, June 22, bringing with it a new battle royale map, some new modes to play, and for Vanguard, a return of the round-based Zombies game type.

Call of Duty: Vanguard also gets a new/old map, USS Texas 1945, which is a reimagining of the USS Texas map from 2017’s Call of Duty: WWII. That map will be available on June 22, and will be joined midseason by another map, Desolation. That’s billed as a “small-to-medium sized map set in a dense village.” So it’s not a wide-open space, but it is a shot-to-pieces listening post out in the Pacific.

Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision

Vanguard players will also see the return of Gun Game, which began life as an April Fool’s joke all the way back in 2010’s Call of Duty: Black Ops. Blueprint Gun Game, as Vanguard’s mode is called, requires a player to record kills with all 18 weapons to win a match. The mode cycles players to the next weapon on the list with each kill; the last weapon is the Throwing Knife.

The Zombies callback is Shi No Numa, a map that appeared in the first Zombies Call of Duty, World at War, back in 2008. Players will return to a round-based format in an updated “Swamp of Death,” which includes new main and side quests, and a new Wonder Weapon quest.

Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision

Warzone’s new map, Fortune’s Keep, was revealed on Monday. The battle royale will add some new in-game challenges themed to the “Mercenaries of Fortune” title, including a “Black Market Run Contract” that challenges players to get to the Black Market Buy Station before the timer expires. There they’ll find some unusual loot and gear.

There will also be NPC mercs trying to airlift their moolah off the island during Resurgence Battle Royale matches. Players can show up to rob their dice game, just be careful that enemy operators don’t have the same idea at the same time.

In Warzone, a new vehicle will arrive midseason: the Armored SUV. It sports a rooftop turret with roomy seating so players can use their own loadout weapons from the perch. Drivers can also take advantage of a nitro boost. Warzone also will see a limited-time mode called Golden Plunder, which increases the player count to 120. Players also drop more cash on their death, which means they have to collect $5 million to win the match.

The full list of changes, additions, reworks, and upgrades is available in Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Vanguard’s fourth season is available in Activision’s official blog post.

Image: Sledgehammer Games/Activision