Modern Warfare 4 Season 1 goes live at midnight Eastern on Friday, November 6, which is 9pm Pacific on Thursday, November 5. Activision says it hits every platform at once. It’s the first big content drop since the Modern Warfare 4 launch, and it brings three multiplayer maps, two returning modes, a new DMZ location, and the start of Warzone’s Modern Warfare 4 era.
Multiplayer maps and modes
Three maps arrive on day one. Backstab is a new 6v6 map set in a snowed-in, war-torn town with abandoned tanks in the streets. Long sightlines rule the roads, and the open buildings are where the close fights happen. Canyon is the opposite: a sunbaked, medium-sized map hemmed in by tall rock walls, with a river route past a convoy ambush, a winding cliff path, and a central mesa that looks down both ends.
The third is Shoot House, rebuilt for Modern Warfare 4’s movement and moved to North Korea under light snow. The three-lane layout is unchanged, so veterans will know their way around right away.
Grind and Drop Zone both come back at launch. In Grind you collect dog tags from eliminated players and bank them to score. Drop Zone has teams holding a single rotating objective while killstreak packages drop in. There’s also Gauntlet 1v1, a limited-time Gunfight playlist tied to the Wager Match event, where the winner stays on to face the next challenger.
The Halloween modes are already rolling out ahead of the season. Possession, where eliminating an enemy lets you take over their body and loadout, went live October 29. Infected returns October 30. Shipment came back October 27.
More is planned for the mid-season update: two new maps, Ministry (an embassy under attack during a peace summit) and Overflow (a factory and its farmland), plus a new mode called Counter Attack, where each team tries to blow up the other’s Comm Station. Activision says more maps and a Team Deathmatch variant are coming too, but it hasn’t named them or put a date on that update.
DMZ heads into X01
DMZ gets its first new location, a weapons facility called X01 on the edge of Hajin. Activision describes it as a former GRANIT Arms black site in an old Russian facility that North Korean forces have taken over. Squads search cargo bays and vehicle depots, then head down into tunnels, labs, and production lines toward a sealed Deep Vault.
Getting out is the hard part. As a match goes on, the facility starts closing off extraction points, so your squad has to complete specific steps to escape or it doesn’t make it out. Ghost runs the new DMZ Orders as you push deeper, and Activision is keeping the new enemies and items under wraps until launch.
Two events kick off the season. Threat Briefing has squads hunting bosses for parts over several deployments, including a battle tank in Hajin and a juggernaut called The Captain in X01. Resupply Run sends you after specific items to trade for gear like self-revives and 3-plate carriers.
Warzone joins in
Season 1 is also when Modern Warfare 4 fully integrates with Call of Duty: Warzone. Two new maps, Hajin and Zodiac, arrive with it, and Verdansk and Rebirth Island return. Activision is saving the rest for a separate Warzone post and roadmap on Monday, November 2.
New weapons and the Battle Pass
Two weapons come with the Battle Pass at launch: the Cronen Osprey assault rifle at tier 16 and the CSG-35 SMG at tier 36. Activision calls them free base weapons, and the CSG-35 has the highest fire rate of any SMG in the game at 1,200 rounds per minute. Later in the season, events add the full-auto JAK 12 shotgun and the ZLR Talonhawk combat axe.
The Battle Pass is a straight 100-tier track. It costs 1,100 COD Points, or 2,400 COD Points for the Battle Pass Bundle. The big change is a catch-up system for the premium pass. If you fall behind on the premium pass, the game automatically catches you up to the reward that matches the current day of the season, up to day 50, so buying in a few weeks late still gets you caught up. Activision says premium buyers are guaranteed more than 50 rewards.
Vault Edition owners get Season 1 BlackCell included. In DMZ, BlackCell also opens a vendor at the FOB that sells extra weapons and gear for DMZ Cash, and players without BlackCell don’t get it.
Season 1 arrives at 9pm Pacific on November 5, which is already November 6 on the East Coast. If you skipped the launch patch notes, they’re the best way to catch up on what changed before the new maps hit.