The Path to Season 02: DMZ Update
A new Exclusion Zone is coming to DMZ along with several other important changes, but Insured Weapon Slots and permanent unlocks are here to stay. Read more about what is coming to DMZ in Season 02 here.
Hello DMZ Community,
It has been a thrilling first season of DMZ as the team at Infinity Ward has watched and played alongside you. We’ve watched players chase Weapons Cases, hunt enemy squads, solve Building 21 and explore the many locked spaces of Al Mazrah. We enjoyed the heart pounding exfils, the daring boss fights and the chaos of contracts against the impending radiation. We celebrated your clips of Proximity Chat and the Assimilation feature to group up and work together… or not work together!
As we look ahead to Season 02, we wanted to share more details on what is coming within our growing DMZ ecosystem and how we plan to continue evolving the experience.
Season 02 Locations
Ashika Island
The new Ashika Island map coming to Warzone™ 2.0 is a brand-new Exclusion Zone for DMZ. Players will infiltrate on the shores of the island before making their way inland. Infiltration is under heavy fog that can impact combat by providing cover for both Operators and the occupying force: Shadow Company… but what could they be doing here?
There is much to discover in the Ashika Island Exclusion Zone including:
· A new Weapons Case.
· A new Boss: The Bombmaker.
· New locked and dangerous spaces to access and explore.
· And more!
Building 21
In Season 01 Reloaded, we introduced Building 21 with a unique Access Card and a timed infiltration window. Season 02 Missions have Operators returning to Building 21 as another Exclusion Zone option. If you need Access Cards to Building 21, be sure to seek out the following (in either Al Mazrah or Ashika Island):
· S.A.M. Site Crates
· Chopper Boss Crates
· Buy Stations
· Legendary (Orange) Crates
Operators should be prepared for heavy resistance in Building 21; it’s recommended you gear up before heading to this location!
Al Mazrah
There are developments to explore in Al Mazrah as well, with updated intel indicating including the crash of an unknown aircraft at the Sattiq Cave Complex. The fight between White Lotus and Legion rages on… perhaps Operators can take advantage of this inter-faction animosity?
Refresh and Reset
We previously announced that Season 02 will include a reset and Faction Mission Refresh. Here is exactly what that entails:
· Contraband Weapon Inventories will be rolled back to the starting weapons.
· Key Inventories will be emptied.
· Faction Missions and mission progress will be reset to make room for an updated mission set that incorporates all Exclusion Zones.
Last week we confirmed:
· Insured Weapons Slots unlocked through previous Faction Mission progress will not be reset. However, if you did not unlock an additional Insured Slot in Season 01, the new Season 02 requirements to do so should take much less time.
For clarity on any Season 01 progress:
· All Season 01 mission and boss enemy rewards – for example previously acquired Al Mazrah weapons case rewards – will not be reset, with the exception of Contraband and Keys.
Why are we doing this refresh?
· Mission progress in Season 01 got too difficult, too quickly. With Season 02 we’re making sure each mission’s challenge and time requirements are more balanced.
· The Key Stash will now be able to hold specific mission items that you must gather from one Exclusion Zone and bring to another. This allows us to have longer form missions that utilize all of our Exclusion Zones.
· With the new mission set, we can employ multi-location missions that send players to Al Mazrah, to Ashika Island, and to Building 21. The mission refresh is made up of new missions, updated missions and missions we felt worked really well from Season 01.
To complete this reset, DMZ may have to go offline for a few hours ahead of the launch of Season 02. We’ll be sharing details and timing on that soon.
New Faction: Crown
Modern Warfare® II owners will also have access to mission orders from a brand new fourth faction, Crown. This British group is shrouded in mystery, but they have certainly piqued the interest of Black Mous….
Again, this Faction will only be available to Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II owners.
We recently detailed some of the changes coming to DMZ in Season 02, but are including them here as well with some additional context:
Enemy Tuning
In Season 01 the AI in DMZ were challenging, but the ramp up of difficulty was often steep with some players getting overwhelmed. With Season 02, we’ve introduced a number of balance changes to adjust the types of AI spawning, the number of AI spawning, and the accuracy of AI at range and much more. All of this should provide a challenging but manageable play-space that still requires player respect of enemy combatants in the DMZ.
Dev Update: We can assure you, the AI combatants in DMZ are still not to be taken lightly.
Spawn Points
We are tuning some of the infil points across Al Mazrah for improved early match experience based on gameplay data. Starting at a point at which your squad feels isolated or without loot and contract opportunities is not the best experience. These tweaks should improve spawn points across the map.
Dev Update: In addition to moving infiltration points, we’ve also made changes to exfil, boss and dead drop locations across Al Mazrah.
Mission Difficulty Tuning
Data and feedback reinforced that the Faction Mission difficulty ramp was too aggressive for many Players, and that the demanding scale ultimately made it very challenging to unlock the second Insured Weapon Slot (completing all Tier 3 Missions) in Season 01. We have adjusted the overall scaling of difficulty in Missions as the Tiers progress. Later Tier Missions will still be quite challenging even for the experienced Operator, but we believe more straightforward access to an additional Insured Slot will provide a better path forward for all Players.
Crashes
We know crashes are especially impactful in DMZ if you lose your items and Contraband Weapons as a result. Addressing these crashes is a priority for Season 02, and we are committed to increased stability.
Future Seasons
Future seasons will bring more changes and new content to DMZ. While DMZ is still in Beta, our hope is to continue getting feedback to shape future iterations of the game. We do not intend to apply a mission refresh every season. Instead, we’re excited to try different approaches each season to continually improve the DMZ experience. More to come on this in the future.
We’re excited for you to jump into Season 02 on February 15! Stay up to date on all things #ModernWarfareII and #Warzone2 by following the Infinity Ward and Call of Duty channels.
And most importantly…
Stay frosty.