Season 3 of Call of Duty: Warzone 2 arrives on April 12, and a new blog post from Activision details several major improvements coming to DMZ mode, including new vests and backpack systems. Season 2 of DMZ drastically changed the mode, but Season 3 is set to bring some of the best improvements yet.
One major change to DMZ is the overhaul of the mode’s armor vests and backpack systems. For hauling gear around, Season 3’s backpacks will come in two types: secure and scavenge.
Activision describes secure backpacks as packs that allow players to secure “non-Contraband, non-on-soldier items” in your inventory that will convert to XP upon extraction, meaning the random lootable valuables and mission items. Additionally, items in a secure backpack are kept to that Active Duty Soldier if they are eliminated in an Extraction Zone. As the name suggests, scavenge backpacks simply offer additional item slots for players looking to do a ton of scavenging.
According to the blog, DMZ’s armored plate vest will have four variants in Season 3, allowing for options to cater to various playstyles.
- Tempered: Works like Warzone 1’s tempered plate carrier. A player’s armor will be two half-bars instead of three thirds, making it easier and more efficient to re-plate after a fight
- Revive: A three-plate medic vest grants both faster revives on squadmates, as well as faster self-revives when using a self-revive kit
- Comms: A three-plate comms vest is like a signal booster. It increases the duration of all UAV technology in DMZ (the killstreak, UAV towers, and enemy radios dropped by AI) and makes them function as Advanced UAVs, meaning they also show player direction and location
- Stealth: The stealth plate carrier comes built-in with the Ghost perk, keeping players off enemy radars.
For all the scavenger-style players in DMZ, Season 3 is adding the new barter system. This isn’t player-to-player trading, but more of a way to swap goods at a Buy Station. DMZ’s bartering uses recipes, which are component lists needed to craft new equipment from items scavenged from the map.
These new recipes are found at the Buy Stations around the maps. The launch of Season 3 will include recipes for some of DMZ’s new plate carriers and backpacks, killstreaks, self-revive kits, and keys. However, Building 21 and Ashika Island locations will each have their own unique set of barter options across its Buy Stations, meaning players might need to exfil to a different map for a specific item.
Activision says there are dozens of item trade combinations that will launch with Season 3, and these are set recipes that can be memorized to make them easy to share with teammates and scavenge for specific items.
In addition to crafting recipes, Season 3 is adding a workbench feature. DMZ’s workbenches will be new locations found near Buy Stations. This new feature will allow players to modify their Contraband weapons. Players can spend cash to add or remove attachments, customizing the weapon piece by piece.
Lastly, players can expect two more helpful items for the new season: The Rebreather and Skeleton Key. The Rebreather, which is the air tank item featured in Modern Warfare 2’s first Raid episode, will be added as a field upgrade in Season 3 of DMZ. This will help players who are searching for underwater loot, or benefit those looking to make an underwater escape.
The Skeleton Key is a key that can unlock any door in DMZ, with the only exception being Building 21’s Access Keycard. Activision says that even though players can’t use it to unlock Building 21 for deployment, they can open every door that requires a keycard or key in Building 21 or the other Exclusion Zones. The Skeleton Key can only be created through a special barter recipe.
