What is Iron Trials ‘84? It's a new mode in Call Of Duty: Warzone, the popular FPS’ free-to-play battle royale spin-off. Iron Trials ‘84 is being touted as the toughest, most challenging Warzone mode yet, and it certainly does have a pretty strict ruleset.
Many of the tweaks in Iron Trials ‘84 are designed to increase the average TTK (Time-to-Kill), which means the average player will survive for long, but also means that actually killing a player requires a lot more skill. Camping is a weak tactic in Iron Trials ‘84 of Warzone, with players finding that they’re having to brush up on their tracking skills in order to ensure wounded opponents don’t get away.
11 Start With Magnum And Sledgehammer
This starting loadout sends a pretty clear message to players: find loot and fast. The Magnum is OK. It certainly has high damage for a pistol, but given that players all have increased base health in Iron Trials ‘84, it’s unlikely to be enough to take anyone down.
The Sledgehammer, meanwhile, is widely regarded as the worst melee weapon in the whole game. It’s slow and unwieldy, and it looks faintly ridiculous. It could certainly result in some interesting fights between players who land near each other at the start of a match, but in general, it should be swapped out as soon as possible.
10 No Melee Finishers
“Settle the score with lead” is how the official Call Of Duty blog sums up this rule. Finishing an opponent off with a toe-to-toe attack is not an option in Iron Trials ‘84, suggesting that this mode is targeted at FPS purists who think that shooters should be about shooting.
Some players have also complained that melee attacks are generally overpowered in Warzone, and are noticeably over-used in the early game when no one yet has decent weapons, so this rule may be a test to see if nerfing melee works better.
9 Slower Health Regeneration
Health regenerates more slowly in Iron Trials ‘84 in two ways. First, the delay before it even starts regenerating has been increased from 5 seconds to 7 seconds. It doesn’t sound like much, but in a Warzone firefight, those extra two seconds could make a lot of difference.
And once it starts regenerating, it does so much more slowly than in other modes, with the rate being reduced from 120 points per second to 40 points per second. What this means is that while players need to get better at tracking, they need to get better at hiding too.
8 Sniper Headshots Are Less Deadly At Long Range
The sheer size of the maps in Warzone makes sniping a very powerful tactic, but less so in Iron Trials ‘84, in which sniper headshots only down the target if taken from within 30 meters (which is a very close range for a sniper rifle).
This isn’t realistic, of course, but it does bring an end to suffering insta-death at the hands of a sniper who isn’t even visible to the targeted player. Sniping can still be a very effective playstyle, but like many of Iron Trials ‘84’s rules, this one pushes players to get better at it.
7 Duos Only
Raven has said that the squad size in Iron Trials ‘84 is limited to two in order to emphasize the mode’s increased Time-to-Kill. Which is another way of saying that you can’t get easy kills by ganging up on enemies in this mode.
Even with two players targeting the same enemy, it’s going to take a sustained attack to down that target before they escape. So despite the small squad size, teamwork is arguably even more important in Iron Trials ‘84 than in any other mode.
6 Base Health Increased
This is the simplest and most obvious way to increase Time-to-Kill, and it’s not a small increase either. Base Health in Iron Trials ‘84 is more than doubled from 100 points to 250 points. And that means that a player with full armor plates has a whopping 400 health, and will require a lot of time, effort, and firepower to take down.
Some players might be bothered by how unrealistic this rule is, but the point here is to make sure that every kill is earned and to reduce the degree to which luck plays a part.
5 Buy Station Prices Are Higher
Every item at every Buy Station in Iron Trials ‘84 is more expensive than in other modes, and not just by a little. Everything costs 30%-50% more, and there’s less cash to be looted as well, so this mode pushes players to spend wisely.
The biggest increase is to the cost of a Loadout Drop Marker, which is up from $10,000 to $15,000, which means it’s often simply going to be out of reach. The idea here is to reduce the impact of the Warzone metagame, and force players to adopt a more improvised, in-the-moment style.
4 Loot Completely Reworked
In general, it’s harder to find the best loot in Iron Trials ‘84, with Epic and Legendary weapons, Killstreaks, and large piles of cash all much rarer than in other modes. The Dead Silence and Stopping Power Field Upgrades have also been completely removed.
There are a few generous touches to counterbalance this general tightening though. All Common weapons found will start with an attachment, and a new level of rarity, “Classified”, has been introduced. Classified weapons have more than five attachments, making them potentially better than a Loadout weapon, but they’re very, very rare.
3 No Free Loadouts
In standard Warzone battle royale modes, there are two free loadout drops in every match. One just before the first circle closes, then another just before the fifth circle closes. But not in Iron Trials ‘84.
Any player wanting a loadout drop in Iron Trials ‘84 will have to pay for it, but with less cash loot and higher Buy Station prices, most players are never going to be able to afford one. This rule makes players less dependent on Warzone’s metagame and forces them to get better at making the most of their situation by scavenging and improvising.
2 Victory of Iron Trials ‘84 Calling Card
Iron Trials ‘84 is not at all generous when it comes to unique rewards. In fact, there’s only one; an animated calling card rewarded for winning a match. This is no easy feat, so this calling card certainly carries some prestige.
However, not every player will be excited by the idea of adorning their profile with an image of an operator taking a selfie while shooting a gun. Realism still has a place in Call Of Duty, but not in Warzone.
1 It’s Not A Ranked Mode
The upgrade that Warzone players want more than anything else is a proper, skill-based ranked mode. To be clear, the game already gives each player a rank based on XP, but this is more of an indicator of time spent in the game, rather than of how skilfully it’s been played.
Iron Trials ‘84 is not a ranked mode. But there are reasons to be optimistic that Raven is using it as a kind of testing ground for a planned ranked mode. Its strict level-playing-field rule set that de-emphasizes the meta-game, forcing players to be more adaptable, definitely has a kind of “tournament rules” feel to it, so don’t be surprised if a ranked mode is announced soon.
Call Of Duty: Warzone was released in 2020 and is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.