With Call of Duty: Warzone preparing to update with new content after the release of the newest title in the series, Sledgehammer Games is introducing changes to how and when players will be able to call in loadouts during a given match. This change will especially affect the early phases of a match, altering the access players will have to Call of Duty: Vanguard's newest weapons during the first few minutes of each round.
The change itself is relatively light, and will guide players to rely even more on the RNG in Call of Duty: Warzone in order to arm themselves as the match moves forward. This could help to reduce an early greivence that many players have had with Warzone since it first launched alongside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare back in March of 2020.
According to the latest announcements from Sledghammer Games about Call of Duty: Warzone's Caldera map, loadouts will only be available for purchase after the first free loadout drop spawns. This free loadout drop appears roughly 10 seconds after the first circle closes on the map, which roughly puts the first purchasable loadouts out beyond the first four to five minutes. The result is that the earliest phase of the match, where most players quickly die off after landing, will have armaments completely determined by random drops around the map.
In addition to the change in time for when players can start calling in their prefered loadouts, the weapons on Call of Duty: Warzone's Pacific map will also be directly related to those available in Call of Duty: Vanguard. These changes affect both the randomly dropped weapons on the map, as well as those that players can call in through the Loadout Drop Markers. So, not only will players not be able to call in their own loadouts until later in a match, the available weapons will also be limited to whatever they have unlocked in Call of Duty: Vanguard's selection of weapons.
This change comes with a mixed response from fans, as many still hold that Call of Duty: Warzone's loadouts shouldn't exist, while others have threatened to leave the game if the mechanic is removed. While loadouts might still be a divisive part of the battle royale, this does already appear to be a welcome compromise that keeps the playing field more even at least in the early phases of a match. There may still be more wiggle room to continue appealing to players on each side of this argument, but this is a positive step forward on the topic of loadouts.
Call of Duty: Warzone is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.