Drop Into The Warzone

Warzone takes all the mechanics we love about Call of Duty, drops them into a 150-player battle royale, and puts a unique spin on the genre. The game frequently tops the Twitch viewership charts, and rightfully so! 

Warzone is an intense, fast-paced cluster with great gunplay and frantic endings. A lot is going on, so it may be a bit overwhelming for new players.

The Average Gamer community has collectively played thousands of hours of Warzone, and we’ve compiled our top tips to improve at this game. For this post, we’re collaborating with xLooney, who frequently streams his Warzone gameplay on Twitch. 

Once you’ve read this full article, you’ll be ready to get your first dub in Warzone like xLooney!

How to Win More in Warzone

• Create a Loadout
• Utilize the Ping System
• Buy a Loadout Drop
• Complete Warzone Contracts
• Activate UAVs
• Use Positioning to Your Advantage
• Watch for Flares
• Choose Your Battles
• Don’t Give Up
• Pool Your Resources
• Learn Warzone Drop Sports
• Grind Weapons
• Be a Super Sprinter
• Don’t Sprint Around corners
• Fix Your Crosshair Placement
• Look Around
• Keep Practicing

Create a Loadout – Tailor your Arsenal

This first tip requires you to be at least level 4. Once you’ve hit this level, you can create loadouts that can be acquired in-game. This is preferred to the floor loot since you can perfectly customize your weapons and explosives to match your playstyle.

You’ll actually want to create two loadouts: One that has overkill, allowing you to choose two primary weapons, and another that has ghost plus your main primary weapon. We’ll get into why you want this setup later in the article. 

Picking up a heartbeat sensor will allow you to see nearby enemies on a handheld radar, assuming they don’t have Ghost equipped. As the name suggests, Ghost makes you undetectable to UABs, Radar Drones, and heartbeat sensors.

Aside from the shotguns, you should put a suppressor on your weapons. This attachment silences your gun and lets you fire without appearing on the enemy radar.

You can customize your loadouts from the lobby by scrolling over to Weapons > Edit Loadout > and then selecting a loadout slot. Each loadout has slots for two weapons, three perks, and two equipment pieces. Most weapons have a slot for up to five attachments so experiment with the customization to build a gun that works for you!

Stick Together and Coordinate

Warzone is a team-based game; communication and teamwork are essential for success. Make sure to communicate effectively with your squadmates throughout the match.

Stick together as much as possible, especially during engagements and rotations. Moving as a unit gives you a better chance of surviving encounters and provides opportunities for coordinated attacks.

Use the in-game voice chat or external communication platforms like Discord to stay connected with your team. Coordinate your movements, call out enemy positions, and share information about loot and resources.

If a squad member gets downed or eliminated, try to revive or buy them back at a Buy Station. Keeping your team at full strength increases your chances of winning engagements and the overall game.

Utilize the Ping System – Effective Communication on the Battlefield

Warzone’s ping system is great for quickly highlighting points of interest for your squad. The two main uses are to ping the location of guns or armor as well as being able to ping enemies. Tap the ping button once to ping a location and tap it twice quickly to alert your team to the location of an enemy. 

Information is critical in a battle royale, and it will often be faster to ping something than trying to shout something over chat. 

The only caveat here is that you shouldn’t overdo it. Ping weapons one time, and try to only ping mid- to high-tier loot. If you see an enemy, a few pings will do the trick. No need to spam the ping and annoy your team!

Buy a Loadout Drop – Equipping Your Squad for Success

Remember the first tip about creating a custom loadout? This is where it comes in handy.

In Warzone, you can purchase a box that falls to the ground and enables your team to pick up one of your preferred loadouts. It’s $10k but is worth the cash to put your squad in the strongest possible position with your customized gear.

You can get a loadout drop one of two ways: 1) purchase from a buy station (these appear as shopping cart icons on the map) OR 2) activate a loadout drop that falls from the sky.

A free drop will land within about 200m of your location when 14 seconds remain until the gas reaches the second circle. They look like large gray crates and will be highlighted with a small gun icon on your map. However, remember that other squads may also be attracted to the drop, so be prepared for potential encounters when going for it.

When you purchase a loadout drop from a buy station, it will be delivered to your chosen designated location. Communicate with your team and choose a safe and strategic spot to call it in.

Having your customized loadout early in the game can give you a significant advantage over opponents who are still relying on random loot. It allows you to use weapons and attachments that you are comfortable with and have optimized for your play style.

9 times out of 10, the team with a loadout drop will win against the team that only has floor loot. The more fights you win, the more money you’ll have, which means you can buy more things. The loadout drop quickly pays for itself in Warzone. 

Complete Warzone Contracts

One thing that separates Warzone from the rest of the battle royale scene is the introduction of contracts. Contracts are found as ground loot with a bright yellow highlight. Engaging with contracts can provide several advantages, including:

1. Cash Rewards: Completing contracts rewards you with cash, which can be used to buy valuable items, loadouts, or revive teammates at Buy Stations.
2. Enhanced Loot: Some contracts, like Scavenger, provide a temporary loot advantage, such as guaranteed access to a Buy Station or increased chances of finding high-tier loot.
3. Map Intel: Recon contracts reveal the next safe zone location before it appears on the map, allowing you to plan your movements and rotations more effectively.
4. Target Bounties: Hunting down a specific player marked as a bounty can lead to intense engagements and provide substantial cash rewards upon elimination.

Additionally, the more bounties you do, the more cash and XP you’ll earn! Your bounty bonus increases every time you complete a bounty, so pick up the easy ones nearby for max rewards.

Consider accepting contracts based on your team’s situation and objectives. Balancing contract engagements with looting and strategic positioning can give you an edge over other squads.

Activate UAVs

There are plenty of things to purchase from buy stations around the map, but UAVs may be the best bang for your buck. These drones highlight the location of nearby enemies on your minimap. While opponents can shoot them down, it’s rare that people actually do. 

If you’re feeling ambitious, you can combine three UAVs simultaneously for an advanced UAV! This mega drone will highlight all players’ positions and orientations for the duration of the UAV. While the advanced UAV is cool, it’s typically better to use the UAVs separately to maximize their value. 

The UAV icon will appear as a small drone on the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. It’ll last 30 seconds when called in, as long as an enemy doesn’t shoot it down first.

Just remember that by the latter half of the game, many players will have the Ghost perk and won’t show up on your UAV. Keep this in mind when rotating around the map!

Loot Management – Prioritize Essential Items

Looting efficiently is essential in Warzone. When looting buildings or supply boxes, prioritize the following items:

1. Weapons: Look for weapons that suit your playstyle and provide versatility in different scenarios. Consider carrying a primary weapon for medium-to-long-range engagements and a secondary weapon for close-quarters combat.
2. Armor Plates: Collect armor plates to reinforce your armor and increase your chances of survival during gunfights. Use them to repair damaged armor or equip a fresh set of armor.
3. Cash: Accumulate cash by looting buildings, completing contracts, or eliminating enemies. Cash can buy items, equipment, killstreaks, and revive fallen teammates.
4. Equipment: Pick up tactical and lethal equipment like grenades, flashbangs, heartbeat sensors, and smoke grenades. Use them strategically to gain an advantage in fights or to disorient enemies.
5. Ammo: Watch for ammo boxes or individual ammo pickups to replenish your ammunition. Running out of ammo in the middle of a firefight can put you at a severe disadvantage.

Avoid spending excessive time looting and focus on acquiring essential items quickly. Always be aware of your surroundings and prioritize survival over gathering unnecessary loot.

Use Positioning to Your Advantage

Positioning will often win over accuracy. As in most BR games, high ground is key. Securing a position with a height advantage allows your team to shoot down on enemies while being able to maintain cover at all times. Position yourself strategically to have a clear line of sight while minimizing your exposure to enemy fire.

Having a good understanding of the map and maintaining awareness of your surroundings is crucial in Warzone. Pay attention to the circle collapse and plan your movements accordingly.

Utilize vehicles strategically for faster rotations or to quickly escape dangerous situations. However, be cautious when using vehicles as they can attract attention and make you vulnerable to enemy ambushes.

Always be mindful of your positioning in relation to the circle. Avoid getting caught outside the safe zone as the gas can quickly deplete your health and eliminate you.

One often-used tactic is to get to the top of a building at the ring’s outer edge and camp the rooftop while watching for squads running in from the gas. Opposing teams will be mad that you’re camping, but you’ll be happy with the easy kills.

Watch for Flares

Flares pop up when someone buys a teammate back. If you see this, be on the lookout for enemies dropping in from the sky. People tend to land on their team so you can get an easy kill on the returning enemy, then wipe out the rest of the squad.

If you can get to the flare location quickly, you’ll usually be able to catch a short-handed team by surprise and overwhelm them with your numbers. that will give you a good idea an enemy is going to flying nearby and that someone is at that buy station 

Choose Your Battles

You don’t need to fight every enemy you see! This is especially true if you are down a man or just in a bad position.

Instead, try to bait enemies into running towards you to give your team the edge in a fight. I know gamers frown upon campers, but there’s a reason why this strategy is so effective.

Also, know when it’s time to retreat from the battle. Run to cover before equipping armor plates (as much as possible) and don’t be afraid to hop in a vehicle to put more distance between you and the enemy quickly.

Until you get better at Warzone, try to avoid engaging with every opponent you see.

Don’t Give Up

Sometimes the RNG gods will smile upon you and grant you glorious floor loot from the beginning of the match. Other times, they’ll decide to take all their frustrations out on your team, leaving you with three quick deaths and one lone survivor. Don’t just call it in when this happens!

In Warzone, players have the opportunity for a second chance through the Gulag and buybacks:

1. The Gulag: Upon your first elimination, you’ll be sent to the Gulag, a 1v1 arena where you fight against another eliminated player for a chance to respawn. Win the Gulag duel, and you’ll redeploy back into the match.
2. Buy Backs: If you’re eliminated after the Gulag closes or you’ve already been in the Gulag, your teammates can purchase your redeployment at a Buy Station using cash. Stay connected with your squad even after elimination to increase your chances of returning to the fight.

Maintain communication with your squadmates when in the Gulag, providing callouts and supporting each other. Additionally, prioritize reviving fallen teammates by purchasing their buybacks if you have enough cash.

Alternatively, you can grab a Most Wanted contract for a high risk-high reward scenario. If you can stay alive for a few minutes, your entire team will drop back into the map and earn some sweet cash!

The Most Wanted contract is the more dangerous path since you’ll be highlighted on the minimap with a red crown for the entire world to see. We recommend staying as far away from the center ring as possible without taking damage from the gas. If you can find an ATV, drive to the edge of the safe zone and try to wait out your time away from all the action.

Pool Your Resources

When playing with other people, make sure to share the wealth. This applies to money, armor plates, ammo, etc. 

You want to ensure resources are fairly well distributed throughout the entire team. In the best-case scenario, everyone has a few pieces of armor and enough ammo to win a gunfight. Worst case scenario, you have Scrooge McDuck on your team hoarding everything, and then that person dies without getting any value from the goodies.

Giving a bunch of cash to one person is a great way to earn a loadout drop early in the game. Once you get to the later stages of the match, make sure that every squad member has at least $4k on them. That way, you don’t need to rely on any single person to bring a dead teammate back to the game.

Remember, sharing is caring!

Optimize Your Loadout

When customizing your loadout, consider the following tips:

1. Attachments: Experiment with different weapon attachments to optimize your loadout. Attachments like extended magazines, suppressors, foregrips, and optics can significantly improve weapon performance.
2. Perks: Choose perks that complement your playstyle. Perks like Ghost (prevents you from appearing on enemy UAVs), Overkill (allows you to carry two primary weapons), and Amped (faster weapon swapping and equipment use) are popular choices.
3. Tactical and Lethal Equipment: Customize your loadout with tactical and lethal equipment that suits your playstyle. Equipment such as heartbeat sensors, C4, claymores, and smoke grenades can be game-changers in the right situations.

Regularly experiment with different loadouts to find the best setup for your preferences and playstyle.

Learn Warzone Drop Spots

When first starting, try to pick one spot on the Warzone map to land for the first few hours of play. This way, you’ll become familiar with the area and can effectively plan out a looting route.

Beyond knowing where weapons spawn in that area, you’ll also be able to identify the best spots to fight from – see the ‘positioning’ tip up top! Continue to drop in the same area until you know the ins and outs of the buildings, how to get to high ground, and which areas of the map to rotate towards next.

Generally, any areas with a name on the map will be more popular than drop spots without a name. These locations have more loot and will attract more players as a result. Until you get comfortable with the game, you should try to avoid these more populated areas.

Grind Weapons

Call of Duty rewards you for playing the game by letting players unlock new attachments for their weapons. You’ll earn experience for your guns to level up the more you use them.

If you purchased the full version of CoD, you can get weapon XP quickly by playing domination and kill confirmed matches. Equip your preferred gun and jump into the quick play queue. Be on the lookout for double XP weekend! This is the best time to grind out levels on your weapons.

If you only have the free version of Warzone, you’ll need to earn weapon XP exclusively in the battle royale or plunder modes. While this is slower than running through quick play lobbies, you can still continue to level up your weapons and unlock key attachments.

Be a Super Sprinter

Movement is another important factor in becoming a strong Warzone player. Tactical sprint is a highly effective way to move around the map while still on foot.

While tactical sprinting, you’ll notice that your player runs with your weapon facing towards the sky and grants you increased move speed. You can turn on auto tactical sprint in the settings to have this feature always enabled. The temporary speed boost may seem small but it adds up over time.

Try experimenting with animation canceling as you get more comfortable with the controls. Set your slide to ‘tap’, double tap the slide button, then jump to effectively keep unlimited tactical sprint. This takes a good amount of practice to get the timing down but it is the best way to cover ground without getting in a noisy vehicle.

Don’t Sprint Around Corners

That said, you don’t want to sprint around like a madman for the entire map. Specifically, you want to avoid sprinting around corners at all costs.

Every gun requires a certain amount of time to aim down sights. If you sprint around a corner and run into someone who has already ADS in your direction, you will most likely die.

Instead, rotate between sprinting and aiming toward areas where you anticipate enemies. This will keep you alive longer when you’re looting through buildings.

As a bonus tip, make sure you move as close to walls and cover as possible when you’re out in the open. This way, you can quickly crouch behind something if you start taking fire.

Fix Your Crosshair Placement

Headshots in Warzone do the highest damage per bullet. Given the headshot multiplier, you’ll want to have your crosshair lined up at head level as you move around the map. 

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to stop aiming at the ground while you move around!

Look Around

The Warzone map is pretty big, and you’ll need to cover a ton of ground to make it to the final circle. Avoid getting tunnel vision by frequently checking your sides and flank as you move. You’ll be surprised how often a team tracks you without your squad realizing it.

Practice and Learn from Experience

Warzone dubs are few and far between. Even the greatest players only win a small percentage of their games. Try not to get too caught up in your Warzone stats initially and focus on the strategies that increase your chances of a win.

Improving in Warzone takes practice and experience. Don’t get discouraged by initial losses or setbacks. Instead, view them as opportunities to learn and grow.

Play regularly to familiarize yourself with the game’s mechanics, weapon handling, and map layouts. Experiment with different loadouts and strategies to find what works best for you and your team.

Watch and learn from experienced Warzone players. You can find helpful tutorials, gameplay analysis, and tips on platforms like YouTube and Twitch. Analyze their tactics, decision-making, and positioning to incorporate them into your gameplay.

Consider reviewing your gameplay footage to identify areas for improvement. Pay attention to mistakes, missed opportunities, and areas where you can enhance your performance.

While this guide will increase your chances of winning fights, there’s still some luck required to win in this battle royale. Take things a game at a time and try to learn from each one of your deaths!

Dominate the Warzone Battlefield

Warzone is a thrilling and challenging battle royale experience, and mastering it requires a combination of strategy, teamwork, and skill. With these tips, you’ll be quickly racking up kills and winning games!

Try to incorporate Warzone strategy and tactics one at a time and keep practicing. Eventually, you may get to xLooney’s level and take on full squads yourself!

What other Warzone tips would you share with the Average Gamer community? Add your tricks to the comments section, below!

Also, we just started a new podcast! Check out episode one here, where we talk about the free-to-play gaming model!