Prepare to go dark, Modern Warfare is back!

The stakes have never been higher as players take on the role of lethal Tier One operators in a heart-racing saga that will affect the global balance of power.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will make its return in a powerful experience reimagined from the ground-up, engulfing players in a modern-day conflict, where split-second decisions could affect the global balance of power.

In the gripping and dramatic single-player story campaign, players will immerse themselves in a visceral narrative that shines a light on the changing nature of modern war. Alongside a cast of international special forces and freedom fighters, fans take the role of tier one operators in a saga that will affect the global balance of power. Additionally, picking up where the Campaign ends is the cooperative Special Ops mode where players can team up in strike-teams of four. Special Ops advances the overarching Modern Warfare lore with multiple ways to play co-op, including Operations, the largest and most involved experience with multi-phased objectives, and the more curated Classic Special Ops, to test your performance with weapons, munitions and other tools.

And the story doesn’t end there.

In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, players will be thrust into an immersive narrative spanning the entire game. Players can experience the ultimate online playground with classic multiplayer or squad-up and play cooperatively in a collection of elite operations, accessible to all skill levels.

For the first-ever Halloween experience inside Warzone and Modern Warfare, the SAW and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre universes are part of The Haunting of Verdansk, a limited-time community event set to take place from October 20 to November 3.

As Halloween draws near, a squad of operators drops in for what seems to be a normal infiltration into Verdansk… though there’s been back-channel chatter about some unexplained and odd occurrences across the remote areas of the map. Operators have been briefed about reports concerning a serial killer who wears his victim’s faces on his own. There’s scattered intel about strange sounds emanating from various locations within the warzone; and not least the piercing, creepy laugher of a ventriloquist doll….

It isn’t long before hell breaks loose: One by one, the squad is brutally picked off until there is just one survivor, who after a confrontation with Verdansk’s own urban legend, vows to return under the cover of night and avenge his brothers in arms.

Welcome to Season Six’s latest content drop, featuring the Haunting of Verdansk.

For the first-ever Halloween experience inside Warzone and Modern Warfare, the SAW and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre universes are featured in The Haunting of Verdansk, a limited-time event set to take place from October 20 to November 3.

This Halloween-themed event will feature the “Trick or Treat” reward system, where special Supply Boxes may either contain frights or frighteningly good blueprints and personalization items. Come prepared for infiltrations at day or night, as select modes feature a nighttime variant of Verdansk that includes more than a few Halloween-themed frights. Rather spend the night fighting both the living and the dead? Then prepare for Zombie Royale, an undead twist on Battle Royale where dead Operators use unnatural powers to feast on the living in order to rejoin their ranks!

Modern Warfare Multiplayer also gets into the Halloween spirit with limited-time modes and effects, while the Store is set to feature bundles that bring Leatherface and Billy the Puppet into the fray. In other words, it’s the Devil’s playground across Warzone and Modern Warfare, and no operator is safe from the terrors of All Hallows' Eve.

SAW and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Bundles Headline The Haunting of Verdansk

Right at the start of The Haunting of Verdansk, players can purchase bundles based on SAW and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Be ready to don the garb of Billy the Puppet in the SAW bundle and take an enemy operator’s choice to live or die in his own hands. Along with the “Billy” skin for Morte, the SAW Bundle features The Phlebotomozier Lethal Equipment piece, a special throwing knife will drill into your enemies upon impact. And oh yes, there will be blood… if it lands on target.

Rather end your enemy’s game with blood-red tracer fire? Two SAW-themed blueprint weapons – one Assault Rifle and one Shotgun – are included in this bundle, as well as a Cargo Truck skin, tricycle Charm, and four other pieces of personalization content.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre bundle features the iconic crazed killer Leatherface. The legacy of this cannibalistic maniac, whose mad and macabre reign of terror in 1974 was unlike anything ever seen before, is set to live on through the “Leatherface” skin for Velikan, as well as the “Family Heirloom” LMG blueprint, complete with a unique Stock attachment that allows an operator to wield the weapon like a chainsaw. As players are re-introduced to the malice of Leatherface, a clue as to what happened to the notorious murderer may even appear to those with a keen eye.

This bundle also includes the “Anybody Home?” melee blueprint that turns this Secondary into a one-handed hammer (with a bone-breaker on one side, and a meat tenderizer on the other side, commonly used in your local slaughterhouse), which some hitchhikers claim is “the better way” of slaughtering cattle, as well as an SMG blueprint weapon, a vehicle horn, and five additional Texas Chainsaw Massacre-themed items.

More in Store

Other operators are preparing for the Haunting of Verdansk in their own ways, whether with new skins or brand-new blueprints that add a scary amount of firepower to an already massive arsenal. Leading this charge is Dr. Karlov, an infamous Verdansk urban legend that defines the regional Halloween folklore.

Driven to a point of no return after countless failures in his laboratory deep inside the Gulag, Dr. Karlov became obsessed with electricity and energy-charged weaponry, testing it often in “experiments” on those who dared to wander near his hideout. His featured bundle, “Dr. Karlov Lives,” will put the “shock” in shock and awe with a new skin for Bale, two high-voltage weapon blueprints, an electric Throwing Knife, a vehicle skin, and a few other cosmetic items for your weapons and Identity.

Expect the Store to stock other bundles such as the “Ghost: Grim Reaper” bundle, featuring a new Ghost skin and two soul-stealing blueprint weapons, along with “Mace: Dia de los Muertos” ahead of the Day of the Dead holiday.

Introducing the JAK-12 Shotgun

Eat your heart out, shotgun collars: the fully automatic JAK-12 shotgun, available as part of the latest update, has enough firepower to pulverize an entire enemy squad into head cheese.

Specifically, the JAK-12 has an open bolt blowback system, allowing it to push lead out at a fire rate that is faster than any other weapon in its category. Level it up to unlock its unique attachments, including explosive 8 Round FRAG-12 Mags that deliver explosive payloads without triggering Trophy Systems, and the 32-Round Drum Mags, the largest capacity magazine for any shotgun in the game.

This new shotgun can be unlocked via in-game challenge, or a blueprint variant can be acquired by purchasing the “Lacedaemon” Store bundle.

Warzone Content

All players can earn over a dozen rewards through a limited-time Trick or Treat event, experience battles against and alongside the undead, and for the first time ever, experience nighttime infiltrations in Verdansk.

Verdansk – Going Dark

Available in select Warzone modes such a Trios, Verdansk is now open for nighttime infiltrations.

Although the full moon’s glow prevents total darkness, operators might want to still pack some Thermal optics in their Loadout Drops to help spot enemies lurking about in low-light areas or use Cold-Blooded to counter these high-tech tools.

No matter the operation, visiting Verdansk at night will leave operators open to a few frights. Some say that a ventriloquist doll frequently appears on television sets tuned to defunct channels, and the poltergeist of a chainsaw-wielding killer can be seen and heard across the Krovnik Farmland. Others claim that the defunct tracks near the Train Station are still in use by a ghost train, a vessel filled with souls of those who lost their lives fighting in the Gulag…

Given Dr. Karlov’s existence, it’s best to treat the rest of Verdansk’s Halloween myths as fact, or at least believe them to be true until November 3.

Trick or Treat! – New Rewards Inside Warzone

What is a Halloween event without Trick or Treating?

All players can participate in the Trick or Treat Halloween event, the marquee scavenger hunt featured as part of The Haunting in Verdansk.

Day or night, you can find specially marked Trick or Treat Supply Boxes in specific areas of Verdansk. Open these boxes up for a chance to receive universal rewards including the Epic “Return to Dust” Assault Rifle blueprint, “The Cleaver” Legendary Melee blueprint, a holographic watch, charms, stickers, sprays, calling cards and emblems.

However, don’t think these Supply Boxes come free of any tricks: they might also contain a brief scare, so open them at your own peril!

Collect all 16 individual rewards to unlock the ultimate treat: the “Pumpkin Punisher” Legendary Assault Rifle blueprint, which comes pre-configured with attachments that make the weapon downright terrifying in Warzone.

For more information on this event, check out our detailed guide to it in the Related Articles (below). Be sure to collect all these rewards before November 3, lest you miss out on some ghoulishly good freebies.

New Limited-Time Mode: Zombie Royale

When the clock strikes midnight in Verdansk, it’s time to bring out the undead.

Operators can fight against and alongside powerful zombified creatures as part of Zombie Royale, a limited-time mode where death is far from permanent.

Instead of being sent to the Gulag, dead Operators will come back to life as a zombie. Although zombies cannot use weapons, they have supernatural abilities: increased speed, improved jumps, deadlier melee attacks, and thermal vision.

Feeling Zombified? Time to fight your way back into the land of the living:

When a player is killed, they drop a syringe that shows up on the map. Collect two of these Syringes as a Zombie and you'll parachute back in with your loadout on your Squad for a second chance! The last squad standing with a surviving Operator wins… even if the rest of the squad has turned undead.

Because this mode takes place at night, expect to find all the haunts that Verdansk has to offer under the bright moonlight, including those Trick or Treat Boxes that are fully loaded up with scares for the whole squad.

Modern Warfare Content

Outside of The Haunting in Verdansk, Modern Warfare owners will have two new modes to play and some Halloween-themed changes to explore inside Multiplayer.

The Spirit of All Hallows’ Eve is Alive in Multiplayer

Break out the pumpkins and prepare for bloodshed; it’s officially Halloween in Modern Warfare Multiplayer.

From Gunfight to Ground War and everything in between, expect the head of any operator to turn into a jack-o-lantern upon reaching three kills in a single life. This pumpkin head will then be set aflame if that operator reaches ten kills in a single life, an intimidating sight to go along with a Specialist Bonus or a high-end Killstreak.

Don’t think of this as just a spooky cosmetic change; these indicators can help you identify Operators who need to be smashed before they continue on their killstreak, especially if they are lighting up the lobby both with their flaming pumpkin head and their performance in-game.

There are also some spooky changes in specific game modes; expect scarecrows on Domination points instead of flags, skulls instead of dogtags in Kill Confirmed, and other visual effects themed around All Hallows’ Eve.

New Modes: Onslaughter and Snipers Only

Two new modes in Multiplayer will bring out the big guns – literally – with high caliber action in the form of Juggernauts and Sniper Rifles.

Onslaughter – Squads must wrest control of a Juggernaut suit that spawns somewhere on the map and advance forward into a specific goal area. Be prepared for plenty of Minigun fire and consider powerful Killstreaks to take down an opposing Juggernaut, as well as the mad scramble whenever the suit is available for the taking. Also, the Juggernaut in this mode – and in all other modes during The Haunting of Verdansk – will come with a pumpkin head, which is surprisingly sturdy and durable despite it being a hollowed-out squash.

Snipers Only – As the name suggests, leave all other weapons at home for this Team Deathmatch variant. Instead of custom loadouts, all operators will have a choice between five pre-built loadouts. Aim to have more kills than deaths, as the squad that hits the target score wins the match.

Season Six for PC: Select Install Feature Now Available

As part of the recent update, those who have Modern Warfare on PC can choose to partially install content from the game in order save space on their data storage device. For example, if you only play Multiplayer and Warzone, you can choose to only install those packs through a fresh download or uninstall the other packs via the Battle.net launcher.

Here’s how it works for both those who have already installed the game, and for those performing a fresh install:

Modifying an Existing Installation

1. Ensure the game is not running before continuing this process.
2. Open the Battle.net launcher and select the game on the left panel.
3. While on this screen, do not launch the game. Instead, click the “Options” menu on the upper left portion of the launcher (below the game’s title and above the featured image or video player).
4. Click on “Modify Install” within this submenu.
5. On the Game Content pop-up window that opens, click “Modify Install.” You can also change where the game is installed, change the default language, enable auto-updates and create a desktop shortcut in this submenu.
6. Uncheck the content you do not want to be installed, such as Campaign, Special Ops, or Multiplayer, then click on the “Confirm” button. Note: Warzone cannot be uninstalled.
7. Click “Start Install.” Note: if all packs are installed, this should only remove content that was unchecked and not reinstall content.

Performing a Fresh Install

1. Open the Battle.Net launcher and select the game on the left panel.
2. On the Modern Warfare screen, click the “Install” button, which will prompt an installation pop-up window.
3. In the Game Content section of the installer pop-up window, click “Modify Install.” You can also change where the game is installed, change the default language, enable auto-updates and create a desktop shortcut in this submenu.
4. Uncheck the content you do not want to be installed, such as Campaign, Special Ops, or Multiplayer, then click on the “Confirm” button. Note: Warzone cannot be uninstalled.
5. Click “Start Install.”

Time to Upgrade to the Full Experience

Are you still waiting to drop into the full version of Modern Warfare? Then get the Modern Warfare Battle Pass Edition, and experience everything from a thrilling Campaign, a suite of Multiplayer maps, to a variety of fraught Special Operations designed to test your mettle and continue the narrative through challenging team-based experiences.

The digital Battle Pass edition of the comes with the following:

• The full Modern Warfare game
• 3,000 CP – enough for the Season Six Battle Pass Bundle and more
• Battle Pass system with over 20 free unlockable tiers*
• A Combat Knife with a custom skin
• XRK Weapons Pack

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare features a new engine delivering an immersive and photo-realistic experience across the entire game. The new technology utilizes the latest advancements in visual engineering, including a physically-based material system allowing for state-of-the-art photogrammetry, a new hybrid tile based streaming system, new PBR decal rendering system, world volumetric lighting, 4K HDR, DirectX Raytracing (PC) and more as well as a new GPU geometry pipeline. Spectral rendering delivers thermal heat radiation and infrared identification for both thermal and night-vision in-game imaging. The technical investment made provides a cutting-edge animation system and blend shape system, while the new suite of audio tools allows for full Dolby ATMOS support, on supported platforms, along with the latest in audio simulation effects.

Modern Warfare multiplayer delivers a thrilling and game-changing online experience with best-in-class down the barrel gameplay, along with an all-new level of strategic and tactical play. Players can jump into new play spaces that redefine Call of Duty multiplayer, from quick-action, close-quarters 2 vs. 2 experiences in Gunfight, traditional 6 vs. 6 multiplayer gameplay, modes that support 10 vs. 10 and 20 vs. 20 firefights, along with high-player count maps and combat, such as the all-new Ground War, an epic large-scale mode supporting more than 100-players. And, that’s just the beginning for Modern Warfare fans.

With a complete weapon overhaul and the most choices in Call of Duty history, players will be able to outfit their multiplayer operators for every combat encounter, with unprecedented customization and modifiability in the new Gunsmith system. Modern Warfare features cutting-edge visuals, authentic sound design, with realistic recoil and weapon ballistics throughout the game. In addition, gameplay mechanics, including bullet penetration, gun mounting, door breaching and night vision multiplayer gameplay maps featuring night vision goggles (NVGs), allow for an amazing tactical experience.

Activision also confirmed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will have no season pass, and that it will feature cross play between Xbox One, PS4 and PC platforms.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare features a fully-optimized PC version, developed in partnership with Beenox, which will be available exclusively on Blizzard Battle.net

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is currently available worldwide on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.