Call of Duty Warzone has one of the highest skill ceilings out there in terms of online multiplayer, it’s comparable to the EA Sports FC games. If you go online as someone fresh to the franchise, you may struggle a lot, even with skill-based matchmaking (SBMM). Dying repeatedly can make Call of Duty a chore instead of anything remotely resembling fun and it’s understandable if you give it up.
Yet, in addition to fun, have no fear! We will guide you through the best tips and tricks for having fun or getting good in a way that isn’t boring or cheating. It’s possible, sort of, there’s only so much you can do without living in a parent’s basement. Take this from one person who has played for years and still isn’t amazing, you’ve got this.
1. Go all Solid Snake
Call of Duty doesn’t have to be about winning, there are so many ways to enjoy the game without the emphasis on winning. Make your goal to just survive for a long time, this works best on Battle Royale and effectively turns it into a stealth game. It’ll be a case of working out how can you move with the gas into the tightening circles without encountering anyone. You’ll keep a steady eye on anything moving, a good ear out for any sounds of gunfire and move in. You’ll get the satisfaction as you finish higher than you were expecting, and of course, you’ll end up in a gunfight at some stage.
Making Call of Duty a stealth game is also a quiet tutorial. By doing this you’ll get better at movement in terms of learning the whole map, strengthen your general awareness and ability to use that to work out where people will appear and get at least one gunfight in a game. If you do get a kill, then laugh at getting spectators who will be seething as you quietly attempt to win a shooting game without firing a gun.
2. Be an idiot, play the game wrong!
This is the single best bit of advice for having fun. Want to use explosives? Go for it, run around booby-trapping the place like you’re Kevin McCallister. Want to focus on finding killstreaks to inconvenience people? Do it! Want to frustrate people by hiding in the water before throwing out explosives or other annoyances? It can be fun. Heck, pretending you’re in a Dynasty Warriors game and running around with a sword can be surprisingly fun.
By playing the game in weirder ways you’ll take out a lot of the competitive sting, which greatly reduces the frustration.
That being said…
3. Play a mainline title… but not right now
So if you want serious advice on how to get better the honest answer is… to not play Warzone. The best environment to get better is by playing other Call of Duty games. The smaller 10-minute matches offer a vastly less frustrating experience when you’re not very good. The aforementioned SBMM is much more noticeable here as you’ll soon be placed with players closer to your level and you are less likely to get wiped. This allows for a better gradual improvement in your game, as well as playing modes where you can help the team without necessarily being great at shooting.
There are caveats to this though. The further back in the past titles you go, the more likely the player base will be the diehards that stuck to just that game, so SBMM will not help you and you’ll get killed quickly. The problem is it’s hard to recommend the current mainline title as well, as even from just the Warzone menu it’s clear the game struggles for content. It’s also been long rumoured that it was jumped up DLC. In past titles playing modes like Gun Game and seeking to only set people back in their attempts to win was incredibly fun and it will seriously help you get better. It’s also admittedly fun, in a somewhat psychotic fashion, to laugh at people’s misery as you set them back for the third time that game.
Cool guys don’t look at explosions… from the maligned Modern Warfare III
4. Focus on Plunder
For those who were around before the Resurgence days, this used to be the main answer often delivered with a cigar and preceded with a lamenting: “Back in the good ol’ days…” Battle Royale can see you spend a long time just waiting, be it after losing a gulag or even just loading into games. It quickly became frustrating dying so quickly only to have to go through the process of loading in, parachuting in, finding guns and armour and potentially even your loadout, only to just die in your first gunfight.
Plunder takes all of that away. It’s a competition to see who can get the most money with your favourite guns right from the start. Yes, you can shoot others to pick up their money, but you don’t have to fight. Even if you do, then it’s only 15-20 seconds before you’re back into a game. It takes away a lot of frustration and even then the mode is inherently less serious. Although in the current map, Urzikstan, you’ll want to avoid Old Town as that’s where most players looking for pure gunfights seem to head.
5. Use Google, the meta makes a difference
This can’t be understated as to how useful it is. Numerous websites out there tell you the exact gun builds that are the best at any one time. Find the type of gun that’s the best fit for you, then find the best gun via these websites, it will be a remarkably useful headstart for you. It will not make you amazing instantly, but it’ll at least make it more of a level playing field.
So there you have it, these little bits will help you turn Warzone into a vastly more enjoyable experience, or at least until you get murdered by someone hacking. It’s still fun all the same though.
Happy people hunting!
If this doesn’t work and you just want to cry well then we can also help! Check out our top 20 most tearjerking moments in video games, unfortunately, that time on Warzone where you got killed and then got called a noob by a 13-year-old just missed the cut.
