Call of Duty weekly update brings Warzone map changes, new Cold War modes and more
What is new for Call of Duty players this week? Here's what we know about the weekly update.
Call of Duty fans normally get an update to enjoy every Thursday, and this week is no different for players of Black Ops: Cold War and its free-to-play sibling Warzone.
This means you can expect to see some changes next time you load up a CoD game, as the developers at Treyarch, Raven Software and Activision always treat us to some new goodies before the weekend.
Keep on reading, then, and we'll break down everything we know about Call of Duty's 18th March 2021 update.
What’s new in the CoD March 18th update?
In its big blog post about this week's update, Treyarch started off by mentioning that Stockpile and Knife Fight 3v3 are now live in Black Ops: Cold War.
As the blog puts it, "Now that St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone, the classic Stockpile mode makes its debut today in Black Ops Cold War Multiplayer, along with the launch of Knife Fight 3v3 featuring rotating melee Blueprint loadouts in 3v3 Gunfight.
"Combined Arms Moshpit also comes to Quick Play this week, offering a mix of 12v12 Hardpoint, Domination, and Assault modes on Crossroads, Armada, Miami, and Cartel. And for old-school fans, Throwback Moshpit returns in Core and Hardcore, featuring a mix of respawn modes on Express, Raid, and Nuketown ’84."
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Meanwhile, in Warzone, there have been changes to the map that spread the zombie fun around a bit more. Activision gave a few teases in a cryptic blog about the update, but the best way to see what's new is to jump into the game yourself.
The blog teases a "minor contagion warning for the Verdansk Hospital west of Downtown Tavorsk District", where hostiles are displaying "a severe lack of coordination, necrosis, and in some extreme cases, body capacitance well exceeding normal levels, with EMP-like effects occurring during occasional discharge." Sounds like fun, right?
CoD weekly update Patch Notes (18th March)
Treyarch handily provided a big pile of Patch Notes on its blog, which we've shared below for your convenience. In the words of Treyarch, then, here's what changed in the latest Black Ops: Cold War update:
Multiplayer Weapons
- E-Tool: Changed from 2-hit to 1-hit kill. Reduced melee swipe time. Slightly increased movement speed boost.
Modes
- Stockpile: Eliminate enemies to pick up dog tags and deposit your stash at the objective to earn points for your team. First team to reach the score limit wins.
- Knife Fight 3v3: 3v3 Gunfight with rotating randomized loadouts featuring Blueprint versions of the Machete, Wakizashi, Sledgehammer, E-Tool, and Knife. First team to win six rounds wins the match.
- Combined Arms Moshpit: New Quick Play playlist featuring Combined Arms: Hardpoint, Combined Arms: Domination, and Combined Arms: Assault.
Featured Playlists
- Stockpile [NEW]
- Knife Fight 3v3 [NEW]
- Throwback Moshpit (also available in Hardcore)
- Gun Game
- Nuketown 24/7
- Gunfight
- Face Off (also available in Hardcore)
League Play Modes/Maps
- CDL Hardpoint: Added Apocalypse to CDL Hardpoint map rotation. Removed Crossroads Strike from CDL Hardpoint map rotation.
- CDL Search and Destroy: Added Express to CDL Search and Destroy map rotation. Removed Garrison from CDL Search and Destroy map rotation.
Zombies, Featured Playlists
- Outbreak
- Firebase Z
- Die Maschine
- Dead Ops Arcade: First Person
- Dead Ops Arcade
- Onslaught (PS4/PS5)
- Onslaught Apocalypse (PS4/PS5)
- Onslaught Nuketown (PS4/PS5)
CoD update release date and time: When does the weekly update drop?
Call of Duty fans in the UK received this update on Thursday 18th March 2021 at around 6pm. This, as long-term fans with decent memories will already know, is traditionally when such updates arrive. Even if you're not planning to play until later, you'll want to start downloading the update as soon as you can. It might take a while, after all!
How to fix a slow download speed for the CoD update
As ever, there's a chance that you could be hit by slow download speeds when you try to download the update, so be sure to minimise the strain on your network by stopping anything else that could be eating up data (pausing other downloads and cutting back on streaming activity can sometimes help). And if that fails, you might want to move closer to your router or even connect up to it with an ethernet cable. Once its downloaded, though, have fun!
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Authors
Rob Leane is the Gaming Editor at Radio Times, overseeing our coverage of the biggest games on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, mobile and VR. Rob works across our website, social media accounts and video channels, as well as producing our weekly gaming newsletter. He has previously worked at Den of Geek, Stealth Optional and Dennis Publishing.
