Call of Duty: Warzone Season 1 — Hajin, Zodiac and Everything New, Explained

Call of Duty: Warzone's Season 1 update went live at midnight ET on November 6, and it's the biggest shift the free-to-play battle royale has had in years. The headline change is full integration with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which brings a new Battle Royale map, a new Resurgence map, a fresh set of weapons and gear, and the end of the road for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One support. Here's everything confirmed by Activision and Infinity Ward for Season 1.

Hajin. Zodiac. Things are about to get interesting.

Warzone Season 1 arrives November 6.

Trailer and roadmap tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/qiCuuobtXd

— Infinity Ward (@InfinityWard) November 1, 2026

1. What's New in Warzone Season 1, at a Glance

Season 1 fully folds Modern Warfare 4 into Call of Duty: Warzone. According to the official Call of Duty blog, that means a Player Level reset (with optional Prestige) across Multiplayer, DMZ and Warzone, access to all 33 Modern Warfare 4 launch weapons, and a wave of gameplay changes: Tactical Sprint is now available to every Operator without needing a Perk (though its duration is slightly shorter), players can drag downed allies to safety while reviving them, and the studio made additional weapon balance tuning plus visibility and footstep-audio improvements across every map.

If you're catching up on the broader Modern Warfare 4 launch first, Modern Warfare 4's launch editions and release-day details are worth a read before diving into Season 1's battle royale changes.

2. New Battle Royale Map: Hajin

For the first time, Warzone's main Battle Royale map is set on the Korean Peninsula. Hajin connects directly to the Modern Warfare 4 campaign and spans 13 major Points of Interest split across North and South Korea, including Hajin City's fortified central districts, the exposed farmland around Imjin Farmland, and North Korean locations such as the 14th Political Prison, Chang-san Air Base and Deadtown.

Expect variable weather across matches — clear skies, fog, wind, rain and distant storms all change visibility and the feel of a fight. Hajin also has its own Gulag: eliminated Operators are sent to one of two symmetrical arenas, both exposed to the map's weather, where a 1v1 win earns a redeploy back into the match.

3. New Resurgence Map: Zodiac

Zodiac takes over as Warzone's Resurgence map, built around the fictional DRC Advanced Systems drone assembly and manufacturing headquarters in South Korea. It's a compact combat zone with ten Points of Interest — Admin's towering offices, the Trackline double railway with moving trains, the heavy machinery of Furnace, and research labs at R&D, among others — plus underground tunnels that let squads slip beneath the map and emerge from unexpected angles. Zodiac was developed by Beenox working with Infinity Ward, the same team behind Rebirth Island and Vondel.

4. Returning In-Season: Verdansk and Rebirth Island

Hajin and Zodiac don't retire the classics for good. Verdansk returns later in Season 1 with newer landmarks — a Signal Station, the Grazna-7 Launch Complex, the Overlook skyscraper and high-tech Drone Labs layered into its familiar skyline. Rebirth Island also comes back in-season, bringing its close-quarters prison and control-center fights back as a Resurgence option alongside Zodiac.

5. New Field Upgrades: Zipline Launcher and Grabber Drone

Two new Field Upgrades change how squads move and loot. The Zipline Launcher fires an anchor that creates a usable zipline for scaling buildings or crossing terrain — any squad, including enemies, can use a line once it's placed, and players can still fire their pistol while riding one. The Grabber Drone is a limited-battery device that can retrieve loot, environmental objects, Buy Station items, or even pull a downed teammate in for a safer revive.

New interactive objects — movable fuel barrels, dumpsters, concrete cylinders and roadblock pyramids — are scattered across Hajin, Zodiac and Verdansk, adding extra cover, traps and vehicle chokepoints squads can set up on the fly.

6. Grind for Royalty, Weapon Augments and Ground Ops

A new Grind for Royalty system builds personal challenges from your own stats and resets each season, rewarding two new Weapon Camos per season — Season 1's are "Gold Excellence" and "Gold Mosaic." Weapon Augments are earned from portable "Fly Buy" Buy Stations dropped by drones, and Season 1 launches with three: a CQC Augment for faster ADS and sprint-to-fire speed, a Marksman Augment for better bullet velocity and reduced sway, and a Handling Augment for faster reloads and reduced flinch.

Ground Ops add discoverable loot objectives across the map, including drillable safes, intel-granting surveillance towers, drones that drop cargo when shot down, and Geiger-counter-tracked radioactive loot barrels. In Resurgence matches, a Weapon Trade Station lets you upgrade a weapon's rarity, and Drop Kits — Insured, Loadout, Armored or Radar — give your next redeploy a specific edge.

7. New and Returning Modes

Battle Royale and Resurgence remain the core modes, running Battle Royale and Battle Royale Casual on Hajin and Verdansk, and Resurgence and Resurgence Casual on Zodiac and Rebirth Island. Season 1 launch adds the Rally Point limited-time mode — a no-circle, infinite-Resurgence, drop-in/drop-out training mode on Zodiac for up to 20 players, built for learning weapons, killstreaks and contracts with nothing to lose — alongside Massive Resurgence, a 120-player Resurgence mode on Hajin. Mid-season adds Extreme Resurgence and Rockets and Snipers, plus Loaded Resurgence.

8. Legacy Weapons, Carry Forward and the PS4/Xbox One Sunset

Operators, Operator Skins, Weapon Blueprints, Calling Cards, Emblems, Finishing Moves, Emotes, Sprays, Parachutes and Contrails from Modern Warfare II, Modern Warfare III, Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7 all carry forward into Warzone starting in Season 1. If you'd rather not see every legacy skin in your matches, Activision also added the new Operator Skin Toggle, which gives players more control over which Operator Skins they see in Warzone specifically.

Older weapons from Modern Warfare II through Black Ops 7 remain usable in the Loadout menu's Legacy tab, now with a five-attachment version of each base weapon plus any existing Blueprint builds, unlockable through Player XP in the Armory. They just can't be edited in Gunsmith or use Modern Warfare 4 features like Mastery Camos, Reticle Challenges or Build Codes.

The bigger change: starting with Season 1, Call of Duty: Warzone will no longer be playable on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, as both the game and Modern Warfare 4 move on from last-generation hardware. Activision says progression carries over automatically to a supported platform if you log in with the same linked Activision account.

9. Call of Duty: Warzone Launches on Nintendo Switch 2

Season 1 also marks Warzone's debut on Nintendo Switch 2, letting players drop into Hajin, Zodiac and every other map and playlist on the handheld for the first time. It's a similar move to what Epic Games has done with its own battle royale on the platform — if you want a sense of how that performs, how Fortnite performs on Nintendo Switch 2 is a useful comparison point for what to expect from a portable battle royale on the same hardware.

Quick Tips Recap

• Season 1 launched at midnight ET on November 6 across all platforms except PS4 and Xbox One, which lose Warzone support entirely.
• Hajin (Battle Royale) and Zodiac (Resurgence) are the new maps; Verdansk and Rebirth Island return later in-season.
• All 33 Modern Warfare 4 launch weapons are available immediately, while older weapons move to a Legacy tab with locked, unlockable Blueprint builds.
• New gear includes the Zipline Launcher and Grabber Drone Field Upgrades, plus Weapon Augments from "Fly Buy" Buy Stations.
• Rally Point (Zodiac, 20 players) and Massive Resurgence (Hajin, 120 players) are the two new modes at launch.
• Warzone launches on Nintendo Switch 2 the same day, and progression carries over automatically for players moving off PS4/Xbox One.

Official Resources

• Call of Duty: Warzone Season 1 — Everything You Need to Know (official blog)
• Call of Duty: Warzone official site

For more on what's changed across the wider Call of Duty lineup this season, check out our breakdown of the Season 1 Battle Pass, BlackCell bundle and new DMZ zone, or browse the full walkthroughs.net game guide archive for more Call of Duty coverage.