🎯 How Battle Royale Works
Warzone is a free-to-play battle royale where up to 100 players drop onto a map, scavenge for weapons and equipment, and fight until one team remains. The playable area shrinks over time (called "the collapse" or "the circle"), forcing players closer together.
The Basic Flow
- Pre-Game Lobby: You'll wait briefly while the match fills with players.
- Drop Phase: Your squad flies over the map in an aircraft. Choose when and where to jump.
- Loot Phase: Land, find weapons, armour plates, cash, and equipment.
- Fight Phase: Engage other teams while the circle closes in.
- Endgame: Survive as the circle forces the remaining teams into close combat. Last team standing wins.
Game Modes
- Battle Royale (BR): Classic mode on the big map. Solos, Duos, Trios, and Quads.
- Resurgence: Faster-paced mode on a smaller map with auto-respawns (as long as one teammate survives).
- Black Ops Royale: New mode with no custom loadouts, ground loot only, and limited redeploys. Full guide here.
🔫 How to Create Your First Loadout
In standard Warzone (not Black Ops Royale), you bring custom weapon loadouts into the game. Here's how to build one:
Step 1: Choose Your Primary
Your primary should be a long-range weapon — an AR, LMG, or sniper. This is the weapon you'll use for most fights. We recommend the XM4 or Holger 556 for beginners.
Step 2: Choose Your Secondary
Your secondary should be a close-range weapon — usually an SMG. This is for building fights and close-quarters engagements. The AMR9 is the most beginner-friendly option.
Step 3: Add Attachments
Each weapon can have up to 5-8 attachments depending on the game. Attachments modify your weapon's stats — recoil, range, ADS speed, etc. Check our loadout guides for the best attachment combinations.
Step 4: Set Your Perks
Perks provide passive bonuses. For beginners, we recommend: Dexterity + Tempered + Ghost. Full perk guide here.
How to Get Your Loadout In-Game
You don't start with your custom loadout. You need to either:
- Find a Loadout Drop: These fall from the sky at set intervals during the match. First one drops around 4-5 minutes in.
- Buy a Loadout: At a buy station for $10,000 in-game cash.
🏪 Buy Stations Explained
Buy stations are kiosks scattered across the map where you can spend in-game cash on useful items:
- Loadout Drop ($10,000): Calls in your custom loadout. This is your top priority.
- Self-Revive Kit ($4,500): Lets you revive yourself when downed. Essential in solos.
- UAV ($4,000): Reveals enemy positions on the minimap for 30 seconds.
- Armour Bundle ($2,500): Full set of armour plates.
- Team Buyback ($4,500): Revives a dead teammate.
- Precision Airstrike ($3,500): Offensive killstreak for area denial.
Priority order: Loadout Drop > Self-Revive > UAV > everything else. Getting your loadout as early as possible is the single most impactful thing you can do.
⚔️ The Gulag Explained
When you die for the first time in a match, you're sent to the Gulag — a 1v1 fight for a second chance. Win the Gulag and you redeploy. Lose and you're eliminated (unless a teammate buys you back).
Gulag Tips
- Stay calm: The Gulag is a small arena with random weapons. Don't panic — play it like a multiplayer gunfight.
- Pre-aim common angles: Most Gulag maps have predictable lanes. Hold an angle and wait.
- Use equipment: You're given a tactical and/or lethal. Don't forget to use them.
- Time limit: If neither player dies, a flag appears. Capture it to win.
- Gulag closes: After a certain point in the match, the Gulag closes and deaths are permanent.
💡 Basic Strategies for New Players
1. Land Safe, Not Hot
Avoid highly contested areas like the centre of the map for your first 10-20 games. Land at edge POIs, loot up, and get comfortable with the mechanics before taking fights. Dying in the first minute teaches you nothing.
2. Prioritise Your Loadout
Everything else is secondary to getting your custom loadout. Loot cash aggressively, buy a loadout drop, and only then start looking for fights.
3. Stay with Your Team
Solo heroics get you killed in Warzone. Stay within 50 metres of your teammates, communicate positions, and focus fire on the same targets.
4. Use Cover Constantly
Never stand in the open. Always be near cover — a wall, a tree, a rock. If you're shot and don't know where from, immediately get behind cover before looking for the enemy.
5. Learn the Circle
Always be aware of where the next circle is closing. Rotate early rather than late — you don't want to be running in the open while the collapse pushes you from behind.
6. Plate Up Constantly
After every fight, immediately replate. Don't loot, don't push — plate first. The number one cause of death for new players is taking a second fight while still damaged from the first.
7. Use Ping
The ping system is your best communication tool. See an enemy? Ping them. Found loot? Ping it. Don't have a mic? Ping everything. Your team will thank you.
📚 Next Steps
- Browse All Loadouts — Find your first weapon builds
- Best Perks Guide — Optimise your perk setup
- Best Settings — Set up your game for competitive play
- Black Ops Royale Guide — Learn the newest mode
- Weapon Tier List — See which weapons are meta