MW4 Season 1: Start Time, New Maps, Weapons, Battle Pass and DMZ X01

Checked against Activision's Season 1 announcement of October 28, 2026. Activision publishes the full Warzone Season 1 details on November 2; this page will be updated with them.

When does MW4 Season 1 start?

Modern Warfare 4 Season 1 goes live at midnight ET on Friday, November 6, 2026, which is 9 PM PT on Thursday, November 5. Unlike the launch, it isn't a rolling midnight-local release: it lands at the same moment on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Switch 2, and Warzone switches over to Modern Warfare 4 content in the same update.

Here is that moment in a few time zones. The US clocks go back on November 1, so this is Eastern Standard Time, not Daylight Time:

Activision hasn't published the update's download size or a preload, so expect to download it when it goes live. A mid-season update, Season 1 Reloaded, is confirmed but not dated. If you're planning the season's grind around ranks, camos or Prestige, our Call of Duty boosting page lists every service for Modern Warfare 4.

What is already live before Season 1?

Three things arrived in the "preseason" between launch and November 6, so you don't have to wait for the update to play them:

• Shipment (October 27), remastered and set on a Russian harbor. Activision itself suggests using it to level weapons before Season 1.
• Possession (October 29), a Halloween party mode: eliminate someone and you take over their body, their position and their loadout. Kill a player standing on the Hardpoint and you're suddenly on the Hardpoint.
• Infected (October 30). The Infected run the FSS Carbon Edge knife, a Throwing Knife and Ninja; Survivors get the Rezi 12 with explosive slugs from the Enforcer Apex Attachment.

What to do this week: take the weapon you plan to main on Shipment until it's close to max level. The two new Battle Pass weapons arrive at level 1 on November 6, and any time you spend on them will be time not spent on your current class.

New Multiplayer maps in Season 1

Season 1 adds three 6v6 maps at launch and two more at mid-season, plus a fixed Kill Block layout.

Backstab is built around high ground. Activision names the roof of the Stronghold House and the upper floors of the Sniper House, Grandpa's House and the Destroyed Building as the vantage points, and the blasted walls between them as the flank routes. If your team is losing the long street fights, stop peeking the street and push through the walls instead.

Canyon rewards timing more than aim. The open ground between the rock walls has little cover, so crossing it while an enemy holds the Mesa gets you killed from both ends of the map. The northern Cave runs to an Abandoned Shack where Activision says hidden players can ambush anyone passing, which makes it the first place to pre-aim when you rotate north.

Shoot House is the one most players already know: the Junkyard in the south, the tunnels through the Center and the Containers in the north, with the Hospital and Apartment overlooking all of it. The layout is the same, but you now play it with Modern Warfare 4's mantles and supine slide, so the old head glitches may not work the way you remember. Check your favourite angles in a private match before you trust them in a lobby.

Kill Block: Crash is the Kill Block training facility with three slabs, picked from the most popular beta combinations, locked in place. Because it doesn't reconfigure, it's also in the core playlists, including Search and Destroy, so it's worth learning one set of angles there.

New and returning modes

At Season 1 launch you get:

• Grind. Kill Confirmed with a bank: pick up dog tags, then deposit them at one of two Banks to score. You drop everything you're carrying when you die, so a player holding ten tags is the most important kill on the map.
• Drop Zone. Hold one rotating zone; airdrops deliver random killstreaks into it.
• Gauntlet 1v1. A 1v1 Gunfight playlist inside the Wager Match Event. You wager trophies, and the winner stays on to face the next challenger.

Counter Attack (destroy the enemy Comm Station while protecting yours) and a new Team Deathmatch variant that Activision only describes as taking foes "down to the ground" arrive at mid-season.

New weapons: Cronen Osprey, CSG-35, JAK 12 and ZLR Talonhawk

Two weapons come in the Battle Pass at launch and two arrive later through events. In Modern Warfare 4 a weapon's Apex Attachment unlocks at its max level, so the level count is the number to watch.

Cronen Osprey. A 5.56 rifle that Activision says is matched only by the M4 for fire rate. It kicks up and to the right in long sprays, so tap or burst at range. Its Apex Attachment, the Cronen Helix Mk. II, turns it into a double-barrel semi-auto that fires on both the trigger pull and the release. The catch is that it has 70 weapon levels, the most of the four, so the Helix is a long way off for most players.

CSG-35. The fastest-firing SMG in the game at 1,200 RPM, with low damage per bullet. Activision describes it as overwhelming inside 20 meters and hard to control beyond that. On Shoot House or the inside of Backstab's buildings, that's most fights; on Canyon's open ground, it isn't. Its Apex, CSG Crossfire, gives you akimbo CSG-35s.

JAK 12. A full-auto shotgun for breaching. Activision's own advice is to barge through a closed door and spray. Its Apex, JAK Barrage, fires sticky explosives.

ZLR Talonhawk. A combat axe with 10 levels and mastery badges.

What to do on November 6: the Battle Pass says the Osprey and CSG-35 are among its free base weapons, so you don't need to buy the pass to get them. Pick one, put it in a class for small maps (Shipment, Shoot House) and play objective modes, where you fight more often per minute.

New attachments

Season 1 also brings attachments that change weapons you already own:

• Hyeon Auto turns the Hyeon Burst into a full-auto rifle (Wager Match reward).
• Kastov 545 converts the Kastov 762 to 5.45mm for smoother handling (Wager Match reward).
• M16 Burst trades the M4's full-auto for bursts (event reward).
• TT Iron Guard Kit for the .50 GS pistol and ChainSAW Grip set for the FiNN LMG (in-season).

Season 1 events

• Wager Match (Multiplayer, DMZ and Warzone). Trophies are the currency. In Multiplayer you earn them in Gauntlet 1v1; in DMZ and Warzone, through challenges. The top three get extra rewards, and the mastery track includes an operator skin, a blueprint, a camo and the Hyeon Auto and Kastov 545 Apex Attachments. No real money is involved.
• Weapon Camo Events. Play matches, earn XP, get camos.
• Joint Fire. An event that pays you to party up: queuing with friends turns on an XP boost that grows with squad size. Rewards include blueprints, charms, Double XP Tokens and a DMZ Survival Kit. If you normally solo queue, this is the week to find a squad.

Activision has not given dates for any of these beyond "Season 1" and "mid-season".

Battle Pass and BlackCell: what you get and what it costs

The Season 1 Battle Pass is a linear 100-tier track: you log in to claim rewards and play to move down the track. The premium pass costs 1,100 COD Points; the Battle Pass Bundle costs 2,400 COD Points.

The new part is the catch-up system. If you own the premium pass and fall behind, the game automatically catches you up to the reward that matches the current day of the season, up to day 50. That's how Activision can promise 50+ rewards to everyone who buys it. In practice, buying the pass a few weeks late, or having a busy month, no longer costs you the early rewards. Activision hasn't published exactly which tier each day maps to, so don't count on the catch-up to carry you to tier 100.

Buying the premium pass gets you straight away:

• A 10% Battle Pass XP boost for the season
• The "Downpour" skin for Blix
• The "Fortune's Favor" FiNN LMG blueprint and the "Happy Boom" Sticky Grenade blueprint
• A weapon sticker and a DMZ Survival Kit
• Up to 1,100 COD Points back as you progress

Finishing all 100 tiers gives the "Vantage" Blix skin, the "Blue Viper" Hyeon Burst blueprint, 200 COD Points, a calling card, an emblem, a DMZ Survival Kit and the tier 100 reward, the "Bellum" Ultra blueprint for the Mosin-Nagant. Later in the season, players who have finished the pass unlock eight bonus operator skins; Activision will detail them with Season 1 Reloaded.

BlackCell adds the XERO operator (with "Cowled" and "Adder" variants through BlackCell challenges), 1,100 COD Points, the "Perimeter Lance" M4 signature blueprint, 20 Tier Skips, a BlackCell Mastery Camo Track, a lobby scene, a DMZ Survival Pack and BlackCell versions of seven skins and seven blueprints in the pass. In DMZ, BlackCell also opens an extra Vendor at your FOB that sells weapons and gear for DMZ Cash.

Two things worth knowing before you spend:

• Vault Edition owners already have this season's BlackCell. Don't buy it again. A digital Standard owner can still upgrade to the Vault on the same platform.
• Buying BlackCell after the Battle Pass refunds 1,100 COD Points, so you aren't penalized for upgrading later.

DMZ Season 1: the X01 Black Site

DMZ's big addition is X01, a former Russian weapons facility on the northern edge of Hajin that North Korean forces have taken over. It's an enclosed, multi-floor complex of cargo bays, vehicle depots, underground labs, a weapons production line and a sealed Deep Vault. You get there by deploying through Hajin.

What Activision has confirmed:

• Ghost is your Watcher in X01, giving you several pages of new DMZ Orders as you go deeper.
• Extraction gets harder the longer you stay. The facility closes off exfil points, and you have to complete steps to get out. Know where your nearest exfil is before you push the Deep Vault.
• New bosses on the Boss Board: two lieutenants, Tae-Hyun "Knuckle" and Chol-Min "The Wrench", and two commanders, The Captain (a Juggernaut with an elite guard) and an autonomous Wheelson on patrol. The 100 Spirits faction is active inside, and Activision advises against fighting them head-on.
• New FOB stations: a Battle Pass and Store station next to the Survival Kit Station, a 3D Printer whose function is still classified, and the BlackCell Vendor.

The enemies, items and equipment inside X01 are all marked "classified", so the first nights after launch are for scouting, not for bringing your best kit.

DMZ events

• Threat Briefing: Battle Tank. Fight a North Korean tank in Hajin and pull off one part per deployment. The more parts you bring home over several runs, the better the reward.
• Threat Briefing: The Captain. Find The Captain in X01 and take pieces of his helmet.
• Resupply Run. Track down items in specific locations and trade them for Self Revives and three-plate carriers.

The key rule for Threat Briefings: if one squad member exfils with a Commander part, the whole squad gets credit. So when the fight goes wrong, give the part to whoever is nearest the exfil and cover them, rather than everyone dying with it.

Warzone in Season 1

Season 1 is when Modern Warfare 4 integrates with Warzone. Activision has confirmed Hajin, the exclusion zone DMZ is set in, and Zodiac, the Resurgence map from the beta, as new maps, with Verdansk and Rebirth Island returning alongside them. MW4 weapons, progression and the shared Camo Track arrive in Warzone with the update.

Everything else, from modes and gameplay changes to the Warzone roadmap, is in a separate Activision post due on November 2. The carry-forward rules for older operators, blueprints and camos, and the end of Warzone on PS4 and Xbox One, are in our Modern Warfare 4 launch guide.

What Season 1 changes for camos and Prestige

Camos. Season 1 is the date Warzone's three mastery camos become earnable, because MW4 weapons only reach Warzone with the update. Weapon Camo Events and a BlackCell Mastery Camo Track arrive too, plus the "Locked Down" universal camo for anyone who verifies their Activision account email, which takes a minute. The MW4 camos guide shows how to split the grind across the three modes.

Prestige. The Season 1 post doesn't mention Prestige at all: no new cap, no reset and no change to Classic or Regular Prestige. Our MW4 Prestige guide explains both paths.

Is Ranked Play in MW4 Season 1?

No date yet. Ranked Play is not on Activision's Season 1 roadmap, and the October 28 post doesn't mention it. Any date you see quoted for Ranked is not from Activision. When it arrives, the core 6v6 maps and Search and Destroy are what it is built on, so time on Kill Block: Crash in Search and Destroy is good practice now.

Season 1 checklist

1. Before November 6: level your main weapon on Shipment and verify your account email for the "Locked Down" camo.
2. Vault owner? Your BlackCell is already paid for. Claim it on day one instead of buying it.
3. Launch night: pick the Osprey (more range, 70 levels) or the CSG-35 (close range, 42 levels) and level one, not both.
4. Play Canyon and Backstab in private matches before ranking them up in your map vote, so you know where the Mesa and the Stronghold House sightlines are.
5. Squad up for Joint Fire for the larger XP boost.
6. In DMZ: scout X01 with cheap gear first, and always carry the Threat Briefing part toward the closest exfil.

Seventy weapon levels on the Osprey is a lot to grind alongside the Battle Pass and camos. BoostingXP's weapon level boost takes the new weapons to max level so you can use their Apex Attachments sooner, and the Call of Duty hub lists the camo, prestige and rank services for the season.

What is still unconfirmed?

As of October 31, 2026, Activision has not announced:

• The full Warzone Season 1 content (due November 2)
• The Season 1 Reloaded date, or the end date of Season 1
• When Ranked Play arrives
• The Season 1 download size
• The JAK 12's level count and the event dates for the JAK 12 and ZLR Talonhawk
• What the X01 enemies, items, equipment and the FOB 3D Printer do
• The eight bonus skins for finishing the Battle Pass

FAQ

What time does MW4 Season 1 start?

Midnight ET on November 6, 2026, which is 9 PM PT on November 5 and 5 AM GMT on November 6. It goes live at the same time on every platform.

What maps come with MW4 Season 1?

Backstab, Canyon and a reimagined Shoot House in Multiplayer, plus the fixed Kill Block: Crash layout. Ministry and Overflow arrive at mid-season. DMZ adds the X01 Black Site, and Warzone gets Hajin and Zodiac, with Verdansk and Rebirth Island returning.

Are the Cronen Osprey and CSG-35 free?

Yes. Activision lists them as free base weapons in the Season 1 Battle Pass: the Cronen Osprey at tier 16 and the CSG-35 at tier 36. You don't need the premium pass.

How much is the MW4 Season 1 Battle Pass?

1,100 COD Points for the premium pass and 2,400 COD Points for the Battle Pass Bundle. Premium owners who fall behind are caught up automatically to the current day's reward, up to day 50.

Does the Vault Edition include the Season 1 BlackCell?

Yes. Vault Edition owners get this season's BlackCell, including XERO, the Battle Pass and 20 Tier Skips.

Is Ranked Play in MW4 Season 1?

Not announced. Ranked Play isn't on the Season 1 roadmap, and Activision hasn't given it a date.