MW4 Season 1: Start Time, Maps, Modes and X01 (2026)

Modern Warfare 4 Season 1 went live at midnight Eastern on November 6, 2026 (9 p.m. Pacific on November 5) on every platform, and it is the biggest update since launch. It adds three new or reimagined 6v6 maps plus a featured Kill Block combo, the Grind and Drop Zone modes, two new weapons, the X01 facility in DMZ, a 100-tier Battle Pass and the full merge of Call of Duty: Warzone into the MW4 era.

We built this rundown from the official Call of Duty blog posts for Season 1 (October 28 and November 2), the Season 1 patch notes and the November 5 Battle Pass breakdown, all checked on November 6, 2026.

Start Time and the Shape of the Season

Activision set the start for 0000 ET on November 6, which is 2100 PT on November 5, and the November 2 patch notes repeated that timing as "Thursday, November 5th at 9pm PT." That makes it a simultaneous rollout rather than a staggered regional one, so players in Europe saw it arrive on Friday morning and players on the West Coast had it the evening before.

The season is split into two halves, the way recent Call of Duty seasons have been. The launch half brings the maps, modes, weapons and DMZ area covered below. A mid-season update, which Activision calls Season 1 Reloaded, is promised to add more maps (Ministry and Overflow are named so far), more modes and two more weapons. No official date for Reloaded had been published when we checked, so treat any specific day you see quoted elsewhere as a guess until the Call of Duty blog posts it.

• Launch half: Backstab, Canyon, Shoot House, Kill Block: Crash, Grind, Drop Zone, Cronen Osprey, CSG-35, DMZ X01, Warzone integration.
• Mid-season (Reloaded): Ministry, Overflow, more classified maps, Counter Attack mode, a new Team Deathmatch twist, the JAK 12 shotgun and the ZLR Talonhawk axe.
• Throughout: Wager Match, Weapon Camo events, the Joint Fire squad event and DMZ Threat Briefings.

New Multiplayer Maps

Three 6v6 maps arrive on day one. Backstab is a brand-new medium-sized map set in a snowbound, war-torn town with abandoned tanks in the streets; the official description points to the Stronghold House roof and the upper floors of the Sniper House, Grandpa's House and the Destroyed Building as the main vantage points, with blasted walls opening flank routes between them. Canyon, also new and medium-sized, trades snow for sun-baked rock: a River lane near a Convoy Ambush site, a Cliff Path, a northern Cave and Abandoned Shack for close ambushes, and a central Mesa that overlooks both ends.

Shoot House is the familiar three-lane favorite, now rebuilt for MW4's movement and set in North Korea during light snowfall. The lanes are the same as veterans remember: the Junkyard to the south, tunnels through the Center, and Containers to the north, with the Hospital and Apartment overlooking the fight. If you know the old layout you can play it on day one without relearning anything, which is exactly why it tends to dominate early playlists.

The fourth addition is Kill Block: Crash. Kill Block normally reshuffles its slabs between rounds, but this featured combo keeps three slabs locked in place, chosen by Infinity Ward from the most popular combinations seen during the Beta. Because the layout is static, Crash can join Core playlists such as Search and Destroy. Shipment, which landed on October 27 in the run-up to the season, stays in rotation as well. For the complete list of launch maps and how each one plays, our older MW4 maps overview still applies; Season 1 only adds to it.

Modes Arriving With Season 1

Two returning modes headline the launch half. Grind asks you to eliminate players, collect their dog tags and carry them to one of two Banks on the map; you can stack multiple tags, and you drop every tag you are carrying when you die, which makes a full-pocketed teammate a priority escort. Drop Zone has teams fighting over a single rotating objective while periodic airdrops land Killstreak packages inside it, so the team holding the zone snowballs unless the other side breaks it.

Gauntlet 1v1 is a limited-time Gunfight variant tied to the Wager Match event. You stake trophies on a duel, the winner stays on to face the next challenger, and stringing wins together claims the wagered reward. The patch notes list it as "coming soon," so it may appear a little after the season starts. Kill Block also opens up to 6v6 modes this season. The Halloween party modes, Infected and Possession, arrived during the pre-season window; we break down how those work, along with every other playlist, in our guide to MW4 game modes and Infected.

Later in the season Infinity Ward has promised Counter Attack, where teams try to detonate bombs at the enemy Comm Station while defending their own, and an unnamed mode that "adds a twist to the Team Deathmatch formula." If Drop Zone becomes your go-to, it pays to understand how streak packages and the Smart Streak meter interact; our MW4 killstreaks breakdown covers costs, unlock levels and the Hardline perk.

Weapons, Attachments and Events

Two base weapons come through the Battle Pass on day one, and both are free tiers. The Cronen Osprey is a 5.56 assault rifle at Tier 16 with a 30-round magazine, a 70-level progression track and an 882 RPM fire rate that Activision says is rivaled only by the M4; its Apex Attachment, the Cronen Helix Mk. II, turns it into a double-barrel weapon that fires on both trigger pull and release. The CSG-35 is an SMG at Tier 36 with a 28-round magazine, 42 weapon levels and a 1,200 RPM fire rate, and its Apex Attachment, CSG Crossfire, gives you akimbo CSG-35s.

Two more weapons come through events later in the season: the JAK 12, a full-auto shotgun with an 8-round magazine and a sticky-explosive Apex Attachment called JAK Barrage, and the ZLR Talonhawk, a combat axe with 10 weapon levels. New attachments include the Hyeon Auto Apex (full-auto conversion for the Hyeon Burst) and the Kastov 545 Apex for the Kastov 762, both Wager Match rewards, plus an M16 Burst attachment for the M4.

• Wager Match: trophies are the currency; rewards include attachments, an Operator Skin, a Blueprint and a camo. Activision notes no money or items of real-world value are involved.
• Weapon Camo events: play matches, earn XP, unlock camos.
• Joint Fire: an XP boost that grows with squad size, with rewards including Blueprints, Charms, 2XP tokens and a DMZ Survival Kit.
• "Locked Down" universal camo: free for verifying the email address on your Call of Duty account.

DMZ: The X01 Facility

DMZ's Season 1 addition is X01, a former Russian weapons facility on the edge of Hajin that North Korean forces have seized. The official intel describes vast cargo bays and vehicle depots up top, then underground labs, production lines and a sealed Deep Vault below, all tied together by dim tunnels and multi-floor vertical routes. Ghost serves as the Watcher for these operations, voicing new pages of DMZ Orders as squads push deeper, and the briefing warns that the facility will start closing extraction points on intruders.

The FOB picks up a Battle Pass and Store Station next to the Survival Kit Station, the Vendor stocks extra weapons and gear for BlackCell owners, and the Boss Board adds two Lieutenants (Tae-Hyun "Knuckle" and Chol-Min "The Wrench") and new Commanders, including a Juggernaut called The Captain and an autonomous Wheelson. The first DMZ events are Threat Briefings: in the Battle Tank version you strip one tank part per deployment in Hajin, while The Captain version has you collecting pieces of his helmet in X01. Every squad member gets credit if one of them exfils with a Commander part. A Resupply Run event rounds out the opening weeks.

Warzone Joins the MW4 Era

Season 1 is also the moment Call of Duty: Warzone becomes fully integrated with Modern Warfare 4. That means one Player Level track you can level and optionally Prestige across Multiplayer, DMZ and Warzone, all 33 MW4 launch weapons with Warzone-specific Mastery Camos, Daily and Calling Card Challenges, and Battle Pass progress earned in any of the three. The new maps are Hajin, a 13-POI Battle Royale map spanning both sides of the Korean border, and Zodiac, a ten-POI Resurgence map built by Beenox around a drone factory. Verdansk and Rebirth Island return later in the season.

A few platform notes matter here. Warzone launches on Nintendo Switch 2 with this update, and from Season 1 it is no longer playable on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One; progression carries over to a supported platform if you log in with the same linked Activision account. Weapons from Modern Warfare II through Black Ops 7 stay usable in Warzone through a Legacy tab, but without Gunsmith editing or MW4 Mastery Camos. Console players also get something from the main patch notes: Performance Mode (120Hz) is now open to every PS5 and Xbox Series X|S owner with a 120Hz display, VRR or not.

Battle Pass and Operators at a Glance

The Season 1 Battle Pass is a linear 100-tier track with free and premium rewards. The premium pass costs 1,100 COD Points, and a new catch-up system automatically advances paid owners to the reward matching the current day of the season, up to day 50. Blix is the featured Battle Pass Operator and XERO is the BlackCell Operator, while the Tier 100 reward is an Ultra rarity Mosin-Nagant Blueprint called "Bellum." The tier-by-tier detail, prices for the bundle and BlackCell, and how Tier Skip tokens work are all in our MW4 Battle Pass explainer.

Season 1 also brings a big Store lineup, including a Ghost bundle with a gold-and-black skull look. If you are trying to work out which Ghost skins exist right now and which ones need the Vault Edition, see our rundown of every Ghost skin in MW4.

Catching Up Before the Season Ends

A fresh season is the point where a lot of players look at their own progress and realize the camo grind, weapon levels or Prestige count has fallen behind what they wanted. The store's Modern Warfare 4 hub lists hand-done services for that situation: camo unlocks up to Platinum, Divergence or Orion Reforged, base max level on the weapons you pick, Prestige boosts up to Prestige 10 on Classic or Regular, and full campaign completion for the Operator rewards. Every one of those is completed manually on your own account after you hand over your login, and the pages list PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Switch 2.

The hub also carries Double XP codes, which work differently: you redeem them yourself on your Activision account, nobody logs into anything, and Activision caps use at one hour of each token type per day. If you just want the new Osprey and CSG-35 leveled in time for Reloaded, that option fits better than a service.

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