Is Rebirth Island Back in Warzone? Season 1 Answer

Rebirth Island is back in Warzone: it missed the 6 November 2026 launch of Season 1, but the official Call of Duty Updates account announced on 7 November that it was enabled across the Resurgence and Resurgence Casual playlists, according to a Happy Gamer report. So the answer to "is Warzone Rebirth Island back" is yes, with a caveat: confirm it in your own playlist screen, because rotations can change week to week.

We built this from the official Call of Duty Season 1 blog and roadmap, Raven Software's Season 1 patch notes and 7 November hotfix, Happy Gamer's 8 November report, and Timesaver's week-one playlist summary, all checked in November 2026.

Rebirth Island's Status in November 2026

The timeline is short but a little confusing, so here it is in order. Activision's 2 November Season 1 post listed Rebirth Island as an in-season return, alongside Verdansk. Raven's week-one playlist graphic, as summarized by Timesaver on 6 November, put Resurgence and Resurgence Casual on Zodiac and flagged Rebirth Island with a note that it would be enabled shortly after launch. Then, on Saturday 7 November, Call of Duty Updates posted that Rebirth Island was now enabled across Resurgence and Resurgence Casual.

That means some guides written in the first days of the season still say Rebirth is not available. Dexerto's Rebirth Island wiki page, published on 5 November, says the map will return later in Season 1, which was correct at the time it was written. If you see two sources disagree, check the date: anything before 7 November predates the switch.

Verdansk is a separate story. It has not returned as of 10 November and has no announced date, which we cover in our Verdansk return explainer. Rebirth coming back first is not a sign that Verdansk is imminent.

What Activision Says About the Returning Rebirth

The Season 1 blog gives Rebirth only a short paragraph. It promises close-quarters fights across the prison, the control center and the surrounding industrial compounds, along with repurposed infrastructure, familiar routes, navigable waterways and hidden passages. That is the official description in full; there is no list of new points of interest the way there is for Verdansk.

A few Season 1 rules apply specifically to Rebirth:

• Interactable objects: the patch notes say only Fuel Barrels are available on Rebirth Island during Season 1. Dumpsters, concrete cylinders and the other pushable objects are on the newer maps.
• Breakable crates: Rebirth and Zodiac both have breakable crates that give quick loot and can contain a Phone EXE, a device that pays out cash periodically while you hold it.
• Loaded Resurgence: the 44-player limited-time mode runs on Zodiac and Rebirth Island. You spawn with your chosen loadout, keep your weapons after death, and earn perks toward Specialist.

Beenox, the studio behind the new Zodiac map, also built the original Rebirth Island and Vondel according to Activision, which is why the two Resurgence maps share a similar compact, layered feel.

How Resurgence Works on Rebirth This Season

Resurgence is the mode where you keep coming back. As long as at least one squadmate is alive, an eliminated player redeploys after a timer, until the Resurgence timer turns off late in the match. There is no Gulag in Resurgence because of that automatic redeploy. Activision has not published the exact redeploy timer lengths for Season 1, so be wary of any article quoting seconds.

Raven did publish the Resurgence gas timings. There are eight circles, and they move quickly. The first circle waits 1 minute 30 seconds and closes over 2 minutes 30 seconds; by Circle 7 the delay is only 10 seconds. On a map as small as Rebirth, that means your squad should be rotating almost constantly after the third circle.

• Drop Kits are new Resurgence-only items that apply on your next redeploy. Insured lets you redeploy faster and keep all your cash, Armored gives full armor, bonus plates and a Self-Revive, Loadout redeploys you with your current loadout, and Radar redeploys you with a Radar Ping, UAV and Supply Sweep. You can only hold one; picking up another replaces it.
• Weapon Trade Station swaps your equipped gun for a random weapon of higher rarity, and Fire Sales improve the trade.
• Resurgence public events include Bounty Contest, Jailbreak (all eliminated players redeploy after a short delay), Recon Flyover, Restock (opened caches refill) and the High Stakes Crate.

Buy Station Differences in Resurgence

Resurgence keeps a couple of items that Battle Royale moved off its standard stations. On Rebirth, a standard Buy Station sells a Self-Revive Kit and a Gas Mask for $4,000 each. Teammate Revive costs $4,000, an Armor Plate is $300, a UAV is $8,000 and Specialist is $30,000, the same as in Battle Royale. The Zipline Launcher, sold in Battle Royale, is unavailable at Resurgence stations.

Fly Buy mobile Buy Stations also appear in Resurgence. Drones carrying them enter the map during Circle 3 of every match, and you shoot them down to shop for items like the Advanced UAV at $25,000 and Weapon Augments at $10,000. On a map the size of Rebirth, a downed Fly Buy drone tends to pull several squads at once, so treat it as a fight rather than a shopping trip.

Completing a Supply Run contract upgrades a standard station for every squad for the rest of the match, adding the Bomb Glider, Fieldcraft and Phantom Elite Perks. The contract now requires you to interact with the station itself, not just enter its radius.

Rebirth or Zodiac: Which Should You Queue?

With Rebirth back, Resurgence players have two maps that feel quite different. Rebirth is the known quantity: the prison block, the control center and the waterways reward map knowledge built up over several years. Zodiac is new, built around a drone factory with ten points of interest, moving trains and underground tunnels. Our Zodiac map guide lists all ten locations and how the trains work.

A sensible approach for week two of the season is to use Rebirth for warm-ups and challenge grinding, where familiarity lets you focus on aim, and Zodiac when you want to learn something new. Both feed the same Player Level and weapon progress. If you are choosing guns for either map, our early Season 1 meta breakdown explains why fast SMGs dominate the tight Resurgence maps right now.

One more practical note: Resurgence modes count toward Grind for Royalty, the new personal-record challenge system that awards 1,000 XP per completed challenge, while limited-time modes do not. Our Warzone XP guide explains how to stack that with daily challenges and tokens.

Squad Habits for Rebirth's Fast Circles

Rebirth is small enough that the usual Battle Royale instincts work against you. Here are the habits that matter most with this season's rules, built around what the patch notes actually changed rather than old Rebirth folklore.

1. Bank cash for buy-backs early. Once the Resurgence timer switches off, the only way back for a fallen teammate is a $4,000 Teammate Revive. The squad widget now swaps the Loadout Drop icon for a redeploy icon when the squad can afford one, so watch it instead of asking over voice.
2. Consider Wingman. This Slot 3 perk makes allies cheaper to buy back and stops redeploys from firing the red flare that normally gives away your position at the Buy Station.
3. Run the Recon contract when you can. Its reward is now Insight, a killstreak that reveals the next safe zone and, unlike the old automatic circle peek, can be saved for a later circle when the information matters more.
4. Carry a Phone EXE. If a breakable crate drops one, give it to the player least likely to die, since it pays cash periodically only while held.
5. Know the Most Wanted change. In Resurgence, Most Wanted reward crates give a lootable UAV instead of Self-Revives, so do not run it expecting revives on Rebirth.

Above all, keep the squad within one building of each other. On a map this tight, a teammate who redeploys onto your position can turn a losing fight around in seconds, while a split squad gets picked off one at a time. The same logic applies to looting: on Rebirth it is better to clear one compound together and leave with full plates than to spread across three rooftops and arrive at the next fight with half the squad on cooldown. When the late circles start closing every minute, the squad that moves first and together usually decides where the final fight happens.

Leveling Faster on Rebirth

Short Resurgence matches on Rebirth are a natural place to level weapons, and every gun you level here is the same gun you carry in Multiplayer and DMZ. If you would rather skip the slow part of the Prestige climb, the store's Modern Warfare 4 Prestige Boost takes an account from its current Prestige to a target as high as Prestige 10, completing levels 1 to 55 for each Prestige by hand on your own account. It runs on the Classic or Regular path you choose and is listed for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2.

Everything else the store offers for Modern Warfare 4, including max weapon levels and boosting, is on the MW4 hub.

Frequently Asked Questions