What You Need to Know About ‘Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’

The latest installment of the Call of Duty franchise has arrived on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC, taking players up into the depths of space to face off against the Settlement Defense Front, bad zombie movies, and other players in competitive multiplayer. While many key aspects of the usual formula remain the same, there’s a few things which have changed this time around worth looking at. Here’s everything you need to know about Infinite Warfare.

Single Player Is the Best Campaign in Years

Typically, Call of Duty is a franchise known for its multiplayer. Many players actively skip over the campaign to dive straight into competitive or cooperative with their friends, but you owe it to yourself to give the single-player experience a few hours of your time. Infinite Warfare features one of the best campaigns Call of Duty has seen in years with excellent writing and characters you’ll actually care about.

Infinite Warfare places you in the shoes of Nick Reyes, the newly promoted Captain of the UNSA Retribution warship following an attack on Earth led by the Settlement Defense Front. You’ll work to take the fight back to the Front through a series of missions where you make the calls, allowing you to take the fight to them in the order you see fit. It may not be the most open-ended experience, but it’s one that adds depth to the usual Call of Duty campaign formula.

Combat Rigs

Similar to other multiplayer shooters and previous Call of Duty titles, Infinite Warfare’s multiplayer features a set of six combat rigs that allow you to customize your character with unique abilities to carry into battle. These six rigs each feature a specific ability, such as the Warfighter Rig’s Claw which allows you to put a hefty amount of fire down a corridor with ricochet rounds.

Each of the rigs present in multiplayer has three payloads and three traits that you can choose from. Payloads are active abilities that you can use in combat to either boost your speed, earn increased steak points, or outfit yourself with a weapon like the Claw. Traits, on the other hand, are like additional perks which allow you to perform actions like resupply grenades from enemies or disable the reset of scoresteaks upon death. Find a rig that works for you and adheres to your playstyle, and you’ll be good to go.

The Quartermaster

Infinite Warfare introduces the quartermaster, who will allow you to purchase Supply Drops with a new currency called Keys. Each of these Supply Drops has the chance to drop new Prototype Weapons, Combat Rig upgrades, and various personalization items that you can use to customize your character in multiplayer. Currently there are Common and Rare Supply Drops that you can purchase.

Every crate has a chance of dropping Rare (blue), Legendary (purple), or Epic (orange) items for you to use in multiplayer. Upgraded items not only perform better on a basic attribute level, but also give you access to unique abilities which stack with perks and attachment bonuses. You’ll also be able to receive Salvage from Supply Crates or duplicate items too, which is a currency that can be used to purchase the prototype weapons directly from the quartermaster instead of hoping to get them as a drop from Supply Crates.

Mission Teams

In multiplayer, Infinite Warfare has added a new way of completing challenges and gaining bonus experience. Like previous Call of Duty, titles many of the same weapon and equipment challenges remain that provide bonus experience, but — thanks to the addition of Mission Teams — things are a little more open-ended. Mission Teams are organizations you can join in multiplayer that consistently provide challenges to complete for bonus experience points, salvage, and variants.

When you first start up you’ll automatically be assigned to the JTF Wolverines, but as you rank up you’ll unlock the other three: Orion Initiative, Saber Team Seven, and Wraith. Each Mission Team focuses on a specific type of challenge, such as the objective-focused Sabre Team Seven, and can be swapped around at will once unlocked. Just remember: The best rewards are available the longer you stay in one Mission Team, so make the relationship last as long as you can.