Call of Duty: Warzone's Pacific map and new anti-cheat are coming in December

Call of Duty Warzone
(Image credit: Activision)

After a year and a half of sprinting, driving, and gliding across two different versions of Verdansk, Call of Duty: Warzone's next map, Caldera, is finally on the way. The WW2-themed map based on the Pacific theater is releasing alongside Warzone's new anti-cheat tool, Ricochet, when Vanguard Season One begins on Dec. 2.

Activision laid it all out in a new blog post, including a roadmap that shows everything coming to Warzone and Vanguard between Vanguard's release date of Nov. 5 and Season One's kickoff in December. Activision is describing the month as Vanguard's "pre-season". Vanguard players will get a throwback map based on Call of Duty 4's shipment while Warzone will get an "Operation Flashback" mode that'll let them say goodbye to Verdansk (maybe forever?) and earn some exclusive rewards for participating.

Warzone will also get a second, possibly smaller event on Nov. 24 called "Secrets of the Pacific", which sounds like an introductory teaser to the Caldera map a few weeks before it drops.

call of duty vanguard roadmap

(Image credit: Activision)

"This limited-time event developed by Beenox will grant you vital information on Caldera and its various points of interest prior to its launch in December, but only if you complete challenges across Vanguard and Warzone," reads the blog post.

As for Ricochet anti-cheat, it'll be active in Vanguard when it launches on November 5. It won't be online in Warzone until Season One's launch in December, so don't expect Warzone's cheating problem to improve quite yet. Season One's start will also mark the integration of Vanguard and Warzone's progression tracks, meaning experience gained in one will transfer to the other. The entirety of Vanguard's weapons will also be added to Warzone at this time, a practice that didn't go smoothly with last year's Cold War.

The post also includes a fresh batch of Caldera screenshots, check out a few of them below:

It'll be nice to escape the smoggy hellscape of '80s Verdansk and spread my boots on the sands of Caldera. Not to mention the new map has bright greens and blues! Colors that I thought had gone extinct in the Call of Duty world.

Check out the whole blog post to read more about operators and weapon blueprints on the way, see a few more glimpses at Caldera, and more details about December's integration.

Morgan Park
Staff Writer

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.