Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 has been hugely popular on all platforms. The latest installment from Activision features more detail and realism in terms of the textures and animations, improved gameplay mechanics that add to the overall atmosphere, and a new DMZ game mode that sees players uncovering intel on progressively more shady organizations as they unlock each mission.
As military shooter video games get more realistic, current methods and tactics employed by elite military and police units are more relevant and useful. But which Special Forces tactics will serve players best in Warzone 2 and how are they supposed to pull them off when the bullets are flying?
7 SWAT-Style Slicing The Pie To Stay Alive
One of the safest and perhaps easiest methods to perform solo on games such as Warzone 2 is the ‘slicing the pie’ trick as favored by SWAT teams when entering a room potentially full of bad guys.
- Move up to the doorway pressed against the outside wall to avoid being seen or silhouetted in the open door. The trick is to side-step using the left stick (W/D keys on PC) to reveal increasing ‘slices’ of the pie as the player looks through the open door and into the room.
- Check the first ‘slice’ and what can be seen inside the room; probably just a bit of wall and not much else. Once that is deemed safe step further out with the left stick. Keep stepping and checking, slowly increasing the angle until the player has seen the whole room from corner to corner.
- If they don't see a boring-looking empty room and are instead faced with a gun-toting enemy player or NPC, then be ready to quickly squeeze LT (Left click on PC) bringing the gun into the aim and narrowing the field of view to hose them down with RT (Right click on PC).
- If there is too much incoming fire and it seems the end is nigh, the player can always dodge back around their side of the doorframe to relative safety.
6 Flashbang Wallop
Often overlooked in Warzone 2 PvP and DMZ is the use of flashbangs, stun grenades, and teargas. Why use a non-lethal grenade though when ultimately trying to be as lethal as possible?
Grenades on Warzone 2 are great for taking out an enemy hidden behind cover. However, that’s more or less all they will do, take out one enemy. Stuns and flashbangs however can affect the whole room, throw one into a crowd of bots on DMZ and the entire group will be stunned and ripe for the picking.
A step-by-step guide to using flashbangs, stun grenades, and teargas in Warzone 2:
- Ensure a secondary grenade is equipped (will appear in the left-hand grenade slot on HUD)
- Aim crosshair at an open doorway or window where the player thinks enemies are hiding
- Check the angle: is it going to bounce into the room and stun the lot of them and make the player seem like a boss? Or is it, more likely, going to ricochet off the door or window frame, blinding themselves and their remaining squad mates in the process?
- When satisfied they are not about to create some kind of catastrophe that will go viral and possibly become a meme, press LB (Q on PC) to deploy the ‘non-lethal’ grenade
- Ideally aim at an interior wall, floor, or ceiling, so the non-lethal grenade will bounce into the room and stun all of its occupants
- As soon as the bang is heard from the stun grenade going off, that’s the cue to burst quickly into the room.
Hopefully most of the occupants will be affected by the flash and temporarily incapacitated. Player models of humans and NPCs will reveal if they are stunned by covering their eyes with a raised arm. This effect will only last a very small amount of time, however, before the player’s vision clears, so speed and timing are key.
Effect Duration for each non-lethal grenade
- Flashbang 2.5 seconds – blinding white flash obscures player vision
- Stun grenade 4.7 seconds – movement and aiming slowed considerably
- Tear gas 5.6 seconds – coughing can be heard, aiming/moving also affected to a lesser degree
5 Special Forces Style Room Clearing
This method is especially useful in duos, trios, quads, and DMZ as it needs at least 2 players. The cue to go will be the sound of the stun grenade going pop. Players without a secondary grenade in their inventory should just shout “Leroy Jenkins” and hope for the best.
- The first player bursts quickly into the room, turning to their right-hand side once through the door and moving along the right-hand wall, engaging any targets on that side of the room.
- Immediately on their back should be Player 2 following their squad mate through the door and taking the left-hand side. If the timing is right it should be more or less simultaneous as both players charge into the room, each taking their own side and covering that field of view, taking any targets that are presented to them.
- Player 1 moves along the right wall, into the far corner, shooting on the move. Once they hit that far corner it is the perfect position to flank the enemy and shoot them in the rear (especially if still disorientated from the flash bang and staring expectantly at the door).
- Player 2 does the mirror opposite, dealing with the left side of the room until they eventually both meet on the back wall, having covered all angles, providing they are both still alive to tell the tale.
4 Speed Aggression and Surprise
Using speed and lateral unpredictable movements it is possible to avoid most incoming shots, step past and around any targets and get beyond their line of fire.
Dodging left or right as you rush a player makes it very difficult for the enemy to track and deal effectively with all the threats that are facing them, especially combined with the effects of the stun grenade.
3 Avoiding Sniper Fire On Warzone 2
Jinking, lateral movement, and dodging unpredictably to the left or right is also highly effective when taking incoming fire from a long-distance sniper.
Instead of fleeing straight towards the nearest cover, take a big swerve or sidestep to any side, for no apparent reason and foes will cry in frustration as every shot misses the mark.
2 Suppressive Fire
Special forces operators are often outnumbered facing larger groups of enemies with smaller units themselves, embedded behind enemy lines, or working covertly. When ambushed or compromised in such situations they rely on two methods, suppressive covering fire and charging the larger enemy in an attempt to unsettle them.
In Warzone 2 this is relatively simple to do especially when equipped with an LMG or anything with a large magazine. Fire rounds in controlled bursts around the enemy, getting the odd hit markers but not necessarily looking for kills. Players just need to keep the enemies’ heads down and prevent them from peeking around the cover long enough for another part of the squad to rush the position.
1 Leapfrogging Towards Enemy Position
When out in the open and under fire from a larger enemy force, one of the special forces tactics here is to use alternate suppressing fire and rushing from two groups to ‘leapfrog’ towards the enemy and rush them up close without sustaining too much fire.
In a Warzone setting one player would be firing off rounds at say a sniper position, getting hit markers, and keeping the snipers from taking a good shot. Meanwhile, player 2 is rushing forward on a full sprint. Player 2 stops after about 20 yards and starts firing himself. This is the cue for player 1 to sprint past player 2 and repeat the process, opening up on the enemy position until their squad mate makes a leap forward. People rarely want to pop their head up when there are hundreds of rounds coming their way bouncing off the walls so this tactic is highly effective in Warzone 2.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is available now on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.