Warzone adding Iron Trials successor alongside Ranked Resurgence

Raven Software has announced the return of competitive Warzone in Season 2, complete with a brand-new mode that’s set to be rotated with Ranked Resurgence.

Warzone Ranked Play was removed when Black Ops 7 launched back in November, as the devs prepared to relaunch the mode with new weapons.

It’s finally set to return just after the Season 2 update, which is due to drop on February 5, alongside the arrival of BO7 Ranked Play, but the competitive playlists are going to look different this time around.

Warzone is shaking up its Ranked modes in Season 2

On January 22, Raven shared an X post revealing that Ranked Play: Resurgence is making a return, but on a different map.

Previously, the mode used Rebirth Island, but after the addition of Haven’s Hollow in Season 1, it will now be set on the new map.

But the biggest news came later in the post, where it was confirmed that an early version of a new mode called Iron Gauntlet will come at the same time.

It’s set to be a refreshed take on the Iron Trials mode we saw during the BOCW and Vanguard eras. This took the Warzone formula and cranked up the difficulty by increasing the health of all players and removing loadout drops, which meant that you could only rely on skill rather than luck.

Iron Gauntlet is described as “a large map, Battle Royale experience,” suggesting it will take place on Verdansk, with its own unique rules when it comes to health, loadouts, and loot.

These two competitive experiences won’t be live at the same time, though, as they’ll be rotated regularly. Whenever Gauntlet is active, Ranked Resurgence will be temporarily disabled and vice versa, although it wasn’t revealed how often they will swap out.

The devs explained that this decision was taken to “bring the competitive community together in an ecosystem with healthier matchmaking, stronger competition in matches, and exciting moments.” It will also help gather clearer feedback about how each mode is performing.