Warzone 2.0 DMZ's brutal AI to get nerfed with Season 2
Easy allies.
Call of Duty Warzone 2.0's DMZ mode is set for some significant changes with the launch of Season 2 on 15th February.
According to a blog post, the popular player versus AI versus enemy extraction mode will get what sounds like a progression wipe, and will be made easier.
"All-new missions are coming to Season 02 including a refresh of your current faction mission progress and an inventory (contraband and keys) reset," Activision said. "We will be detailing all the need-to-know intel for DMZ ahead of Season 02 in an upcoming blog."
The wording is tricky to make sense of here. While it's clear contraband and keys will be wiped, it's unclear whether Activision plans to wipe progress completely, rather than simply update unfinished challenges.
As already announced, a new Exclusion Zone arrives with Season 2, which means players have a third option to choose from when deploying. The aforementioned faction mission refresh provides new missions that send you across these destinations, including Building 21.
What;s clear are the changes coming to DMZ difficulty. Current DMZ player sentiment is the mode is too hard, with brutal AI making some challenges nigh-on impossible to complete.
Activision admitted as much in its blog post, promising balance changes for AI.
"In Season 01 the AI in DMZ were challenging, but the ramp up of difficulty was often steep with some players getting overwhelmed. With Season 02, we've introduced a number of balance changes to adjust the types of AI spawning, the number of AI spawning, and the accuracy of AI at range and much more. All of this should provide a challenging but manageable play-space that still requires player respect of enemy combatants in the DMZ."
Spawn points are also tuned "for improved early match experience".
"Starting at a point at which your squad feels isolated or without loot and contract opportunities is not the best experience. These tweaks should improve spawn points across the mode."
Activision admitted the faction mission difficulty ramp is "too aggressive" for many players, which makes it too hard to unlock the second insured weapon slot (completing all tier three missions) in Season 1.
"We have adjusted the overall scaling of difficulty in missions as the tiers progress. Later tier missions will still be quite challenging even for the experienced operator, but we believe more straightforward access to an additional insured slot will provide a better path forward for all players."
Importantly for DMZ, Activision said it will address crashes, which continue to cause significant damage to players.
"We know crashes are especially impactful in DMZ if you lose your items and contraband weapons as a result. Addressing these crashes is a priority for Season 02, and we are committed to increased stability. Stay tuned for more specifics on this."