[Guide] How to play Call of Duty’s new Outbreak mode

Call of Duty’s newest mode Outbreak dropped this week with the new season. Outbreak is a large-scale zombies mode that pits teams of four players against zombie hordes in a new take on Treyarch’s classic COD zombies mode. The new mode continues in the Dark Ether storyline featured in past zombie modes, but in an exciting new open-world format.

What is Outbreak mode?

The developers of Call of Duty summed up Outbreak’s gameplay loop on it’s loading page, which says: “Loot, Thrive, Survive.”

The basic gameplay loop of Outbreak involves you and your team looting zombie-infested areas, gaining resources, and growing stronger. As you gain power, you will be able to complete objectives that will offer you resources and reveal a beacon location. That beacon can be activated to warp to a new region with increased difficulty or attempt exfil, which will let players jump in a chopper and escape, ending their Outbreak session.

Every outbreak match starts with your team being dropped off in a location within a spacious open-world area. You will be able to then explore the environment and loot weapons, intel, and essence, while killing zombies, hellhounds, and other traditional enemies wandering around the environment. Through the course of gameplay, you will be transported to various new areas via the beacons, with each area featuring different weather conditions and terrain.

Located around the maps there will be vending machines where you buy perks, arsenal locations where you can upgrade your weapons and armor, and pack-a-punch machines where you can power up your weapons.

For the first time in a COD zombies game mode, Outbreak mode features a number of vehicles to help you traverse the larger map areas. You can also use the vehicles to run down zombie hordes if that’s your thing. 

The objectives in Outbreak

As you explore the various areas in Outbreak, you will come across objectives that your team can complete. There are five types of objectives that you can be assigned in the game:

• Holdout
• Retrieved
• Eliminate
• Escort
• Defend

Holdout requires that you and your teammates survive inside a building, with zombies trying to break into the windows and swarm you. When the objective is activated on the map, your team is teleported to a holdout location in the dark ether, and after you defeat the waves of enemies you are then transported back to your location on the overworld map

The Retrieved objective type requires that players retrieve and load canisters into a mobile missile launcher. The canisters are marked on the map and are located in the general vicinity of the launcher. Once the objective is completed, the launcher will fire its missile.

Eliminate is a timed objective type that requires players to hunt down and eliminate “high value targets” with large health pools like Panzer zombies. Players will have to eliminate three mini-boss enemies in four minutes to complete the objective.

The Escort objective requires players to escort an unmanned rover and its payload through a series of dark ether portals that will appear on the map. During your journey to the portals, zombies will attempt to attack both you and the payload. If the zombie hordes manage to deplete the payload’s health you will fail the objective.

The Defend objective requires that players defend a satellite uplink from zombie attacks for three minutes. The satellite uplink is typically inside a building on the first floor, forcing players to defend multiple doorway and window entries.

Tips and tricks for getting started in Outbreak

Now that Outbreak is available to play, the zombies community will soon be dissecting the game and coming up with ideal strategies. In the meantime, there are a few general survival tips that can help extend your zombies play sessions.

1. Be sure to clear out buildings thoroughly

It can be tempting to ignore straggling zombies inside a house to conserve ammo, but if just a few more show up and trap you in a corner, that could spell the end of your run. This advice is important to keep in mind when you are going to use a pack-a-punch or arsenal since those machines are often inside confined buildings

2. Loot each area thoroughly before moving on

Not only will this help you find intel and give you more essence to spend as the game goes on, but it will also ensure you never run out of ammo. It can be easy to underestimate how much ammo you go through in even casual zombie fights in this game, so make sure you are prepared and picking up all the resources you can before firing your beacon to move onto a new area.

3. Work with your team

It goes without saying that this is a coop mode, so it's important to act as one. Communication and resource sharing are going to be essential if you want to reach higher rounds in Outbreak.