Call of Duty: Warzone drops you into a match with a hundred and fifty people and explains nothing. That’s why most beginners lose their first few dozen matches to things you can learn in an afternoon: a bad drop, a pointless death in the gas, an empty wallet right when you need to buy a teammate back. Let’s go through what to do and in what order so you survive at least half the match.
Your first match step by step
A match has three phases, and each one calls for something different. A beginner usually does the same thing the whole time: looks for fights.
The drop
Don’t aim for the biggest cluster of buildings you can see on the map. Half the players die there in the first two minutes, and without hours of playtime your chances of being in the better half are slim. Pick the edge of a big town or a separate group of buildings next to it. You’ll find enough gear there and won’t have three squads on your back right away. And drop as a whole squad in one spot.
What to grab in the first two minutes
- Any weapon, right away. The first one doesn’t have to be good, it has to be in your hands before your opponent has one.
- Armor plates. On you and in reserve. Without plates you’ll lose a gunfight even when you outshoot the other player.
- Cash. Pick it up as you go, even the small stacks. You’ll see why in a moment.
- A gas mask. It has limited durability, but once a match it will save a rotation that would otherwise end in death.
Sort out your backpack while things are quiet. Digging for a heal between grenades in the middle of a firefight is a classic mistake.
Contracts: the game tells you what to do
The map is full of tasks your squad can pick up. A completed contract gets you cash and, more importantly, a reason to go somewhere. For a beginner that’s worth more than the payout itself, because wandering around the map aimlessly is the main cause of random deaths. The types rotate between seasons, but the logic stays the same:
- Bounty. The game shows you specific opponents. Good for cash, bad for a beginner: it’s a voluntary fight against someone who knows you’re coming.
- Scavenger. You collect a few crates in the area. The safest way into the game: it sends you to quiet spots and fills both your backpack and your wallet.
- Recon. It reveals where the next circle will close. The best risk-to-reward ratio in the later part of the match.
Rule for your first few dozen matches: take scavenger and recon contracts, leave bounties to the others.
Gulag: a second life that isn’t free
When you die for the first time in a match, you’re not out. You get sent to the Gulag, where you face someone who just suffered the same fate. You both have the same loadout, and whoever wins goes back into the match. What works there:
- Don’t rush out right away. Spend the first seconds watching and listening. The arena is small and sound tells you more than sightlines; whoever runs into the middle loses more often.
- A grenade won’t save you. In an enclosed space it bounces off the wall back toward you more often than you’d like.
After coming back from the Gulag you redeploy with no gear, and the first thirty seconds after landing are the most vulnerable moment of the whole match. Land away from the action, grab anything you can and only then head back to your teammates.
The circle, gas and rotations
The safe zone shrinks in regular waves, and anyone left outside takes damage that increases with every collapse. Early on you can survive in the gas for a while; at the end of the match it kills you almost instantly. Three things that matter more than your aim:
- Rotate before you have to. Whoever moves at the last moment runs across open ground together with everyone else. Whoever arrives early gets to choose where they shoot from.
- Don’t chase the center. The goal isn’t to reach the middle of the circle but to have a building, a hill or at least a low wall inside it.
- Expect opponents coming out of the gas. On the edge of the zone with your back to the gas, one side is taken care of; in the middle of open ground you have to watch all of them.
Cash and Buy Stations
Cash is the real currency here, and Buy Stations are the only place you can spend it. They’re marked on the map and offer plates, teammate redeploys, self-revive kits and killstreaks.
The priority for a beginner is simple. First, buy back fallen teammates. You pay for each one separately, and a squad of four has an incomparably better chance than a squad of two. Then a self-revive kit, because going down alone in open terrain otherwise means the end. And don’t save up for the most expensive item: your cash isn’t passed on when you die.
Loadout Drop: your own gear in the match
Before a match you build your own sets of weapons and perks in the menu. In the game you get them through a Loadout Drop, a crate that delivers the whole set straight onto the map. Two things are worth knowing before you run for it:
- The crate is a magnet. Half the lobby can see the smoke above it. Don’t grab it from open ground; wait and approach it from cover.
- A gun in your hands beats a dream gun in a crate halfway across the map. A beginner only needs an assault rifle for mid-range and something fast for close quarters; fine-tuning your loadout only makes sense once your deaths aren’t caused by positioning.
Squad and pings: you don’t have to talk
Warzone has a ping system that replaces half of all communication. A single tap marks the location, item or enemy you’re aiming at, and it stays marked for the whole squad as long as you can see it. A double tap adds an enemy ping in a different color, and when you lose sight of the enemy, their last known position stays marked.
The official advice is to use pings in moderation: whoever pings everything stops being taken seriously by the squad exactly when something is at stake. And with random teammates, a pinged spot where you want to rotate does more than ten sentences into the mic.
The most common beginner mistakes
- A fight you don’t have to take. Without an advantage in position, numbers or who spotted whom first, there’s no shame in walking away. The winner is whoever stayed alive, not whoever had the most kills.
- Sitting around without plates. Replate after every firefight, even if you think you have time. You usually don’t.
- Shooting without a suppressor. It gives you away on your opponents’ minimap faster than you can reload.
- Running around with no goal. Take a contract. At least you’ll know where you’re going, and so will your squad.
- Arguing after you die. Say where you died and where they came at you from. Breaking down what a teammate should have done differently has never helped anyone.
And don’t measure your progress by kill count. Watch which phase of the match you die in. When you move from the first minute into the last third, you’re improving.
FAQ
On the edge of a big town or at a separate group of buildings nearby. You’ll find enough gear there, but you won’t land right in the middle of four squads. And drop as a whole squad in one spot.
Don’t run into the middle, listen for footsteps for the first few seconds and let your opponent come to you. The arena is small, and sound gives away a position before sightlines do. Grenades bounce back off the walls.
Buying back fallen teammates. You buy it at a Buy Station for each one separately, and a full squad is the biggest advantage money can buy. Second is a self-revive kit. Cash doesn’t carry over after death, so spend as you go.
No. The ping system handles most communication: a single tap marks an item, location or opponent, a double tap adds an enemy ping. Use it in moderation, otherwise your squad will stop paying attention to your pings.
Only if you can reach it from cover. Lots of players can see the smoke above the crate, and it’s one of the most common places to die. The gun you’re holding is enough to start with.
Information verified as of 3 September 2026. Before you start working on tactics, sort out your audio: the game settings have a bigger effect on where you hear footsteps from than your aim does. What costs money in the game is covered in our article on whether Call of Duty: Warzone is free, and where to find a squad to play with, in our community guide. The rest of the guides are in the Warzone section.