Drop Zone

For similar gamemodes, see Grinder and Hardpoint.

Drop Zone, also known as New Shit as an April Fool's day joke, is a private match and core game mode in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified, and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.

It became a ranked online gamemode on the December 16th, 2011, and was the first gamemode in the Community Playlist. It was removed on February 5, 2012, when it was replaced by Infected. Due to negative community reaction to its removal, it was returned to the Community Playlist on February 7, 2012. As of the May 15, 2012 update, the only map Drop Zone has is Dome. However, due to another update all the maps have returned to Drop Zone. Drop Zone was also added to Call of Duty: Ghosts on March 28th, 2014 with the Onslaught map pack included in the rotation, and all the remaining DLC map packs on their respective release dates.

Gameplay

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3/Call of Duty: Ghosts

In Drop Zone, two teams must fight over a moving location on the map (marked with Care Package Marker smoke) to gain points. It differentiates itself from an ordinary King of the Hill gametype, however, with the addition of Care Packages as a reward for successfully holding on to the point. Approximately every 15 seconds a team holds a zone, a Care Package, an Airdrop Trap (in MW3), an Emergency Airdrop (notably NOT normally available under other circumstances), or a Juggernaut/Juggernaut Recon delivered via C-130 will be called automatically on the drop zone. To win, either one team must reach the score limit, or else the victor is determined by who has the most points when time is up.

Each team member within the drop zone area adds 20 points per second to his team's score; this is cumulative with other team members for a possible maximum of 120 points/second. The first team to 7500 points is the winner.

Each drop zone is marked by thick red smoke, making it somewhat difficult to distinguish targets inside or outside of the area without using the Marksman perk. Usage of grenades/explosives is quite heavy among players. Therefore, the perks Blast Shield and Ghosts' Tac Resist, the Trophy System, and even the Riot Shield can be useful in countering the explosives. The Thermal Scope is also useful as it will negate the smoke effect and obviously highlight any non-Assassin/Off The Grid users.

Players cannot earn killstreaks or specialist perks that are selected on their classes, but MOABs/KEM Strikes are still obtainable through normal gun/knife/equipment kills.

In some instances, the location of the next drop zone can be predicted. For instance, the second drop zone in Resistance will always be at the bottom of the steps. Additionally, the drop zones will always rotate in cycles and once every drop zone has appeared for one minute, it will ALWAYS revert back the first, center one. It is worth noting that different maps have varying numbers of drop zone locations. For example, Dome has five locations while Resistance has seven. The rotating locations in Terminal is always fixed in the same order, so it is strategic to shift locations in the last few seconds of the drop zone in order to take an early advantage.

In the case of Ghosts, the first location is always in the middle (except Fog), but the subsequent locations are completely randomized, sometimes returning to the center after a small number of new locations, other locations randomly picked more than other locations in some games.

Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified

In Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified, Drop Zone is much more like Hardpoint. Care Package drops are extremely rare, usually there being only one out of a whole match. The score limit is also different, being 5000, and there is no smoke at the Drop Zone locations when they are active.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

As with MW3 & Ghosts, two teams must fight over a moving location on the map (Hardpoint markers) to gain points. It differentiates itself from a similar game mode such as Hardpoint, however, with the addition of Drone Package as a reward for successfully holding on to the point. Approximately every 15 seconds a team holds a zone, a Drone Package will be called automatically on the drop zone. To win, either one team must reach the score limit, or else the victor is determined by who has the most points when time is up.

Each team member within the drop zone area adds 20 points per second to his team's score; this is cumulative with other team members for a possible maximum of 120 points/second. The first team to 750 points is the winner.

Each drop zone is marked by arrow markers, making it somewhat difficult to distinguish targets inside or outside of the area without using the Marksman perk. Usage of grenades/explosives is quite heavy among players. Therefore, the perks Blast Shield and Tac Resist, the Trophy System, and even Reactive Armor can be useful in countering the explosives.

Players cannot earn killstreaks or specialist perks that are selected on their classes, but De-Atomizer Strikes are still obtainable through kills with guns with the Nuclear gun perk.

In some instances, the location of the next drop zone can be predicted. Additionally, the drop zones will always rotate in cycles and once every drop zone has appeared for one minute, it will ALWAYS revert back the first, center one. It is worth noting that different maps have varying numbers of drop zone locations. The rotating locations in Terminal is always fixed in the same order, so it is strategic to shift locations in the last few seconds of the drop zone in order to take an early advantage.

It was first added into public match in the Featured playlist on 1/20/17.

Gallery

An example of a Drop Zone on the map, Mission.

Some Drop Zone gameplay on Carbon.

Infinite Warfare playlist icon.

Videos

Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Drop Zone Gameplay 29

Gameplay in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Call of Duty - Ghost - Drop Zone Gameplay(Xbox 360) HD

Gameplay in Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Trivia

General

• The starting location of the drop zone is always set, but the remaining drop zones are randomized in order between several predetermined positions, depending on the map.
• The Emergency Airdrop C-130 travels much slower than the Juggernaut C-130.

Call of Duty: Ghosts

• The Odin and Loki Satellites will never be in the reward crates because of their ability to drop further Care Packages outside the Drop Zone.
• Due to the way Care Packages are earned in Ghosts, they can be earned in Drop Zone in the normal way.