Call of Duty: Vanguard Season 3 roadmap revealed

The overarching theme this season is Classified Arms, with a focus on experimental and clandestine weaponry that bring unexpected innovations to the battlefield. Running alongside this more grounded overarching theme is a crossover event that throws all realism to the wind and brings in legendary monsters Godzilla and King Kong to wreak havoc, and lend their appearance to various in-game cosmetics. Weapons & Operators New weapons coming in Season 3 include the M1916 marksman rifle and the Nikita AVT assault rifle dropping right at launch, with the H4 Blixen SMG and the Junkyard Jet Sledgehammer melee weapon coming later on in the season as part of Battle Pass progression. Carrying the development studio's name, the Sledgehammer in particular seems to be an exciting addition to the current arsenal available.

New armament aren't the only additions to your loadout hitting the game with season 3, as the arms carrying them - plus the humans they're attached to - are also getting some fresh faces. A new selection of operators hailing from S.O.T.F. 008 are joining the battle, so get ready to grind out cosmetics for three new characters.

Mateo Hernandez, Florence Carter, and Kim Tae Young are part of this new task force, bringing piloting skills, gunnery experience and psychological warfare tactics to any match you play. Mateo joins the fray right out the door, with the other two newcomers waiting for later on in the season to drop in. Maps Joining Vanguard in season 3 are a pair of maps, each geared towards one of the season's big themes respectively. Mayhem is dropping first, with Sphere joining the lineup later on in the season.

Mayhem is a microscale movie set where your operators will fight through a downsized cityscape as if they were giants stomping through a metropolis. Paired with the Godzilla and King Kong cosmetic items, this is the perfect stage for you to recreate your favorite monster movie moments. Designed with close quarter combat in mind, much of the movie set is destructible and the roof of the warehouse has been opened up to allow aerial Killstreaks to be used.

Later in the season players will be able to take the fight to Sphere, another smaller, close-quarter map set in a secret weapons research facility disguised as a mine. Fulfilling the "Classified Arms" half of the seasonal themes, this map has all sorts of experimental contraptions spread through its claustrophobic areas. Zombies Zombies won't see a huge amount of focus in Season 3, but players can unlock the new weapons in this co-op mode as well, and bring over the new Operators. There will also be 20 new unique challenges to beat, pushing you further along your progression path towards a new Calling Card reward, and some previous Season 2 weapons will also be unlockable with new challenges.

Even though the undead horde mode is taking the backseat for now, Zombies fans need not worry - Treyarch has a lot of content cooking that will be ready to drop soon after the end of Classified Arms, so stay tuned for more info. Features Vanguard is getting a brand new Field Upgrade - well, brand new to this game at least. The Trophy System, available to all players immediately without any unlocking or Battle Pass progress needed, will neutralize incoming grenades and other thrown ordinance within its radius before you suffer any adverse effects.

Vanguard is also kicking off a new Ranked Season in Multiplayer as the same time as the launch of Season 3, so the toughest PvP players should get ready for the competition to heat up once again. Weapon Blueprints, Camos and other rewards await the hardiest warriors.

Season 3 kicks off on the 27th of April, this Wednesday.