Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is bringing the beloved franchise back after its 4-year hiatus, aiming to take the iconic series to the heights of its origins. While the launch of CoD: BO6 is off to a rough start thanks to some technical difficulties, the engaging campaign and satisfying multiplayer gameplay have still been shining through for players. While it remains to be seen if this year's entry into the monolithic Call of Duty franchise will hold up to the test of time, CoD: BO6's revitalized progression systems are a great start in the right direction.

One of the best ways the franchise takes inspiration from its roots while simultaneously improving it is by bringing back the classic Prestige formula, last seen back in 2018 with CoD Black Ops 4. While recent entries in the franchise have had their fair amount of success, most notably with the CoD: Modern Warfare reboots, one area of complaint was the new prestige system. While allowing players to keep all their weapons each time their prestige is great on paper, it removes much of the multiplayer's replayability, while not encouraging players to try new weapon builds.

Understanding The New Player Progression Framework

Getting Players Up To Speed With BO6's New Leveling System

While the new system has some significant changes, fans of the CoD franchise will still be familiar with the overall style of progression. Earning XP from killing enemies, completing objectives, or finishing challenges, players will progress from a level 1 private to a commander level 55 to prestige. Throughout this progression, players will unlock a wide variety of the weapons in the game, alongside eight base operators and plenty of customization options that can be used in each of the game's modes.

Taking note from previous CoD zombie entries, the game mode will have its very own separate leveling system, with some customization options carrying over from each mode. For zombie progression, every Gobblegum will be available from the very start at level 1, with each additional level up to 55 providing one-time use items, ensuring everyone is on a similar playing field with more of a skill-based focus.

One of the best features of this newly reworked progression system is that it has full cross-compatibility , allowing players to pick up the game on any device while still using the same .

New Unlocks And Rewards

Meaningful Incentives With Long-lasting Rewards

CoD: BO6's newest Camo system takes the best aspects from previous entries to give players more incentive to fully upgrade weapons through engaging challenges, being much less tedious and time-consuming, with some players completing Camo unlocks within hours of release. The first skins players will unlock per weapon are standard Military Camos with milestones for each game mode, with headshots in multiplayer, critical kills on zombies, and standard eliminations in Warzone.

More incentive to fully upgrade weapons through engaging challenges, being much less tedious and time-consuming.

For the next step, players need to complete specific challenges for each weapon to get the two unique Special Camos, which can be applied universally to every weapon with the Military Camos finished.

• Military Camos (9) - Unlocked per weapon from progressive milestones
• Special Camos (2) - Unlocked per weapon from challenges, usable on any weapon
• Mastery Camos (4x3) - Unlocked per weapon/game mode from challenges and universal milestones

The final and most satisfying coveted Camos is the Mastery class, where players will need to unlock special missions or have all the Camos for other weapons in the game to acquire them. For the Master Camos, each mode will have separate requirements with four unique Camos to unlock for each, providing rewards that match the varied gameplay themes. Aside from the unlockable Camos, players can also earn unique calling cards like in previous entries, with over 450 to collect at release.

Revitalizing The Prestige System

The Fan Favorite System Back To Its Former Glory in BO6

The prestige system has had plenty of changes and reiterations over the years, with CoD: BO6 taking it back to the roots of the series, while still learning from more recent entries. Bringing back the unlock-wiping prestige system from the older Call of Duty titles, players will once again be forced to try new play styles while they work their way up through the ranks from level 1 each time they prestige.

For players wanting to grind through the prestige status to unlock their exclusive rewards, they'll likely want to utilize some of the most powerful weapons in Black Ops 6.

While weapons and equipment unlocks are reset upon activating prestige, skin progression, challenges, operators, and emotes will not be lost during the process.

While many of the best or more exciting weapons in Black Ops 6 are locked at higher levels, each prestige will grant players a token they can spend to permanently unlock any item. While this addition is expected within the prestige system, it's a standard that helps motivate players to continue down the prestige path, without starting entirely from scratch each time. Players will unlock a total of 10 prestige tokens each time they move up a tier, with the final 10th prestige permanently unlocking every item in the game, making it pointless to hoard for long periods.

The prestige rewards are also more varied this time around, granting instant rewards for players while unlocking new challenge quests, which provide even more customization options and XP boosts upon completion.

Seasonal Events And Community Challenges

Reasons To Keep Coming Back Thanks To Additional Content

Aside from the wide variety of unlockable content in the base game, the developers of Black Ops 6 plan to release plenty of content in the future, including some community challenges. While not every game in the franchise lasts as long as the rest in popularity, Black Ops 6 will follow the live service model to continually add content for years to come, giving players even more challenges to complete while they play.

On top of these continued updates, new seasons will be added which provide players with a wide variety of paid and free cosmetics, on top of permanent game-changing additions like new maps, operators, and game modes to experience.

With the more recent Call of Duty entries offering more varied and wild collaborations or limited events, Black Ops 6 is likely to follow suit in the near future, easing players into more exciting content to come. While it may be a while before it reaches the same imaginative state as the current Modern Warfare, the inclusion of Warzone's cross-progression will give players even more incentive to unlock additional cosmetics. For players who want to start grinding out all the varied challenges throughout the game, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is available right now on Xbox Game .

Source: Activision, Call of Duty/YouTube