Yesterday, Treyarch released details about the first season of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, and even details regarding the player and weapon progression. In today’s info drop, Treyach has blown the lid wide open on the game’s new Black Ops Cold War Prestige system!
Treyatch is going with a revamped Prestige system called Seasonal Prestige!
New Black Ops Cold War Prestige System:
SEASONAL PRESTIGE: OUR DEEPEST PROGRESSION YET
Starting on Day One in Black Ops Cold War, players will begin the traditional progression path from Military Rank 1 to 55 to unlock new weapons, Perks, Wildcards, Scorestreaks, Field Upgrades, equipment, and more… and that’s just the beginning. Beyond this point, your Seasonal Prestige journey begins at Season Level 1.
After completing Military Ranks at Level 55, you’ll enter the Seasonal Leveling progression path and automatically earn your first Prestige at Season Level 1, keeping all of the Create-a-Class content you’ve unlocked already. During the Pre-Season period between launch and the beginning of Season One, you’ll have the opportunity to reach up to three Prestiges, as well as a Weapon Blueprint at Season Level 50:
- Prestige 1 at Season Level 1
- Prestige 2 and Weapon Blueprint at Season Level 50
- Prestige 3 at Season Level 100
Then, starting with Season One in December, your level will reset with each new Season and your progress will resume from the highest Prestige you achieved in the previous Season. Each Season will offer four additional Prestiges to achieve across the first 200 levels, plus a new Weapon Blueprint to earn at level 50:
- New Prestige and Weapon Blueprint at Season Level 50
- New Prestige at Season Level 100
- New Prestige at Season Level 150
- New Prestige at Season Level 200
This means you can earn up to three Prestiges before Season One, and up to four Prestiges each Season after that for a total of 25+ Prestiges across all Seasons. You’ll always earn progress toward the Prestige that comes after your current one, and you’ll be able to catch up to the latest available Prestige if you didn’t reach it during the previous Season.
Treyarch has also detailed the new Prestige Master system as well. Players who reach the rank of Prestige Master will be able to change their icons.
If you reach level 200 in any Season, you’ll also achieve the title of Prestige Master for that Season. Your Prestige Level color will change to signify your Prestige Master status, and you’ll gain the ability to personalize your Prestige Icon with Legacy Prestige Icons from previous Call of Duty games that you’ve unlocked (more details on that below).
The journey doesn’t stop there if you want to keep climbing. Once you reach Prestige Master in a Season, you can continue to level up all the way to level 1000 every Season, with milestone rewards to earn at every 50 levels along the way.
With the Seasonal Prestige system, you’ll always have a single, continuous progression path across all Seasons, with more Prestige rewards to earn than ever before.
So, how does this compare to the traditional Prestige system in previous games? To summarize:
- 25+ Prestige Levels to conquer across all Seasons (including the period between launch and Season One), instead of only 10 Prestiges to earn.
- Six Prestige Master titles to earn by reaching level 200 in each Season, rather than only one opportunity throughout the entire game.
- 1000 levels to climb in each Season, for when Prestige Master isn’t enough of a challenge.
- Milestone rewards to earn at every 50 Season Levels.
- For the first time, keep all of your Create-a-Class content after you Prestige.
Lastly, there are Prestige Keys and Seasonal Challenges as well.
SEASON CHALLENGES
Also beginning in Season One, new Season Challenges will provide even more ways to earn rewards throughout each Season. These will offer two collections of 20 Calling Cards per Season in Black Ops Cold War (20 for Multiplayer and 20 for Zombies), with new Challenges ungated in both collections at every 10 levels up to level 200.
Once a Season Challenge is ungated, it may be progressed and completed to earn its related Calling Card. After a player earns all Calling Cards in a collection, they will receive an animated Season Master Calling Card as a reward. Collect ‘em all!
PRESTIGING IS KEY
In addition to unlocking unique Prestige Icons with each new Prestige Level, you’ll also earn Prestige Keys as milestone rewards at every 50 Season Levels. At the new Prestige Shop, you can use Prestige Keys to unlock Legacy Prestige Icons from previous games, which can be equipped if you’ve achieved the title of Prestige Master in that Season.
The Prestige Shop will become available in Season One for players who have entered Prestige and earned their first Prestige Key. Prestige Shop content can only be unlocked with Prestige Keys, which are earned by playing the game. Once you unlock the Prestige Shop, it will be available from that point on – and with 1000 levels available per Season, you can reach up to 20 milestones each Season.
It seems Treyarch has found a good compromise this time around with the Prestige system and how seasonal ranks work.