While there’s a lot of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Blackout info already out thanks to Game Informer’s cover story on the mode, we’re not done yet — not by a long shot.

Over on Reddit, user AtalyxianBoi, summarized the info from the October issue! We now know that Black Ops 4 battle royale emotes aren’t implemented yet, players will be able to carry two primary weapons, the map takes about five minutes to sprint from the farthest point to the opposite side and more!

• Blackout beta is running on 80 players, however internal testing has gone above 100.
• It has Solo, Duos and 4 person Squads. Friendly fire is on with team modes.
• 20 confirmed “heroes” are available to select with more to be released. They are characters from campaigns, zombie modes as well as new ones made for BLOPS4. All heroes are cosmetic only, all players start with nothing. More heroes are unlocked via playing and is the backbone of the Blackout progression.
• Everyone starts in helicopters in a random flight path from which you can drop into the map.
• Nuke town is set on an island.
• You launch from the helicopter and use a wing suit to move around while dropping, player speeds are very fast, an automatic parachute opens before hitting the ground. You can deploy your wingsuit at any time from height.
• To unlock new heroes you must do specific missions while in a match. One example is for Battery, you must find her grenadelauncher, get kills with it and finish in the top 15 players. Iconic characters include Reznov, Mason and Woods and need multiple missions to unlock. There is no customization on characters in Blackout.
• At Nuketown Island there is a board that shows the players on the island, it is a high loot level area. All named areas contain the best loot.
• Dynamic elements such as opening garage doors are included in houses, warehouses, factories etc.
• Abilities from multiplayer are also drops on the map you must collect to use (one example is the throwing hatchet ability). If no weapons are held you use melee.
• Emotes are not in the game but are being worked on.
• The map size takes about 5 minutes to sprint from the furthest point to the opposite side.
• Vehicles include: ATV (1 pilot, 1 passenger) Focused on speed, has a horn, only passenger can shoot. Cargo Truck (1 pilot, 4 passengers) Able to hold loot inside it as well as passengers, players can prone or crouch in the back. Little Bird Helicopter (1 pilot, 2 passengers) Has guns equipped but has low health. Zodiac (1 pilot, 3 passengers) Boat used for water travel, mainly used for the large river that runs through the entire middle of the map.
• Vehicles are not rare to find, helicopters spawn at designated helipads at locations such as Estate. There is also a basketball court you can shoot hoops at, however the basketball uses a primary weapon slot. The map has many of these “fun” locations.
• Weapons are plentiful however the focus is mainly on upgrading gear with attachments and better armor and abilities.
• 2 weapon slots to carry whatever you want. There are 8 ammo types. Anything you pick up is auto equipped, including attachments, however you can change in the menu as well.
• Weapon chests are in the map containing rare Golden Guns which have specialized attachments on them. Locations are set, not random, but may not spawn every game.
• The game space closes via a circle, it destroys items outside of the zone, it will cause malfunctions in vehicles if you are outside the zone potentially crashing and killing anyone in a helicopter. The circle will always entirely close leaving no end space if the final players dont kill each other. Players outside the later circles will have hallucinations both visual and audio based.
• Blackout has it’s own set of perks and abilities that are not in any other modes. List of confirmed ones include: Paranoia(Audio signal when targetted by another player) Skulker(Move faster when prone/crouched) Stimulant(Increase max HP by 100) Outlander(Decreased damage from circle, increased speed when taking circle damage) Looter(reveal nearby items and caches) Iron Lungs(more time when ADS on sniper or diving underwater) Consumer(decrease time to use items, heal or revive team by 20%)
• Perks are consumable, not permanent, provided timed buffs. Consumable items include the grapple, cluster nades and sensor shot.
• One consumable is a controllable recon robot that you can use to scout areas.
• Mode runs at 60fps on PS4 Pro.
• You can shoot sensor darts on vehicles for mobile surveillance.
• Confirmed named areas include: Nuketown Island, lots of gear in underground bunkers. Signboard tells however players are in the area.

Estates, locale with a helipad and basketball court.

Construction Site, unfinished skyscraper with lots of loot and base jumping heights.

Array, satellite dish with few places of elevation.

Firing Range, small hotspot centered around lots of action.

Hydro Dam, large dam blocking the end of the maps central river. Able to base jump from this height.

Asylum, contains AI zombies and zombie caches.

Cargo Docks, elevated area, a giant ship and crane arm to play on. One Zodiac boat spawn.

Factory, indoor outdoor fights with a rooftop.

Fracking Tower, tower inside a pit, lots of exposure to people on the surrounding hills.

River town, lots of buildings, surrounded entirely by water.

• Zombie spawns are marked by a ray of light hitting the map in the area. 2 spawn locations are active at once. Locations are not shown in the map.
• Zombie hordes are less than in zombie modes, use up ammo and reveal your position if you fire on them, however they drop loot and a zombie supply stash spawns with each active horde. Caches contain rare items like Raygun, monkey bombs and the Zweihander.
• Health starts at 150, bandages can be found to heal, trauma kits and rare medkits exist also. Health items are not hard to find and there is no cap like in other games for the amount you can heal (basic bandages can heal to full, rather than 75 ala PUBG)
• Water has currents which push against you while swimming, making boats useful for navigating the river and water areas.
• Backpacks can be found, only one size exists currently, for more inventory space.
• Bullet drop exists in Blackout, weapon damage has also tweaked from normal MP, increasing the TTK.
• Blackout has 3 tiers of HP items and Armor. 8 primary ammo types. 12 equipment items. 17 consumable perks. 24 weapons. 125 items. Numbers due to change at release.
• Items like the grapple gun require pieces to ‘craft’ the item.
• More characters, weapons, items and vehicles to be released as time goes on.

Other Black Ops 4 Blackout news that was released this week include the complete vehicle list, our first look at the Blackout map in its entirety, and confirmation that cross-platform play won’t be enabled.

Don’t forget the Black Ops 4 Blackout beta is kicking off next week, and you can check the exact time and date right here.

We already know that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s battle royale mode, Blackout, will be able to accommodate a maximum of 80 players in a match, and we already know that Nuketown will be part of the battle royale map, and now, we know what vehicles we’ll be able to drive and what they can do.

As part of Game Informer’s cover story on Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Blackout (October issue), we now have a complete list of all the Black Ops 4 battle royale vehicles, and a brief overview of how they act on the battlefield!

Land:

• Cargo Truck (holds one driver, four passengers) – Beyond acting as a moving platform for you and your buds, the cargo truck also lives up to its name and is useful for carting around loot to bypass individual inventory limits.
• ATV (one driver, one passenger) – The ATVs are, unsurprisingly, the easiest and smoothest rides on the map, though the tradeoff is that they’re also the most vulnerable. All it takes is a well-placed shot with a sniper rifle to end your off-roading spree, so keep that in mind as you roll about.

Sea:

• Zodiac Inflatable Boat (one pilot, three passengers) – The Zodiac is mostly useful as a getaway vehicle for when the circle starts to close.

Air:

• Little Bird Helicopter (one pilot, four passengers) – The Little Bird is a small helicopter capable of carrying you and your squad around the map; as you’re piloting the helicopter, your squadmates can fire on foes, transforming the vehicle into vicious death machine that rains lead from above.

Regarding where these vehicles spawn, Treyarch claims they’re in locations that “make sense.” The studio also notes that choosing not to play with vehicles is often a good strategy given you become a moving target, and you make a lot of noise.

You can read up on the vehicles and what they’re capable of, right here.

In other Black Ops 4 battle royale news, check out the complete map overview right here. Don’t forget, zombies will be part of the Black Ops 4 battle royale experience, too.

While we’ve been getting a lot of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Blackout info the past few days thanks to Game Informer’s massive cover story on the mode, we now have one of the most important parts of the mode revealed by Activision themselves!

The official Call of Duty Twitter account revealed the Black Ops 4 battle royale map in its entirety! It includes Nuketown Island as we’ve previously reported, and a whole lot more.

I have to admit, seeing a map as big as this in a Call of Duty game makes me a little excited at the possibilities. Checking the Black Ops 4 battle royale map, have you decided where you’ll want to drop onto?

In other Black Ops 4 Blackout news, Treyarch has confirmed that AI-controlled zombies will be part of the mode to keep things fresh. The studio has also revealed that each Blackout match will have a player cap of 80 per match.

While we already know that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s battle royale mode, Blackout, will have a limit of 80 players in a match (at least at launch), we now know that Nuketown will be back!

Called “Nuketown Island,” the Black Ops 4 Nuketown version seems to have been hit with an actual nuke since it’s all burnt up and whatnot. We get our first look of it thanks to Black Ops 4 Blackout being the cover story for Game Informer’s October issue! Check out the image below (via Reddit’s SHAMERUNNER):

In case you’re curious how the Black Ops 4 Nuketown version compares to the previous ones Treyarch released before, here’s a “Before and After” look at Nuketown (via Reddit user  bxttxr_off_dxad)

It’s no surprise that Treyarch’s trademark map is coming back for Black Ops 4, but would you have guessed it’d look like that?

In other Black Ops 4 news, Treyarch has confirmed that cross-platform play won’t be happening, and Headquarters mode will not be back for Black Ops 4. The studio has also confirmed that AI-controlled zombies will be in Blackout to add a little spice to the gameplay.

As part of Game Informer’s big October issue Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Blackout blowout, Treyarch Design Director David Vonderhaar sat down and answered a series of rapid fire questions — 195 questions to be exact!

You can watch the video or if you’d rather digest it by reading, Reddit user nmwood98 laid it out in an easy-to-read bulletpoint form! Black Ops 4 cross platform play has been shut down! Not only that, but don’t expect Call of Duty: WWII’s Headquarters mode to return as well.

• Player count of 80, testing up to 115 (Vahn says “with any luck”)
• 3arc Testing Blackout Split screen
• Blackout is NOT a simulation
• Blackout possibly takes place in Nor. Cal
• Not ruling out characters outside of 3arc games for Blackout, but will contain characters from past 3arc games
• LTM events to use/unlock certain content (characters?)
• Multiple types of Armor
• No clothing/cosmetic loot
• No variant rarity (Vahn says it’s too confusing for the rest of the game)
• Mission for characters and mission progression unlocks new content
• Items can be traded between players (at least within squads)
• Items can be taken when looting a dead player, allowing the loot-holder to continue the quest/s
• Zombies spawn at at least four locations “look for the ray of light”
• Circle can close in on pack of zombies
• Blackout indirectly affects other game modes
• Helicopters spawn at Helipad or similar locations (Not always marked with a H, i.e. can be a dirt patch)
• Cap of 10-20 of loot items onto vehicles
• Players can carry two primary weapons
• Some type of victory quote when Blackout is won
• No other AI enemies, possibly in the future
• No third person, 3arc make “first person shooters and put them on the internet”
• James Harden may have inadverently disclosed BO4 was upcoming title when wore a hat with the logo in May 2018
• Game tuning, item tuning, progression rates etc being worked on
• No information on Blackout will be available as a standalone title
• Final circle is largely random on map but can sometimes be “directed”, not too much on water, usually on construction sites for examples
• Vahn says Camping playstyles will not win games
• Players can find Ruin’s grappling hook on the map and use this
• New characters confirmed, your own icon
• Fall damage confirmed
• Vehicle horns can be honked
• No different weather, can see in good weather conditions but may change as Blackout progresses
• Firing Range and Nuketown Island confirmed (surrounded by water)
• Nuketown Island has mannequins
• Little Bird is a small helicopter in Blackout (no big helicopter named Big Bird – copyright issues)
• Possible, planned Blackout emotes – Melee weapons in Blackout
• involves Zombies
• When Vahn is asked about Zombie lore/fans “Nova gas symbology, circle outside (???)”
• Raven are making a game with 3arc
• Vahn is a fan of SHG’s Prop Hunt, expect to see this in MP
• No HQ in BO4
• Vehicles (5 confirmed)
• boat, 2 cars, little bird
• Vahn wanted wingsuit during introduction to BO4 but opted for parachuting
• No voiced lines/dialogue between characters in BO4
• At least one Mason in Blackout
• Lots of requests to play as Zombies (no information on whether this is possible, ruled out JFK, Kimmel)
• No cross platform play
• 20 characters to choose from at Blackout launch, possibly 22
• Beta will try to include all characters available at launch
• Introduction to characters at compact, small
• Possible relationships between specialists
• Difficult to run at 60 fps at Blackout size, but 60 fps is a consistent target and can be hit
• No FPS lock – Circle of Nova Gas possibly, but being caught outside circle is bad news
• No free run in Blackout, but there are references to this in Blackout

Also revealed today via Game Informer’s cover issue blowout are the confirmation of zombies being part of Black Ops 4’s battle royale mode, which will be capped at 80 players in a match at least for launch.

While Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s battle royale mode will only let 80 players in any given match — at least at launch, developer Treyarch has something up its sleeve in order to make sure that its version of the mode will stand above the rest.

In case the headline wasn’t a dead (geddit?) giveaway, Treyarch has confirmed that the Black Ops 4 Blackout mode will have AI-controller zombies! This was revealed to Game Informer today, as the magazine has announced that Black Ops 4 is the cover game for October. According to the mag, they’ll break down how the zombies figure in Blackout, and “how they can be both a pest and a boon to your efforts to be the best warrior in the battlefield.”

In other Black Ops 4 Blackout news, make sure to check out this post to know the exact date and time when the Blackout beta will be available. If you played the multiplayer beta, don’t forget to NOT delete the beta client, as it’ll be used for the Blackout beta as well.

Are you OK with the inclusion of zombies? Or will it just add a layer of randomness to Black Ops 4’s battle royale mode? Let us know what you think below.

While most battle royale games have a player limit count of 100 players in a match, that won’t be the case with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s battle royale mode, Blackout.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is Game Informer’s October cover game, and with that comes a month-long look at the game’s Blackout mode. Talking to Treyarch co-studio head Dan Bunting and Studio Design Director David Vonderhaar, the duo revealed that the Black Ops 4 battle royale player count will be at 80 — at least during the beta. Things could change come launch or even post-launch, and even Bunting admitted that the studio has tested 100 players internally, though they’re putting the quality of the gameplay first rather than hitting that 100-player number just for the sake of it.

What’s really more important to us than a number is that the gameplay experience is as refined as it can be, that’s it the ideal perfect format for what players are going to play.  So we’re starting with 80 players, but we’ve gone higher than that. Whenever we launch a game as a beta or whatever, that’s the beginning of something. We’re going to actively be participating in the community and taking feedback, making changes and adapting, evolving the game as feedback rolls in. So there’s a lot that can go on that can happen beyond that first impact of the game going out there. – Dan Bunting

Surprised at this revelation? Disappointed? Personally, I’d rather have a seamless, enjoyable experience than be concerned about the player count in matches, but that might just be me.

In related news, make sure to read up on the exact times the Black Ops 4 Blackout beta will roll out and start.