MW4 Warzone Beta: Resurgence and the New Zodiac Map

For the first time ever, Call of Duty Warzone is playable in an open beta. It lands in Weekend 2 of the Modern Warfare 4 beta, bringing Resurgence to a brand-new map called Zodiac. This is your first hands-on look at the new Warzone that will eventually take over from the current one. Here is what Zodiac is, how Resurgence plays on it, and when you can drop in.

Warzone in the MW4 beta: when and how

Call of Duty Warzone joins the Modern Warfare 4 beta in Weekend 2, August 28 to September 1, 2026. Every year until now, the first look at a new Warzone was locked behind Call of Duty NEXT, watched from home. This time you actually play it, as part of the Open Beta that is free and open to everyone on all platforms.

The new map: Zodiac

Zodiac is a brand-new Warzone Resurgence map set across the DRC Advanced Systems drone assembly and manufacturing headquarters. You fight through offices, manufacturing buildings, rooftops, tunnels, shipping areas, roads and the surrounding shoreline. It is a compact, fast Resurgence map (reported at 44 players), built by Beenox, and the reveal shows a train running through it as a tactical element.

According to the reveal, Zodiac carries ten points of interest: Admin, Solar, Old Mines, Dispatch, Trackline, R&D, Depot, Furnace, Sentinel and Cooling. One rooftop has been compared to the Factory area on Rebirth Island, so if you loved Rebirth's tight rooftop duels, Zodiac looks built for the same energy. It is a new map, though, not a Rebirth remake.

How Resurgence plays on Zodiac

Resurgence is the fast, respawn-friendly side of Warzone. You drop as a squad, and as long as one teammate is alive you keep redeploying back in. In the beta you deploy with a default loadout tailored to Warzone, eliminate enemies and complete Contracts to shorten your squad's redeploy timer, and outlast every other squad to win. It is quicker and more aggressive than the big Battle Royale, which makes it a perfect fit for a beta weekend.

Your first look at the new Warzone

This Zodiac beta is the first playable slice of the new Warzone, the one built on Modern Warfare 4. If it follows the last few years, the current Warzone keeps running for a while after the MW4 launch on October 23, and the full new Warzone with its map and integration rolls out a few weeks later, in recent years around the end of the year. Nothing past this beta weekend is confirmed on that timing yet, so treat Zodiac as an early taste, not the finished new Warzone.

Get ready for Warzone on Zodiac

A single weekend is not long, whether you are new to Resurgence or coming across from the current Warzone. Dial in your best MW4 settings first, line up loadouts with our best MW4 loadouts and classes, and check everything else new in MW4 Open Beta Weekend 2. For the grind, our Warzone bot lobbies guide and Warzone weapon leveling get you match-ready fast.

Warzone and Zodiac details: Activision / Call of Duty, via the official Call of Duty Blog. Additional map intel via Dot Esports and GameSpot.