Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 introduces a new battle pass system

The season 01 battle pass of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will not follow the traditional linear structure to unlock items. 

In the Call of Duty blog post detailing information about the new season, Activision revealed that instead of the 100 tiers of linear unlocking that were done with previous iterations, the team is taking a new approach. Previously, players leveled up through tiers of the battle pass, starting at tier one when the battle pass is purchased and grinding through to unlock tier 100, which would be the end of the pass. 

Instead of that system, MW2 will have a multi-selector map. This will have players unlock items using earned battle token tier skips across this map, with each map having at least 20 sectors and five items in each sector. These battle pass tokens can be used to unlock adjacent sectors or earn more items within an already unlocked sector.

The idea behind this system, according to Infinity Ward and Activision, is to allow players to unlock certain parts of the battle pass at their own pace. This allows players to prioritize certain items over others and allows them to focus on items they actually want instead of having to grind their way through to unlock certain tiers. 

Players who purchased the Vault Edition of MW2 will receive the battle pass at no extra cost and will also receive 50 tier skips. These were labeled differently when the game was released to hide Infinity Ward’s intentions to create a new battle pass system, but these skips will act as the battle pass tokens when the season releases. This gives players who purchased the Vault Edition a head start on the items they want to unlock first.

Season 01 of MW2 starts on Nov. 16.