Hot on the heels of confirming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has ditched the controversial loot boxes of old in favour of a battle pass, Activision has announced Modern Warfare also ditches the long-running Prestige progression system for a new seasonal Officer Ranks system.
As detailed in a post on the Activision blog, Modern Warfare sees players progress through Enlisted Ranks (1-55) to unlock base weapons, perks, equipment, Killstreaks and Field Upgrades. Here’s how it looks:
Once you complete all 55 Enlisted Ranks you do not Prestige. Rather, you transition to the new Officer Ranks progression system, starting at Officer Rank 1. Here’s how it works:
At the start of each season of content, you begin your season of Officer Ranks. As part of this, you get an Officer Challenge at each rank leading up to 5-Star General (rank 100). Completing each challenge rewards a ribbon. Earn 10 ribbons and you get an emblem. All 100 ribbons gets you a better emblem.
Then, at the end of a season, your Officer Rank is reset, but your Enlisted Rank is not. In this new Progression system, a player’s Enlisted Ranks of 1-55 are never reset and they will never have their functional items re-locked. This is markedly different than the influential Prestige system, which charges players with unlocking weapons and equipment again with each reset as part of a long-running grind.
In Modern Warfare, player XP is earned through playing the game, completing daily challenges, Officer Challenges, camo challenges and challenge missions, the latter of which are multi-step objectives that offer even more rewards upon completion.
Weapons have their own, separate progression system, too. They can be leveled up and gain experience, which unlocks attachments, weapon perks and camouflage that can be equipped though the Gunsmith.
When you earn enough XP to level up a weapon, you unlock a new attachment, a perk or a camo for that weapon. Each weapon has 50 attachments, on average, and over 100 earnable camo patterns. The weapons, then, offer a huge grind all on their own.
