Call Of Duty: Warzone's Iron Trials Mode Is Returning--Here's What You Need To Know

Iron Trials returns to Call of Duty: Warzone on March 3, which serves as the battle royale's "hard mode" for the game's most competitive players. This mode drastically changes the feel of Warzone with faster circle collapses, increased player health, changes to equipment, and more. Here we highlight everything you need to know about Warzone's Iron Trials.

Iron Trials is a mode that was previously introduced on the Black Ops Cold War version of the Verdansk map as Iron Trials '84, but this time the experience is being made available on Warzone's smaller Rebirth Island map in a duos playlist.

At its core, Iron Trials is still a battle royale experience built around fighting to be the last team standing, with circle collapses, looting, and unfortunate trips to the Gulag. However, the Iron Trials ruleset tweaks Warzone's standard battle royale formula to provide a much more grueling experience. The ruleset will be similar to the past iteration of the mode, but some adjustments were made for Iron Trials to better fit the smaller and quicker-paced Rebirth Island map.

Health and pace changes

One of the most notable differences in Iron Trials resides in player health. Players' base health is bumped up from the normal 100 health to 250 base health. While this sounds like a drastic change, the health regen delay timer is increased from five to seven seconds, and the regen per second rate is decreased from 120 per second to 40. So, players have a lot of health in this mode, but they won't regenerate quickly if they're taking damage in a fight.

Matches are also much faster in Iron Trials. The match duration and circle collapses are adjusted with round timers being decreased, while the speed of the circle collapse is increased. Transportation is also scarce in Iron Trials, as ATVs will be the only vehicles on the island.

Weapon and equipment changes

All players will drop into matches with Vanguard's Top Break pistol and Sawtooth melee weapon equipped, so everyone starts on an equal playing field. Additionally, there are significant changes to sniper rifles in Iron Trials, as a single headshot from a sniper will only down an enemy if they are within 30 meters.

For equipment changes, stun grenades have less of an impact in the mode, as the stun effect duration is decreased by 50%. Medical syringes are also nerfed with a decreased regeneration rate of 50%, which is a change that is likely made to keep players from relying on syringes to compensate for the mode's decrease to players' health regen rate.

Ground loot changes

Ground loot is also a bit different in Iron Trials, which includes the floor loot and items scavenged from supply boxes. Common weapons start with one attachment, while epic and legendary rarity weapons with more attachments will have a decreased spawn rate. You'll likely notice less ground loot in general, as the drop rate of killstreaks and large cash piles are both reduced here.

No freebies

Iron Trials removes Warzone's free loadout drops. The only way to equip custom loadouts in Rebirth Iron Trials will be to purchase a loadout drop, and this feature comes with a price increase to $10,000.

Buy Station inflation

In addition to the rise in price of the loadout drops, everything else made available for purchase from Buy Stations has a price increase for Iron Trials as well. On the bright side, the amount of money retained on death has been increased from 20% to 30%, so players will get to keep more of their hard-earned cash.

The Buy Station price increases:

• Armor Bundle: $1,500 to $2,000
• Gas Mask: $3,000 to $4,000
• Cluster Strike: $3,000 to $4,000
• Precision Strike: $3,500 to $4,500
• Self-Revive: $4,000 to $5,000
• UAV: $4,000 to $6,000
• Loadout Drop Marker: $7,500 to $10,000
• Specialist Token: $30,000

New Gulag rules

Iron Trials still has a Gulag, but the 1v1 arena does limit the weapon pool for the mode. To keep things in line with Iron Trial's more skillful fashion, weapons won't include anything akimbo, nor any semi-auto or fully auto shotguns. Players can also expect a limited selection of tactical equipment. Additionally, players who survive their Gulag match will redeploy with whatever weapon they were given and equipment left over from that fight.

Overall, Iron Trials really does bring an entirely new feel to Warzone, and everyone should give the mode a try to see if it's right for them. Just like Iron Trials '84, Rebirth Iron Trials will award players with a unique and animated calling card for winning a match. A calling card doesn't sound like much, but it might be worth the bragging rights for being victorious in Warzone's most grueling mode.