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How to level up weapons fast in Warzone 2.0

Joseph Yaden
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In Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, you’re only as good as the weapon you’re carrying. Much like its predecessor, how well you perform is tied to the attachments on your weapon, which are earned by gaining XP. In this installment, leveling up weapons can feel like a grind, meaning you’ll need to find an effective method to farm XP. Thankfully, there are several useful methods for earning weapon XP, allowing you to earn all attachments quickly.

Here’s how to level up your weapons fast in Warzone 2.0.

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Complete Safecracker contracts

Map of Safecracker contract on map in Modern Warfare II.

Safecracker contracts are similar to Scavengers from the original Warzone, wherein you must visit three locations to collect loot. In this entry, instead of opening chests, you must blow up safes using C4, but the premise remains the same. The nice thing about this method is that it’s usually a safe (pun very much intended) way of gathering XP. The thing is — the contracts seem to offer a stacking multiplier, meaning you get more XP for each additional contract you complete. It’s unclear if this is working as intended, so we should be under the assumption that it’s a bug that will get patched. Complete as many of these Safecracker contracts as possible to rack up a ton of XP and cash.

Purchase items from the Buy Station

Speaking of cash, another nifty Warzone 2.0 feature is that you gain weapon XP for purchasing items in the store. So, if you combine that with the previous method of completing Safecracker contracts to gain cash (and XP, of course), you’ll have enough money to buy plenty of items from the store. The most effective way to spend your cash is to buy Armor Plates, as they’re an unlimited resource and only cost $400. So if you’ve completed multiple Safecracker contracts while also picking up cash along the way, you should have enough funds to buy lots of Armor Plates. The more you buy, the more Weapon XP you’ll earn, so keep that in mind.

Play Shoothouse in Modern Warfare II

The Shoothouse map in Modern Warfare II.

Both of the aforementioned methods require you to be familiar with Warzone 2.0, which can be offputting, especially to newcomers. If you’d like to get a sense of how movement and gunplay work, it’s best to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, as it shares an engine with Warzone 2.0 — specifically, the new Shoothouse playlist, which is a smaller map. This makes it easier to get into a lot of engagements, with the potential to rack up a lot of kills each match. Of course, the more eliminations you earn, the more XP you’ll get. The caveat is that Modern Warfare II isn’t free, so if you don’t want to spend money, you’ll want to skip this method.

Play DMZ

DMZ art with characters walking.

Finally, you can jump into DMZ to earn weapon XP in an efficient way by taking out AI and completing mission objectives. This isn’t the fastest way to earn XP, but it can be more consistent than playing battle royale, especially if you’re a new player. Dipping your toes in DMZ is an effective way to learn the ropes, and the XP you earn is enough to warrant giving this mode a try. Just be sure you don’t lose the weapon you’re attempting to level up.

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Following several leaks throughout March, Valve announced Counter-Strike 2 today and released three videos highlighting some of the new features that build upon the gameplay that still looks very much like Counter-Strike should. First, smoke grenades have been overhauled to be more dynamic. Smoke will interact and change shape depending on the environment around it, and all players see the smoke in the same position. Valve has also adjusted the tick rate of the game, so Counter-Strike 2 will more accurately respond to how players move and shoot. Players will also be able to bring over their entire Global Offensive inventory into Counter-Strike 2.
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We first caught wind of Counter-Strike 2's existence earlier this month when a Game Profile for it showed up in the code of an Nvidia Driver update. This was followed up by a report from Richard Lewis, who teased an impending announcement and the confirmed tick rate changes. Now, we know this massive Global Offensive upgrade is real and are waiting to play it. Limited Tests will be held before the game's release, but Valve will choose who gets to try the game early and will send an invite to those players in-game in Global Offensive. 
Counter-Strike 2 will be released for PC this summer. 

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