Stay sharp, readers. Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War Season 3 is bringing knife-tossing, hatchet-dodging gamemode Sticks and Stones to the series’ latest entry.
A Black Ops staple since Treyarch’s 2010 original, Sticks and Stones is a razor-sharp free-for-all that gives each player a pointed trio of weapons: an R1 Shadowhunter crossbow, a ballistic knife, and a tomahawk. Score a kill with the first two, and you’ll earn a point. Score a kill with the tomahawk, however, and you’ll reset their score to zero.
Every so often, a spy plane will sweep overhead and reveal everyone’s position, ensuring you can’t just lie in wait for an easy axe kill. The player in first will be marked with a gold dot during these reveals. If that’s you, you’ll probably want to keep your head down.
Season 3 of Black Ops – Cold War and Warzone kicked off this week. While Sticks and Stones is already available, the season’s second new mode, Multi-team eliminations, won’t arrive for another few weeks. Call of Duty’s battle royale saw bigger changes, nuking its old map to roll in the new—but resident Warzone experts Emma and Morgan reckon the explosive event was a total letdown.