Master Verdansk with our Call of Duty: Warzone map guide

As soon as you dive into the CoD: Warzone map, you'll notice that Verdansk is, well, massive. It easily supports the player count of 150, but that also makes it hard to really get to know it. It's a lot to take in at first, but like any battle royale game, Verdansk has its hot zones and calmer areas.

But knowing the map is crucial if you want to even stand a chance of making it to the final circle, so we've prepared a guide to Warzone's best loot zones and gathered our best tips for navigating Verdansk, now updated for Season 5's open stadium and loot train. Without further ado, let's get some.

• CoD: MW season 5: Everything we know

Where's the best loot?

Finding the best loot in Call of Duty: Warzone is a bit different than most battle royale games. For the most part, you won't find much loot worth caring about lying about in buildings. Almost everything worth using is found in supply boxes that spit out random loot the moment you open them. Most buildings you come across will have at least one supply box and others will have a rarer, orange box that spits out better stuff.

Between the two supply box types, expect to find weapons (already outfitted with attachments), field upgrades, cash, and even the occasional killstreak. Rare orange boxes also have the habit of giving gas masks and armor satchels that let you hold more armor plates. So when looking for the best places to loot, it's more about quantity than quality. The more supply boxes you pilfer, the more chances you'll snag a rare weapon. According to Infinity Ward, the areas marked with orange circles on the map above have the highest loot density on the map.

The loot-filled areas are:

• Verdansk International Airport
• Karst River Quarry
• Verdansk Stadium (Now open)
• Gorengard Lumber Yard
• Downtown Tavorsk District
• Barakett Promenade East
• City of Verdansk Port
• Zordaya Prison Complex
• Verdansk Hospital
• BCH TV Station
• Storage Town
• Atlas Superstore
• Verdansk Train Station

Where are the hot zones?

Hot zones are where you can expect the most bloodshed to go down at the very beginning of the game. Whether you want avoid them so you can loot in peace or find somewhere to immediately bloody your hands, refer to the map above. The hot zones I've noticed are marked with red skulls. It's no coincidence that these locations also coincide with loot-rich spots.

In some ways, picking early fights in Warzone is more beneficial than in other battle royale games. Not only can you get a bigger cut of the location's loot, but killing players also lets you steal their cash. The more cash you can grab early, the faster you can access the most powerful tools of Warzone: killstreaks and loadouts.

Here's a list of the hot zones shown on the map above:

• Verdansk Stadium
• Verdansk International Airport
• Atlas Superstore
• Verdansk Hospital
• Downtown Tavorsk District
• Zordaya Prison Complex
• Karst River Quarry

Call of Duty: Warzone contracts, explained

Maintaining a constant flow of cash is important for Warzone, and completing contracts is one of the easiest ways to do so. Contracts are optional side tasks that players can take on during a match. Completing them awards a good chunk of cash, but completing more than one increases the multiplier of cash earned each time. They're always worth doing in the early-to-mid game, but become riskier as the circle shrinks. Here are the different types of contract:

Scavenger: Loot three supply boxes in sequence

Scavenger is the easiest of the three contract types, mostly because it places the least risk on your squad. It can also be the most bountiful, as all three supply boxes have a higher chance of dropping rare loot. Just be careful, because though unlikely, other squads may be after the same boxes.

Recon: Capture an objective site

Recon contracts are as easy as standing near a control point for around 20 seconds. The risk comes from the bright flare that hangs in the air above your location while capturing. This paints a target on your back that could attract other squads.

Bounty: Hunt down and kill the specified player

After Bounty's brief replacement by Most Wanted, the original contract type is back and unchanged. In Bounty contracts, squads are tasked with hunting down and killing a randomly selected enemy player within a time limit. The player marked for death knows they're being hunted and can tell how close their hunters are getting to their location.

Most Wanted: Put a bounty on your own head and mark your location for enemies. Survive for the designated time to earn cash.

Supply Run: Race to a Buy Station in the allotted time and earn a discount on any item in the store.

What is Plunder?

The flagship mode of Warzone is Battle Royale. It's more competitive, tactically interesting, and undoubtedly more difficult. But when you'd rather squad up and play something less severe, there's Plunder.

The rules to Plunder are pretty simple: drop anywhere on the map and start making money. The first squad to bank $1 million wins. Money is made in the same ways as in Battle Royale: killing players, completing contracts, and looting. But Plunder has a few extra twists thrown in. Players can respawn as much as needed, but they drop most of their cash upon death. The only way to secure your money toward the million-dollar goal is by depositing it via helicopter pickup or cash balloon.

Helicopter pickup
Throughout the map are helipads that can be used to summon a chopper that will deposit your money. Once it's deposited, that money can't be lost. The catch is that calling the chopper paints a target on your back to anyone in the surrounding area. You're not likely to deposit large sums in a busy area without putting up a fight.

Cash balloons
The Cash balloon is a field upgrade that can be purchased at a Buy Station for $30 thousand or found as a rare drop from a supply crate. Deploying the balloon allows you and your teammates to deposit up to $150 thousand before it floats off toward the atmosphere. Buying them is expensive, so you have to think carefully about when it's right to use a balloon or go for a chopper pickup.

Top earners
The other main twist of Plunder is the danger of being a top earner. The top three earning squads are all marked on the map (within a radius) to be hunted by anyone willing to put up a fight. Considering a match of Plunder doesn't end until somebody wins, you could spend the entire match being ruthlessly hunted by other squads.