Sledgehammer Games' next Call of Duty is going to be fantastic, but a lot of our focus is on Treyarch's next iteration of Call of Duty Zombies. Der Anfang is going to be groundbreaking and the new Altars of the Covenants upgrade system is going to change the way you play. Here's everything you need to know about what these mean and what you can get with your Sacrificial Hearts.
UPDATED - Launch Covenants upgrades revealed
Treyarch has revealed that the following eleven Covenants will be available in Der Anfang at launch, with enough upgrades to take this up to a total of 32 upgrades to acquire.
- Bloodlust - Melee attacks do more damage and heal you
- Resurrectionist - Revive allies faster
- Brain Rot - Chance to turn enemies to your side
- Cryfreeze - Chance to slow enemies
- Death Blow - Critical kills return bullets to the clip
- Ammo Gremlin - Stowed weapons refill ammo from the stock automatically
- Dead Accurate - Consecutive hits on the same enemy do more damage
- Splatterfest - Enemies killed by explosions may explode
- Unholy Ground - Deal more damage while stationary
- Cull the Weak - Deal more damage to slowed or stunned enemies
- Motherlode - Chance to keep equipment after using it
You can have three of these Covenants at any one time and you can earn them with a Sacrificial Heart, as explained below.
NEW UPGRADES - the Altar of the Covenants explained
" The Altar of Covenants is the main method for a player to truly define their gameplay build for that round."
Treyarch has explained that the Altar of the Covenants is found in Der Anfang's hub area - Stalingrad - and can be accessed with a Sacrificial Heart. You can get your hands on these Sacrificial Hearts by completing objectives in Vanguard Zombies and then offer them to the Altar of the Covenants for one of several random upgrades.
These upgrades include things like Ammo Gremlin - an ability that will reload holstered weapons - or Brain Rot - this is one we've heard before (it basically turns enemy zombies into friendly zombies).
As always with these things, the longer you stay alive and the further you progress, the better the upgrades from the Altar of the Covenants will be. Treyarch hopes that these will help players "lean into a specific playstyle" as they pick up new upgrades and abilities.
You can check all of this out in the video below:
From what we can tell, these are going to somewhat replace Perks in Vanguard Zombies - the Altar of the Covenants is going to offer a selection of upgrades that we've seen in the higher tiers of Cold War Zombies' Perk upgrades - for example, a chance to keep your equipment when you use it.
Call of Duty Vanguard - and Der Anfang, the first new Zombies experience - is due to release on November 5th. Expect a lot more to come from the Dark Aether storyline...