by
Cody Perez
in Call of Duty | Apr, 3rd 2021

Activision has released a new major update for Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, and it is a massive one. The new patch includes a ton of new content, like game modes and maps, but one of the most important additions is the new Black Ops Cold War Fireteam Hardpoint game mode. 

The Cold War midseason update is here and is the Reloaded patch, basically copying the first season in having a major second half of the season that drops in the middle. With this new midseason update comes a ton of new additions and changes to the game. 

There are plenty of changes to the weapons and meta, making it so that it will not play exactly how it did before this update. There is also new content like a few new multiplayer maps, Outbreak content, and even some new game modes.

For the most part, the new game modes are pretty standard, like bringing back Prop Hunt that isn’t exactly new but with some major changes to it in the process. However, there is one new game mode, and it is a huge one. Quite literally. 

That new game mode is none other than the new Black Ops Cold War Fireteam Hardpoint mode. This one is pretty substantial, bringing the first new Fireteam game mode to Cold War since the very launch of the entire title late last year. 

Black Ops Cold War Fireteam Hardpoint is the first new Fireteam game mode to release since its launch. With the launch of the game, we had Fireteam Dirty Bomb. Treyarch was touting this whole Fireteam, multi-team setup, but there wasn’t much to show for it. 

If you weren’t a fan of Dirty Bomb, like me, then you were sore out of luck when it came to enjoying the unique experiences that the Fireteam setting has to offer. It is unique because it is a game mode that features the biggest set of players in Black Ops Cold War at once, with 40 in total. 

Those 40 players are not split across two teams, though, but rather split across 10 squads of four players each. But this is no Warzone battle royale, as it is actually focused on team-based game modes but with a ton of players and teams, rather than just two like usual. 

While Dirty Bomb focused on a unique game mode unlike anything else to date in Cold War, the new Black Ops Cold War Fireteam Hardpoint mode is based upon a familiar game type: Hardpoint. You likely know this game mode quite well by this time. 

But if you don’t normally play Hardpoint, it is Call of Duty’s version of King of the Hill. In this case, the hill, or hardpoint, is a location that players must capture by simply standing in it. However, the other team(s) will be wanting it, too, so you have to balance capturing and defending it at the same time. 

In normal Hardpoint, though, you are dealing with only one point at a time that moves every so often and only two teams, while the Black Ops Cold War Fireteam Hardpoint ups the ante quite a bit. Instead, you deal with three points to capture at once. There are up to 10 squads in one game.

This makes for a pretty wild experience unlike any other game of King of the Hill that you have played. You have so many different points to worry about and other players to deal with that it requires you to play it completely differently than you would normal Hardpoint or even Dirty Bomb. 

To do your best in Black Ops Cold War Fireteam Hardpoint and possibly win, you will need to reshape your playstyle around this crazy and intense game mode. It is a wild time and one that we are here to help you with to win in this new and amazing multi-team mode. 

First off, how do you win in Black Ops Cold War Fireteam Hardpoint? Well, this is something that is both similar and radically different at the same time from the normal iteration. In the end, it all comes down to the points that you have earned in the match to claim the first-place prize.

Unlike in normal Hardpoint where you need around 250 points or just the highest when the time runs out to win, you will need a whopping 1000 points to win this mode. It is more than the number of points you will need in the other Fireteam game mode, Dirty Bomb. 

But the points generally work the same as you would expect: standing around within the point’s borders will grant you a point for basically every tick that happens in the game. But there is a distinct difference this time around from the normal Hardpoint game mode. 

In normal Hardpoint, standing in the point while an enemy is there will usually mean that you will be unable to gain points as you will be contesting the point from each other, so it is a stalemate until someone leaves or is taken out by the other team. 

However, in Black Ops Cold War Fireteam Hardpoint, that isn’t the case. You could be standing in a point without any of your teammates and be up against five enemy players, and you will still gain points this whole time that you are alive. 

So, essentially, you can contest a point and still earn points just for being there. This is likely because there are so many teams that if having more than one team on a single point stopping anyone from gaining points in the match would make the match too difficult to progress. 

When it comes to the new Fireteam Hardpoint game mode, the game mode’s entire point is to hold points. Because of this, if you aren’t capturing points right now or on the way to hold up in one, then you are playing this new game mode wrong. 

This is not one of those game modes where you can hang out around the outside of the point and take out the unsuspecting enemy players who are within the point. Sure, in normal Hardpoint, you can try to eliminate the players and then take it over, but that doesn’t work here.

If you see them on the way there, sure, take them out and move in to take over the point, but that shouldn’t be your primary goal. Your goal all the time should be to be inside one of the points with your teammates, preferably. Because you get points even when you are contesting a point, there is no reason that you shouldn’t be in a point at all times. 

If you aren’t in a point, you are not progressing your team’s score, and I can guarantee that some of the other teams are gaining points, so if you want to be in at least the top three squads, you must be landing in the points immediately. 

So, the second half of this part of trying to win a match is holding a point. Getting in a point is one thing, but there is the matter of holding it. It is fine if you die a good bit in Fireteam matches as that is inevitable, but you do want to defend the point to some extent. 

Like in normal Hardpoint, you are contesting against another player(s), so be careful, try to take them out if you can safely, or have your teammates do that. Speaking of teammates, they should always try to tackle the same point as you in this game mode. 

Sure, you could separate and go to the points separately to gain points, but you get points for every player on your team in a point, so there is no reason that they shouldn’t be on the same point as you. This is the best move so that you can all get points and protect one another. 

It is not a great idea to have your team hang outside of the point and watch over you inside of it because you are missing out on valuable points that you could have if everyone is there. The only exception to this is the open and exposed points in maps. 

But for the most part, you should have at least three of your teammates on the point at all times, if not all four. But in exposed areas, it is fine to have two in the point and two outside, so the latter two can protect the others inside it and act as a respawn point.

With the introduction of the new Cold War Fireteam Hardpoint game mode comes another map in style: Golova. This new map is an abandoned Russian village area. It is a stunning area in the middle of the day with a picturesque village landscape. 

I would argue that it is the second-best map for Fireteam game modes after Sanatorium, which single-handedly saved the Dirty Bomb mode for me and is well worth playing. However, it is worth noting that this map is a pretty rural landscape and dangerous. 

It is dangerous because of how open the Golova map is. I would argue that it is the most exposed one out of the Fireteam maps we have right now. There is very little cover here and the town is pretty small. The few buildings are the bulk of your protection here as there are few trees in this plains-like farm map. 

In Fireteam Hardpoint, you will find that many of the points are out in the middle of the open with few places to hide. It makes it one of the most difficult maps to play this game mode on and frustrating one. You have to take advantage of the few points that are indoors, as the church and others. 

With the new Fireteam Hardpoint game mode release, we will likely get at least one more multi-team mode in the future. The question remains: what is it going to be? There are a few different options that I can think of for now. 

Hardpoint wasn’t my first pick, actually, but rather Domination was when I was thinking of possible Fireteam game modes. But now that we have Hardpoint, there isn’t too much reason to have Domination as it fulfills the general idea that I was thinking for it plus the moving points work better anyways. 

A more eliminations-focused Kill Confirmed or Teams Deathmatch mode might be worth throwing in, but that one seems pretty throwaway at best. I think something more inventive like Dirty Bomb would be great, but hopefully something better.

I could see a game mode that gives each squad a point to protect and the goal being to take the other team’s points or something like that. The first team to capture so many points wins the match. Maybe a certain time after your point is taken, it comes back, so you have to balance defending your point and taking others. 

Or another possible option is maybe VIP-like game mode, where one player on the squad is randomly selected as the leader and might have a special loadout because of it. Taking them out will gain teams some great points while other normal eliminations might give a couple of points. The first team to get so many points to win the match, so it also brings in that whole idea of balancing defense and offense. 

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Source: https://www.esportstalk.com/blog/black-ops-cold-war-fireteam-hardpoint-guide-how-to-win-play-more/