It’s been almost twelve months since the Earth last revolved around the sun and that means one thing: a new Call of Duty game is coming out soon. This year is a Treyarch year, which is important because Treyarch games tend to be better received and more anticipated than Infinity Ward or Sledgehammer titles.

Black Ops 6 had a fairly successful beta weekend last month, which perfectly showed why Treyarch games are so popular. Even by Call of Duty standards, Black Ops 6 is getting a fair amount of hype ahead of launch.

Because of the steam it generates, we understand that many new or returning players will be taking the plunge into the world of Black Ops. Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about Black Ops 6.

Related article: New Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies Teaser Hints at Alcatraz Return

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 releases on Friday, October 25 at 12:00 PM EST.

There is no early access to the campaign, multiplayer, or zombies for Black Ops 6.

Black Ops 6 has two editions available for purchase. There is the “Standard Edition” and the Vault Edition.”

The standard edition costs $70 USD and the vault edition costs $100 USD.

What are the differences between each edition of Black Ops 6?

There are not nearly as many differences as you would expect. The Vault Edition comes with cosmetic accessories for operators, weapon blueprints, and the Season 1 Battle Pass (Season 1 isn’t expected to start until around November 14-21). All non-cosmetic content is included in the standard edition of the game.

As with any CoD, there are some small changes that don’t matter much, but Black Ops 6 brings three big changes at launch. These changes are:

Let’s look at each of them individually.

Omnimovement

Omnimovement is the main innovation and marketing beat of Black Ops 6. The power of omnimovement now allows players to sprint backwards and sideways. Players can dive left or right and backward. Players can also shoot into the air while diving.

Movement in Black Ops 6 will be a key area with plenty of room for improvement and expression of skills. We have a whole guide to omnimovement that will teach you everything you need to know. It could be revolutionary for the CoD franchise and really separate bad players from good players or good players from great players.

Human shields

In recent Call of Duty titles, when you sneak up behind players, you’ve been able to carry out an execution. An execution is a slower and strategically poor way to kill someone, forcing them to sit through a long and exaggerated animation. It’s really only used for BM’ing. When sneaking up behind someone in Black Ops 6, players have the option to take them hostage as a human shield instead of executing them.

Granted, this isn’t something that will be groundbreaking and significantly change the way multiplayer is played in Call of Duty. However, it should be a fairly interesting mechanic that provides some funny moments for players.

Sniper changes

The list of sniper changes in BO6 is a short list, but there is only one change that matters. ALL shots from the torso and above are one-shot kills in Black Ops 6. This is an important change.

Sniping in Call of Duty has always been weird and struggled to fit in with the way the majority of players play the game. The developers have struggled over the years to find ways to balance a weapon type that should be able to kill in one bullet, but can’t be very good at it.

How do you balance a weapon designed to kill with one shot? Does it require a lot of skill because you have to make one accurate shot? Or does it require no skill at all because there’s no tracking and recoil management and all you have to do is hit the guy once?

These are the questions that developers have struggled to answer over the years, and in recent CoD titles snipers have been fairly weak. Making each sniper a one-shot kill from the torso greatly improves the power of the snipers in this title. It may even end up being too generous, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Call of Duty is known for the wide variety of different game modes you can play. Black Ops 6 should be no different. Players can expect the following:

*: Rated Play will not be available until the launch of Season 1. This is expected to be around November 14 to 21.

**: Party modes are not always available at launch, but are typically added at some point during the game’s life cycle.

***: Warzone is technically a different game, but will undergo massive changes to make it much more like Black Ops 6.

It would be impossible to cover everything about this game in a single article, but here are some quick things BO6 players need to know: