Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be released on October 25.

Users longing for some BO6 experience will have to accept this new approach and wait a work week before they can get their hands on the latest adventure.

Although preloading began on October 21, the game’s campaign, Zombies, or multiplayer options won’t be available until BO6 launches. Many in the community have already started or completed the pre-load process and have shared some details.

A pre-loaded UI is also now available for download if you pre-ordered the game.

This update is mainly cosmetic. From a functional perspective, it allows users to jump into the game when it goes live in their region. The live date and time is tentatively midnight ET on October 25, 9:00 PM PT or 11:00 PM CT.

Aside from the pre-load information, some other key details shared on October 21 concern the prestige system and rewards available at launch. In many ways, it seems like multiple installments of BO6 were designed to play as a love letter to the hardcore members of the series’ fanbase.

That starts with the return of the prestige system that many BO6 fans loved in previous versions; the only intention was to expand on those concepts.

According to the latest post on the Call of Duty blog: “Players who reach and complete Max Level 55 will be given the choice to enter Prestige and restart their Leveling journey in exchange for a bit of Prestige and exclusive rewards.”

In addition to the max-level-55 system, prestige players will earn rewards and themes based on titles from Black Ops history.

The blog showed Nacht Raider for Prestige 1 as an example.

As in the past, there are elements of give and take involved in choosing prestige. Here you can read what you give up and what you can keep.

The giving

• Reset to player level 1.
• All level unlocks are relocked and need to be unlocked again, except basic operators, emotes and zombies GobbleGums, and anything you unlock permanently (more on that later).
• Your equipment will be reset.
• Lifetime stats remain visible in the battle record, but your stats elsewhere in the game only show stats for your current Prestige.

The Keep

• Weapon progression, camouflage and reticles.
• Weapon Constructs – Your favorite weapon may be locked again, but all the cons you made for it are waiting for you when you reach the level needed to unlock it again.
• Challenge progression and unlocks.
• Shop and Battle Pass content.
• Operator and emote unlock.
• Zombies startled Gums.

The Mastery Badge system is another new element that might encourage you to play another round every night. There are now mastery badges for every weapon, equipment, field upgrade and scorestreaks that challenge users to progress through three badge levels for rewards.

Each weapon and piece of equipment has its own mastery badge related to multiplayer and zombies.

These are the three levels:

• Badge I (Bronze)
• Badge II (silver)
• Mastery Badge (Gold + Stats Tracker)

Based on my history in first-person shooters, it will be at least a year before I have a mastery badge attached to a sniper rifle, but I digress.

If, like me, you’re looking forward to the campaign more than the multiplayer experience, here’s a look at the trailer to get you up to speed or excited for that latest big budget story in the Call of Duty universe.

Look out for a full review of the campaign when it releases on or after October 25th.