Two Warzone 2 game modes disabled & players think it’s due to rapid XP farming

Brad Norton
Warzone 2 plunder

Two Warzone 2 game modes, Plunder and Lockdown, have both been temporarily disabled as devs “investigate an issue.” Exactly what that issue might be, is unclear, though players are convinced it’s all in relation to an XP farm.

Given Warzone 2’s nature as a live-service title, with new content drops and sizeable updates always just around the corner, things occasionally go wrong with the hundreds of moving parts.

In some cases, this leads to harmless bugs that tend to be more amusing than anything. Though in other instances, these issues can outright ruin the experience. In the most extreme scenarios, devs tend to resort to one final measure: Disabling game modes altogether.

While this is a rarity, typically reserved for the most disruptive quirks, the removal of two playlists on August 10 has some players thinking otherwise. Here, many are convinced devs pulled key game modes down to prevent the community from abusing an XP farm.

Announced late in the day on August 10, both Plunder and Lockdown were disabled while devs “investigate an issue.” The exact nature of this particular issue went undisclosed. Even on the official Warzone Trello Board, no specific details have been provided at the time of writing.

Thus, the community began to speculate as to why devs so urgently forced these modes out of the game. With no widespread knowledge of a match-ruining bug or Warzone-wide exploit in the spotlight, some were convinced there was a different reason for the swift action.

“Gotta get rid of the quick XP methods fast I see,” one player replied to the news on Twitter. “XP ‘issue’ lol,” another chimed in. Various players all pointed to an XP farm as the culprit behind it all. While unconfirmed, it would certainly make sense.

Acquiring XP faster than devs intend, while beneficial for the players, directly goes against predetermined progression systems. Take for instance, Double XP rewards. If Plunder can help boost XP gains regardless, these goodies can be overlooked.

Obviously, for the time being, it’s worth taking this speculation lightly. There could very well be a game-breaking bug under the surface we just weren’t wary of.

For now, players will simply have to go about their grinding business in any other game mode as we await the return of both Plunder and Lockdown. No ETA has been provided but we’ll be sure to update you here when they’re back in rotation.

About The Author

Brad Norton is the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. He graduated from Swinburne University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and has been working full-time in the field for the past six years at the likes of Gamurs Group and now Dexerto. He loves all things single-player gaming (with Uncharted a personal favorite) but has a history on the competitive side having previously run Oceanic esports org Mindfreak. You can contact Brad at brad.norton@dexerto.com