Warzone Season 5 Juggernaut backlash forces response from Infinity Ward

Brad Norton
Call of Duty Warzone Juggernauts

Update (Wednesday, August 5 – 9PM PT): Infinity Ward has since addressed community backlash surrounding Juggernauts in Warzone. A “small patch” was pushed live on August 5 across all platforms to combat the issue.

The Juggernaut crate has been removed in the BR Buy Back Solos playlist. Additionally, drop rates across all other modes have been lowered, so they should be appearing less frequently moving forward.

The original story is as follows.

Infinity Ward drastically changed the state of Warzone on August 4 with the Season 5 update, leaving the community riled up over the state of juggernauts in standard playlists.

Season 5 has only just begun and dedicated players have already grown restless over one key adjustment. From map changes to new guns and 100-tiers of unlockable items in the Battle Pass, there’s plenty to get stuck into. However, the pure battle royale experience has been tampered with in a huge way.

When players dropped back into Verdansk after installing the update, one thing, in particular, stood out. Juggernauts have now become accessible across standard playlists in Warzone. Rather than sticking to their own mode, these near-invincible suits of armor can now be equipped in regular solo, duo, trio, and quad action.

Similar to the random Jailbreak or Fire Sale events, Juggernaut suits are occasionally deployed across the map. This gives players an absurd advantage and just one day after the Season 5 update, many are already on the verge of quitting.

 

If you’re lucky enough to secure one, the Juggernaut upgrade will buff your Operator in a number of ways. You’ll pick up a minigun with a heap of ammo to chew through. Deadly to enemies on foot and in vehicles. Not only that, but each kill will also restore health now too. 

You become a walking tank and anyone that comes close will likely find themselves back in the lobby soon after. It’s an extremely powerful item, hence why it was limited to its own playlists in previous seasons.

“I just leave matches when the Juggernaut crates spawn,” one player said. “What’s the point of racking up 15+ aggressive kills just for the game to decide [who gets] a free suit?” Regardless of how well you’re doing, when a Juggernaut appears on the map, it becomes near impossible to win a 1v1 fight.

Warzone juggernaut gameplay
A single Juggernaut is capable of mowing down entire squads.

You’ll have to team up with other enemies, keep your distance, and use explosives all while hoping the Juggernaut doesn’t replenish its health with a single kill. “No one asked for this,” another player added. “Leave this to LTMs, please don’t add stupidly overpowered things like this into the standard modes.”

Many even drew similarities between the Juggernaut suit and Fortnite’s heavily criticized BRUTE mechs. Both gave individual players a huge advantage on the way to securing a victory. Even with a stacked loadout of your own, these powerful additions to the popular battle royales are all but impossible to counter.

To make matters worse in Warzone, players can still get in and out of vehicles with the suit equipped. This means that you can blow up a truck and the Juggernaut inside will still be there relatively unscathed.

Infinity Ward is yet to indicated that they’ll be reverting this decision. Though with enough community backlash, playlists could change rather early into Season 5. Get caught up on all of the core changes to Warzone with the latest patch notes here.

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