9 essential Call of Duty: WW2 tips to know before you play

If you're diving into the Second World War campaign, then arming yourself with some Call of Duty: WW2 tips will help you on the road to victory. In fact, I'm in a strong position to guide you on your way in Call of Duty: WW2, as I've finished the campaign, played loads of multiplayer and the new War mode, and I've interviewed the multiplayer lead, Greg Reisdorf, who probably knows a few things about it. If you're after some assistance, especially if you've just picked the game up as one of your free PS Plus games for June 2020, then here are the Call of Duty: WW2 tips I've got for you.

Call of Duty: WW2 Mementos location guide
Call of Duty: WW2 Heroic Actions location guide

1. Keep your friends close in single player

One of Call of Duty: WW2’s new features is that you rely on your squad for help. Things like health packs, ammo and grenades can only be restocked by asking for them from the right people. Do not let these people out of your sight. It’s easy to get wrapped up while chasing down some random Nazi and not realise that you’ve cut yourself off from help. With no regenerating health this time, getting shot to pieces and then realising Johnny Health-Packs is nowhere to be seen is a huge pain in the ass.

2. Don’t forget you’re usually dying, and check out for additional life bars

There are two things that caught me out a few times in single player. Firstly, your health doesn’t regenerate anymore and when your screen dips to its ‘you’re about to die’ colours, it stays there. If you’re running around with everything exploding, or ducking between buildings or other cover that changes the light it’s easy to get used to that change and become a walking one hit kill without realising. So check constantly just to be sure. In addition to that, some of the vehicles you can jump into have their own health bar that, when depleted, means they blow up and kill you. Basically, you’re going to die more than once and be completely surprised because it’s not always obvious.

3. It’s best to choose multiplayer Divisions according to what you want to do, not what you want to be

The new class system is broadly split between soldier, assault, heavy, sniper, and shotgun guy, otherwise known as Infantry, Airborne, Armoured, Mountain, and Expeditionary. They all have unique skills but are broadly tuned to work best with specific ways of playing. That largely breaks down like this:

Pick Infantry if you melee a lot - Their bayonet is a one hit kill while most other melee attack are a two hits.

Pick Assault if you run and gun - They have a suppressor so they don't appear on the radar and move faster.

Pick Mountain if you snipe - They can hold their breath longer when aiming and have a slight ranged aim assist.

Pick Armoured to tank/support - Armoured can use a bipod on LMGs to make them more accurate and reload faster. They are also less affected by explosions.

Pick Expeditionary if you like close range - the flaming shotgun shells this class comes with are near insta-kills and cause absolute chaos whenever they’re used.

4. Change things up, especially in War mode

There’s a lot of variation in the multiplayer maps and with the new Divisions system you can’t expect one loadout to work for everything. A small map like Caratan with tiny little streets is all about short range weapons, while Gustav Cannon’s long open areas makes them useless. Nowhere is the need to change things up more important than War mode’s changing objectives. In the space of one match you might be attacking or defending a building, a moving vehicle, rushing open areas or storming bunkers - it’s hard to find a one size fits all load out for that. For example, smoke gets used a lot on objectives, which is a perfect time to take Infantry’s bayonet or Expeditionary’s shotgun out for a spin.

5. Play the Headquarter’s challenges and contracts to max them out

In the Headquarters social space Major Howard hands out daily and weekly challenges, while the Quartermaster handles contracts. Both give you rewards like XP, items and supply drops for things like ‘X headshots in a mode,’ ‘X kills’ and so on. Make sure that you play them off each other to max out your efforts. For example, there are usually daily and weekly versions of the same thing, multikills for example, so grab both to cut down on work. Contracts are more like bets you take with in-game money - can you get X headshots in 10 minutes, for example. That’s really about knowing what you can achieve. You’ll get better rewards the harder a contract is, but stick to your limits or you're just wasting cash.

6. Max out your XP faster

There’s usually two daily challenges that will give you a short 25% XP boost - one for your soldier’s XP and one for weapon XP. So always grab those before you play so you get the buff as soon as you can. They rotate so that you can complete six dailies in a day, and three weeklies in a week. Each time you complete a maximum you’ll get extra rewards like another XP buff. In addition, completing a Weapon Collection will unlock a special cosmetic variation of that gun that usually has another XP buff for kills with that weapon - Epic variants give you a 10% extra, and Heroics get 15% - so there’s plenty of ways to squeeze out some extra XP.

7. Say hello to people in Headquarters

There’s a social score in COD now that rewards you for interacting with other players. You can commend them, say hello, watch them unlock their supply drops and more. All of which gives you points and the chance of getting some XP or even a supply drop. So it’s worth spending any time you have to kill in HQ being nice.

You can get ahead just by showing up in WW2. When you login each day you’ll get some armoury credits, and there’s a login bonus every 24 hours that stacks three times. So just by remembering to load the game up you can get some extra cash, whether you do anything or not. There’s also a ‘payroll’ which is 100 credits every 4 hours, meaning you can get another 600 armoury credits if you spend the whole day playing war.

9. Prestige your weapons to Prestige faster overall

If Prestige is your thing then look at prestiging your guns as fast as possible. You’ll be shooting things a lot anyway and various challenges all stack up to level your weapon. As soon as you hit the top with a gun, Prestige it and start over. It’ll give you boost and help you Prestige overall much faster.

Looking for more help? Here's how to beat Call of Duty: WW2 Zombies - tips direct from Sledgehammer.