BO7 Season 4 Reloaded: Kowakujo, AN-94 & Nick Cage

Pronounced Koh-wah-koo-joh. Not however you've been saying it. The name translates to "cursed castle," which means the level designers were on the clock because Kowakujo is a feudal Japanese castle on an active volcano inside the Dark Aether. Every surface you stand on is either on fire or next to something that is.

The map centers on Takeo Masaki: his ancestral home, his soul, and his 16th-century problems. Treyarch dedicated it to Tom Kane, Takeo's voice actor, who died earlier this year. Respect where it's due. The crew arrives through a torn rift, tasked with freeing the last Shadowsmith and recovering the World Seed before the Dark Aether unravels the material world. Standard Tuesday.

NOTE: Kowakujo is the second-to-last Black Ops 7 Zombies map. The final one arrives Season 5 Reloaded. You're almost out of reasons to open the game. Almost.

New Enemy Types

The Kowakujo Black Ops 7 Zombies enemies roster is not subtle about the setting. Every new threat is either on fire or in charge of something that is.

• Oni: Heavy armored elite swinging a spiked kanabo war club with electrical powers. The blog redacted its classification. Treat it like an elite until told otherwise.
• Scorched Zombies: Fire-drenched standard enemies. Stand back until they burn out. Do not stand back too long because the lava is behind you.
• Hellhounds: Back. Still on fire. Same as always. Welcome back anyway.
• Dragon: Visible in the intro cinematic. That's all you know until launch.

Map Mechanics

• Rivers of lava: Environmental hazard, not decoration. Touch them, slow down, take damage. You can use them strategically against enemies, which you won't remember to do under pressure.
• Ghostly Rifleman Trap: Activate the komainu statue traps after the power is on. Long-dead castle riflemen materialize and provide covering fire. One of the few things in this game working for you instead of at you.
• Pack-a-Punch camos: Three animated tiers. Earned through kill challenges. Universally unlocked for other round-based maps afterward.

Wonder Weapon

Treyarch blacked out the entire Wonder Weapon section in the official blog. This has never happened in Black Ops 6 or 7 before. All prior maps revealed their signature weapon pre-launch. For Kowakujo, the answer is: go find it yourself. Fire-based melee or hybrid is the working assumption given the volcano. The community will immediately rank it below the Wunderwaffe regardless of what it turns out to be.

Main Quest Rewards

• "Purified" Takeo Operator Skin
• Calling Card + 10,000 XP
• Unique Calling Card variant for completing before Directed Mode arrives
• Animated Calling Card for Mastery Challenge + 10,000 XP

Map Challenges

New GobbleGum

Hellping Hound: Legendary rarity GobbleGum. Spawns a friendly hellhound companion to assist in round-based Zombies and Dead Ops Arcade. Yes, you're taming a flaming dog. No, it will probably die before round 20.

Additionally, the PPSh-41 arrives as an ultra-rarity mystery box weapon with stats rivaling a Wonder Weapon. It may remain map-exclusive like the MP40 was in Totenreich. Nobody knows. The blog doesn't say.

Two maps. One new, one dug up from 2010. Both are functional. Black Ops 7 Season 4 Reloaded multiplayer asks little of your expectations and delivers accordingly.

New Maps

New Modes

• Team Blueprint Sharpshooter: 6v6, weapon blueprints rotate on a schedule, elimination streaks earn bonuses. Self-explanatory party mode.
• Knife Fight: 2v2 melee only. Equally self-explanatory. Earn the "Combatant" weapon charm with 10 Double Kills.

Black Ops Classic: Now Permanent

The mode proved popular enough to stay. Four maps join its rotation permanently: Launch (BO1), Fringe (BO3), Hacienda (BO4), and Gridlock (BO4). Reduced mobility, limited perks, traditional Black Ops feel. The closest you'll get to a time machine that isn't also a glitch.

New Weapons: AN-94 & Executioner's Duet

The AN-94 assault rifle BO7 returns from Black Ops 2. It was in BO3 as the KVK-99m. It's been absent since. The signature mechanic is the hyper-burst: two rounds fire faster than the rest of the mag. A new Precision Attachment modifies the burst count to three rounds and increases upper body damage at the cost of a slight delay before entering full-auto. This is the most distinctive modification the AN-94 has ever received in any Call of Duty title.

The Executioner's Duet is a dual-wield axe melee weapon, available via the Nick Cage event pass free track. Both the AN-94 and the axes are included at no cost. The axes exist because someone at Treyarch watched a movie.

Weapon Kit Attachments (Weekly Challenges)

• Ion Minigun Kit: Timing aligns with Act 4 Endgame. Convenient.
• Mirage Dual Fire Kit: Seen in the Sledgehammer Dev Talk. Gameplay confirmed.
• Velox 5.7 Carbine Chassis: Converts the Velox pistol to full-auto with improved range, at the cost of handling. Unlocks underbarrel and stock slots.

Nicolas Cage Operator & Event Pass

Nobody leaked this. Nicolas Cage is the Season 4 Reloaded event pass crossover, following Terry Crews and Dave Chappelle. He has full voice lines across all game modes. Whether that's actually him or a convincing impression, Treyarch has not officially confirmed but it appears genuine. His operator skin is based on Spider-Noir. No Marvel IP attached.

Pass runs until approximately July 23. XP-focused. Use XP tokens. Stay in objective-based modes. Play the objective, which statistically you probably aren't.

Free Track

• "Opportunist" Operator skin (Samuels)
• "Hired Muscle" Operator skin (female operator)
• Executioner's Duet dual axe melee weapon
• AN-94 Assault Rifle (mastery reward)
• Themed cosmetics including a wide-eyed Cage charm that is clearly a meme

Premium Track: 1,100 COD Points

• Nick Cage base operator (instant unlock)
• "Unlimited" alternate Cage skin (mastery reward)
• Nick Cage HUD theme
• Tracer blueprints
• Finishing move
• Calling card, emote, gun screen

If you complete the free track without buying premium, purchasing later retroactively unlocks all premium rewards. The system works in your favor for once.

Endgame: Act 4: Operation King Killer

The Endgame Operation King Killer is the final act of the mode's narrative. Enter the Prime Target Glitch, defeat the Glitch Boss: likely the campaign rhino or the large robot from the final mission: and collect command data across Avalon to pinpoint and destroy its source. Requires Zone 3 or higher access, same as Act 2.

Complete objectives to earn "Data Freeze" skins for Samuels, Wylde, and Kagan. One skin earns a standard camo. All three earn an animated camo. There's also a blueprint and a terminal vector activity.

New Guardian Skill Track

Endgame remains free to play through Season 5. Season 6: arriving with The Haunting: converts it back to paid. Enjoy the window accordingly.

Warzone Updates

Rebirth Island loses its winter skin. Summer is back: snow removed, Turbine POI from Season 2 stays. The map still exists. Squad Gun Game is a new limited-time mode on Resurgence: squads of three cycle through every weapon. Buyback Quads returns on both Avalon and Verdansk.

Champion's Quest is back with an expanded reward structure. More objectives, more things to unlock, more of a barrier between casual players and the content clearly not designed for them. Exactly as intended.

Events & Login Rewards

Summer of Action: Daily Login Event

Log in on roughly 7-8 consecutive calendar days. Rewards include Battle Pass tier skips, Double XP tokens, and two X9 Maverick AR blueprints ("Catharsis"). Treyarch listed it twice in the blog, possibly by accident, possibly not.

Kowakujo Challenge Event

Reworked Leaderboard events now run in 3-hour brackets. Players who finish first are removed from remaining brackets, giving everyone else a real shot. You can re-enter as many times as you want across the week. Finishing higher than your previous attempt earns that higher placement's rewards. Rewards include camos and GobbleGums. This is how leaderboard events should have worked at launch.

Ranked Multiplayer & Warzone Events

Separate ranked leaderboard events for both modes. Camos and rewards scale by division. Standard competitive structure.

Free Trial

A Black Ops 7 Multiplayer and Zombies free trial is planned within the Season 4 Reloaded window. Details still pending at launch. Includes new maps and Kowakujo.

Additional bundles for Wyatt, Lena, Nikolai, and Faulkner arrive before Season 4 ends around July 23.