SCUF gaming article

How to Use Buy Stations & Killstreaks in Warzone

New to Call of Duty Warzone or coming back for the latest season? Refresh and learn everything you need to know about the various buy stations and killstreaks available for your use in Warzone. We talked with JoeWo to get a full breakdown on how to use buy stations and get his tips on how to use killstreaks to their fullest potential  in our matches.
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The Basics of Warzone Buy Stations & Killstreaks

How to Use Buy Stations

“If you don’t know you fly into the map with 150 players depending on what playlist you’re playing obviously trios, quads, duos, or solos but you’re flying into the map, landing on different POIs and going from building building house to house opening chests. Now with the chests you’re opening  you will be getting money and then you can use that money to go to a buy station and there are a ton of various items at a buy station which I’ll be explaining. Alright so let's get straight into the buy station segment. I'll be flying in a quick solos to open up the buy. As you guys get the money you will see these all across the map scattered pretty much everywhere. Now there are certain buys that are going to be more safe than others as you’ll find out as you play to more and more and you - wouldn’t say like to go to more but you feel more safe and you know where teams would push you from. Now as you come up to the station press square and open up the buy and you’ll see a ton of things. Armored plates obviously to put on plates while your fighting, gas masks, clusters, precision, self rez, muni - which means ammo, armor box to give your full team armor, UAV, and a loadout.” These buy stations act as hubs to attract players throughout the match; you're more likely to run across other players in hot points of interest on the map near these buy stations as players attempt to purchase items like the self-rez and armor plates. The best way to use buy stations is to keep your eyes peeled if you’re planning to make a purchase at any of these stations so you aren’t caught out by the occasional camper that might be lurking around. All of these items can come in handy depending on how much looting and fighting you’ve been doing thus far. The important thing is not to be afraid of buying. Players often tell themselves they’re going to save up for something big later in the game and end up carrying around $20-30K by the end of the match to get eliminated before having a chance to spend. If you need an item, pick it up while you’re near a buy station.

Using Killstreaks to Their Full Potential

Killstreaks in particular can act as powerful multipliers to your play for gunfights and rotation. JoeWo took us through his thoughts on the best killstreaks and how to use killstreaks in your Warzone matches to get the most out of them.

Regain the advantage with clusters & precision airstrikes

“Now if you are looking to fight a team that has high ground and you’re fighting them and get a knock you can buy a precision or cluster and also with these certain items there can be airstrikes you can combine them. Now you can’t use two precisions or two clusters at the same time but you can buy a precision, precision them, and then buy clusters. So we’ll maximize the chance to get another knock or full kill while you’re fighting a team. And you can call in a precision them and then call in a cluster, or call in a cluster and then precision them.” Pick up a cluster or a precision, or position yourself near a buy station to drop both on an opposing team and maximize the bang for your buck at the buy station.

Get another chance with a self-rez

“Another really really important thing you can be getting is a self rez, obviously it is $4,000, you can find these in some chests, usually pretty rare, but self rezes are very very important. Muni box as you’re going to be buying certain things and need ammo probably later in the game, if you’re trying to restock your stims, your frags, your ammo. This is going to be very useful as some guns really go through ammo. The Armor Box, you can throw that down and refill your plates and your teammates plates.” A self rez is always going to be clutch to have in your back pocket for when you get caught out of position in a gunfight and get downed quickly, but remember that you might get lucky and find these in the occasional chest, so depending on where you’re located on the map and what phase of the game you’re in you might want to do more looting before dropping the $4K on the self-rez.

Drop the munitions box for the squad

Who doesn’t like the teammate that drops the muni box? When you’re playing with your squad always remember to keep your communication up so you know whether or not dropping the cash on a muni box is going to have the return on its value for your team

Expose your enemies with a UAV

“Then the UAV. The UAV is probably one of the most important things in Warzone. One of the things I would definitely say you should do is if you’re starting out in Warzone is when you get $6,000 you should immediately go to a Buy and purchase and pop a UAV. You cannot get a loadout marker until the second zone, which I will be talking about shortly, you should definitely be getting a UAV early to then really see what is on your map and what is going on, and who is near you. Instead of stacking that cash, which I see a lot of players do - they get $30K, $40K - and then buy a loadout later, they have no information about what is going on around them. If you buy an instant $6,000 UAV and pop it you can really see what is going on.
And when they pings are going around you will see there are lots of the enemy players. Now if there is a solid red circle that means the player is on your same level playing field if its a solid dot. If you pop one and you see there is a circle with an arrow pointing upwards theres a player on the map with higher elevation on the map then you. Lets say I pop one and see a circle with an arrow pointing up. That would let me know they’re going to be at a higher elevation. So when I’m approaching this fight up here I know from the prior information on the UAV I’m going to know they’re going to have the high ground. Same thing goes if I pop a UAV and you see them with a circle pointing down that’s going to mean they are on low ground so lower than me.
One more really really important feature about UAV is if you do not know - if you pop three UAVs in a row so buy, buy, buy, this will give you an advanced UAV and this will give you time to see every player on the map even if they are ghosted. Very important feature. If you have enough money to get an advanced UAV to get information where teams are fighting where you should be rotating.” One of the most subtly powerful killstreaks available for you to use in a match of Warzone is going to be the UAV. In a game with around 150 other players moving around the map to eliminate one another, having the knowledge of where those players are around you is going to be incredibly strong, making it one of the best killstreaks available early on in your game. Be sure you check you map and play aggressive as soon as you pop your UAV to get the most out of it while its up. The best players will know how to use this information to inform their rotation and set up gunfights that are more likely to go in their favor. Buy UAVs early and often to keep your intel on your opponents strong and the momentum up in your games and watch as your kill count climbs.

First things first - get your loadout

“So now I want to explain loadouts. Now I know back in Verdansk you could buy loadouts whenever you want but right now they change the buy stations where  you do not get a loadout or can not buy a loadout until the second zone starts around one minute and 23 seconds, you’ll see.
So you can not buy loadouts with $10,000 until the first loadout drops. Right about now in my game if I had $10,000 I could buy a loadout and it would come in. A very very important feature that if you played Verdansk and now you’re coming over to the new map Caldera you’d be like ‘why can’t I buy this’ - obviously I’m not a big fan of this but you cannot buy a loadout until your first loadout drops. One tip that I was going to show real quick also was that if you are inside the zone your loadout will drop near you inside the next zone. Inside the next zone from first section or from first zone to second zone, excuse me - it’s going to drop close to you as you saw mine did within 100-150 meters.
But if your loadout drops - so if you’re out here (in the red zone) and you see the second zone pop. And you see this is the edge of the second zone and you know your loadout is going to come in around one minute and 22 seconds. When this comes in, your first loadout will never spawn outside of the second zone. It will always spawn on the edge.
Now this means if you are very very far from the second zone after the first one ends and you know your loadout is about to drop and you see it’s very far away it could be more beneficial to buy a loadout knowing that you’re going to have to run far to get your first one. And this could mean as your running you could come across someone that has already gotten their loadout because they were already inside the zone, ran to their loadout, which yours could be also and know that they’re waiting for you because they see another loadout there.
You know that there could be somebody inside already camping your loadout because they saw another one there with theirs. If they were inside of the zone here and you were outside, theirs could also spawn in the same spot - but they’re going to be a lot closer than you are.” Paying a little extra attention to your match time and our location on the map when its time for loadouts to drop can really help your gameplay. Players that are aware of these mechanics in Warzone can position themselves for a quick and easy loadout pick-up then turn around and go on the hunt for players still headed to pick up their loadout. Pair this with a well timed UAV and you could find yourself in a very advantageous position to rack up some kills. That concludes all of our buy station and killstreak Warzone tips! If you want more details straight from JoeWo himself, watch the video above and check out his other videos or read the video’s transcript below.
If you’re looking for more great Warzone content check out the rest of SCUF’s game guides and tips in the Warzone section and we’ll see you in Caldera!

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