The fan favorite party mode lands October 30. One player starts infected, every Survivor they take down joins the horde, and the last players standing win by holding out.
Infected comes back to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 on Friday, October 30, the last of the pre season Halloween drops Activision and Infinity Ward laid out in the Season 1 reveal on October 28. It is a returning fan favorite, and it is landing the day before Halloween.
How Infected works
It is Survivors versus the Infected. One player is randomly assigned to the Infected team at the start of the match, and every time the Infected eliminate a Survivor, that player joins the swarm. The horde grows with every kill, the safe spots get harder to hold, and the match usually ends in a last stand. The Infected win by turning everyone. The Survivors win by still being alive when the timer runs out.
It is one of the oldest party modes in Call of Duty for a reason. The early minutes are quiet, the middle is a scramble, and the final minute is chaos.
The loadouts
The two sides are deliberately uneven. The Infected get the FSS Carbon Edge Combat Knife, a Throwing Knife, and the Ninja perk, so they are fast, quiet, and built to close distance. The Survivors start with the Rezi 12 Shotgun firing explosive slugs, plus a Trip Wire and a Concussion Grenade to guard doors and slow the rush.
On paper the Survivors have all the firepower. In practice, one slip is all it takes, and every fallen Survivor makes the next attack stronger.
The last stop in a big Halloween week
Infected closes out a busy pre season week. Shipment joined the map rotation on October 27, and the new party mode Possession arrived on October 29, where eliminating an enemy lets you possess them, teleport to their spot, and steal their loadout, running on Hardpoint and Search and Destroy rules.
After Friday, the next date to circle is Season 1 on November 6, launching at midnight ET with three multiplayer maps, Backstab, Canyon, and Shoot House, plus the X01 black site in DMZ.
One thing to know for Friday: Activision has not published an exact start time for Infected, so check the playlist tab in game during the day.