How to level up guns fast in Warzone: Quickest Weapon XP strategies

Andrew Highton
Warzone operator firing Nikita AVT

Warzone features plenty of amazing weapons to use, and they all perform better after leveling them up. Here are the quickest ways to level up Modern Warfare, Cold War, and Vanguard weapons in Warzone Pacific. 

Warzone Pacific Season 3 went live on April 27, introducing new guns like the M1916 and the Nikita AVT while also bringing a plethora of weapon buffs and nerfs that have altered the game’s meta.

Following all of these changes, players are wondering what is the quickest way to level up weapons in Warzone. We’ll go over everything that you need to know about getting your guns to max level.

Fastest ways to level up weapons in Warzone

Complete Warzone Contracts

Warzone players picking up Most Wanted contract

After dropping into Caldera or Rebirth Island, Warzone Pacific players can find in-game Contracts that they can complete to earn bonus rewards like additional XP, high-tier loot, and extra cash.

Warzone features the following contracts to complete:

  • Bounty
  • Big Game Bounty
  • Most Wanted
  • Recon
  • Scavenger
  • Supply Drop
  • Supply Run
  • Sabotage Contract

As long as you have your weapon equipped, then completing these objectives will give you additional XP that contributes towards your weapon of choice.

Play Rebirth Island, Plunder, and Clash – NOT Battle Royale

Warzone Pacific Rebirth Island building

If you want to use your completed weapons to rack up some serious Call of Duty: Warzone wins then fair enough. But if you’re still in the process of building the best Warzone loadouts, then we advise against playing battle royale.

Warzone’s April 19 update patch update brought a major change to loadout drops that causes them to appear so early that enemy players can get their hands on them before you have a chance to do so.

For that reason, we recommend dropping into Rebirth Island instead. You won’t have to worry about enemies spawning directly into the loadout drop locations, and the close-quarters layout of the map ensures faster action, letting you rack up more kills extremely fast.

You can also drop into the Plunder and Clash as they are respawn modes where you get to keep your weapon. You’ll be able to play with your preferred loadout from the beginning and level that weapon up.

Get kills in the pre-game lobby

Warzone players firing weapons in Pacific Caldera

While it won’t give a ton of progress, getting kills in the pre-game lobby will give you a nice XP boost to start the match. 

Whilst the timer ticks down, you’ll typically see many players freefall to the ground, or float down to the ground in a straight line.

This is a sure sign that the player is AFK, and is probably preoccupied on their phone as they wait for the match to begin. But this is an opportunity for you to earn some cheeky XP, as kills in the pre-match lobby still reward you with XP.

Take advantage of Double XP weekends & Tokens

vanguard and warzone logos with 2xp symbol

Call of Duty devs usually offers Double XP weekends around big updates, where players can earn Double Weapon, Battle Pass, Operator, and regular XP. 

We recommend making sure you’re equipping the weapons you want to level up during these weekends as you’ll get a massive boost without having to use any of your Double XP Tokens. 

And of course, you can use these Double XP Tokens when there’s no Double XP weekend active.

Use the Surplus Perk on Vanguard guns 

Surplus Perk on Vanguard's MP40 in Warzone

Vanguard weapons come with the Surplus Perk, which boosts your XP earned by around 1.5x. 

Make sure you’re running Surplus on any weapon you want to level up, and you’ll find yourself earning much more XP. Plus, this actually stacks with Double XP weekends, so you can earn roughly 3x the regular XP. 


For more Warzone, you can check out the most popular weapons to see what guns other players are using and leveling up as well as the best HDR loadout for Warzone Pacific Season 3.

Image Credit: Activision / Raven Software

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