Call of Duty Black Ops 3 guide

Call of Duty Black Ops 3's multiplayer beta is just one week away, and players are no doubt excited to get their first taste of the latest instalment of Treyarch's shooter. To make sure everybody is clued up on how to get their hands on the experience and what's included, we've put together a complete rundown of everything you need to know about BLOPS 3's beta.

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When does Black Ops 3's beta start?

The multiplayer beta begins on Wednesday, August 19 on PS4, and a week later (August 26) on Xbox One and PC.

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How do I get access to the Black Ops 3 beta?

In order to get a Call of Duty beta code you'll need to pre-order the game from participating retailers. You can also pre-order the game directly from Call of Duty's official website for a code.

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What maps are playable in the Black Ops 3 beta?

When the beta launches there'll be three maps: Hunted, Combine and Evac. Hunted is described by Treyarch as a big game hunting lodge in Ethiopia, situated beneath a flowing waterfall. It will feature underwater combat sections, too, one of BLOPS 3's new mechanics.

Combine takes place in the Egyptian Sahara, in a farming and sustainability research facility, which includes cramped interior spaces juxtaposed by a vast open space in the centre of the map.

Finally, Evac is an abandoned emergency evacuation zone atop a Singaporean rooftop, in the middle of a quarantined area.

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What game modes will we get to play?

There'll be seven game modes in total, these are:

• Team Deathmatch
• Domination
• Demolition
• Kill Confirmed
• Hardpoint
• Capture the Flag
• Search and Destroy

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What are Specialists?

Specialists are the new form of character classes in Black Ops 3. Each Specialist comes with its own unique weapon and ability. In the beta, there'll be eight Specialists to experiment with, check out the full roster:

Callsign: Ruin

Weapon - Gravity Spikes which create an area-of-effect shockwave.
Ability - Overdrive: A brief burst of speed that increases all movement speeds for a short time.

Callsign: Outrider

Weapon - Sparrow: Compound bow with explosive bolts.
Ability - Vision Pulse: emit sonar pulse to reveal nearby enemy location.

Callsign: Prophet

Weapon - Tempest: charge shot weapon which shoots arcs of electricity. Has the ability to chain rounds between nearby foes.
Ability - Glitch: Flash back to a previous position (like a teleport) and ambush enemies for a sudden kill.

Callsign: Battery

Weapon - War Machine: grenade launcher which fires bouncing explosives that explode after either a short period or upon impact with an enemy.
Ability - Kinetic Armour: Deflects bullets away from the body. Still vulnerable to headshots and non-bullet damage.

Players who reach levels 22 and 28 can also play as:

Callsign: Seraph

Weapon - Annihilator: high-caliber revolver with increased bullet penetration.
Ability - Combat Focus: achieve multiplier to faster earn score towards killstreaks.

Callsign: Nomad

Weapon - H.I.V.E.: lay traps which, when triggered, release swarms of nomad drones.
Ability - Rejack: recover from near death.

After a few days of the beta, the characters below will also become available:

Callsign: Reaper

Weapon: Scythe - Robotic arm which transforms into a mini-gun.
Ability: Psychosis - Infiltrate enemy DNI systems and simulate three decoy clones.

Callsign: Spectre

Weapon: Ripper - equip mono-edged twin blades for melee damage.
Ability: Active Camo.

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Can I customise weapons during the beta?

Treyarch will give players access to the Weapon Paintshop, which offers much deeper customisation of weapons than any previous emblem editor in Call of Duty. You'll be able to add up to 64 different layers of detail when applying your decals and designs to your weapons of death.

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Will my progress carry over to the full game?

In the trailer for the beta, you'll notice a large part of text early on says "Unlock weapons, perks, equipment and scorestreaks", but with an accompanying bit of small print which states "for Beta duration only", so no, the progress you make in this short spell is unlikely to carry over to when the game launches in November.

Source: Treyarch blog