Just like Black Ops 4 and the more recent Warzone, the free-to-play Call of Duty: Mobile has a battle royale mode that offers its own spin on the formula. Blending elements of PUBG Mobile and Apex Legends, it brings a deep and satisfying battle royale experience that even veteran players might need a few tips to master. Activision has been supporting this game for well over a year, adding new guns, modes, and cosmetics to keep players hooked. This is arguably the most polished and popular battle royale experience you can find on mobile, and best of all, it’s free. If you’re craving the Call of Duty experience on the go, there’s no better choice than this. Here’s everything you need to know to hit the ground running on this impressive mobile battle royale game.
Further reading
- How to play Call of Duty Mobile on PC
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Call of Duty: Warzone guide with tips and tricks to win the war
COD: Mobile battle royale tips
Playing solo? Choose the Medic
Like other battle royale games, Call of Duty: Mobile features solo, pairs, and four-player squad modes, and the class and loadout you choose for each of these is an important part of your success. The Medic class is our personal favorite for solo players, as its class ability is a powerful medical kit that creates an area-of-effect healing ring.
This can be used to heal all of your teammates after a tough fight, but it’s even more useful for solo games. Place the medical kit at your feet as you begin a firefight and, assuming you don’t take too much damage, you’ll be healed by the time it’s over. This will then give you the opportunity to escape without taking extra time to use a different healing item, as enemies often swarm in on the location of a battle.
Don’t drop into the densest areas
This is something PUBG Mobile members know all too well. Players will often all jump out of the plane and head to one of the densest spots on the map, such as an industrial center or town. If you want to stand a chance of surviving in Call of Duty: Mobile, resist the urge to do this.
Instead, look for spots on the map that only have a few buildings next to each other, and make sure your destination is not in the path of the plane. You will very rarely encounter more than one enemy at the start of the game if you use this strategy, and you’ll almost always find enough weapons and gear to defend yourself.
Don’t fight with bosses
In a nod to Black Ops 4’s Blackout mode, Call of Duty: Mobile includes bosses in battle royale. They’re designated on the map from the beginning of each game with a red dot, and if you get close enough to this marker, they will spawn and begin attacking.
Killing them will earn your squad rewards like powerful weapons and armor, but it’s almost never worth taking the time to kill the boss. You will have to use up a huge amount of ammunition in order to take them down, and you will likely get hit at least a few times in the process. As you fire, you’ll also be alerting every enemy nearby of your location, meaning there’s a good chance you won’t even get to use the items you acquire.
Go after airdrops
What you do want to chase down are the supply airdrops that will periodically land across the stage. These can be found by looking for green dots on your map, and you will see a smokestack when you get close. Inside the airdrops are some of the rarest weapons and gear in the game, including a grenade launcher from past games called the War Machine.
It uses its own ammunition so you can’t keep using it for the whole match, but it can absolutely decimate the last few players in a given round. If you find a rocket launcher, however, we suggest leaving it, as the weapon can only fire at vehicles and they haven’t been very popular in the game thus far.
Close doors
A telltale sign that someone has been in or is currently in the building you’re entering is for a door to be open, as they are all closed by default at the start of a battle royale match. If you close a door after getting into a building, however, you can also trick players into thinking the building hasn’t been searched yet and set up an ambush.
It might sound like a strategy that few players would fall for, but we were able to mow down a handful of enemies who all entered the same building during one round of battle royale. Never underestimate the carelessness of your opponents!
Check weapon ammunition types
You don’t have to worry about ammunition type when playing competitive multiplayer, but the battle royale mode in Call of Duty: Mobile includes them. Depending on the weapon you equip, it could use 7.62, 5.56, .45, or 9mm ammunition.
Weapons share ammunition pools if you have two that use the same caliber of ammunition, which means you’ll effectively cut the amount available to you in half. Instead, make sure the two weapons you equip use different ammunition. Not only will you have more ammunition overall, but you will have two weapons built for different scenarios and ranges.
Use your mini-map
Just like in PUBG Mobile, you can start to locate nearby enemies when they are moving around nearby. On the mini-map in the corner of the screen, you’ll see a pair of red footprints, with an arrow pointing in their current direction. If an enemy fires a shot, this symbol will change to a bullet.
Make the most of this information to get the drop on your enemies and plan your own attack, but be aware that they are likely making use of the mini-map to find you, as well. Avoid moving whenever you see the footsteps on the map, and you just might be able to stop them from finding your location beforehand.
Communicate with your team
It is crucial that you communicate effectively with your team in order to win a battle royale match, particularly if you are playing in four-person squads. To do this, you can use your device’s microphone, and it can be enabled by pressing the microphone icon just to the left of the mini-map.
We preferred a “hold to talk” style, which you can enable in the options, as it only picks up your voice when touching the icon. If you prefer, you can also turn it on permanently if you are about to get into a hectic firefight. Additionally, you can place a marker on the main map so your teammates know your intended objective, which will discourage them from wandering off.
Keep the thumb-stick away from the fire button
Something that plagues shooters on almost all standard-sized phones, it is very easy to accidentally press the left fire button in Call of Duty: Mobile when you are using the virtual thumb-stick. It’s annoying in competitive multiplayer, but it can give your position away in a battle royale.
To avoid doing this, you can press your thumb farther away from the button when using the thumb-stick, and it will relocate. You can also go into the game settings and disable the left fire button until you are aiming down the sights, but we found it to be quite useful when needing to quickly hip-fire, so we recommend keeping it permanently enabled. On larger phones or tablets, this should be less of an issue.
An even better solution, if you have one available, is to pair a PS4 of Xbox gamepad controller to your phone or tablet. After you pair your controller with your device via Bluetooth, all you need to do is enable controller support in COD: Mobile’s settings to enjoy the precision of a traditional controller with physical thumb-sticks and buttons.
Don’t panic if the circle passes you
When the dreaded battle royale circle of doom starts encroaching on your position, don’t panic. It will advance on you quickly and attack just like during other battle royale gameplay, the damage caused in Call of Duty: Mobile happens pretty slowly.
As they advance, you have time to run or try to find a getaway vehicle. In case you’re under fire during your attempt to make it to the safe area, you should have a healing item on hand. When you’re in the late stages of a match, you might even want to intentionally stay outside the secure space to confuse or ambush the remaining enemies.
Take the high ground
Having a height advantage can mean the difference between an easy kill and getting picked off without even seeing your opponent. There are tons of cliffs, hills, and buildings you can scale to give yourself an edge in every firefight, especially if you have a gun with a scope ready. With enough distance between you and your enemies plus a birds-eye view, it is easy to target and dispatch them in a surprise attack that they never see coming.
While you’re up there, remember that you can safely jump from any high enough point without any fear of falling to your death. You’ll see that the saving grace to falling in this game is your ability to float through the air, so landing is no longer a perilous endeavor.
