After the premiere of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, players were in for a nice surprise. XP tokens from previous Call of Duty games were in everyone’s inventory, making it easier to tackle the grind and upgrade your character or weapon. Typically, players can earn them by completing limited-time events, completing a battle pass, or sometimes through co-op.
Older XP tokens are not uncommon. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3 allow players to exploit previously purchased or unlocked items and cosmetics, as well as double XP tokens from various Call of Duty games.
Unfortunately, this time it didn’t seem like this feature was intentional. One of the latest Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 updates removed legacy XP tokens, or as Activision put it: “Fixed a bug that incorrectly allowed legacy XP tokens to be activated in the Black Ops 6 UI.” We just can’t have nice things.
“As Season 01 began, a UI bug allowed players to activate older XP tokens in Black Ops 6.” Treyarch says. “Unfortunately, this also introduced some potential stability risks to the game, so it was patched yesterday.
“We realize how much players appreciate the ability to use legacy XP tokens in both BO6 and Warzone, so we are currently testing a way to properly implement this change in a future update. This gives us time to ensure stability is maintained before we roll out this feature change again.”
I’m not qualified to comment on the game’s stability. However, it’s easy to imagine that an unexpected increase in the amount of XP the average player can earn could potentially hinder future time-sensitive events as players will be able to complete XP-requiring tasks more quickly.
“In the meantime, players can activate any legacy XP tokens in Warzone,” Treyarch continues. “Any tokens applied in Warzone will also apply in Black Ops 6 if you change titles or modes. We look forward to hearing more about this change next week. Thank you for your patience.”
I’m glad Treyarch has come to the conclusion that legacy tokens are worth the time and effort to discover and restore them, but let’s be candid, players will likely get this feature through luck, not benevolence. If the UI bug hadn’t accidentally popped up and given players access to older XP tokens, Treyarch might as well have kept this feature under lock and key.
