For most of its history, Call of Duty campaign modes have let players adjust difficulty levels—ranging from Recruit or Regular to grueling Veteran or even unlockable options like Realistic or #YOLO in later entries like Infinite Warfare. This system offered a personalized challenge, whether you wanted a relaxed story experience or full-on tactical chaos.
Now, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Treyarch has turned that tradition on its head. The co-operative campaign removes the usual difficulty slider entirely, opting instead for a system that scales based on your squad size. In an interview with IGN, associate creative director Miles Leslie explained that you won’t choose difficulty anymore. “For the difficulty, it’s baked in,” he said. “We’ve built it for solo or four‑player squads as well. You cannot pick a difficulty like past games.”
Rather than toggling between Recruit, Hardened, or Veteran, enemy strength scales dynamically depending on whether you go solo or team up with two, three, or four players. “We’re not forgetting about you; we love you,” Leslie reassured solo players, while emphasizing that the campaign is designed as a shared, social experience.
Progress in the campaign continues to sync with multiplayer and Zombies modes, contributing to your overall XP and Battle Pass—keeping everything tied into the CoD ecosystem. Meanwhile, an endgame “Avalon” extraction-style mission caps off the story mode with high-stakes replayability.
Launching November 14, 2025, across PC and consoles, Black Ops 7 centers its narrative on adaptable squad-based pacing—ditching manual difficulty selection in favor of built-in balance that survives with—or without—your friends.
