Call of Duty's knife-tossing 'Sticks and Stones' mode comes to Cold War

Two Call Of Duty operators, wielding knives
(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

Stay sharp, readers. Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War Season 3 is bringing knife-tossing, hatchet-dodging gamemode Sticks and Stones to the series' latest entry.

A Black Ops staple since Treyarch's 2010 original, Sticks and Stones is a razor-sharp free-for-all that gives each player a pointed trio of weapons: an R1 Shadowhunter crossbow, a ballistic knife, and a tomahawk. Score a kill with the first two, and you'll earn a point. Score a kill with the tomahawk, however, and you'll reset their score to zero.

Every so often, a spy plane will sweep overhead and reveal everyone's position, ensuring you can't just lie in wait for an easy axe kill. The player in first will be marked with a gold dot during these reveals. If that's you, you'll probably want to keep your head down.

Season 3 of Black Ops - Cold War and Warzone kicked off this week. While Sticks and Stones is already available, the season's second new mode, Multi-team eliminations, won't arrive for another few weeks. Call of Duty's battle royale saw bigger changes, nuking its old map to roll in the new—but resident Warzone experts Emma and Morgan reckon the explosive event was a total letdown.

Natalie Clayton
Features Producer

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.

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