Katana returns to Black Ops 7 and Warzone with Season 3 Reloaded event

The Katana is coming back on April 30, and Activision is making players choose between two very different ways to get it: finish a limited-time event or buy the shortcut. Season 03 Reloaded for Black Ops 7 and Warzone goes live at 9AM PT, bringing new maps, game modes, the next Round-Based Zombies map, and more weapons, blueprints, operator skins, and rewards tied to Mid-Season Events and Weekly Challenges.

The important part is that the Katana will not sit in standard progression. It is being locked to a limited-time in-game event, which means anyone who wants the melee weapon for free will need to show up while the event is live. The exact event has not been locked in publicly yet, and it is not part of the RoboCop Event Pass or the Freerun Ascent Challenge. The strongest fit is a Call of Duty Endowment C.O.D.E. event tied to Military Appreciation Month, with the C.O.D.E. Navigator Challenge looking like the likeliest landing spot.

That guess has precedent. In 2024, the U Assist Veterans Challenge ran from May 8 through May 22 and offered eight total rewards. In 2025, the C.O.D.E. Got Your Six event ran from May 15 through May 29. That pattern makes a May military-themed rollout feel very much in step with how Call of Duty has handled these midseason reward tracks, especially when the prize is something as nostalgia-heavy as the Katana, a clear Black Ops 3 callback.

If you do not want to wait, there is a paid route. The blade shows up in the Tracer Pack: Transfusion Reactive Ultra Skin Bundle as the Laminar Flow blueprint. The bundle price has not been revealed, but Ultra packs usually land at around 2,400 CoD Points or more. That is the kind of purchase that only makes sense if you were already planning to buy the whole cosmetic set, not if you just want a melee weapon to pull out in close-quarters fights on Verdansk or Rebirth Island.

The free route is the better deal for almost everyone. You get the Katana without spending extra, and the weapon also comes with Prestige camos called Splash, Sour Raspberry, and Enamored, which are universal and can be applied to other guns. That gives the event a real chase factor beyond the blade itself. The bundle is the fast lane, but it is still a premium shortcut wrapped around a weapon that should feel like a reward, not a paywall. Activision keeps proving it knows exactly how to monetize nostalgia, and this is another clean example: time pressure if you play, a price tag if you want to skip it.