Treyarch Moves Lost Outpost Event Early After Strider 300 Store Leak

A store-side glitch turned a planned Season 3 event rollout into an unplanned weapon drop, and Treyarch responded by accelerating the Lost Outpost event two full days ahead of schedule.

The chain reaction started April 6 when the Ghillie Drift bundle went live in the Black Ops 7 store. The 2,000 CoD Points bundle contained the Ghost Maker weapon blueprint for the Strider 300 sniper rifle, and because Call of Duty bundles that include a new weapon's blueprint simultaneously unlock the base weapon for Create-A-Class use, anyone who purchased it gained immediate access to the Strider 300, three days before the event that was supposed to gate it.

Treyarch confirmed the reschedule in an official post on X, stating: "We're rescheduling the start time of the Lost Outpost event to arrive tomorrow at 10am PT instead of later this week due to a technical issue with the store which allowed the Strider 300 to be obtained earlier than expected." The studio framed the announcement as good news, emphasizing the longer player runway rather than dwelling on the mishap.

Lost Outpost, originally slated for April 9, kicked off instead at 10 AM PT on April 7, adding two extra days to the event's 16-day reward window. Players earn progress by collecting Beacons: eliminated Operators drop them in Multiplayer, Zombies, and Endgame, while Warzone players find them in caches. Milestone rewards included the Strider 300 itself (earnable free through the event), the Southpaw Samuels Operator Skin, the Legendary Vandal Akita Shotgun Blueprint, animated camos Adrift and Terminal, an Emblem, Weapon Charm, Calling Card, Loading Screen, and Double XP Tokens.

For those who stumbled into the Strider 300 early via the Ghillie Drift bundle, the rifle is no consolation prize. Activision described it as a bolt-action with fast handling, a slow rechamber, and moderate stability. Compared to the existing Hawker HX and VS Recon bolt-actions, the Strider 300 offers better handling and a faster fire rate, trading a modest amount of raw damage in return. That tradeoff barely registers at range: it delivered one-shot eliminations in Black Ops 7 Multiplayer and downed unarmored enemies with a single chest-up hit in Warzone.

The Ghillie Drift bundle that triggered the reschedule also contained a Phantasm Mason Operator Skin (JSOC), an Icehook REV-46 SMG blueprint with Death FX, a Can't See Me Emote, a Melter Reticle, a Flurry-ous Animated Calling Card, and a 1-Hour Double Weapon XP Token.

Lost Outpost ran alongside Survivors of Ash, a concurrent Season 3 Zombies-only challenge event whose prize was the Legendary Deadender Echo 12 Shotgun Blueprint alongside weapon camos, an Emblem, and a Weapon Charm. Season 3, titled Precision and Power, launched April 2 and brought Multiplayer maps Beacon and Abyss to Black Ops 7, alongside remastered versions of Plaza and Gridlock and the new Ashwood Survival Zombies map, with Endgame going free-to-play for a limited period.

Ultimately, Treyarch's only real option was to accelerate the event or watch the Strider 300 circulate freely for three days before its intended debut. Pulling the trigger early resolved the imbalance and gave the player base two additional days with a sniper that was built to reshape Season 3 long-range engagements.