Season 4 of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launched strong, and the Illicit Cargo Event is one of the first live content drops keeping players busy before the mid-season Zombies map arrives. The event kicked off on June 11 at 10 AM PT and gives players across Multiplayer, Zombies, Endgame, and Warzone a structured set of camo challenges to grind through, with the returning Cherry Fizz camo from Black Ops 3 sitting at the top as the Mastery Reward.
How the Illicit Cargo Event is structured
The event follows the same format as the Escalation Directive Event from Season 2. Players complete challenges spread across four modes, and each completed challenge unlocks a camo. The Cherry Fizz camo only drops once every previous camo in the chain has been earned, making it the final Mastery Reward for players who go the distance.
Here's the breakdown of which modes feed into the event:
- Co-Op and Endgame challenges
- Multiplayer challenges
- Zombies challenges
- Warzone challenges
You are not locked into one mode. The event is designed to let players mix and match across whichever modes they prefer, which makes it accessible whether you spend most of your time in ranked Multiplayer or grinding Zombies rounds.
Unlocking the VX Compact assault rifle
The VX Compact is the new assault rifle tied to this event, and getting it requires completing a total of 9 challenges across any combination of weapon classes during the Illicit Cargo Event. You can hit that number through one mode or spread your completions across several, so the fastest path is to identify which challenges suit your playstyle and knock those out first.
Here's the key detail most players will miss: if you do not reach 9 completions before June 25, the VX Compact does not disappear permanently. It will become available through the Armory after the event ends, giving players a secondary route to add it to their arsenal. The event camos, though, have no such fallback.
What the timeline looks like from here
The event runs for exactly 14 days, closing on June 25 at 10 AM PT. That is enough time to chip away at the challenge list steadily without needing to no-life the grind, but the window is not generous enough to ignore it entirely if Cherry Fizz is on your radar.
Season 4's mid-season update is still on the horizon, bringing a new Zombies map with it. If you want a head start on the broader Season 4 content, the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 strategy guides cover everything from co-op missions to operator unlocks to help you stay ahead of the curve.
For players focused on building out their roster alongside the camo grind, the Black Ops 7 operator unlock guide breaks down all 24 operators and the fastest ways to add them. The mid-season drop is coming, and the Illicit Cargo Event is the best warm-up act available right now.
