How to use prestige keys in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

A new feature introduced in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is the Prestige Shop. The shop allows you to spend prestige keys earned by entering different prestige ranks in the game. It offers hundreds of nostalgic calling cards and emblems from Call of Duty history.

Every time you enter a new prestige you will earn one prestige key. Your first prestige key is unlocked by simply reaching level 55. Every key after that will require fifty more levels, and that can take a while to progress through. On average, you should expect a full prestige without double XP to take around 13 hours of playtime. However, this can be shortened to around 10 hours if you’re playing well enough in objective game modes. This is comparable to that of many older CoD games.

How to access the Black Ops Cold War Prestige Shop

So, you’ve reached first prestige and want to know where to use your new prestige key. Once your Black Ops Cold War has loaded, head over to the multiplayer section. Click on barracks and hover over progression. Among the other options, you should see the Prestige Shop as well as how many keys you currently own.

Unfortunately, many of the cosmetics in the Prestige Shop have steeper requirements than you might expect. The retro calling cards can be unlocked as soon as you’ve reached first prestige but the same cannot be said of the custom emblems. To unlock retro prestige emblems you have to reach Prestige Master at least once.

Calling cards used to be a sign of accomplishment. Their value has diminished over the years but these throwback cards are a good to way recapture the value they once had.

Prestige master is Black Ops Cold War‘s highest possible rank, and varies based on the active season. As of the current season, you’ll need to reach and finish your seventh prestige to unlock this part of the store. However, once you’ve reached Prestige Master, the shop is unlocked forever even if you don’t keep playing in later seasons. Although, you’ll only be able to spend prestige keys on emblems that are equal to or lower than your current Black Ops Cold War prestige.

If you have already reached prestige master, though, then there is plenty to pick from. Retro prestige emblems from Call of Duty 4, World at War, Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops 2, Ghosts, Advanced Warfare, Black Ops 3, Infinite Warfare, WWII, and Black Ops 4 are all available. You can even choose to unlock the zombies and Blackout-specific prestige emblems from Black Ops 3 and 4 respectively.