Call of Duty Season 3 is officially live in Vanguard, bringing a new battle pass, multiplayer map, operators, and new weapons to unlock. The big update also adds a surprisingly fancy melee weapon as a free weapon unlock. Here's how you can unlock Season 3's Skal Crusher.

　　

How to unlock the Skal Crusher

Season 3's Skal Crusher is a Norse-themed axe with Nordic runes engraved into the wooden handle and a glowing blue pattern on the blade. The weapon works much like Season 2 Reloaded's Ice Axe, as the weapon can be swung like a traditional melee weapon, or it can be thrown and and retrieved.

　　This weapon can be unlocked for free through in-game challenges. Normally, new weapons arrive as a plain base model, and weapon blueprints can be purchased as an additional way to unlock the weapon. However, the Skal Crusher seems to be uniquely designed like a weapon blueprint, and it's uncertain if other variants of the axe will become available in store bundles.

　　

Warzone unlock challenge

Warzone unlock challenge for the Skal CrusherTo unlock the Skal Crusher by playing Warzone, you must get five kills with a melee weapon in a single match 15 times. This might be best completed in a respawn playlist like Caldera Clash, which is more of a large-scale Team Deathmatch mode in Warzone. Rebirth Resurgence is another good playlist choice with respawn.

　　Note: Warzone's weapon unlocks require you to complete the matches to get credit towards your challenge progression.

　　

Vanguard multiplayer challenge

Vanguard's multiplayer unlock challenge for the Skal CrusherVanguard's multiplayer unlock is the same as Warzone's challenge, you must get five kills with a melee weapon in a single match 15 times. This is a pretty straightforward challenge for multiplayer, but it might be best attempted on small maps like Shipment that offer frequent engagements.

　　Note: Vanguard's multiplayer weapon unlocks require you to complete the matches to get credit towards your challenge progression.

　　

Zombies challenge

Zombies unlock challenge for the Skal CrusherFor Zombies, you'll need to kill 200 Boom-Schreiers using a throwing knife or thrown melee weapons.

　　Boom-Schreiers are the suicide-bomber enemy types in Vanguard Zombies. This is a tedious challenge that will likely take multiple matches of Zombies to complete, but Boom-Schreiers do spawn more heavily in the later rounds. You'll need to be quick enough to throw either the throwing knives or the Ice Axe melee weapon at the Boom-Schreiers before they can rush and explode near you.

　　How you choose to complete this challenge will depend on your game mode preference, but the overall fastest and easiest way to unlock the Skal Crusher will be through Vanguard's multiplayer challenge.

　　If you're still needing to grab the weapons from last season, we have a guide to help you unlock the Ice Axe melee weapon and the Armaguerra 43 submachine gun from Season 2 Reloaded.