A new update has arrived to Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Warzone on February 13, and the patch notes detail weapon balancing across both games. These weapon adjustments include changes to sniper rifles and light machine guns, as well as tuning of specific gun attachments.
Season 2 went live in Call of Duty on February 5, but the patch notes didn’t include the usual weapon balancing pass typically found in seasonal updates. Instead, Treyarch saved the gun changes for this new update, which focuses on various guns and attachments.
For Black Ops 7’s multiplayer and Zombies, the update includes a notable buff for the DS20 Mirage assault rifle. This increases the damage range for the gun, and it also makes improvements to the weapon’s 17.1″ Abdicator Barrel attachment, allowing for less recoil penalty when it’s equipped.
Light machine guns get adjustments across the entire class. The overpowered MK.78 light machine gun gets a decrease to its damage range, while the other LMGs receive improvements to make them more competitive. The developer says it made several changes to the attachments for the Sokol 545 and XM325 light machine guns to provide better handling and mobility, which should allow for more aggressive play.
For sniper rifles, the patch notes detail several attachment changes to make these guns less powerful.
“There has been a lot of discussion over the past weeks about sniper rifles being too powerful, and we have seen a similar story in our data,” Treyarch says. “We are making two broad changes that target flinch and the Strelok Laser.”
The popular Strelok Laser has previously provided snipers with improved aim-down-sight speeds and accuracy, but Treyarch says the attachment will now take longer to improve the spread when transitioning from hip-fire to ADS.
Flinch is also increasing for snipers. The developer said it didn’t add flinch to the base weapons, but instead adjusted the attachments used for providing flinch resistance.
“As a result, reaching the same low flinch values requires more attachments and competes directly with some popular handling attachments,” Treyarch says.
Other various changes are detailed for multiplayer, including a fix for an issue where the HKDS killstreak would not deploy and the drones would remain floating above the map.
The update also addresses an audio issue that had players unable to hear jumping, sliding, or walking sound effects for both Props and Hunters in Prop Hunt mode. A similar audio issue was corrected for a bug affecting players equipped with the Ninja perk.
Multiplayer’s Ranked Play is designed to follow the same rule set as the pros in the Call of Duty League, so a few restrictions have been made to the mode.
These include the following bans:
- All assault rifle muzzles
- Rapid-Fire fire mod attachments
- Flashbang tactical equipment
- RC-XD in Search and Destroy (in addition to it being currently restricted in respawn modes)
- Sniper aim assist has been disabled in Ranked Play to match new settings being used in Call of Duty League matches
Additionally, the above Ranked Play Restrictions adjustments will require existing Ranked Play loadouts to be reset.
For Zombies, there are fixes for Season 2’s Mars survival map. These include an issue where a Ravager could get stuck outside of the playspace and prevent the round from progressing, and an instance where players could leave the playspace during low gravity when hit by Uber Klaus.
Warzone’s patch notes also detail some Ranked Play: Resurgence restrictions. This includes a ban on the following:
- Shotguns
- Psych grenades
- C4
- Shock Sticks
The developer says more Warzone-specific weapon balancing will arrive with a later update, but the patch details a few changes from multiplayer that also apply to battle royale. These include the attachment changes for the Sokol 545 and XM325 light machine guns to provide better handling and mobility. The update also adds more flinch to sniper rifles in Warzone by adjusting the flinch resistance provided by attachments.
The patch notes can be found below for both Black Ops 7 and Warzone, as shared by Activision.
BLACK OPS 7 GLOBAL
Weapons: Multiplayer and Zombies
Season 02 weapon tuning brings Sniper Rifle and LMG adjustments, improvements to a handful of individual weapons and their Prestige Attachments, and a slew of other general attachment changes.
One frequent change in these notes is a recoil reduction to a large chunk of the Damage Barrels in the portfolio as well as several Rapid Fire improvements. In both cases, these are attachments with steep downsides that have seen low usage so far, so we’re adjusting them to either be less punishing or more rewarding.
SMGs
We’ve wanted to make a folding stock for a while now, so it’s been great seeing the launch of the REV-46 and the folded vs. unfolded debate (the correct answer is both every respawn, by the way). Overall we’re happy with where the weapon is sitting, and we’re keeping tabs on how all the stock configurations are performing. We do have some minor damage adjustments that slightly improve the headshot potential in the first Mid Damage Range, and also improve the Damage Barrel. Note that the Max Damage adjustment does not affect the hits to kill.
The Prestige and Weekly Challenge Reward attachments for the MPC-25 offer two very different directions to build the weapon in. We think the two paths are interesting, but haven’t quite been strong enough to make most players pick them over the default weapon. The Prestige Barrel is receiving another range and recoil improvement, so that it really feels like a step up in stability and mid-range accuracy. The Weekly Challenge Reward laser’s range penalty was feeling too heavy for most players, so we’ve significantly reduced it.
LMGs
The LMGs (aside from the MK.78, more on that one below…) are receiving improvements to quite a few attachments, mostly focused on handling and mobility. The Parallel Foregrip (Crossbar) is also getting some buffs, as this attachment has been lower in usage and should help LMGs play a bit more aggressively.
In addition to the general LMG changes, the Sokol 545 is receiving a neck damage multiplier as another small improvement to its power. The Belt Fed magazine will also take longer to overheat when sustaining fire.
Sokol 545 Attachment Adjustments
- 18.2″ Parlous Heavy Barrel
- Now also has a 1.35x Neck multiplier.
- Envoy Foregrip
- Movement Speed improvement increased by 0.1m/s.
- Sprinting Movement Speed improvement increased by 0.1m/s.
- Parallel Foregrip
- No longer harms Recoil Gun Kick & Vertical Recoil Control.
- ADS Spread improved from 1.75 degrees to 1.45 degrees.
- Samarskiy Overdive Belt
- Now takes longer to overheat.
- Pythian-VI Grip
- Aim Down Sight Time improvement increased from 65ms to 75ms.
- Eldritch Ergo Grip
- Aim Down Sight Time improvement increased from 35ms to 45ms.
- Echidna Aim Stock
- ADS Movement Speed improvement increased by 0.1m/s.
- Callow Mix Stock
- ADS Movement Speed improvement slightly increased.
- Voda Flounce Stock
- Movement Speed improvement increased by 0.1m/s.
- Sprinting Movement Speed improvement increased by 0.1m/s.
- Taction Control Stock
- Vertical Recoil Control improvement increased from 15% to 21%.
- Horizontal Recoil Control improvement increased from 15% to 21%.
- Recoil Gun Kick improvement increased from 15% to 21%.
- 1mW Instinct Laser Array
- Aim Down Sight Time improvement increased from 13ms to 17ms.
MK.78
The MK.78 has been very strong throughout the past season. Part of this is the excellent range, and another factor has been the Prestige magazine, which has not been working completely as intended. The Belt Fed on the MK.78 is designed around the spray-and-pray LMG fantasy, and part of the balancing factor was sacrificing long range accuracy through ADS Spread. Prior to this update that ADS Spread was missing, but it will now be taking effect.
Additionally, we’ve made two damage adjustments. In the Max Damage Range, players will now need two headshots to reduce the hits to kill on the weapon. The MK.78 will also falloff in hits to kill at the Mid Damage Range now, but only one headshot is required to improve that.
XM325
Attachment Adjustments
- 18″ RistRauch S-100 Barrel
- Aim Down Sight Time improvement increased from 20ms to 24ms.
- 19.3″ R-556 Chief Barrel
- Vertical Recoil Control penalty reduced from 45% to 30%.
- Recoil Gun Kick penalty reduced from 43% to 29%.
- Strider Handstop
- Movement Speed improvement increased by 0.1m/s.
- ADS Movement Speed improvement increased by 0.1m/s.
- Parallel Foregrip
- No longer harms Recoil Gun Kick & Vertical Recoil Control.
- ADS Spread improved from 1.45 degrees to 1.25 degrees.
- Wessi Fast Belt
- Aim Down Sight Time improvement increased from 10ms to 20ms.
- Rist Rauch Recon Stock
- ADS Movement Speed improvement increased by 0.2m/s.
- 2R-Mobility Stock
- ADS Movement Speed improvement increased by 0.1m/s.
- RX-7 Shock Stock
- Vertical Recoil Control improvement increased from 15% to 21%.
- Horizontal Recoil Control improvement increased from 15% to 21%.
- Recoil Gun Kick improvement increased from 15% to 21%.
- 1mW Instinct Laser Array
- Aim Down Sight Time improvement increased from 15ms to 20ms.
Sniper Rifle
There has been a lot of discussion over the past weeks about Sniper Rifles being too powerful, and we have seen a similar story in our data. We are making two broad changes that target flinch and the Strelok Laser. We like this approach because flinch provides counterplay and hitting the laser increases the time to land an accurate shot without making ADS slower and clunkier.
The Strelok Laser will now take longer to start and finish improving spread during the transition to ADS. More details on that below. For the flinch, rather than increase the base value on all snipers, we’ve instead redistributed flinch resistance improvements across attachments. The previous sources of flinch resistance in the stock and underbarrel/comb nodes have had their values reduced, and new flinch resistance benefits can be found on a barrel and a rear grip. As a result, reaching the same low flinch values requires more attachments and competes directly with some popular handling attachments.
5mw Lockstep Laser (Strelok Laser) Adjustment
Hip to ADS spread now starts tightening at 50% of ADS transition and reaches perfect accuracy at 100% of ADS transition. Previously the attachment started tightening at the beginning of the ADS transition and reached perfect accuracy at 90% of ADS transition. For comparison, base sniper spread starts tightening at 80% of ADS transition and reaches perfect accuracy at 100% of ADS transition.
Hawker HX
In addition to the general Sniper changes, the Hawker is receiving a small adjustment to its ADS Speed.
Hawker HX Adjustments
- Aim Down Sight Time increased from 510ms to 520ms.
Attachment Adjustments
- 27.4″ Teleos Range Barrel
- Now also improves Flinch Resistance by 15%.
- Knitline Focus Grip
- Flinch Resistance improvement reduced from 35% to 20%.
- Hawker Syncretic Grip
- Now also improves Flinch Resistance by 20%.
- Hawker Steadfast Stock
- Flinch Resistance improvement reduced from 45% to 25%.
- Requiem-ZW Stock
- Flinch Resistance improvement reduced from 25% to 15%.
VS Recon
Attachment Adjustments
- 24.9″ Domain Barrel
- Now also improves Flinch Resistance by 15%.
- VS Poise Grip
- Now also improves Flinch Resistance by 20%.
- Stabil Heavy Pad
- Flinch Resistance improvement reduced from 45% to 20%.
- Outpost Raider Pad
- Flinch Resistance improvement reduced from 17% to 12%.
Shadow SK
Attachment Adjustments
- 22.4″ Strand Barrel
- Now also improves Flinch Resistance by 10%.
- EMT3 Vanquish Riser
- Flinch Resistance improvement reduced from 17% to 10%.
- Freehold Control Grip
- Now also improves Flinch Resistance by 15%.
- Friction Stock
- Flinch Resistance improvement reduced from 30% to 15%.
- Flourish Full Stock
- Flinch Resistance improvement reduced from 15% to 10%.
XR-3 Ion
Attachment Adjustments
- 21″ LTI Infinity Barrel
- Now also improves Flinch Resistance by 15%.
- 15″ Fringe Barrel
- Aim Down Sight Time improvement increased from 20ms to 33ms.
- 19″ Revolution Barrel
- Now also has1.2x Lower Torso and Lower Arm multipliers.
- Stalwart-5 Handguard
- Flinch Resistance improvement reduced from 35% to 20%.
- Phantom-V Fast Mag
- Aim Down Sight Time improvement increased from 15ms to 23ms.
- Lethal Absorb Stock
- Flinch Resistance improvement reduced from 45% to 25%.
- Lightshield Stock
- Flinch Resistance improvement reduced from 25% to 15%.
- L9 Vertigo Grip
- Now also improves Flinch Resistance by 20%.
- L.T. Sling Grip
- Aim Down Sight Time improvement increased from 40ms to 55ms.
- Transit Ion Grip
- Aim Down Sight Time improvement increased from 20ms to 30ms.
- 1mW Instinct Laser Array
- Aim Down Sight Time improvement increased from 17ms to 27ms.
Pistols
Velox 5.7
5.2″ Anvil Barrel Adjustments
- Vertical Recoil Control penalty reduced from 50% to 30%.
- Recoil Gun Kick penalty reduced from 49% to 30%.
Enhanced Cycle System Adjustment
- Fire Rate improvement increased from 4% to 7%.
CODA 9
4.9” Omen Barrel Adjustments
- Vertical Recoil Control penalty reduced from 50% to 30%.
- Recoil Gun Kick penalty reduced from 49% to 30%.
Bolt Carrier Group Adjustments
- Fire Rate improvement increased from 7% to 12%.
- Horizontal Recoil Control penalty reduced from 25% to 20%.
Launchers
A.R.C. M1
General Adjustments
- Addressed an issue preventing the low ammo warning from displaying.
Special Weapons
GDL Havoc
The GDL Havoc was initially designed as a trap weapon that could enable a brand-new playstyle in Black Ops 7. As we prototyped the weapon and experimented with various detonation delay designs, we were also finding a ton of fun in the airburst potential. Rather than a hybrid of the two behaviors, we decided to go all in on the airburst for the Prestige Attachment, which allows us to balance the two separately.
As with any explosive weapon, we are mindful of the spam potential with the GDL Havoc. The goal is to provide a fun, alternative playstyle that feels rewarding to master, not create a meta launcher. We’ve made some reserve ammo reductions, so that resupplies through Scavenger or an Assault Pack are a bit more prevalent. We have also made minor reductions to the Prestige Attachment explosion radius.
General Adjustments
- Reduced reserve ammo by 4.
Additional MFS Airstrike Mag Adjustments
- Reduced reserve ammo by 8.
Aberrant Grip Adjustment
- No longer improves Sprinting Movement Speed.
Gunsmith
- Addressed an issue when creating multiple Weapon Builds from the same Blueprint.
UI
- Addressed an issue where the Camo Challenge menu would show 15/16 Camos unlocked for a weapon when a player had unlocked all Camos for that weapon.
- Addressed an issue where attempting to use a Permanent Unlock would take the player to the Weekly Challenges menu.
- Addressed an issue that prevented the showcase operator from changing.
MULTIPLAYER
Maps
- Scar
- Smoothed collision above the General Store that provided an advantageous sightline of Main Street.
- Sake
- Addressed an issue where bullets could go through some walls in Crate Yard and Production.
- Den
- Addressed an issue where bullets could go through a wall in Courtyard.
- Exposure
- Smoothed some collision in Water Pipes that provided an advantageous sightline of Drone.
Modes
- Overload
- Addressed an issue where it was possible to score and drop the device at the same time.
- Safeguard
- Addressed an issue where the first explosion from a Napalm Strike would not do damage to the robot.
- Addressed an issue where the Strategic Bomb would not do damage to the robot. (Fixed Feb 6)
- Addressed an issue where the robot health bar could be difficult to read when aiming at it.
- Addressed an issue where Launchers would sometimes not deal damage to the robot. (Fixed Feb 6)
Perks
- Ninja
- Addressed an issue that prevented players with Ninja equipped from hearing the footsteps of other players where applicable.
Field Upgrade
- Mute Field
- Duration extension on kill increased from 7 to 8.25 seconds
- Drone Pod
- Hardcore damage scaling reduced from 1.0x to 0.25x
Squad Link is intended to be a rallying point around which a team can fight more effectively and earn extra score. Instead, it is frequently hidden in a team’s spawn area, generating passive score as allies spawn in. To shift the Squad Link closer to its intended use, we have removed the owner’s “Ally Linked” score event when friendlies enter its radius. Score generation potential remains high however, especially when Overclocked.
- Squad Link
- Removed the “Ally Linked” score event.
- Charge time increased from 2.7 to 3 minutes.
Scorestreaks
- HKDS
- Addressed a rare issue where some HKDS would not deploy and would remain floating above the map.
Challenges
- Addressed an issue where the Raptor Camo for the A.R.C. M1 would still progress when the player took damage.
Audio
- Addressed an audio issue where players were unable to hear jumping, sliding, or walking sound effects for both Props and Hunters in Prop Hunt. This issue also affected other MP modes if a player in the lobby had the Ninja perk equipped.
Stability
- Added various stability fixes.
RANKED PLAY
Restrictions Update
- Restricted the following content to more closely match CDL Pro GAs:
- All Assault Rifle Muzzles
- Rapid Fire Fire Mod Attachments
- Flashbang Tactical Equipment
- RC-XD in Search & Destroy (in addition to it being currently restricted in respawn modes).
- Sniper Aim Assist has been disabled in Ranked Play to match new settings being used in Call of Duty League matches.
- The above Ranked Play Restrictions adjustments will require existing Ranked Play loadouts to be reset.
Ranked Play Modes
- General
- Adjusted how often Search & Destroy and Overload are chosen in Ranked Play for more balanced selection between those two modes.
- Addressed an issue that resulted in Overload always being chosen if both teams vetoed Search & Destroy during the Lobby Veto Vote. The Veto Vote will now randomly choose between remaining options as expected if both teams Veto the same option (or only one team Vetoes).
- CDL Overload
- Removed Overload Device Carrier UAV to match CDL Overload Rules.
Competitive Integrity
- Players can no longer accept Game Invites from other players while in an ongoing Ranked match.
Lobby
- Addressed an issue that was causing players to occasionally get stuck in a lobby and unable to quit or proceed into a match.
UI
- Addressed an issue that was causing CDL Pro Top 250 Profiles to not appear for players in positions #101+ on the Top 250 Leaderboard.
- Addressed an issue that was causing the XP Match Bonus to not appear correctly after matches.
- Addressed an issue in Hardpoint where the time widgets for the current and next Hardpoint would overlap.
ZOMBIES
Modes
- Survival
- Mars
- Addressed an issue where a Ravager could get stuck outside of the playspace preventing the round from progressing.
- Addressed an issue where players could leave the playspace during low gravity when hit by Uber Klaus.
- Mars
- Dead Ops Arcade
- Addressed an issue that prevented players from taking damage from Hellhound fire.
Field Upgrades
- Addressed an issue that prevented Caltheris from being slowed by Toxic Growth.
- Addressed a resurfaced bug where “Extra Charge” reduced kill requirements for some Field Upgrades, making it stronger than intended with the recent Full Power buff.
Support
- Addressed an issue where the War Machine had a portion of its ammo in reserves.
Challenges
- Addressed an issue where the Week 1 Weekly Challenge “Revive 1 Teammates using a Pack-a-Punch’d Ballistic Knife” was not tracking correctly.
- Addressed an issue that prevented the Doomsteel Camo Challenge from progressing correctly.
- Addressed an issue that could prevent the Dark Ops Calling Card Challenge “Another Round” from tracking properly.
- Addressed an issue that prevented the Finale Calling Card Challenge from tracking properly.
- Addressed an issue that prevented the “Use Equipment to Kill Zombies” challenge from progressing with the LT53 Kazamir. (Added Feb. 6)
- Addressed an issue where players could still be awarded the Early Completion Calling Card for Astra Malorum. (Added Feb. 6)
UI
- Addressed an issue where Cursed Survival would present the player with the option to edit their loadout.
- Addressed an issue where the total amount of Field Upgrade charges available would remain after switching Field Upgrades.
Stability
- Added various stability fixes.
ENDGAME
Gameplay
- Damage dealt when using a Rhino will now scale with Combat Rating.
Challenges
- Addressed an issue where Toxic Fear enemies would not track towards multiple Challenges.
UI
- Addressed an issue where Exotic Weapons deposited in a cache would display that they had Neuro-Disruption Rounds.
- Addressed an issue where some players would be unable to switch from Anderson as their Operator.
- Addressed an issue where the player health bar and armor would overlap. (Added Feb. 6)
Stability
- Added various stability fixes.
WARZONE RANKED PLAY
Restrictions
- These have been added to the restriction list in Ranked Play: Resurgence
- Shotguns
- Psych Grenades
- C4
- Shock Sticks
WEAPONS
Weapon Adjustments
We’ve taken many of the adjustments in today’s update in Black Ops 7 Multiplayer from our partners at Treyarch. We’ll be releasing a Warzone specific weapon update soon as part of our ongoing two to three week update cycle.
BUG FIXES
- Fixed an issue preventing players from seeing the Top 250 leaderboard.
- Fixed an issue preventing players from progressing the SR Challenge for Placements.
- Fixed an issue causing a players first loadout perk to be displayed twice after picking up Specialist.
- Fixed an issue causing stuttering and freezing when a Player is being eliminated by an execution.
- Fixed an issue causing a Care Package to be empty in Loaded Resurgence.
- Fixed an issue where the Camo Challenge menu would show 15/16 Camos unlocked for a weapon when a player had unlocked all Camos for that weapon.
- Fixed an issue where attempting to use a Permanent Unlock would take the player to the Weekly Challenges menu.
- Fixed an issue that prevented the showcase operator from changing.
- Fixed an issue when creating multiple Weapon Builds from the same Blueprint.
