The next major update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has arrived on March 26, and we’re here to make sure you’re up-to-date on everything there is to know.

The v1.16 update for Black Ops 4 is currently live on PlayStation 4, with the update weighing in at 11.8GB. There’s no word on when the Xbox One or PC updates will go live. 

Treyarch have revealed that the update will include major additions and changes to all four pillars of Black Ops 4 – Multiplayer, Blackout, Zombies, and League Play – the details of which can be found below. 

League Play

As far as League Play is concerned, this upcoming update includes two major things of note – new Ranks and improvements to friendly fire.

For full details on both of these changes, make sure to visit our March 26 League Play update information article, which also includes news on what else players can expect in the coming weeks, such as changes to Specialist earn rates and matchmaking improvements. 

A multitude of changes will be made to League Play in Black Ops 4, including improvements to friendly fire.

Multiplayer

Barebones Playlist

The March 26 update has introduced the brand new and highly anticipated Barebones playlist to Black Ops 4 Multiplayer. 

This playlist has several restrictions placed on key aspects of gameplay, most notable of which is that players will not be able to use Specialist equipment or abilities.

For full details on the Barebones playlist, including the full list of restrictions, modes that are available, and more, make sure to check out our Black Ops 4 Barebones info article. 

Although players play as Specialists for cosmetic purposes in Barebones, they will not be able to use any of the Specialist equipment or abilities.

Weapons Tuning

Here is all of the news regarding the March 26 weapons tuning that was shared during Treyarch’s Studio Livestream on March 25:

• SMGs will receive a slight, across-the-board buff in order to bump up their effectiveness closer to assault rifles and tactical rifles.
• Pistols will also be receiving a collective buff as players are simply “not having success” when picking them. 
• The KN-44 and ABR will be improved according to feedback from Call of Duty World League pro players, in order to improve the current meta.
• The Palladin sniper rifle will see its clip size increase by a single bullet and will now hold six rounds, although the reload speed will be slightly decreased.
• Hit detection will be improved, especially when going to and from ADS.

Every SMG will receive a slight buff in the March 26 update, including the already-powerful SAUG 9mm.

Free Weapon Crate

After the update went live, Treyarch began awarding players a free Weapons Crate that includes a MKII signature weapon and two Reserve cosmetic items.

For full details on the contents of this crate, and how to redeem yours, check out our Black Ops 4 free Weapons Crate info article. 

Blackout

The March 26 update has introduced several new additions and changes to the Blackout battle royale mode, including the Zero Specialist’s EMP grenade, the Outrider Specialist’s Sparrow weapon, and the brand new DemoHammer melee weapon.

As far as changes go, the Collapse will now inflict more damage to players to stay in the storm longer, which will patch and exploit that was allowing players to stay outside of the safe zone for a long period of time.

For more information about these new additions and changes, including in-game images and details, make sure to visit our March 26 Blackout update information article.

The new Sparrow weapon will include 10 ballistic arrows that will explode shortly after coming into contact with the environment.

Zombies

The March 26 update has kicked off the release of the brand new Ancient Evil Zombies map, which is, chronologically, the fourth map in the Chaos story.

The map, which is located in the ancient city of Delphi, Greece, features the new High Priest of Chaos, four wonder weapons inspired by Greek gods, four gauntlets (Earth, Wind, Light, and Death), the new “Zombshell” perk, new Elixirs and Talismans, and much more. 

Black Ops 4 March 26 Update Patch Notes

• General
  • Weapon tuning pass in Multiplayer, Blackout, and Zombies.
  • Reactive Camos now available on all guns (Gold camo no longer required).
  • Reduced potential max amount of flinch while not aiming down sights.
  • Fixes and improvements for Theater, Paintshop, and IU issues.
  • Stability and bug fixes in Multiplayer, World League Hub, and Zombies.
  • Free Weapon Crate with guaranteed MKII Signature Weapon now available in the Black Market (PS4).
• Multiplayer
  • Barebones game modes now live in Core and Hardcore in Multiplayer (PS4).
  • Ricochet Friendly Fire rules added to all Hardcore modes.
  • XP rewards increased for several medal events.
  • Increased score for collecting an enemy dog tag in Kill Confirmed to 100.
  • Gameplay improvements for various Specialists, Care Package, and Tactical Mask.
• Zombies
  • “Ancient Evil” now live for Black Ops Pass holders (PS4).
  • New Perk available: Zombshell (PS4).
  • New Elixirs available: Suit Up, Dividend Yield, Talkin’ Bout Regeneration, Bullet Boost, and Quacknarok (PS4).
  • New Talismans available: Glowing Phylactery and Battered Dragon Scale (PS4).
• Blackout
  • Sparrow and EMP Disruptor added.
  • Escalating Collapse damage added to counter out-healing others in the final circle.
  • Added co-pilot support for the Little Bird and the Cargo Truck.
  • Reduced glare in the Blackout map when looking toward the sun.
  • Home Wrecker melee weapon now available in Contraband Stashes (PS4).
• World League Hub
  • Added ranks 21-30.
  • Ricochet Friendly Fire rules added for all League Play matches.
  • UI and Create-a-Class improvements.

The following updates are live on PS4, with other platforms to follow:

MULTIPLAYER

• Game Modes
  • Barebones
    • Barebones added as Featured Playlist on PS4.
    • 6v6 with no Specialist Weapons, Special Issue Equipment, Gear, or Operator Mods allowed.
    • Equipment is now single-use with no cooldowns. Equipment is fully charged on each respawn.
    • Spawn Select disabled.
    • Both playlists include Team Deathmatch and Domination.
    • Core and Hardcore playlists available in Featured category.

ZOMBIES

• Maps
  • Ancient Evil
    • New “Ancient Evil” map added for Black Ops Pass holders.
• New Perk
  • Zombshell
    • Basic zombies have a chance to explode when killed, leaving behind a contamination field that slows enemies and increases damage dealt to them.
    • Modifier: Players with the modifier are ignored by zombies while standing in the contamination field. Weapon reload speed is increased.
• New Elixirs
  • Suit Up (Epic)
    • Player and nearby teammates get full Armor, which lasts until destroyed.
    • Instant activation.
  • Dividend Yield (Legendary)
    • Some of the points earned create additional bonus points for all players.
    • Instant activation. Lasts 5 minutes.
  • Talkin’ Bout Regeneration (Rare)
    • The player’s health constantly regenerates while moving.
    • Instant activation. Lasts 4 minutes.
  • Bullet Boost (Common)
    • Applies or re-rolls an alternate ammo type to the player’s current weapon (if supported). Weapon damage is not affected.
    • Instant activation.
  • Quacknarok (Classic Whimsical)
    • Zombies now wear a duck float with hilarious results.
    • Instant activation. Lasts 5 minutes.
  • NOTE: Quacknarok is a durable Elixir rather than a consumable Elixir.
• New Talismans
  • Glowing Phylactery (Epic)
    • Start the match with an extra self-revive.
  • Battered Dragon Scale (Legendary)
    • Activating your Special Weapon gives increased armor, which lasts until destroyed.
• Stability
  • Resolved an issue that rarely caused instability when signing out and back in on PS4 during a game.

BLACKOUT

• Contraband Stashes
  • Home Wrecker melee weapon now available in Contraband Stashes.

GENERAL

• Stability
  • Fixed a crash related to signing in and out of accounts on PS4.
  • Addressed an issue where players could get in a stuck state after switching accounts on the title screen.

The following updates are live on PS4 and Xbox One, with PC to follow:

MULTIPLAYER

Weapon Tuning

• Submachine Guns
  • Cordite
    • Increased sprint-out speed.
    • Extended 5-shot range from 2.5 meters 4 meters. [Console only]
  • Daemon 3XB
    • Extended 6-shot range from 8 meters to 11.5 meters.
  • MX9
    • Increased ADS-out speed.
    • Increased sprint-out speed.
  • Spitfire
    • Extended 6-shot range from 7 meters to 7.5 meters. [Console only]
  • Saug 9mm
    • Increased sprint-out speed.
  • Switchblade X9
    • Increased magazine size from 26 to 30.
    • Players now spawn with 3 extra magazines instead of 2.
• Assault Rifles
  • KN-57
    • Extended 4-shot range from 16 meters to 17 meters.
    • Extended 5-shot range from 46 meters to 57 meters.
• Tactical Rifles
  • ABR 223
    • Increased ADS-in speed.
    • Ammo increased from 30 to 36.
    • Extended 4-shot range from 32 meters to 38 meters.
• Sniper Rifles
  • Paladin HB50
    • Increased magazine size from 5 to 6.
    • Reduced reload speed.
  • SDM
    • Increased fire rate.
• Pistols
  • RK 7 Garrison
    • Increased damage. Now takes 1 less bullet to kill at all ranges.
  • Mozu
    • Extended 3-shot range from 19 meters to 24 meters.
    • Extended 4-shot range from 25 meters to 32 meters.
    • Extended 5-shot range from 32 meters to 38 meters.
  • Strife
    • Increased fire rate.

Friendly Fire

• New Friendly Fire system added to all World League and Hardcore game modes:
  • Ricochet Friendly Fire is now enabled for the first 15 seconds of a match or round.
  • After the first 15 seconds, the first 3 teamkills will be true friendly fire, where the victim will take full damage.
  • After the first 3 teamkills, any subsequent damage dealt to a teammate will ricochet back to the attacker instead of damaging the teammate.
  • Once transitioned to the Ricochet system, further Ricochet teamkills will incur an escalating respawn delay penalty.
  • The player will then be allowed 3 Ricochet teamkills before being removed from the match.
  • Damaging a teammate who is planting or defusing a bomb will ricochet damage back to the attacking teammate in World League.

XP

• Increased XP earned for all Scorestreak kills to 100 XP.
• Increased XP awarded for killing the K9-Unit to 100 XP.
• Increased XP awarded for Ice Pick Shutdown to 100 XP.
• Increased XP awarded for destroying an RC-XD to 100 XP.
• Increased XP awarded for killing a Swat Team unit to 250 XP.
• Increased XP for the Forward Position Medal to 250 XP.

Game Modes

• Kill Confirmed
  • Increased score for collecting an enemy dog tag in Kill Confirmed to 100.
• Search and Destroy
  • Addressed an issue where spectating in Search and Destroy could cause team colors to display incorrectly on the scoreboard.
• Heist
  • Addressed an issue where the end of the round pips could be on the wrong team.

Specialists

• Nomad
  • Added pathing and spawning improvements for Nomad’s K9-Unit.
  • K9-Unit now properly takes damage from Razor Wire.
• Outrider
  • Players hit by a fully-charged Sparrow shot will now properly hear the impact sound of the bolt.

Perks

• Tactical Mask
  • Players with Tactical Mask who have been downed by an enemy Tempest no longer chain to teammates after the Tempest status effect wears off.

Scorestreaks

• Care Package
  • Addressed an issue where being killed while claiming a Care Package could cause issues with controllable Scorestreaks.
  • Addressed an issue where the Care Package would not drop from the helicopter if a player called it in along the water in Madagascar.

Custom Games

• Addressed an issue where the Bonus Maps tab was not appearing in Offline Local Games.
• Fixed a crash in Custom Games related to turning the Specialist Draft off.

WORLD LEAGUE HUB

• New Ranks
  • Added Ranks 21-30 to League Play.
• UI
  • Players will now get a notification that they’ve received a Calling Card when they reach ranks that award them.
  • Rank up animations will now start at the player’s current rank instead of their final rank.
  • Players in the Top 5 will be labeled as “Top 5” instead of “Top 10” in their League Play Event results screen.
• Create-a-Class
  • Addressed an issue with restricted items appearing in Custom Classes.
  • Addressed an issue where restricted Scorestreaks could appear as selected.

BLACKOUT

Weapon Tuning

• Submachine Guns
  • Cordite
    • Increased sprint-out speed.
  • MX9
    • Increased ADS-out speed.
    • Increased sprint-out speed.
  • Saug 9mm
    • Increased sprint-out speed.
  • Switchblade X9
    • Increased magazine size from 26 to 30.
• Sniper Rifles
  • SDM
    • Increased fire rate.
• Pistols
  • RK 7 Garrison
    • Increased damage. Now takes 1 less bullet to kill at all ranges.
  • Strife
    • Increased fire rate.

Map

• Reduced glare intensity when looking toward the sun in the Blackout map.

Weapons

• Outrider’s Sparrow can now be found in Supply Stashes.

Equipment

• Zero’s EMP Disruptor grenade can now be found in the Blackout map.

Vehicles

• Added co-pilot support for the Little Bird and the Cargo Truck.
• Made improvements to Muscle Car collision to fix instances where a Muscle Car driver was unable to kill enemies.

Customization

• Addressed an issue with various camos not appearing properly on the MX9 Tactical.

Stability

• Fixed a rare crash that could occur when swapping and equipping an item.

Miscellaneous

• Re-enabled the ability to hold the Use button continuously to use multiple Armor Plates and activate Perks without needing to release the input.
• Removed blur from the Victory Screen.
• Addressed instances where characters’ lobby animations could become corrupted.
• Addressed an issue that prevented mode-specific loading screen tips from being properly displayed.
• Addressed an issue where users could find Seraph’s Annihilator inside of a Supply Stash.

ZOMBIES

Weapon Tuning

• Submachine Guns
  • Cordite
    • Increased sprint-out speed.
  • MX9
    • Increased ADS-out speed.
    • Increased sprint-out speed.
  • Saug 9mm
    • Increased sprint-out speed.
• Tactical Rifles
  • ABR 223
    • Increased ADS-in speed.
• Sniper Rifles
  • Paladin HB50
    • Reduced reload speed.
  • SDM
    • Increased fire rate.
• Pistols
  • Strife
    • Increased fire rate.

Global

• High-Round Stability
  • Fixed a rare crash that could occur when displaying certain text strings, particularly during high-round matches.
• Perks
  • Closed a Mule Kick exploit that allowed players to acquire more than one Wonder Weapon on several maps.
  • Improved the clarity of the description for the Stamin-Up Perk.
• Special Weapons
  • Addressed an issue that sometimes caused the XP bar to display an inaccurate value while charging up a weapon.
• Armory
  • Addressed an issue causing the Cordite Zero G Mastercraft menu to display incorrect visual stage information for the weapon.
• Create-A-Class
  • Addressed an issue that prevented the model preview from updating appropriately when switching between tabs in the Talisman and Elixir Menus.
• Lobby
  • Addressed an issue that prevented the Solo button from functioning until the selection was unselected and back to the button after backing out of a match.
• UI
  • Addressed an issue that caused the self-revive prompt to remain visible in the Options menu.
  • Addressed an issue that sometimes prevented a player’s name from being displayed properly while reviving.
  • Addressed an issue where Prestige Master icons remained locked after reaching the appropriate level.
• Host Migration
  • Addressed an issue that would rarely cause host migration to fail, resulting in the match ending.
  • Addressed an issue that prevented being able to join an applicable game in progress after the match had migrated hosts.
  • Addressed an issue that caused Perk icons on the HUD granted by the Perk Up Elixir to disappear after migrating hosts.
  • Addressed a rare issue that caused certain lights to turn off after migrating hosts.

Custom Games

• Stability
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when acquiring a Perk reward with all Perks disabled.
• Custom Rules
  • Addressed issues that caused several custom rules for the Enhanced AI category to function incorrectly.
  • Addressed an issue that caused the Headshots Only custom rule for basic zombies to apply to all enemy types.
  • Added better descriptions that detail which enemy types are affected by option groups in the Enemies Menu.

Miscellaneous

• Gauntlets
  • Addressed an issue that prevented rewards from being granted when players disconnected before the end of the match.
  • Addressed an issue that prevented weapons with the Kill Counter or Clan Tag attached from counting as a weapon without attachments on “Hellcatraz”.
  • Addressed an issue that rarely prevented Pack-A-Punch sound FX from playing while upgrading a weapon on “Hellcatraz”.
  • Added a HUD indicator to inform users that they cannot fire while aiming down sights with the Brazen Bull during the “Shoot From The Hip” round on “Veni, Vidi, Zombie!”
• Rush
  • Addressed an issue that caused zombies to stop spawning during the third defense location if the user was downed before the timer ran out.
• Blood of the Dead
  • Closed multiple exploits in locations that could be exploited to avoid danger from zombies.
  • Addressed an issue that caused visual FX on the Warden’s Key to stop appearing when switching targets.
  • Addressed an issue that caused loss of functionality when spawning a Spoon while the Ragnarok DG-5 was equipped.
  • Addressed an issue that caused certain boards to become unrepairable.
• Dead of the Night
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when hitting a Bat with the Ethereal Razor equipped.
• Voyage of Despair
  • Addressed an issue that prevented progression of the Portal Pass side quest when using alternate ammo types during the vent step.
  • Addressed an issue that prevented progression of the Skeleton Rider side quest if the Shields Up Elixir had been used.
• Tutorial
  • Rearranged columns on the scoreboard for consistency compared to other game modes.

GENERAL

• Flinch
  • Reduced the maximum amount of flinch a player can exhibit while not aiming down sights.
• Reactive Camos
  • Reactive Camos are now available on all guns, not only on those with Gold camo unlocked.
  • Reactive Camo starts wrapped on all guns.
  • Any weapon can be used to complete the unwrap requirement.
• Theater
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when skipping through playback of Blackout matches.
  • Fixed various crashes related to playing back Zombie Gauntlet footage.
  • Addressed an issue where facial animations could stop during playback and rewind.
  • HUD elements should no longer appear when playing back Hardcore Blackout footage.
• Mesh Mines
  • Increased the height of the Mesh Mine trace in Multiplayer and Blackout for more consistent detonations.
• Paintshop
  • Addressed an issue where the scroll indicators were cut off if the player had more than 10 paintjobs.
• UI
  • Addressed an issue in the Social menu where player Emblems and ranks weren’t displaying correctly.