Warzone Season 1 Reloaded patch notes: LMG nerfs, Katt-AMR nerf, MCW buff, nukes, more

The first mid-season update of Modern Warfare 3 is finally here, bringing with it a number of notable changes to Warzone battle royale. Here are the full patch notes for Warzone Season 1 Reloaded.

The Reloaded updates of each season aren’t usually the biggest, but they normally bring about a number of notable changes alongside some fresh new content to tide things over until the next season.

Season 1 Reloaded looks set to be no different, with some big changes in both Warzone and multiplayer.

Here are the most significant changes and the full patch notes in Warzone Season 1 Reloaded.

Champion’s Quest nukes return

The nuke is back in Warzone with Season 1 Reloaded, for the first time on Urzikstan. This time, it’s slightly different, with a new win condition meaning more players can try to complete the nuke.

With the new Champion’s Quest, win 30 games total within a season OR win five consecutive matches, and “the next steps will fall into place.”

Weapon Cases

Those who played DMZ will be familiar with weapon cases. As explained by the Call of Duty dev team: “A single Weapon Case spawns in a small search area at the start of every match. Once found, the player holding the Weapon Case is marked for all enemies in the match. If a player holding the case manages to stay alive at the end of the match OR their squad exits the match using a helicopter called in by purchasing a Covert Exfil, they and their teammates earn exclusive rewards.”

Full Warzone Season 1 Reloaded patch notes

GLOBAL

The content covered in the following section pertains to all Call of Duty Modern Warfare III products including, but not limited to, Warzone.

CUSTOMIZATION

• Adjusted geometry and appearance of the Gaia and Gaia BlackCell Operator Skins in an effort to increase visibility.
• Familiar Camo in the Poison Frogs category will now appear as intended once equipped.
• Unobtainable Calling Cards are no longer displayed in the Premium category.
• Equip to All button from Battle Pass will now ensure customizations are applied in Private Match.
• Fixed an error that prevented the Endowment Direct Action Pack to be purchased.
• Resolved and issue in which several Camos failed to apply to the Holger 26 LMG. 
• Resolved an issue in which users were unable to navigate through an Operator’s skins while using a controller.
• The “Fossilized” Weapon Blueprint no longer displays inconsistent camo coverage.
• Several errors have been resolved that blocked players from equipping various Weapon Blueprints:
  • Bone Structure Weapon Blueprint for the DG-58 LSW Light Machine Gun.
  • Lethal Expression Weapon Blueprint from the Color Blocked bundle.
  • Blam Blam Weapon Blueprint from the Sketched Out: Tracer Pack.
  • Empire Guardian Blueprint from the Aztec Codex Weapon Bundle. 

WARZONE

The content covered in the following section pertains primarily to Call of Duty Warzone.

MAPS

• Night Vision Gulag New Variant
  • Players who enter the NV Gulag will be given night vision goggles when they enter the arena.
  • Players will utilize the same list of weapon loadouts as the normal gulag.
  • All existing Gulag Public Events, like “Go Again” and “Locked & Loaded”, also have a chance to occur in the NV Gulag.
  • The NV Gulag appears at random and is a rare and special occurrence.

The NV Gulag is one of the new additions to the overall Gulag experience for Warzone, complimenting the new Public Events direction. With this new entry, we are adding a Gulag experience that manifests changes to the visuals and gameplay. The NV Gulag brings opportunities for new stories and new ways of approaching the “fight” to return to the Warzone, where it’s no longer just based on who gets a visual on the other player first but who has the better positioning and the ability to disappear – a critical gameplay element in any Battle Royale. Prepare to out-position the enemy!!

• Overall Map Polish
  • In an effort to provide players with a smoother, more immersive experience, our teams have put in extensive effort towards identifying and addressing various concerns with map geometry. We’re happy to share that thus far we’ve…
    • Fixed over 50 mantle spots
    • Fixed over 50 mounting spots
    • Fixed over 150 areas affected by clipping
    • Fixed over 20 known, exploitable areas
    • Improved lighting in 43 buildings

“Part of our commitment to Warzone is the continuous monitoring of community sentiment, player engagement data, and the pursuit of fun, new experiences. Among the recent additions, Urzikstan Resurgence stands out, having garnered unprecedented engagement from a Resurgence mode on a big map. We understand that with a large, diverse player base comes varied preferences, but we prioritize introducing and rotating in modes that perform exceptionally well to ensure an enjoyable gaming experience for as many players as we can reach.”

WEAPONS

In Season 1, we witnessed a number of powerful builds across the entire spectrum of weapon classes. With this update, we’re taking a close look at some of the notable standouts, while giving some much needed attention to those which might need help. In an update coming in the near future, we’ll also be shipping additional changes to the MTZ Interceptor (MWIII) and reducing the medium-to-long range viability of the WSP Swarm (MWIII).

Assault Rifle

• Holger 556 (MWIII)
  • Max Damage increased to 35, up from 32
• M13B (MWII)
  • Max Damage reduced to 23, down from 25
  • Near-Mid Damage reduced to 21, down from 24
  • Min Damage reduced to 19, down from 22
• MCW (MWIII)
  • Max Damage increased to 28, up from 24
  • Near-Mid Damage increased to 24, up from 20
  • 16.5” MCW Cyclone Long Barrel
    • Damage range benefits reduced by 6%
    • Velocity benefits reduced by 7%
    • Hip fire and tac-stance penalty reduced by 5%
    • Sprint to Fire penalty increased by 1%
  • RB Regal Heavy Stock
    • Gun kick benefit reduced by 11%
    • Horizontal and vertical benefit reduced by 5%
    • Mobility penalties increased by 3%
    • Sprint to Fire penalty increased by 1%

Battle Rifle

• MTZ 762 (MWIII) 
  • Max Damage reduced to 42, down from 45
  • Near-Mid Damage reduced to 38, down from 42
  • Min Damage reduced to 34, down from 37

Light Machine Gun

• Bruen MK9 (MWIII)
  • Max Damage reduced to 28, down from 32
  • Min Damage reduced to 26, down from 28
• DG LSW (MWIII)
  • Max Damage reduced to 29, down from 33
  • Min Damage reduced to 27, down from 29
• Puleymont AMP (MWIII)
  • Max Damage reduced to 38, down from 40
  • Min Damage reduced to 34, down from 36
• TAQ Eradicator (MWIII)
  • Max Damage reduced to 28, down from 33
  • Min Damage reduced to 24, down from 25

Submachine Gun

• AMR9 (MWIII)
  • Max Damage increased to 31, up from 28
  • Near-Mid Damage increased to 27, up from 25
  • Min Damage increased to 25, up from 23
• ISO 9mm (MWII)
  • Max Damage reduced to 21, down from 24
  • Near-Mid Damage reduced to 17, down from 19
  • Mid Damage reduced to 15, down from 16
  • Far-Mid Damage reduced to 12, down from 13
• Rival-9 (MWIII)
  • Slight reduction in horizontal recoil
  • MTZ Marauder Stock
    • Fire aim stability benefit reduced by 5%
• Striker 9 (MWIII)
  • Near-Mid Damage increased to 27, up from 25
  • Min Damage increased to 23, up from 20

Sniper Rifle

• KATT-AMR (MWIII)
  • ZANG-34 Barrel
    • Damage Range Benefits reduced by 9%
    • Velocity Benefit reduced by 8%

Ammunition

• .50 Cal Spire Point Rounds
  • Damage Range Benefit increased by 2%
  • Velocity Benefit reduced by 19%
• .410 Gauge Dragon’s Breath
  • Near-Mid Damage Range reduced by 12%
  • Mid Damage Range reduced by 10%
• 12 Gauge Dragon’s Breath
  • Near-Mid Damage Range reduced by 8%
  • Mid Damage Range reduced by 10%

Laser

• SL Razorhawk Laser Light
  • Increased ADS Speed Benefit by 4.5%
  • Increased Sprint to Fire Benefit by 7%
• FSS OLE-V Laser
  • Reduced the ADS Speed Benefit by 2%
  • Reduced the Sprint to Fire Benefit by 4%
• FTAC Grimline Laser
  • Reduced the Sprint to Fire Benefit by 7%
• Verdant Hook Box Laser
  • Increased the Sprint to Fire Benefit by 3%

Muzzle

• XRK Nightfall Supressor
  • Damage Range Benefit reduced by 5.5%
  • Velocity Benefit reduced by 8%
  • Recoil Benefit reduced by 3%
  • ADS Penalty increased by 7%
  • Sprint to Fire Penalty increased by 3%

GAMEPLAY

• Champion’s Quest
  • Champion’s Quest makes its debut in Urzikstan with some new tricks up its sleeve to test the very best players in the Warzone.
  • New steps to acquire each element will push you to your limit, and keep the action hot and spicy, just the way we like it.
  • To earn Champion’s Quest tokens: Win 30 games total within a season, or 5 consecutive matches, whichever comes first!
    • Only one token can be held at a time. 
  • The previously mentioned “Steal” mechanic will arrive in a later season, details on how this works will be released alongside. Needless to say, we’re eager to see who the first victors are with this new experience. !
• Deployable Buy Stations
  • Loot underneath a Deployed Buystation will be removed to prevent overlap and difficulties interacting with the device. The radius of this removal is slightly larger than the device itself.
• Black Sites
  • We’ve updated the spawn behavior of Black Sites so that they’re more focused towards the center of a circle.
  • By proxy, this should fix an issue where Black Sites would shut down too fast by being in the Gas earlier than intended.
• Ziplines
  • Improved the ability to interact and attach to Ziplines. 
  • Changed interaction behavior to allow Players to loot items on the ground near a Zipline.
• Tracker Grenade
  • Fixed an issue with the Tracker Grenade incorrectly showing up as a Snapshot grenade on the loot card.
• Underwater Rebreather
  • Fixed an issue with the rebreather that would make using it more difficult. The item should now have all 4 of its charges available from the start.
• Vehicle Respawn
  • Vehicles will now respawn after being destroyed.
• Covert Exfil and Weapon Case Update
  • Stay tuned for further details on the previously announced Covert Exfil and Weapon Case features, set for release in future.

PERKS

• E.O.D. 
  • E.O.D. will now clamp damage to 120, down from 150.
• Quick Fix
  • Fixed an issue preventing health regeneration to occur after inserting an Armor Plate.

KILLSTREAKS

• Bomb Drone
  • Increasing the warning range to 14 meters, up from 6 meters.

UI/UX

• Altitude Arrow Improvements Quality of Life
  • We’ve made improvements to the way that altitude arrows appear above and below icons on the mini map and tac map to help players better navigate their way towards objectives.

AUDIO

Our audio team has been diligently working on making adjustments to the audio experience in Warzone. In addition to the changes outlined below, we are actively exploring further improvements, with some planned for parachutes in an upcoming season.

• Audio Occlusion
  • Improvements have been made to audio occlusion on Urzikstan.
• Plane Audio
  • Adjustments have been made to the audio on the Infil/Exfil airplane.
• Music Channels
  • Adjusted cinematic music so that it is no longer entirely on gameplay channels, rather than cine.
• Allied Sounds
  • Reduced the volume of friendly Slides, Jumps and Lands to better distinguish between friendly and enemy behavior.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed an issue that allowed Players to clip through geometry while using a Ziplines or Ascender.
• Fixed an issue causing a player to get stuck in a loop and preventing them from being revived if they were downed while plating.
• Fixed an issue preventing equipped Gulag tokens from awarding cash when the Gulag closes.
• Fixed an issue that allowed Loadout duplication if a player left a match.
• Fixed an issue preventing Bomb Drones from appearing on the mini map or tac map.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the squad widget from updating correctly when a player leaves.
• Fixed an issue causing the train and cash drop icons to be missing from the tac map in Urzikstan Resurgence.
• Fixed an issue where players matchmaking in uneven party sizes would not see each other in the squad widget.
• Fixed an issue causing player statistics to not track properly if they left a match prior to the end of the Exfil sequence.
• Fixed an issue causing active players to be kicked out of Plunder matches for wrongly being flagged as AFK.
• Fixed an issue causing inconsistent behavior when dropping ammo types from inventory.
• Fixed an issue causing a delay for the loot crate markers to appear after picking up a Scavenger Contract.
• Fixed an issue with Scavenger caches causing the mission to select cache locations too close to one another.
• Fixed an issue causing incorrect descriptions to appear for some Perks.
• Fixed an issue preventing vehicles from respawning in a match.
• Fixed an issue preventing the maps in the rotation playlist from appearing on the menu.
• Fixed various issues causing players to encounter dev errors or unspecified client crashes while attempting to play Battle Royale modes.
• Fixed an issue causing doors on certain buildings to behave erratically.
• Fixed an issue causing Black Site keys to spawn in unintended modes.
• Fixed an issue causing Stronghold loot caches to spawn in unintended locations.
• Fixed an issue preventing Faculty from causing a delay to Cluster Mine and Suppression Mine activation.
• Fixed an issue preventing players from choosing to stow select items while the Backpack was full.
• Fixed an issue causing an incorrect number of equipped and reserve Armor Plates to appear while spectating a player.
• Fixed an issue preventing Elimination Bounty targets from appearing on the Mini Map.
• Fixed an issue preventing the party leader from joining a match despite the rest of the party successfully doing so.
• Fixed an issue with Backpack navigation and management while it was full.
• Fixed an issue causing players to spawn into a match with a loadout different from the one selected in the live lobby.
• Fixed an issue causing players to be redeployed under the map in Resurgence Modes.
• Fixed an issue causing some weapon models to disappear while aiming down sights.
• Fixed an issue with the number of available charges after deploying the Rebreather Field Upgrade.
• Fixed an issue causing all Voice Chat to be disabled even if the player has it enabled. 
• Fixed an issue causing squad widget information icons to overlap with the health bar.
• Fixed an issue that was wrongly awarding players the Pacifist accolade.
• Fixed an issue allowing players to skip animations while using the Portable Redeploy Drone.
• Fixed an issue causing Ping markers on the compass at the top of the player screen to appear under the compass text.
• Fixed an issue allowing the Heartbeat Sensor to be used after the battery is depleted.
• Fixed an issue with text overlap on the menu for challenges and tokens.
• Fixed an issue causing the Gas Mask HUD effect to remain on screen after stowing or unequipping the Gas Mask.
• Fixed an issue that caused players to lose the Gulag match despite successfully using the vertical ascender during overtime.
• Fixed an issue causing playlist buttons to queue a player for modes other than the intended one.
• Fixed an issue preventing the countdown sound and text from appearing in the live lobby.
• Fixed an issue causing a dev error when attempting to rejoin a Private Match.
• Fixed an issue causing incorrect player levels to appear on Calling Cards after having been eliminated.
• Fixed an issue causing Field Upgrades to disappear while looted during an active DDOS.
• Fixed an issue causing missing or incorrect Mode names in the Private Match menu.
• Fixed several issues causing clipping or improper placement of weapon parts while in an Operator’s hands.
• Fixed several issues with improper texture or model behavior for various Operators and Vehicles.
• Fixed an issue causing improper floating loot card overlap.
• Fixed several issues with weapon Blueprint textures and lighting.
• Fixed an issue causing incorrect or missing text while sending whispers via the social menu.
• Fixed an issue in the leaderboard causing “Highest Winstreak” to appear as “Highest Killstreak”.
• Fixed an issue preventing the progress bar from appearing during a Data Heist Public Event.
• Fixed an issue causing the menu to perform poorly or occasionally black screen.
• Fixed an issue that would kick the player back to the main menu while navigating Operator selection.
• Fixed an issue causing assimilation options to appear on the ping wheel while a player was downed.
• Fixed an issue causing extended respawn times in the live lobby following multiple deaths.
• Fixed an issue causing weapon reserve ammunition to appear on the Gunsmith menu.
• Fixed an issue that would cause unintended behavior during infil if a player was previously tethered to an ascender.
• Fixed an issue causing Plate Carriers to appear in game as Armor Vests.