The Season 4 Reloaded update goes live in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Warzone on June 25, and the midseason patch notes reveal major changes for both games. These adjustments include weapon tuning, Zombies map improvements, and Endgame fixes. However, the most impactful portion of the patch notes revolve around major gameplay changes for Warzone’s various modes, including adjustments to supply boxes, Hot Zones, and various equipment.
Content-wise, Season 4 Reloaded is themed as Call of Duty’s Summer of Action update. Award-winning actor Nicolas Cage gets his own operator and limited-time event. There are two more weapons, a brand-new Zombies map, and a summer-themed makeover for Warzone’s Rebirth Island. New challenges, game modes, and multiplayer maps are also included.
Nicolas Cage operator skin
Major highlights from the update can be found below. The full patch notes for Season 4 Reloaded patch are on Activision’s blog for both Black Ops 7 and Warzone.
Multiplayer weapon balancing
Treyarch reveals this midseason update focuses on small adjustments to some of Black Ops 7’s post-launch guns. This weapon tuning nerfs some of the game’s dominant weapons, with focuses on the Voyak KT-3 assault rifle, Kogot-7 submachine gun, and Warden 308 marksman rifle.
The Voyak KT-3 has reduced damage range and increased recoil to make it less dominant over other assault rifles. The widely popular Kogot-7 now has a nerfed damage range and rebalanced base damage, reducing its power at range. The Warden 308 has been a powerful one-shot kill, so Treyarch has reduced the damage ranges and rebalanced some of the damage multipliers so that one-shot kills are less likely.
Zombies map adjustments
Totenreich Zombies map
For Totenreich, the update addresses an issue where the cell door in the Group 935 Genetic Lab would not open after reloading a save. It also fixes an issue where zombies may not appear during the death scene at the end of Richtofen’s Quest.
Additionally, all of the maps receive adjustments to correct unspecified visual and collision issues.
Several Endgame fixes
Season 4 Reloaded includes several fixes for Endgame. This update corrects various issues with the pathing and behavior of the Zursa enemy type, and it fixes a bug that could cause Dr. Falkner to get stuck below the map.
It also addresses an issue where gear drops would spawn Fears too infrequently, slowing down progression in the Operation Broken Mirror act of missions.
Warzone Ranked Play restrictions
Warzone’s Ranked Play mode is restricting two weapons attachments from competitive play. The XR-3 Ion sniper rifle’s Vulcan Minigun underbarrel and the DS20 Mirage’s Dual Fire Kit underbarrel can no longer be equipped to Ranked Play loadouts.
“We are taking additional time to evaluate the impact of these new attachments in standard playlists before considering them for Ranked Play,” the developer says.
Warzone gameplay changes
The new summer-themed makeover for Rebirth Island
Warzone’s supply boxes will now disable in the gas, and this change affects all game modes. This means that players can no longer interact with supply boxes located “deep within the gas.”
Raven Software discusses this change by saying, “Looting deep in the gas was creating unintended gameplay patterns and disproportionately rewarding players who remained outside the playable area. This change places greater emphasis on positioning and encourages squads to contest resources within active combat zones.”
The developer also lists the distance at which players are considered “deep in the gas,” which now scales based on the current circle.
Circle 1: 40m (unchanged)
Circle 2: 30m
Circle 3 and later: 25m
Additionally, Hot Zone loot is getting adjustments for battle royale and Resurgence modes. These changes includes the following:
Hot Zones across all maps now have a chance to spawn a gas mask as ground loot
Hot Zones across all maps, excluding Rebirth Island, now have an increased chance to contain legendary supply crates
Haven’s Hollow has an additional increased chance for legendary supply crates to appear
To offset these improvements, the overall number of legendary supply crates outside of Hot Zones has been slightly reduced
Added as a quality-of-life change, Warzone’s Gulag will now have dynamic wait times. This means players waiting in the Gulag without finding an opponent will now receive a free redeploy faster as the match progresses.
The wait times are as follows:
Circle 1: 95 seconds (unchanged)
Circle 2: 65 seconds
Circle 3 and later: 45 seconds
Warzone equipment nerfs
Warzone’s Rebirth Island
Season 4 Reloaded brings nerfs to some of the powerful equipment in Warzone.
The Point Turret has been drastically reduced with the following changes:
Reduced target acquisition range from 25m to 18m
Increased target acquisition delay from 0.3 seconds to 1 second
Reduced the maximum number of simultaneously deployed Point Turrets from 2 to 1
Stims are a popular way to play aggressively and make gas plays, but the developer is reducing the health regeneration of stims by 40% while inside the gas.
Raven Software says, “Stims were allowing players to survive in the gas for extended periods and enabling strategies that circumvented intended circle pressure. Reducing their effectiveness while in the gas reinforces the importance of positioning while preserving their utility during combat.”
The Grappling Hook is also nerfed with the update, which includes the following reductions:
Reduced maximum movement speed by 15%
Reduced early-detach vertical speed boost by 25%
Reduced early-detach momentum retention from 75% to 70%
Reduced early-detach maximum speed by 25%
Warzone weapon balancing
A few guns get improved for Season 4 Reloaded. Most notably, the MK35 ISR assault rifle and the Sturmwolf 45 submachine gun both receive a damage-range buff. The recently added VX Compact assault rifle gets a damage-range buff and improved bullet velocity.
