The Season 4 Reloaded update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Warzone has gone live, bringing significant gameplay adjustments and new content. This midseason patch, themed as the "Summer of Action," introduces a Nicolas Cage operator and limited-time event, two new weapons, a new Zombies map for Black Ops 7, and a summer-themed makeover for Warzone's Rebirth Island. The update also includes new challenges, game modes, and multiplayer maps.
Warzone Gameplay Overhauls
Warzone's gameplay sees substantial changes, particularly affecting supply boxes and Hot Zones. Supply boxes will now be disabled when found deep within the gas across all game modes. This adjustment aims to prevent unintended gameplay patterns and reduce the reward for players lingering outside the playable area, thereby emphasizing positioning and contesting resources within active combat zones. The distance considered "deep in the gas" now scales with the match's circle, being 40m for Circle 1, 30m for Circle 2, and 25m for subsequent circles.
Hot Zone loot in battle royale and Resurgence modes has also been adjusted. All maps will now have a chance to spawn gas masks as ground loot within Hot Zones. Furthermore, maps excluding Rebirth Island will see an increased chance for legendary supply crates in Hot Zones, with Haven's Hollow receiving an additional boost. To balance these improvements, the overall number of legendary supply crates outside of Hot Zones has been slightly reduced.
A quality-of-life change has been implemented for Warzone's Gulag, introducing dynamic wait times. Players waiting for an opponent in the Gulag will now receive a faster free redeploy as the match progresses. Wait times have been adjusted to 95 seconds for Circle 1, 65 seconds for Circle 2, and 45 seconds for Circle 3 and later.
Several powerful equipment items have received nerfs. The Point Turret's target acquisition range has been reduced from 25m to 18m, its acquisition delay increased from 0.3 seconds to 1 second, and the maximum number of deployed turrets lowered from two to one. Stims have also been adjusted, with their health regeneration reduced by 40% while inside the gas. This change aims to reinforce the importance of positioning by reducing their effectiveness in gas plays. The Grappling Hook has seen reductions in its maximum movement speed by 15%, early-detach vertical speed boost by 25%, early-detach momentum retention from 75% to 70%, and early-detach maximum speed by 25%.
Warzone's Ranked Play mode has also implemented restrictions, disallowing the XR-3 Ion sniper rifle's Vulcan Minigun underbarrel and the DS20 Mirage's Dual Fire Kit underbarrel from competitive loadouts, as developers evaluate their impact in standard playlists.
Black Ops 7 Weapon Tuning and Zombies Fixes
Black Ops 7's multiplayer receives weapon balancing focused on post-launch guns. The Voyak KT-3 assault rifle now has reduced damage range and increased recoil. The Kogot-7 submachine gun's damage range has been nerfed, and its base damage rebalanced. The Warden 308 marksman rifle has seen reduced damage ranges and rebalanced damage multipliers to make one-shot kills less frequent.
For the Totenreich Zombies map, the update addresses an issue where the cell door in the Group 935 Genetic Lab would not open after reloading a save, and fixes an issue where zombies might not appear during the death scene at the end of Richtofen's Quest. All Zombies maps also receive unspecified visual and collision issue corrections.
Several fixes have been implemented for Endgame content, including corrections to the Zursa enemy type's pathing and behavior, a bug that could cause Dr. Falkner to get stuck below the map, and an issue with infrequent gear drops that slowed progression in the Operation Broken Mirror act.
New Content and Operator
The "Summer of Action" theme brings actor Nicolas Cage into the game as a purchasable operator, accompanied by a limited-time event. The update also adds two new weapons and a brand-new Zombies map to Black Ops 7. Warzone's Rebirth Island features a summer-themed makeover, with updated visuals and potentially new points of interest.