CoD: Black Ops 6 – Launch-Day Patch Notes Detail Weapon Changes And Scud Map Improvement

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launches worldwide on October 25, so Treyarch has released the patch notes to reveal all the changes made after the game’s beta. This includes weapon changes and small adjustments to several multiplayer map designs for Black Ops 6.

Black Ops 6 includes campaign, multiplayer, and Zombies, and while some players are getting hands-on time early thanks to New Zealand’s time zone, the game doesn’t officially arrive until tomorrow. Treyarch has revealed that all side Easter eggs and main story quests for both Zombies maps will remain locked until 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM BST on October 25 to avoid any major spoilers and give all players a fair opportunity to discover them.

For multiplayer, Treyarch says adjustments were made to aim assist at close ranges. It was disabled at close-range for the beta, but the developer says a weak aim assist was added back for that range.

Small weapon changes include improved pistol and dedicated melee-swap speeds, and a slight increase to weapon-butt melee attack speeds. Adjustments are also made to sway, bob, and overall weapon motions to improve the point of aim when aiming down sights.

Treyarch reveals several small map adjustments for Skyline, Scud, and Rewind. This includes the frustrating head-glitch spot on the Scud’s large satellite dish, which now allows for bullet penetration on the dish panels to counter players using this power position. Small map changes add improved cover on Skyline and Rewind.

Audio adjustments include the addition of Black Ops 6’s new HRTF (Head-Related Transfer Function) feature, which is part of the game’s Enhanced Headphone Mode and available to all players for free. More information on Black Ops 6’s HRTF audio feature can be found here.

The developer also adds a setting to disable licensed music across all modes, which is particularly useful for content creators and anyone wanting to stream the game.

The full patch notes for Black Ops 6 can be seen below, as revealed by Treyarch.

For more Call of Duty, make sure to check out all the details on how player progression and prestige work in Black Ops 6. We also highlight all the maps, game modes, and weapons available at launch.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 releases on October 25 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC. Hardware requirements for playing Black Ops 6 on PC can be found here.

CAMPAIGN

Forced to go rogue. Hunted from within.

Black Ops 6 arrives with a brand-new single player experience lead by our friends at Raven Software. Our story picks up after the events of Black Ops Cold War and the 1980s flashbacks of Black Ops II to deliver both new and returning players an action-packed narrative experience.

Black Ops 6 brings an exciting blend of familiar and fresh elements. Beloved characters make their return alongside new faces, creating a rich cast for players to engage with. Players will join this cast in a breadth of missions across the globe, with unique decisions to make.

The Rook – our new, customizable safehouse – not only helps players prepare for the next mission but allows for a closer look at each key character as the story progresses. Plus, the Campaign arsenal is packed with both new and familiar weapons and equipment, ensuring for plenty of fun along the way.

As a reminder, there are plenty of great rewards to unlock by completing the Campaign, including a new Operator Skin, Finishing Move, multiple Weapon Blueprints to bring into Multiplayer and Zombies, and more:

For all the intel on Campaign, check out the Call of Duty Blog and prepare to unravel a new conspiracy.

ZOMBIES

Round-based Zombies will make its long-awaited return at launch with 2 brand-new maps: Terminus and Liberty Falls. The Dark Aether storyline continues, where we find three members of Requiem escaping from their prison on Terminus Island with the help of newcomer Maya Aguinaldo, just as dimensional breaches occur simultaneously in both the Philippine Sea and Liberty Falls, West Virginia.

Note: The Main Quest and all Side Quests for both maps will be enabled at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM BST on October 25. Clear your calendar, assemble your crew, and stay on your toes… the Zombies team has made a difficulty tuning pass to increase the difficulty starting at Round 25 and beyond. Der Wunderfizz will also only appear after Round 25. Plan accordingly and prepare for launch.

Looking to bank some Whimsical GobbleGums in-game? You’ll earn these by successfully completing an Exfil at Round 15 or higher:

• Round 15-29: 1 Whimsical GobbleGum
• Round 30-44: 2 Whimsical GobbleGums
• Round 45+: 3 Whimsical GobbleGums

For a deep-dive on ALL things Zombies, check out our recent Zombies Mode Prep COD Blog, and get ready to jump in on October 25… and before you know it, our third Round-Based Zombies map will arrive before the end of the year!

MULTIPLAYER

16 brand-new maps, Omnimovement, Wildcards, Combat Specialties, new Scorestreaks and more… Black Ops 6 Multiplayer is almost here!

Prepare for all things Multiplayer by checking out our deep dive blog here. You can also find map and mode guides here.

Additionally, catch-up on previously announced changes following our Multiplayer Beta.

Weapons

There are 33 weapons at launch waiting for you to unlock and customize. See our full breakdown on weapons at the COD blog.

Weapon Balance

While many weapon balance changes have been implemented across the board since Beta, we consider launch to be our day 1 baseline across the entire arsenal. Weapon balance is always ongoing, so we’ll be evaluating data and feedback, and sharing updates on this regularly.

• In the Multiplayer Beta we tested a change that disabled aim assist at close ranges. While this was a change in the right direction, we felt that this was a bit jarring when crossing that close range threshold, so we’ve adjusted our approach to linearly interpolate aim assist strength. This means that aim assist will be much weaker at point blank ranges and smoothly increase in strength out to a short range. We will of course continue to monitor and assess data and player feedback.
• Improved Pistol and Dedicated Melee swap speeds
• Slight increase to Weapon Butt melee attack speeds
• Adjustments to sway, bob and overall weapon motions to improve point of aim when entering ADS
  • Additional improvements coming in Season 01
• Improved Depth of Field across all Weapons

Movement

• Added a toggle option for Corner Slicing
• Added an option to set the hold time to perform a Dive to Prone or Slide depending on your Slide/Dive Behavior setting
• Added an Intelligent Movement option to set Mantle Assist Angle from tight, medium, or wide

Multiplayer Map Adjustments

Keen eyes have already noticed a handful of changes we have introduced to our Beta maps thanks to everyone’s amazing feedback. Delivering fair and consistent gameplay will always remain our goal, and as such we’ve introduced some additional cover and changes to make firefights a bit fairer, as well as various lighting changes. The below selects aren’t every change we have made, but they’ll help provide an idea of what to expect from Beta to Launch.

Skyline

• Expanded the cover points around the hot tub at the center of the map.
• Added new planters as cover near far spawn point.
• Added multiple cover options throughout the map.

Scud

• Adjusted bullet penetration values on the satellite dish panels to allow additional bullet penetration.
  • The concrete wall at the main overwatch is now broken out, which will allow more bullet penetration to make it slightly less powerful.
  • Panels are doubled up at the side overwatch to still amount a small amount of bullet penetration where there was previously none.
• Made additional cover improvements throughout the map.

Rewind

• Made cover improvements across multiple sightlines.

Audio

• We’re excited to introduce our best-in-class audio experience coming to Black Ops 6 with the introduction of HRTF (Head-Related Transfer Function) via Universal Profile in Enhanced Headphone Mode, which is available to all players for free.
• We’ve also added a setting to disable licensed music across all modes, particularly useful for content creators streaming the game.

For a closer look at our innovations in adaptive audio, spatial reverb, physics-based acoustics, game sound prioritization, HRTF support, and all-new asymmetrical hearing compensation technology, check out our dedicated audio blog.

RICOCHET Anti-Cheat

RICOCHET Anti-Cheat systems activated for Black Ops 6. Upgrades deployed include:

• Kernel-Level Driver (PC) detection and monitoring updates across all protected titles, including Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty®: Warzone™
• #TeamRICOCHET mitigations live in Black Ops 6 multiplayer, including Damage Shield, Disarm, Splat, and more
• Machine-learning behavioral systems deployed to increase speed of detection
• Machine-learning detection models added to analyze gameplay combating aim bots

For more information on RICOCHET Anti-Cheat, check out the most recent blog here.

Adjustments for Future Weapon Damage Patch Notes

Whether you’re new to the franchise or a long-time fan, understanding how your weapon of choice deals damage is an essential aspect of Call of Duty gameplay. In the past, our patch notes used some terms to describe damage values at various ranges that could create some mild confusion for some players.

In Black Ops 6 and Warzone: Season 01, we aim to avoid this confusion two-fold:

• Creating a new Weapon Damage Adjustment table for Black Ops 6 and Warzone: Season 01 patch notes.
• Establishing Weapon Damage Range definitions for Black Ops 6 and Warzone: Season 01 moving forward.

Weapon Damage Adjustment Table

New in Black Ops 6 and Warzone: Season 01, we’re introducing a new table to highlight the changes a weapon has undergone from one patch to the next. You’ll find it nested within our existing tables in our attempt to keep information as detailed and centralized as possible.

This new table will comprise three columns (Damage Range, Pre-Patch, and Post-Patch) and rows of up to five to account for each applicable Damage Range for a given weapon. In each Pre-Patch/Post-Patch cell, the corresponding Damage and Range (in meters) values will be found.

For easier understanding, we’ll identify “positive” (⇧) and “negative” (⇩) adjustments with an arrow like what you see in-game.

Weapon Damage Range Explainer

In Black Ops 6 and Warzone: Season 01, not all weapons are created the equal, but all of them respect the fundamental principle that the closer your target is to you, the more damage you will deal to them. Using the following dynamic ranges, we identify how damage works in Multiplayer and Warzone:

Maximum Damage Range

• This range outlines the maximum potential damage a weapon can output in a single shot up to a specified distance.
• This range will always start at 0 meters and extend outward until a player falls outside of our Maximum Damage Range, where damage begins to “step down.”

Medium and Minimum Damage Ranges

• Picking up right after the Maximum Damage Range ends, we use Medium and Minimum Damage Ranges to identify how damage will “step down” in potency over distance.
• Remember how we said not all weapons are created equal? Some weapons can have up to three Medium Damage Ranges while some can have zero.
  • In situations where a weapon only has one Medium Damage Range, we will label this Medium Damage range as-is.
  • If a weapon has no Medium Damage Range, we’ll omit over the Medium Damage Range rows.
• Medium Damage Ranges
  • Picking up right after the Maximum Damage Range ends, we use Medium Damage Ranges to identify how damage will “step down” over distance.
  • Reminder: A weapon with Medium Damage Ranges can have a minimum of one Medium Damage Range and a maximum of three.
  • In all future Damage Range Adjustment tables, we’ll identify these Medium Damage Ranges as 1, 2, and 3 when applicable, with One (1) being closest to the player and Three (3) being the furthest within the Medium Damage Ranges.
    • In previous patch notes versions, these were identified as “Close-Mid,” “Near-Mid,” “Mid,” “Mid-Far,” or “Far-Mid.”
• Minimum Damage Range
  • This range identifies the minimum potential damage a player can receive at the furthest distances.
  • This range will always pick up right after the furthest Medium Damage Range ends and will continue indefinitely unless otherwise noted.
    • Reminder: Some weapons can have no Medium Damage Range and will enter a Minimum Damage Range immediately after the Maximum Damage Range.

One Last Thing: As we progress through our future Seasons, the teams at Treyarch and Raven will adjust weapons based on feedback and data to deliver the best experiences possible for Multiplayer and Warzone respectively. These adjustments may include shared Black Ops 6 weapons having different Damage Range values between titles.

Stay tuned for future updates and look for dedicated Warzone Patch Notes brought to you by our partners at Raven starting in Season 01.