Call of Duty's Season 3 Reloaded is coming soon with an '80s action hero theme, plus there's major weapon tuning coming to Black Ops Cold War's weapon pool, as revealed in today's patch notes from Treyarch. This mid-season update will go live event goes live at 9 PM PT May 19/12 AM ET May 20.
However, the highlight of today's patch notes is definitely the weapon balancing that Treyarch is bringing to Cold War's weapon pool. Significant weapon tuning is coming for both multiplayer and Zombies mode.
For multiplayer, there's a significant change coming to flinch across the entire sniper class. The developers are introducing a sniper-specific flinch, which was created to move the weapon aim while being hit. This new sniper flinch will be more pronounced while aiming down sights with the sniper. The update also individualizes the aim down sights momentum for each sniper rifle, meaning each rifle will have its own unique ADS speed and heft to it.
A bullet velocity increase will buff almost the entire class, providing assault rifles more of a long-distance advantage over submachine guns. The FFAR 1 is the only one in the class that will not receive this increase, and instead the bullet velocity is being reduced in exchange for an increase to its max damage.
A change is also coming to the headshot modifiers for the assault rifle class. Assault rifles that have 5.56 ammo will have a 1.4x headshot modifier, while those using 7.62 ammo will have a 1.25x modifier. The number of hits required to kill should remain the same, except for the FFAR 1, which will require fewer hits to kill with a headshot.
The pistol and light machine gun classes will see a buff to bullet velocity, but the commonly used Task Force Barrel is getting a nerf to bullet velocity for the LMG class. Treyarch says these changes "provide more value to the rest of the barrel attachments, while the Task Force Barrel remains a solid choice."
The entire pistol and light machine gun classes will receive a boost to bullet velocity, while the R1 Shadowhunter crossbow gets the addition of sniper flinch.
For Zombies, most of the weapon pool will receive significant buffs to the critical damage multipliers with most boosting up from 2.8x up to 4.5x. Several weapons will also get additional adjustments to their upgraded Pack-a-Punched versions, including changes to magazine size, stock ammo, and damage.
Players can also expect more features with Zombies, including world events, a fishing feature, and more to be added in with this major weapon balancing update.
As previously announced, the '80s Action Heroes event introduces the iconic characters Rambo and John McClane to Call of Duty. The event will allow players to complete objectives across Black Ops Cold War and Warzone. There are nine Black Ops Cold War challenges, and a semi-automatic tactical rifle blueprint is rewarded for completing them all.
The entire list of patch notes from Treyarch is available, but you can find the weapon balancing below.
Multiplayer Weapon Tuning
- All Sniper Rifles
In this update, we’re revising sniper rifles with two goals in mind:
- To create more meaningful gameplay between sniper rifles and other weapon classes.
- To better define the role of each sniper rifle to give them more individuality and specialization.
To those ends, the following updates have been made:
Custom Flinch: We’ve created a sniper-specific flinch that moves the weapon aim while being hit. This flinch is more pronounced in ADS. Attachments that reduce flinch have been factored into this feature update.
ADS Momentum: ADS (Aim Down Sight) Momentum is now individualized for each sniper rifle. ADS Momentum is that feeling of weightiness as the weapon exits and re-enters ADS. You feel this when you rapidly exit and enter ADS, without fully returning fully to the hip position. Heavier sniper rifles will now feel weightier and re-acquire ADS slower accordingly. Please note that ADS Momentum is not used when entering ADS from the full hip-fire position.
As the next step in making each sniper rifle stand out even further in its own right, we’ve made the following changes across the weapon class. As always, we’re committed to evaluating and adjusting weapon stats as necessary once these updates are live based on game data and feedback.
LW3 – Tundra
This is the baseline of our sniper rifles. It is lenient enough in its one-hit kill capacity while being fast enough to scan the horizon and find new targets quickly. This weapon is meant to be geared for most players to play with and have fun experiencing what it’s like to be a sniper in Black Ops Cold War. The following changes better define the weapon’s role, providing more long-range accuracy and focusing less on short-range combat viability.
- LW3 – Tundra
- Increased Bullet Velocity from 550 to 580.
- Reduced ADS-In Momentum from 0.2 to 0.233.
- Attachments
- Reduced Bullet Velocity bonus from 28.2” Extended Barrel attachment from 25% to 18%.
- Reduced Bullet Velocity bonus from 29.1” Combat Recon Barrel attachment from 75% to 36%.
- Reduced Bullet Velocity bonus from 28.2” Tiger Team Barrel attachment from 50% to 27%.
- Reduced Flinch Resistance bonus from Dropshot Wrap Handle attachment from 50% to 33%.
- Reduced Flinch Resistance bonus from Field Tape Handle attachment from 90% to 50%.
- Reduced Flinch Resistance bonus from SASR Jungle Grip Handle attachment from 80% to 67%.
- Increased Sprint to Fire Time penalty from SASR Jungle Grip Handle attachment from 12% to 15%.
- Reduced Flinch Resistance Bonus from Airborne Elastic Wrap Handle attachment from 90% to 25%.
- Increased Sprint to Fire Time penalty from Airborne Elastic Wrap Handle attachment from 15% to 18%.
- Reduced Aim Down Sight Time bonus from Airborne Elastic Wrap Handle attachment from 12% to 5%.
Pelington 703
The Pelington 703 is designed to be a quick-handling sniper rifle for players who enjoy constant movement and repositioning, trading off some one-hit kill potential for more speed. This weapon is geared for the kind of player who enjoys running into the middle of gun battles and advancing on important positions. The following changes reinforce the weapon’s role, shifting some ADS speed into a Sprint to Fire benefit, and using a slightly slower Bullet Velocity to keep gameplay at closer ranges.
- Pelington 703
- Increased Sprint to Fire speed from 0.45 to 0.433.
- Reduced Bullet Velocity from 500 to 478.
- Increased Aim Down Sight Time from 0.55 to 0.583.
- Attachments
- Reduced Bullet Velocity bonus from 25” Extended Barrel attachment from 25% to 17%.
- Reduced Bullet Velocity bonus from 27.2” Combat Recon Barrel attachment from 75% to 43%.
- Reduced Bullet Velocity bonus from 26.5” Tiger Team Barrel attachment from 50% to 30%.
- Reduced Flinch Resistance bonus from Field Tape Handle attachment from 90% to 50%.
- Reduced Flinch Resistance bonus from SASR Jungle Grip Handle attachment from 80% to 67%.
- Reduced Flinch Resistance Bonus from Airborne Elastic Wrap Handle attachment from 90% to 25%.
- Reduced Aim Down Sight Time bonus from Airborne Elastic Wrap Handle attachment from 12% to 5%.
Sniper Rifle Charlie (Semi-Auto)
With the recent release of the ZRG 20mm and the popularity of the LW3 – Tundra, there existed an untapped space between those two weapons. To fill that position, our semi-auto sniper rifle has been given some new upgrades. Leaning into the lethality of a .50 Cal round, the weapon is now much more powerful, with the trade-off of being slower to fire successive shots. As a semi-automatic weapon without any rechamber, it is still quite fast and works well for holding down a position.