Call of Duty: Warzone patch nerfs the Grau and MP5, brings sniper rifles to the Gulag and more

News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor

Published on June 30, 2020

The new Call of Duty: Warzone update is worth the wait.

This week's Call of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare update brought a lot more than 200-player Quads. The real meat of the patch is all the weapon balance tweaks and gameplay changes.

To start with, the Gulag has had its arsenal refreshed. You'll now find semi-auto weapons, including sniper rifles, and a random chance at getting a fists and throwing knives-only round.

The patch notes mention that gas masks will now crack when taking damage close to or in the circle, but that likely only applies to cases where they are equipped in the first place. As a nice quality of life change, the Team Wiped message will now show up for the entire squad. You should also see the "airspace too crowded" message less frequently when calling in a Precision Airstrike; the game now allows up to three of those to be called in within a certain distance.

Even more interesting are the weapon balance changes. Everyone's favourite Grau 5.56 has been hit hard, getting a damage range reduction, an increase to "high frequency recoil," as well as a reduction to the range of both the Tempus 26.4” Archangel and FSS 20.8” Nexus barrels. Recoil should also be higher when using either of the two barrels now.

The MP5 was another victim. Infinity Ward cut its damage range for both 9mm and 10mm rounds. The long-range damage for 10mm ammo has also been reduced, and the same rounds will now kick more.

Practically all sniper rifles and DMRs got some love this patch, too. The AX-50 got a boost to damage range, and the HDR is now a guaranteed one-hit kill to the lower torso at any range. The Kar98k will now ADS faster, and be slightly more accurate in hip fire. The biggest change, however, is that the K98 has had its range damage extended.

The MK2 Carbine also got a damage range increase, and a boost to movement speed with it equipped. Likewise, the Dragonuv will ADS faster, fire faster, and kill in two shots at minimum. Its recoil will also re-centre more consistently.

There are a few other curious balance changes. The FAL can now one-hit headshot in close range. The AK-47 got a boost to its default ADS speed, and the new CR-56 AMAX has had its damage range reduced. Across the board, No Stock attachments now increase weapon recoil and decrease ADS aiming steadiness.

Separately from the damage and range changes, the patch also made a number of tweaks to starting and maximum ammo for several weapons, including the SKS 10 rounds, the SCAR 25 rounds, the CR-56 AMAX M67 rounds and more, though it's not clear if those strictly apply to multiplayer or both that and Warzone.

Read on below for the patch notes.

Warzone

New Gulag weapons. Semi auto rifles, snipers, along with one “just fists and a throwing knife” loadout.

Warzone fixes

Fix for an exploit in Boneyard where players could climb into the destroyed portion of a plane.
Gas Mask now cracks when you’re taking damage near or in the circle.
‘Team Wiped’ message now appears in the Killfeed for your whole squad to see.
Fix for an issue where players could spawn under the map after winning their Gulag match.
Fixed a bug where players using Charly’s Tactical Human skin or Mara’s Valkryie skin would notice their character models missing from the exfil epilogue in the helicopter.
The audio for the Supply Choppers is too loud, preventing players from hearing most other sounds and communicating with their squad. This has been adjusted.
During the Supply Chopper event the supply choppers may spawn from under the map, killing players positioned on top of these locations as they raised through the map. This has been fixed.
Fix for the final circle being too close over areas that players cannot access such as the middle of Stadium.
The After Action Report now shows Cash Earned and Placement.
Fix for a rare bug where a player spawned out of bounds after dying out of bounds.
Fix for a minor issue where the radio operator dialog and subtitles for called in Killstreaks could incorrectly play the wrong faction.
Now allow up to three Precision Airstrikes to be called in at once but within a distance restriction.

General fixes

Fix for an issue where players could modify weapons with attachments from other weapons while using a mouse.
Fixed the wording in the Daily Challenge “Deploy the Manual Turret Killstreak 5 Times” to say “Shield Turret”.
Multiplayer and Warzone win/losses now track as intended per mode.
Improved stability for PC players.
Fix for Kreuger’s eyes coming out of his character model while performing the Brassed Off execution.
Fix for some Completionist camos not applying to the Witching Hour (AX-50 variant).
Fixed an exploit on Krovnik Farmland while playing Reinfected Ground War.
Fixed a bug where the MIL-SIM CTSFO viewmodel gloves didn’t match the in-game world model.
Fix for a section of Hardhat that had invisible collision.
Fix for a bug where Demolition matches would not end as intended in overtime.
Added the Kali Sticks to modes like All or Nothing, Gun Game, Infected, and Gunfight.
Longshots now display the distance in the point feed.
Fixed a bug where the Juggernaut HUD elements would remain on the screen if the player was crushed by a crate.
Fixed an issue where the player could get stuck in place when throwing a grenade and trying to use a Shield Turret at the same time.
If a player throws a Molotov at a severely damaged Deployable Cover, the Deployable Cover will break and the Molotov fire will disappear, but damage for the fire remains present for a duration of ~20 seconds. This has been fixed.
Recon Drones can now be destroyed with Throwing Knives.
Hipfire reticles are now visible in Spectate and in the Killcam. This will make it easier to tell if a player is using Stopping Power rounds or Slug rounds.

Weapons

The M4 will perform an AR magazine reload when attempting to reload the underbarrel launcher while you have the 50 Round Mag attachment equipped. This has been fixed.
Stopping Power is now applied to headshots. Only certain weapons can go from a 2-shot to a 1-shot head shot, like the FAL and Oden. This fixes a few cases where headshots could sometimes do less damage than body shots when using Stopping Power.
Increased Max Ammo: M4 .458 SOCOM Rounds.
Increased Max Ammo and Start Ammo: CR-56 AMAX M67 Rounds, SKS 10 Round Mags, Striker 45 Hollowpoint Rounds, SCAR Default Mags, Oden Default Mags.
Increased Start Ammo: SCAR 25 Round Mags, Oden 25 Round Mags.
AX-50: increased damage range.
HDR: guaranteed one-hit to lower torso at any range.
Kar98k: increased ADS speed, small decrease to hip spread, increased damage range.
MK2 Carbine: faster movement speed, increased damage range.
Dragonuv: increased ADS speed, 2 hit kill min, gun recoil returns to the centre more, faster rate of fire.
FAL: added a close range damage shelf with one-hit headshot potential.
AK-47: increased ADS speed.
CR-56 AMAX: decreased damage range.
MP5: decreased damage range, decreased 10MM damage range, reduced long range damage to 10MM ammo, slight recoil increase to 10MM ammo.
Grau 5.56: damage range reduction, slight increase to high frequency recoil, reduced recoil compensation and decreased range on Tempus 26.4” Archangel and FSS 20.8” Nexus barrels.
Shotgun Slugs: increased projectile velocity, reduced ads spread, added dynamic hip spread, increased damage ranges, increased lower torso damage.
No stock attachment: increased weapon recoil, decreased ADS aiming steadiness.

Spec Ops

Improved the effectiveness of the Decoy Grenade against most types of enemy soldiers.
Added new Mission 'Hard Boiled' - Demonstrate your proficiency in Co-Op operations with these tricky challenges.
Operation Harbinger - Fixed issue where some of the white trucks would appear without any enemies inside of them.

Survival

At the Weapons Store the weapons with purchased Gunsmith attachments are now displayed clearly.
The Buy Phase timer now pulses red when about to run out to help remind players of the upcoming wave.
Fixed issue where the text chat was overlapping some Buy Phase store elements.
Fixed issue where players could purchase weapons from the store as they are being downed.
Fixed issue where if players voted to ‘Retry’ after failing beyond wave 55 they would start each Buy Phase with reduced time.
Fixed a rare issue where players could use Munitions / Killstreaks in while downed.

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