Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 02 Patch Notes

• PPSh-41 – SMG (Battle Pass)
  • Full-auto submachine gun. Fast fire rate with impressive damage and high recoil. Moderate handling.
• Cypher 091 – Assault Rifle (Battle Pass) 
  • Full-auto assault rifle. Slower rate of fire balanced by great handling and excellent mobility.
• Feng 82 - LMG (Battle Pass)
  • Full-auto light machine gun. Very slow rate of fire with great damage and handling.
• TR2 - Marksman Rifle (Event Reward)
  • Semi-auto marksman rifle. Great rate of fire and respectable handling.

New Attachments (Multiplayer & Zombies) 

• Crossbow Attachment (Battle Pass)
  • Add some flare to your Primary Weapon with the Crossbow Underbarrel Attachment. The three explosive tipped bolts detonate shortly after impact for an explosive finish, even if you hit just wide of the mark.
• AEK-973 Full Auto Mod (Event Reward) 
  • Convert the AEK-973 into a fully automatic weapon chambered in 5.45x39mm. The change gives the Marksman Rifle a steady upward kick; press slightly downward through sustained fire to stay on target.
• Tanto .22 SMG Binary Trigger (Event Reward) 
  • Alter the weapon’s typical full-auto firing mode to a specialized semi-auto function that fires a bullet when the trigger is pulled and when it’s released for rapid fire capabilities. Blocks Barrel and Underbarrel attachments.

New Multiplayer Perks 

• Season Launch Window 
  • Slipstream - Enforcer (Event Reward)
    • Raises your base sprint speed at the cost of removing Tac Sprint.

New Scorestreak (Multiplayer & Zombies) 

• War Machine (Event Reward)
  • Available In-Season, equip this powerful burst-fire grenade launcher with grenades that explode on impact.
    • The War Machine can also be accessed in Zombies at the Crafting Table under Support. 

New Zombies Map: The Tomb

• Vortex (BlackCell, Crimson One, Launch) 
  • There’s no escaping this master assassin, known only under the alias Vortex. All biographical information for this Operator has been redacted. 
• Nocturne (Battle Pass, Crimson One, Launch) 
  • A bounty’s been activated on the Rogue Black Ops team, and Nocturne is here to collect. Other than his incredible lethality on display, all biographical information for this Operator has been redacted.
• The Terminator (Bundle, Crimson One, In-Season) 
  • The ultimate killing machine arrives as The Terminator deploys from the future to decimate its enemies across Season 02. This brand-new Operator comes with two Ultra Skins inspired by the original movie. Take control of the cyborg assassin who first crashed onto the silver screen in 1984, releasing as a Store Bundle shortly after Launch.

New Events 

• The Terminator (MP, ZM, WZ: February 6 to 20)
  • Collect skulls to unlock rewards. Skulls are earned via eliminations in Multiplayer and Zombies, and by eliminating players and opening caches in Call of Duty: Warzone. Earn bonus skulls for eliminating enemies with explosive or fire damage.
• Shadow Hunt (MP, ZM, WZ: February 13 to 20)
  • To join Nocturne, you must first complete the challenges he has laid out before you. Don’t fail him.

GLOBAL

WEAPONS

• Addressed an issue where Akimbo Attachments did not properly display Pros and Cons.
• Addressed an animation pop when using certain muzzle attachments with the GS45 Pistol.

All Weapons

We have a few global changes landing with the start of Season 02 that will affect all weapons. The first is an improvement to the weapon motion reduction on the Dexterity Perk, which will make weapons feel even more stable while jumping, sliding, and diving. The second is a response to feedback that the weapon animations on respawn can get in the way of combat. These animations are now immediately interruptible when firing, aiming down sights, sprinting, or performing other gameplay actions.

Lastly, we are tuning down bullet penetration significantly, as we have continued to see cases where bullets are passing through too much cover. Our first step in addressing this is to decrease the maximum depth that bullets can pass through for all materials. We have longer-term plans to make bullet penetration more intuitive and consistent, and will be introducing further improvements in future updates.

• Weapon motion reduction from the Dexterity perk improved from 60% to 70%.
• Weapon raise animations that play on respawn are now fully interruptible.
• Reduced bullet penetration on all surface types.

Magazine Attachment Changes

Another large-scale change we are making is speeding up Fast Mag reload times. Our goal is for every magazine attachment to have a role across the many playstyles in Call of Duty, but we recognize that it can feel hard to trade away the larger mag sizes. We want to avoid adding more penalties to Extended Mags, so we are instead focusing on improvements to Fast Mags to make the selection more enticing. We’re starting with reload time adjustments, but we’ll continue to assess magazines to make sure players have more interesting choices and build potential with this node.

• Fast Mag I, Fast Mag II, Fast Mag III, and Flip Mag reload times improved by 10% on all weapon classes but pistols.
• Fast Mag I and Fast Mag II reload times improved by 5% on Pistols.
• All LMG magazines with 50 rounds or less have had reload times improved by 5%.
• AS VAL default magazine reload time improved by 10%.
• Addressed an issue with Swat 5.56 Fast Mag I, it will now improve reload times as intended.

The following magazine attachments have had their ammo add times updated to match the intended timings. The overall reload times and interrupt times remain the same.

• C9 Extended Mag I: from 1.933s to 2.267s.
• Model L Extended Mag II: from 2.133s to 2.433s.
• GPMG-7 Extended Mag II: from 5.2s to 5.6s.
• GPMG-7 Extended Mag III: from 5.7s to 6.07s.
• GPMG-7 Extended Mag IV: from 6.13s to 6.47s.
• SVD Extended Mag 2: from 2.63s to 3s.

Melee

• Removed screen flash from taking frontal bullet damage while holding a melee.

Assault Rifles

• Goblin Mk2

The Goblin Mk2 may be the most divisive weapon out there in the community. Some players absolutely love it, and a lot of players… strongly prefer other weapons. We’re making a number of small improvements to help overall usability and consistency without affecting the weapon’s identity. In particular, the maximum damage range increase will help with mid-range engagements, and we’re giving it a bit more inflicted flinch than the average Assault Rifle to reward players who land that first hit.

SMGs

• Kompakt 92

Our design intent for the 3-Round Burst Mod on the Kompakt 92 is to give the weapon an alternate playstyle that trades some raw upfront power for more consistent mid-range performance. The upside wasn’t as strong as we wanted it to be, so we’ve adjusted the range slightly and made some significant recoil reductions.

3-Round Burst Mod:

Shotguns

With this update, we are improving ranges and Sprint to Fire speeds on all Shotguns. We know that some of these adjustments may look inconsequential, but Shotgun balance in particular tends to live on a knife’s edge. We want Shotguns to play a greater role outside of our very smallest maps, and we’ll keep adjusting until we’re happy with their usage.

The Maelstrom has received some more pronounced changes, as it was lagging behind the Marine SP and ASG-89. It is now capable of a one-shot kill at very close proximity, and all its other ranges have received a larger boost than the other Shotguns. We’ve also given it a small Fire Rate improvement to help its firepower without further changes to pellet damage.

LMGs

• PU-21

The PU-21 is intended to be a more lightweight LMG with build opportunities skewing towards Assault Rifle handling and mobility. We are reducing the pre-fire delay by a little more than half to help fit the more aggressive playstyle, and are reducing deviation in its recoil to help with consistency in gunfights.

Marksman Rifles

• DM-10

The Gain-Twist Barrel improvement to Bullet Velocity was unintentionally low on the DM-10. There will now be an advantage to using it over the Reinforced Barrel.

Pistols

• Stryder .22

The Stryder .22 launched with a smaller Bullet Penetration profile than the other pistols. The distinction is hard to read as a player and offers little to weapon identity, so we’re bringing it up to parity with the rest of the class.

Special Weapons

• Sirin 9mm

We’ve addressed an issue causing unintended Sprint to Fire modifications with the magazine attachments on the Sirin 9mm. We have updated the attributes on these magazines so that they’re in line with the tradeoffs that appear on other weapons.

Launchers

Last but not least, launchers are receiving some major handling improvements to help with general usability and responsiveness.

HUD

• Addressed an issue that would occasionally incorrectly display the Field Upgrade “READY” state after respawning.
• Addressed an issue where player names would not display beside the speaker icon when speaking in a match.
• HUD Presets can now be set separately for Zombies and Multiplayer.

PROGRESSION & XP

• Search & Destroy
  • Addressed an issue that was preventing the end-of-game Match Bonus XP payout from being awarded in the following situations:
    • The entire enemy team quit, ending the match
    • The player did not deal any damage in the final Round

CHALLENGES

Black Ops 6 launched with more Calling Card Challenges than any recent Call of Duty, brought the return of “100 Percenter” Cards for Multiplayer and Zombies, and brought a deep Calling Card grind to Warzone with its own “100 Percenter” Card for the first time. It has been very exciting to see players strategizing over and unlocking all the various Calling Card Challenges in the game since launch. 

Some Multiplayer Challenges, however, have been either a bit on the frustrating side, or have had bugs and other issues that have prevented some players from completing them on the path to “100 Percenter”.For Season 02, we’ve put a big focus on fixing these Challenge bugs and smoothing over the key frustration points players have been experiencing as part of the Multiplayer Calling Card Challenge grind since launch. We hope these fixes and updates help players stuck in their Challenge journey and unblock their progress toward 100% completion. 

Scorestreak Destruction Challenges

• Addressed an issue that was not awarding Challenge progress towards Scorestreak Destructions in cases where players didn’t perform the final blow on the destroyed enemy Scorestreak. 
• Players will now earn progress for Camo Challenges that require destroying Scorestreaks even if they do not deal the destroying final blow. This impacts the following content:
  • Camo Challenges for the CIGMA 2B and HE-1
  • Mastery Badges for the CIGMA 2B and HE-1
  • “Hot Lead”, “Air Control,” and “Field Work” Calling Card Challenges 

We made this adjustment to ensure that Challenge progress for destroying Scorestreaks is made whenever you earn Scorestreak Destruction Medals like “Flyswatter” and “Downed,” and to make challenges that involve destroying Scorestreaks much more consistent. This should make the grind for Diamond Launchers smoother and less random or frustrating for players.

Calling Card Challenges

• “Redemption Arc” Going Ham Challenge: Removed the time requirement of needing to get a kill shortly after being revived. Players can now make progress by earning a Kill anytime after they revive themselves with the Morphine Injector.
• “Tick Tock Boom” Humiliation Challenge: Semtex sticks that do not result in a kill for the sticking player will now also progress the Challenge.
• “On Point” Prestige 1 Challenge: The Challenge now uses the same Dive detection as the “Dive Shot” Medal, allowing for a grace period shortly after landing from a Dive where the Challenge can still be progressed. 
• “Squint Test” Prestige 1 Challenge: Moonshot requirement reduced from 100m to 75m to make completing this Challenge possible on more maps.
• “Explosive Plays” Prestige 4 Challenge: Addressed a bug that was displaying the wrong Calling Card name.
• “Hot Dawg” Prestige 4 Challenge: Reduced the Molotov or Thermo Grenade Kills without dying requirement from 4 to 3.
• “Headhunter” Prestige 5 Challenge: Addressed a typo in the Challenge description that specified the incorrect Barrel needed to progress the Challenge. The CHF Barrel and Muzzle Brake Attachments are what need to be equipped to progress the Challenge.
• “Speed Demon” Prestige 6 Challenge: Reduced the Kills-while-activated requirement from 3 to 2.
• “Score Collector” Prestige 6 Challenge: Now only requires 5 Scorestreak Kills in a single game to progress, instead of 10.
• “Deep Cover” Prestige 7 Challenge: Added the ability to earn progress with Kills while disguised by the Sleeper Agent Field Upgrade, in addition to  Bomb plants and defuses.
• “Switchblade” Prestige 7 Challenge: Players can now make progress when Melee killing an enemy affected by their Tactical Equipment, in addition to the existing gunfire requirement.
• “Ripped Up” Prestige 8 Challenge: Converted challenge from Guns Blazing Medals (3 rapid Kills with the Chopper Gunner) to tracking individual Kills with the Chopper Gunner Scorestreak.
• “Devastating Force” Prestige 8 Challenge: Converted challenge from Death From Above Medals (3 rapid Kills with the Dreadnought) to tracking individual Kills with the Dreadnought Scorestreak.
• “Hunt Them Down” Prestige Master Challenge: Removed the Acoustic Amp requirement, the Challenge now only requires Point Blank Kills with the specified Perks equipped.
• “Hard and Fast” Prestige Master Challenge: Addressed a typo in the Challenge description that incorrectly referenced the Ghost Perk instead of the Double Time Perk.
• Global Camo Mastery: Calling Card is now correctly granted when completing the final Camo in all 3 modes. Any players who completed this Challenge prior to this update should now see the Calling Card in their inventory (Added on Jan. 24).

We know the "Flowing Low" Prestige 1 Calling Card Challenge is top of mind for many players, and the team is working on a fix for an upcoming update. Thanks for your patience on this one.

Camo Challenges 

• AK-74 “Vengeance” Special Camo: Addressed an issue where the AK-74 Drill Charge Underbarrel Launcher would not count toward the unlock requirement.

Daily Challenges 

• Reduced the requirements for the following Daily Challenges:
  • Get 3 Headshots with Pistols (was 5).
  • Get 5 Kills with Melee Weapons (was 10).
  • Get 3 Kingslayer Medals (was 10).
  • Get 5 Kills while diving or sliding (was 10).
  • With the Danger Close Wildcard equipped: get 5 Kills with Lethal Equipment (was 10).
  • Intercept 5 enemy projectiles with the Trophy System Field Upgrade (was 10).
• Removed the following Daily Challenges from the game:
  • Eliminations with Full-Auto Weapons.
  • Eliminations with Semi-Auto Weapons.
  • Eliminations with Burst-Fire Weapons.
  • Destroy Enemy Scorestreaks.
  • Get Kills with the Combat Axe Lethal Equipment.
  • Get Kills with the Drill Charge Lethal EquipmentKill enemies that are disoriented by your Neurogas Field Upgrade.

We’re always actively monitoring Daily Challenge completion rates, as well as the feedback we see from players. With Season 02, we wanted to remove or update some of the more frustrating Dailies to ensure that players are always receiving Challenges that are approachable and straightforward. Our goal with Daily Challenges is to encourage players to try out various items and strategies, without making them too restrictive or frustrating for players to complete in a single session. 

• Addressed an issue that was preventing the following Daily Challenges from tracking properly:
  • Get 50 Eliminations with a Suppressed Weapon.
  • Get 50 Eliminations using a Weapon with 5 or more Attachments.
• The “Get Eliminations with Secondary Weapons” Daily Challenge will now track Eliminations earned with the Sirin 9mm Special Weapon.

Mastery Badges

• Tactical Insertion: Addressed an issue that was causing the Tactical Insertion Mastery Badge from only progressing via Revenge Kills. It will now progress when any enemy is Killed by the player shortly after they’ve respawned via a Tactical Insertion.
• The Mastery Badge for the used Weapon, Scorestreak, Field Upgrade, or Equipment will now appear correctly in Killcam and Best Plays.

Spawns

• Spawn logic has been adjusted to continue our efforts to reduce proximity to enemies when respawning.
• We have also added the ability to conduct live A/B testing with spawn changes to evaluate on a smaller scale, and if results are positive, we will roll those changes out globally. This will allow us to be more agile with spawn changes. 

Modes

• Overdrive (LTM)
  • Rack up stars to unlock special Operator abilities that will greatly aid you in battle and keep that streak going to reach Overdrive! If you get eliminated, or the elimination timer runs out before you take out another target, you’ll start the process over again. Operators “attempting Overdrive” can expect the following improved capabilities:
    • 1 Star: Awakened Senses: See enemies through walls and replenish your health after eliminating a target.
    • 3 Stars: Physical Enhancements: Increased movement and reloading speed.
    • 6 Stars: Augmented Handling: Improved hip-fire accuracy and improved sprint-to-fire and ADS speeds.
  • Earn all three buffs to activate Overdrive! This allows you to earn double the stars when eliminating enemies.
• Search and Destroy
  • Addressed an issue where XP could not be rewarded if no damage was dealt in the final round.
• Kill Order
  • Addressed an issue where the HVT icon would follow a Dreadnought called in by an active HVT.
• Free For All
  • Addressed an issue where final placements were being incorrectly calculated.
  • Addressed an issue where the Winner’s Circle would not consistently display the Top 3 players.
• Kill Confirmed
  • Reduced the height of dog tags that are dropped in Kill Confirmed to improve player visibility.
• Control
  • Protocol B zone has been moved to where Hardpoint P2 is located. After consideration, we have found this to be a more competitive location for engagements with both Attackers and Defenders. 

Equipment, Perks, Field Upgrades, and Wildcards

• Addressed an issue where Lethal and Tactical Equipment inventory was reduced when using Danger Close or Tactical Expert Wildcards and resupplying with the Scavenger Perk.
• Reduced additional Smoke Grenade given to +1 from +2 with the Tactical Expert Wildcard. (Yes, we’re annoyed by the smoke too, and will continue to evaluate.) 
• Addressed an issue where Field Upgrades could not be deployed in certain scenarios while using the Prepper Wildcard.
• Addressed an issue where Gearhead Perk would not decrease the time to earn Field Upgrades.
• Decreased the amount of weapon motion when jumping, sliding, and diving with the Dexterity Perk.
• Addressed an issue where the Ninja Perk could lose functionality between respawns and round transitions, resulting in footsteps not being quieter.
• Addressed an issue where the Ninja Perk was not being applied to enemy players when spectating a teammate.
• Headshots will no longer skip Last Stand when using the Morphine Injector Field Upgrade.

Scorestreaks

• Addressed an issue where Care Packages could be captured by teammates at the same capture rate as the owner. 
• Addressed an issue where the SAM Turret could target enemy Scorestreaks that were leaving the airspace.
• Addressed an issue where the SAM Turret’s targeting laser would not be visible when tracking a target.

Medals

• Adjusted the “Dive Shot” Medal (Kill an enemy while or shortly after diving in any direction) to be more forgiving so that Kills earned just after diving will award the Medal more consistently. 
• Tuned the “Snaked” Medal (2 rapid weapon kills against enemies in different directions while on your stomach, back or side) to be more forgiving and be awarded in more situations that match the intent of the Medal. 

General

• Detailed Weapon Stats Improvements: Added new stats & refactored the layout to be data-driven.
• Addressed an issue in Theater where thrown projectiles could not be seen.
• Addressed an issue where vehicles could visually disappear for some players during gameplay.
• Training Course entry point has been moved from the playlist selection to the top right navigation panel.

Movement

We are continuing to monitor Omnimovement feedback, and of course playing the game ourselves. We are currently testing slight reductions to initial slide speed and duration to improve predictability of engagements when opponents enter with a slide.

Additionally, we are always evaluating areas for improved fluidity, whether those are specific to movement mechanics or other mechanics like the ability to interrupt weapon raises during respawns that we highlighted above.

• Reduced collision with teammates. This should improve the ability to maneuver around tight spaces like doorways with nearby teammates.

RANKED PLAY

Cross-Play

The following changes are being implemented at the launch of Season 02 to provide players on console with the option to select the platform pool(s) they wish to matchmake with:

PlayStation – In-Game Options

• Ranked:
  • On: Enables matchmaking with all gaming platforms when playing in Ranked playlists.
  • On (Consoles Only): Enables matchmaking only with other consoles when playing in Ranked playlists.
    • May negatively impact matchmaking queue times.
  • Off: Restricts Ranked matchmaking to your current gaming platform only.
    • Will negatively impact matchmaking queue times.

Xbox – In-Game Options

• Ranked:
  • On: Enables matchmaking with all gaming platforms when playing in Ranked playlists.
  • On (Consoles Only): Enables matchmaking only with other consoles when playing in Ranked playlists.
    • May negatively impact matchmaking queue times.
  • Off: Restricts Ranked matchmaking to your current gaming platform only.
    • Will negatively impact matchmaking queue times.

Season 02 Weapon Evaluation

At the start of Ranked Play Season 02, the new PPSh-41 SMG and Cypher 091 Assault Rifle will both be unrestricted in Ranked Play for a minimum of one week. This one week evaluation period will give players a chance to experiment with the weapons in a competitive environment, provide feedback, and help Treyarch and the CDL determine whether they should remain unrestricted in CDL and Ranked Play.

To stay up to date on the latest Ranked Play restrictions and settings, stay tuned to @Treyarch and @CODUpdates for the latest details, and bookmark our Patch Notes pages.

Season 02 Rank Setback

• Competitors who are continuing their conquest in Ranked Play from Season 01 will notice that their accounts may have been set back as outlined in previous notes. 
  • Every new Season, your Rank may be rolled back based on where you ended the previous season, as follows:
    • Bronze or Silver Rank players are not impacted by the Seasonal setback and will be able to pick up where they ended Season 01 with no SR deduction.
    • Gold or Platinum Rank players will start Season 02in Tier I of Gold or Platinum respectively.
    • Diamond Rank and above players will start the Season 02 at Diamond I.

We’ve made the Ranked Play Seasonal setback more forgiving in Black Ops 6 as we observed it to be too punishing in previous installments, especially for players still early in their Rank journey. 

Demotion Protection

• Demotion Protection will be active for everyone’s first 3 Ranked Play losses in Season 02, and players can expect 1 free loss per day via Daily Loss Forgiveness like in Season 01.

For regular updates about all Call of Duty® related live issues, follow @CODUpdates. 

For updates about Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6 Multiplayer and Zombies, follow @Treyarch and visit the Black Ops 6 Trello Board.

For regular updates about Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6 Campaign and Warzone™, follow @RavenSoftware. 

For regular updates about Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare III, follow @SHGames.

For updates about Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare II, follow @InfinityWard. 

For all sorts of other franchise content, check out our Call of Duty® blog. 

*Game features described above are based on current in-development features that are subject to change based on final development changes and/or game tuning or updates that may remove or modify some or all of the above features.