Before Black Ops 6 launched, Treyarch used feedback from the beta to make several community-requested changes to the campaign, multiplayer, and zombies.
After getting a feel for Multiplayer during Black Ops 6’s beta, one of the loudest complaints stemmed from the fact that maps didn’t provide enough coverage. Treyarch responded by adding a lower sublevel to the B-flag Domination location on Skyline.
This update makes a few other map adjustments, including adjusted bullet penetration values on the satellite dish panel, allowing players to eliminate enemies holding the pesky spot.
Meanwhile, Treyarch has disabled close-range aim assist to get everyone on the same playing field between mouse, keyboard and controller. However, the development team argued that the change was too “jarring” and is rolling it back before the official release.
Let’s jump straight into what else has changed.
Black Ops 6 Oct 23 update patch notes
Here are the full patch notes.
Campaign
Forced to go rogue. Hunted from within.
Black Ops 6 arrives with a brand new single-player experience led 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 an action-packed narrative experience for both new and returning players.
Black Ops 6 brings an exciting mix of familiar and fresh elements. Beloved characters return alongside new faces, creating a rich cast for players to interact with. Players will join this cast in a wide variety of missions around the world, requiring them to make unique decisions.
The Rook – our new customizable safehouse – will not only help players prepare for the next mission, but also allow you to get a closer look at each main character as the story progresses. Plus, the Campaign arsenal is packed with new and familiar weapons and equipment, ensuring 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 for multiplayer and zombies, and more:
For everything you need to know about Campaign, visit the Call of Duty Blog and prepare to unravel a new conspiracy.
Zombies
Want to collect some Whimsical GobbleGums in the game? You earn these by successfully completing an Exfil on round 15 or higher:
- Round 15-29: 1 Whimsical GobbleGum
- Lap 30-44: 2 whimsical GobbleGums
- Round 45+: 3 whimsical GobbleGums
Multiplayer
Weapon balance
While there have been many weapon balance changes across the board since the beta, we consider the launch our day 1 baseline for the entire arsenal. Weapon balancing is always ongoing, so we evaluate data and feedback and share regular updates.
- In the multiplayer beta, we tested a change that disabled close range aim assist. While this was a change in the right direction, we found this to be a bit jarring when crossing the close range threshold, so we adjusted our approach to linearly interpolate the aim assist strength. This means that the aim assist will be much weaker at point blank ranges and will increase smoothly in power at close ranges. Naturally, we will continue to monitor and assess data and player feedback.
- Improved switch speeds for pistols and special melee
- Slight increase to weapon butt melee attack speed
- Adjustments to swinging, bobbing, and general weapon movements to improve aim when entering ADS
- Additional improvements are coming in Season 01
- Improved depth of field for all weapons
Movement
- Added a toggle for Corner Slicing
- Added an option to set the wait time before performing a prone or slide dive depending on your slide/dive behavior setting
- Added an Intelligent Movement option to set Mantle Assist Angle from tight, medium, or wide
Multiplayer map customizations
Keen eyes have already noticed a handful of changes we’ve introduced in our beta maps thanks to everyone’s great feedback. Delivering fair and consistent gameplay will always be our goal, which is why we’ve introduced some additional coverage and changes to make gunplay a little fairer, as well as several lighting changes. The selections below aren’t all of the changes we’ve made, but they do give an idea of what to expect from beta to launch.
Horizon
Activision - The coverage points around the hot tub in the center of the map have been expanded.
- Added new planters for cover near the far spawn point.
- Added multiple opacity options to the map.
Activision Scud
- Adjusted bullet penetration values on the satellite dish panels to allow for additional bullet penetration.
- The concrete wall near the main overwatch has now been broken out, allowing more bullet penetration and making it slightly less powerful.
- The side panels are folded in half to still provide a small amount of bullet penetration where previously none existed.
- Additional coverage improvements made to the entire map.
Rewind
- Cover improvements made across multiple sightlines.
Audio
- We’re excited to introduce our best-in-class audio experience in Black Ops 6 with the introduction of HRTF (Head-Related Transfer Function) via Universal Profile in Enhanced Headphone Mode, available for free to all players.
- We’ve also added a setting to disable licensed music in all modes, which is especially useful for content creators who stream the game.
RICOCHET Anti-Cheat
RICOCHET Anti-Cheat systems activated for Black Ops 6. Upgrades deployed include:
- Kernel-Level Driver (PC) detection and monitoring updates for all protected titles, including Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty®: Warzone™
- #TeamRICOCHET measures live in Black Ops 6 multiplayer, including Damage Shield, Disarm, Splat and more
- Machine learning behavioral systems deployed to increase detection speed
- Added machine learning detection models to analyze gameplay fighting target bots
Adjustments for future patch notes on weapon damage
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 different levels, which could cause some confusion for some players.
In Black Ops 6 and Warzone: Season 01, we want to avoid this confusion in two ways:
- Creating a new weapon damage adjustment table for Black Ops 6 and Warzone: Season 01 patch notes.
- Fixed weapon damage range definitions for Black Ops 6 and Warzone: Season 01 going 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 nestled within our existing tables, in our effort to keep the information as detailed and centralized as possible.
This new table will consist of 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. The corresponding Damage and Range (in meters) values are found in each Pre-Patch/Post-Patch cell.
For better understanding, we identify “positive” (⇧) and “negative” (⇩) adjustments with an arrow, as you see in-game.
Here’s an example of the C9 tweak we made during the beta.
Minimum damage range
Pre patch
- Injury: 16
- Range: 25.41 meters +
Post patch
- Damage: 16
- Range: 27.32 meters+
Weapon damage range explained
In Black Ops 6 and Warzone: Season 01, not all weapons are created equal, but they all respect the fundamental principle that the closer your target is to you, the more damage you will deal to it. 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 cause in a single shot up to a certain distance.
- This range always starts at 0 meters and extends outward until a player falls outside our maximum damage range, where the damage begins to decrease.
Average and minimum damage ranges
- Immediately after the maximum damage range ends, we use the average and minimum damage ranges to determine how the damage will decrease in power over distance.
- Remember when we said not all guns are created equal? Some weapons can have up to three medium damage ranges, while others can have zero.
- In situations where a weapon has only one average damage range, we will label this average damage range as it is.
- If a weapon does not have a Medium Damage Range, we omit the Medium Damage Range rows.
- Medium damage ranges
- We’ll start right after the maximum damage range ends and use medium damage ranges to determine how damage will decrease 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 will identify these average damage ranges as 1, 2, and 3, if applicable, with One (1) being closest to the player and Three (3) being furthest within the average 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 take at the farthest distances.
- This range always increases once the farthest Medium Damage Range ends and will continue indefinitely unless otherwise stated.
- Reminder: Some weapons cannot have a medium damage range and will reach a minimum damage range immediately after the maximum damage range.
One last thing: As we progress into our future seasons, the Treyarch and Raven teams will adjust weapons based on feedback and data to deliver the best possible experiences for Multiplayer and Warzone respectively. These adjustments may affect shared Black Ops 6 weapons with different damage ranges between titles.
