MW3 & Warzone Season 1 Patch Notes
Call of Duty’s next phase will kick off a brand-new era for Modern Warfare 3 players, ushering in a holiday-themed celebration. So, whether you are on the naughty or nice list, here’s what you can expect from theMW3 and Warzone Season 1 patch notes.
MW3 and Warzone Season 1 Changes
One of the most significant additions is thenew Warzone map, Urzikstan, the central hub used forMW3 Zombies. It will introduce unique points of interest for players to take advantage of, such as Orlov Military Base, Zaravan Suburbs, and Popov Power.
Thefestive CODMAS event will be availablein this location, showcasing limited-time exclusives like Slay Ride Resurgence and Snowball Fights. But if you were expecting to see a jolly Santa, you may want to prepare yourself for a more sinister version with Zombie Santa. Unfortunately, he won’t be bringing presents for you this time around as he tries to defeat you as a devasting Juggernaut.
Multiplayer will also be a part of the celebration, including a12 Days of CODMAS challengefor earnable rewards. Speaking of MP, you can expectfour new maps: Meat, Greece, Rio, and Training Facility. The first three destinations will involve 6v6-based matches, while the last will be more up close and personal as a 2v2.
On top of that, the surprisinglywholesomeZombies mode will introduce a new Act missionto increase the challenge further. Luckily, Operators can look forward to an expansion onSchematicsand Wonder Weapons to help them out with the undead fight.
There are plenty more features to anticipate for the MW3 and Warzone Season 1 launch, including a drivable train, Ranked Play, and mid-season content. For a complete breakdown, here are the full patch notes from Sledgehammer Games:
Call of Duty MW3 Season 1 Patch Notes
Look for the Meat 24/7 Playlist to debut during the first week of Season 1, with other exciting Playlists expected in the weeks ahead. Another all-new 6v6 map, Rio, is expected to launch in-season
New Killstreaks
Do you have what it takes? Two all-new Killstreaks are available to dominate the battlefield in Season 1.
The Assassin Vest is a powerful new addition to Loadouts in Season 1, but be wary, each Vest comes equipped with critical tradeoffs.
Two fan-favorite Modes return at the start of Season 1! Gunfight is even equipped with its own selection of new and Carry-Forward Maps. Look for additional Modes throughout the Season.
New Weapons
The following Weapons are new to the entirety of the Modern Warfare III offering as of Season 1.
New Aftermarket Parts
In addition to new weaponry, players will see brand new Aftermarket Parts earned via the Battle Pass, Armory Unlocks, and Weekly Challenges.
New Operators
Nolan and Dokkaebi, two KorTac Operators, lead the charge in the Season 1 offering… But a mysterious force, known only asAbolisher, looms in the background.
New Events
We’ll be talking about what Zombie Santa is bringing to town in patch notes that will release closer to when the event launches over the holidays. Stay tuned!
New Battle Pass
A brand new Battle Pass arrives with the Season 1 bringing a variety of Operator Skins, Weapon Blueprints, and more.
For more information about the full Battle Pass offering and Black Cell Bundle, check out the full breakdown on theofficial Call of Duty blog here.
New PC Features
GeForce RTX gamers can activate pre-game full ray tracing, also known as path tracing in pre-game lobbies, enabling you to see your characters, skins, vehicles, and weapons in an entirely new light.
All GeForce RTX gamers can activate Path Tracing via the Video options menu, and doing so will automatically enable NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 with DLSS Ray Reconstruction.
Multiplayer
We’ve introduced a delay to stance transitions to combat a movement exploit commonly referred to by players as “snaking.” We’ll monitor the impact of these changes and continue to address feedback where appropriate.
Weapons & Attachments
» Assault Rifles «
» Battle Rifles «
» Submachine Guns «
» Shotguns «
» Marksman Rifles «
» Attachments «
Modern Warfare II (Carry-Forward)
» Light Machine Guns «
» Handguns «
Progression
Customization
Field Upgrades
Killstreaks
SEASON 1 CONTENT
Story Act and Mission
Dark Aether Rifts
Wonder Weapon: V-R11
Acquisitions and Schematics
Prestige Challenges
Season 1 Battle Pass Weapons
Global Changes
Wonder Weapons «
» Assault «
» Weapon Cases «
Hostile Takeover
Merc Cleanup
Storm the Castle
Acquisitions
Lethal Equipment
Tactical Equipment
Juggernaut
Sentry Turret
Achievements
Battle Chatter
Call of Duty Warzone Season 1 Patch Notes
The content covered in the following section pertains to all Call of Duty Modern Warfare III products including, but not limited to, Warzone.
We’ll be talking about what Zombie Santa is bringing to town in patch notes that will be released closer to when the event launches over the holidays. Stay tuned!
Battle Pass
For more information about the full Battle Pass offering and Black Cell Bundle, check out the full breakdown on the officialCall of Duty blog here.
» Sniper Rifles «
» Launchers «
Attachments
In addition to the abundance of Modern Warfare 3 Attachments coming alongside the Weapons list above, Players will see a brand new type of Attachment called Aftermarket Parts. These are unique Attachments that are typically linked to a specific Weapon or class of Weapon, as detailed below:
The unique attachments listed above will be rolling out to players over the course of Season 1. Keep an eye out on Raven Software and Sledgehammer Game official channels for updates.
UrzikstanNew Large Map
Positioned in Western Asia, nestled on the eastern border of the Black Sea and bordering Al Mazrah, Urzikstan is steeped in rich, turbulent history and only recently emerged from the oppressive rule of dictator Roman Barkov. Our map design acknowledges this history, weaving it into the landscape that now faces the looming threats from the Allegiance and the ultranationalist forces led by Viktor Zakhaev.
Central to our design philosophy is a deep respect for our community, as we focus on a balanced, fluid, and dynamic gameplay experience that harmonizes the intensity of dense urban warfare with the strategic openness of rural battlegrounds. With enhanced mobility being another key pillar of our design, Urzikstan is interspersed with a variety of new and returning traversal options, including vertical ascenders, horizontal ziplines, redeploy drones, and even a mobile point of interest – the driveable train.
Urzikstan is a testament to our commitment to our players, strategic balance, and innovative design, set against the backdrop of a region emerging from its tumultuous past, only to face brand new challenges.
Drivable TrainNew Mobile Point of Interest
ZiplinesNew Traversal Mechanic
Major Points of Interest
For an exhaustive look at Urzikstan, check out the newTac Map Atlas.
GulagNew Map
This brand new 1v1 Gulag named “Silo” is characterized by its stark, symmetrical layout that lends to both striking visuals and balanced engagements. This symmetry not only enhances player immersion but ensures equal opportunities for both contestants to redeploy to the field. This new arena is also rich in loot, strategically placed to encourage exploration and adding an additional layer of resource management and strategy.
Here is a series of new features that elevate this Gulag in various ways:
It’s important that the Gulag is as fun and varied in your 1000th Gulag fight as it was in your very 1st Gulag fight. With the Public Events system now coming to the Gulag, this gives Players extra second chance and regain opportunities, especially so with the extra cash of “Cash Drop” or the extra weaponry provided in “Locked & Loaded”.
Battle Royale
The pacing of a Battle Royale match is critical to the experience and needs to represent the rhythm of a heartbeat: where the peaks and troughs are consistent and healthy throughout the game. Battle Royale is a game with distinct phases, this includes landing off infil and looting, then acquiring a loadout, all the way through to the final battles before exfil – but also importantly having a mid-game that doesn’t suffer a slump and is continuous in its engagements.Historically Warzone has always had large player counts in its larger maps but as we have added additional respawn mechanics and changed circle sizes and timings we have found it impacted the time-to-action pacing of the game.With the new Urzikstan map there are a number of considerations the team have made for the player count:– New map size of Urzikstan, around 20% smaller than Al Mazrah.– Faster match time at 20 minutes.– New Gas Circle timers and sizing.– More ‘second chance’ redeploy mechanics.– Unsuppressed red dots revealing engagement locations.– The Return of the “Big Game Bounty” Contracts Advanced UAV reward– Updated “Bounty” Contract rewarding one UAV ping as a reward.– New Gulag Public Event, “Go Again”, enabling more players to redeploy.– The stability and performance of the game.To summarize, regardless of the number of players, the time-to-action is one of our most important variables. Based on all of the above, we will be monitoring the time between engagements in Battle Royale throughout Season 1 and make pacing changes where necessary in future seasons.
Resurgence
For information about upcoming Playlists, XP events, and more, please check out the dedicatedWarzone Trello Board.
As many players have already experienced, MW3 offers several dozen weapons that cover a diverse range of options spanning various categories. It’s important to remember that Warzone won’t suddenly shift overnight to favor only DMRs and Shotguns. Instead, our hope is to witness a more balanced ecosystem where additional categories, such as Battle Rifles, become viable choices thanks to the new offering of weapons. In essence, MW3 weapons aim to be user-friendly, offering versatility across various damage ranges and maintaining a high level of mobility. While we acknowledge the importance of MW2 Weapons retaining their viability, there are specific cases where further updates may be required to ensure a fair and exciting gameplay experience for all.
The following Weapons launched with Modern Warfare III and are new to Warzone as of Season 1 launch.
General Adjustments
We want players to always be able to fight back, no matter their situation. The Backup Pistol addition to the game means that whether you are swimming or climbing, you can engage with enemy opponents at all times. As an important note, a fully equipped loadout Handgun will remain the preferred choice in these circumstances.
In the past, arms have often had differing damage multipliers than the chest. This could often end up with an inconsistent time to kill when firing directly at a player aiming at you (since you were hitting arms, instead of their chest). By standardizing the multipliers to be more consistent with the “Bottom to Top Philosophy” shots landing in the same area will result in a more reliable experience.
We want to make sure that launchers have an impactful but fair application to countering vehicles in Warzone. Based on several variables such as projectile speed, time to fire, and reload speed we have tuned launchers to better meet the expectation on how it should behave when damaging vehicles.
New Features
Red dots have returned to Warzone – those wishing to stay off the map when firing should consider equipping a suppressor to the weapons in their Loadout.
This is a similar approach to the one found in Resurgence already. Gone are the days of being bought back in the end game with only a pistol.
Adjusted Features
We have balanced loot so that most everything can be found in general looting, with enough time. However, we have tried to make rewards from activities like strongholds, contracts, public events, and locations on the map (like hospitals, car garages, police stations, etc) targetable for a specific, desirable item or a type of item, like Plate Carriers.So if your team is in need of a specific item, there is likely a place or activity you may go to have a higher chance of getting it. Some high tier items will be exclusive to general looting to encourage players to continue looting to find them. General gear and supplies should be plentiful, and players should have basic gear and a preferable weapon no more than 60 seconds into the match.
No more wondering “How did they know I was there?!” when you had a giant red ping above your head.
Buy Station accessibility is important, so not only do we want to allow for more advanced and interesting Gas plays – we also want to make sure that players know if they can execute a Gas play before they attempt it with the newly improved UI.
With several changes to the economy, increasing the amount of cash earned from contracts and introducing a new perk that multiplies that even further, we’re doubling down on easier access to your loadouts and the custom weapons found within. These prices will also scale dynamically should you lose a player, or be trying to solo v quads your way to victory.
The forced Gas Mask animation of putting on and removing has been a common frustration shared from players and developers alike. We’re removing the automatic animations from the equation and putting the player choice entirely behind a manual “equipped or not” approach.
With the introduction of the Irradiated perk there’s room to increase the base tick-damage as there’s ways to bring this much lower with the perk. This means about 15 seconds in the gas is possible without a mask.
The Redeploy Drones have been a fantastic addition to the game but we felt that it was unclear when they were about to change position, and would frequently move when you were running to use them. With this change, the goal now is that if you can see a Redeploy Drone in a playable part of the map – it will be accessible to use.
We’ve made this change in order to better create a sense of fairness, both for the redeploying player but also for those already on the ground.
Infil closer to the ground for faster time-to-action. In addition, redeployment heights throughout the match will be further decreased each circle so endgame hovering is less effective.
In order to make each match unique, Strongholds have been moved to the public event system where there is a percentage chance of them becoming accessible during infil. We recognize that strongholds being present in every match leads to a clear golden path and not a unique experience from match to match. We are working towards additional features to make Strongholds fairer to contest and control, and will have more to announce in future.
The Perk system currently in Warzone continues, with Operators choosing from either a pre-set or a Custom Perk Package consisting of four Perks which become active once your Loadout is claimed. Perk Packs can also be found in ground loot, whether dropped by an eliminated Player or found in Supply Boxes.
In addition, a number of the Perks that exist in Multiplayer have been implemented as default movement behaviors in Warzone – without requiring any specific equipment. This will be further detailed in the section titled Movement below.
By eliminating overkill we have removed a long-standing friction where players needed to buy their “overkill” loadout, or buy multiple weapons from the buystation. With overkill on by default always – any loadout you create can be with the perks and weapons you desire. Your freedom of choice.
We’ve taken a deep look at perks available in Warzone. This includes rebalancing or redesigning existing perks, creating new ones that are re-introduced to Call of Duty through MW3 and creating new ones bespoke to Warzone to give players more agency and choice over their playstyle.
Adjusted Perks
Survivor and the Medic Plate Carrier make for an extremely powerful defensive option that competes with Tempered – depending on which you value most (health or armor).
New & Returning Plate Carriers
Previously, some Plate Carriers shared some common features with a corresponding Perk, but not all. We’ve cleaned up this interaction so that a Plate Carrier does exactly what a Perk does, and nothing else.
Movement and rotation opportunities on Urzikstan have been key focuses of its design. In the new chapter of Warzone, Players will find themselves with several Multiplayer Perks that are simply enabled by default at all times:
The above provides the foundation of baseline movement in Warzone, this can be taken further by layering on perks that amplify movement even more. As a reminder, the gear is equipped at all times and never lost.
New Movement
Returning Movement
Adjusted Movement
Returning Contracts
Adjusted Contracts
Players engaging with Bounty Contracts are always at risk of being third-partied, so with that risk should come added reward for pushing a squad.
Again with risk should come rewards, our goal here being that whether you are the Most Wanted target or you are pushing a Most Wanted target – the Supply Crate that drops on success is rewarding to all teams. This guaranteed Gulag Entry Kit also matches our philosophy of Contracts having clearly defined rewards that players know they can acquire.
Public Events
Adjusted Public Events
We felt that doing the mental gymnastics of trying to calculate 30% of a discount of $3,000 (Spoiler: it’s $2,100) could be simplified by simply updating to a 50% reduction (simply $1,500) which also gives additional value in rotating to a Buy Station.
New Equipment
Adjusted Equipment
» Lethal Equipment «
» Tactical Equipment «
There’s been a long-standing disconnect between the Gas Mask and Tear GasGrenade having no interaction. We’ve pivoted this so that there’s one consistent language – GAS IS GAS. This means you may use a gas mask to avoid the effects, but if you’re without you’ll take tick damage as if you’re standing outside the circle. The Warzone version of the grenade is renamed to Experimental Gas to reflect the unknown nature of the deadly gas players encounter each game.
New Field Upgrades
With Heartbeat sensor moving to the field equipment slot we’ve given it an increased range and faster ping rate – This move puts it, and the newly enhanced Portable Radar as effective recon devices, while still allowing you to use your tactical slots for the active engagement.
Adjusted Field Upgrades
New Vehicle
Known Issues
Below is a list of issues that we are aware players will encounter at the launch of Season 1.
For visibility on more live issues, follow us on Twitter @CODUpdates and check out our dedicatedWarzone Trello Board here.
That covers everything you need to know about theModern Warfare 3 and WarzoneSeason 1patch notes. For more content, be sure to check out our guide onGunfight modeMW3 availability. You can also explore the relevant links below to stay updated on more CoD content.
