Season 1 of Black Ops 6 and Warzone is nigh, and ahead of the explosion of content coming to both Call of Duty games, Treyarch has revealed some of the tweaks it’ll be making to the BO6 arsenal. While Season 1 will introduce some new weapons to the meta, these balancing changes to some existing staples will also shake things up quite a bit.
Black Ops 6 has undoubtedly been the biggest new FPS game in the mainline Call of Duty series for a long while, providing an enjoyable, well-produced campaign and a Zombies mode that feels like a return to past Black Ops glories. However, the core multiplayer experience is the real winner for me – while not perfect, it’s by far and away the most enjoyable and least-maddening CoD multiplayer has been since 2018’s Black Ops 4, in my view.
Alongside Season 1 dumping an almost incomprehensible amount of content into the game, Treyarch is also dishing out a series of buffs and nerfs to 12 weapons, including some that are currently pretty popular picks in people’s best Black Ops 6 loadouts.
One weapon that immediately stands out in the new set of patch notes is the XM4 assault rifle. A reliable assault rifle for many and the first gun you have access to in that class, it just got a modest but important buff to its damage output. At all damage ranges, the weapon will do two points more damage in Season 1. This has been slightly offset by a nerf to its headshot multiplier, but still, a Black Ops 6 XM4 loadout still looks totally viable for the start of the new season.
Almost identical changes have been made to some of the XM4’s cousins in the assault rifle class – damage increases have also arrived for the AMES 85 and the GPR 91.
Elsewhere, all of the game’s sniper rifles will receive blanket buffs that improve flinch resistance and amount of idle sway you experience while ADSing. Also, stock attachments that improve aim walking speed have had their bonuses increased on snipers.
Outside of weapon balancing, more improvements to spawn logic will arrive, the Archangel scorestreak should be less likely to blow you up when you fire it near walls, and there’s a reduction in footstep volume too – including for those running the Ninja perk.
Black Ops Season 1 kicks off on Thursday, November 14. To check out all the weapon tweaks and other changes being made in the Season 1 update, head over to the official patch notes.
As things evolve in the opening days of Season 1, be sure to check back in with our Black Ops 6 meta guide so that you know exactly which weapons to be focusing on. You can also find out how to unlock all of the desirable Black Ops 6 camos.
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