Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Launch Day Patch Notes

BOCW Patch Notes
Treyarch released the launch day patch notes for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. (Image Credit: Treyarch)

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will be released later today and Treyarch have not kept the info on what's coming to us a secret. Let's find out what BOCW's official launch will add to the beta version!

New weapons, new maps, a supposedly groundbreaking campaign and a new zombie mode all await us with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. We can hardly wait! Both the Alpha and Beta of Black Ops Cold War had some problems, which we went over in depth:

Treyarch have released the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War day 1 patch notes. Let's see what has changed since the beta and if some of the issues addressed have been fixed.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Day 1 Patch Notes

Since the patch notes are very detailed, we will only go into the most important changes and innovations as usual. The complete patch notes can be found at Treyarch's official site.

Multiplayer: New Modes

The multiplayer gets 7 new game modes:

  • Search & Destroy
  • Free-for-All
  • Hardcore Team Deathmatch
  • Hardcore Domination
  • Hardcore Kill Confirmed
  • Hardcore Search & Destroy
  • Hardcore Free-for-All

Some changes have been made to the large, Warzone-like, Fireteam: Dirty Bomb mode:

  • The downed player and player reviving will be locked in place during a revive to avoid the revive from failing.
  • Downed players can call for help.
  • Adjusted objective placements.
  • Arming progress will now display on the charge when arming a dirty bomb.
  • Radiation Vest item added to loot pool. This vest will prevent the wearer from taking radiation damage inside of the radiation zones.
  • Combat Bow, VTOL, Cruise Missile and Gunship have been added to the loot pool
  • The Hind, Tank, and FAV spawn less frequently.
  • You can ping from vehicles and while downed.
  • Field upgrades, C4 and downed teammates can be pinged.

The VIP Escort mode has been adjusted too:

  • Players can quick-deploy parachute in Crossroads and Armada.
  • When the VIP is near an exfiltration point, a notification is triggered to give the defenders more time to react.

New Weapons and Balancing Changes

Let's get to the most exciting part of the patch notes - the weapons! As expected, the arsenal will be greatly increased for the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War:

  • FFAR 1 assault rifle
  • Bullfrog SMG
  • M60 LMG
  • DMR 14 tactical rifle
  • M79 special launcher
  • more
  • New weapon attachments.
  • You can carry two guns at the same time.
  • Weapon levels have been increased from 40 to 55.

Work has also been done on weapon balancing:

  • All assault rifles were brought closer to the Beta's Krig 6 and XM4.
  • The recoil of the AK-47 has been increased.
  • The range of all submachine guns has been reduced, as they were much too powerful in the Beta.
  • The damage of LMGs has been increased.
  • Aim Assist for sniper rifles has been adjusted. It should now be smoother, but at the same time require more skill and precision.
  • Sniper scopes will flash more often, which should make undetected camping more difficult.
  • The precision of firing pistols from the hip and at range have been reduced.
  • The rate of fire of semi-automatic shotguns has been reduced.
  • The direct hit damage of launchers has been increased to allow for a direct kill with well-aimed shots.
  • The sprint speed with knives has been slightly reduced.
  • Cleaned up issues with bullet direction and recoil to make sighting feel more intuitive and responsive.
  • About half of all attachments have been re-balanced to offer a wider range of useful attachments.
  • Advantages and disadvantages of the individual attachments have been revised.
  • The descriptions of the weapons and items have been revised.

Movement Changes

The Movement has also been improved, especially the sliding system:

  • Slide range has been reduced.
  • Slide speed has been reduced.
  • Sprint to fire is now faster than slide to fire.

All this should result in slides being less abused and used more for what they were designed originally - to get down quickly.

New Scorestreaks

New scorestreaks have been introduced and old ones slightly modified. The new scorestreaks are:

  • Combat Bow
  • Armor
  • Care Package
  • Cruise Missile
  • VTOL Escort
  • Gunship

Adjustments made include:

  • The score system was further balanced.
  • The bonus for higher killstreaks has been increased.
  • Attack Helicopter does slightly more damage.
  • Chopper Gunner duration and damage slightly reduced.
  • It is now shown in numbers how many points are still missing for the next scorestreak.

Tweaks to Spawns, Equipment and Field Upgrades

The spawns, equipment and field upgrades adjustments include:

  • Flak Jacket now reduces damage by 5%.
  • The frag grenade throwback is faster.
  • Stim Shot cooldown increased from 8 to 11 seconds.
  • Decoys now only last 15 seconds instead of 20.
  • The radius of the field microphone has been reduced by 10%.

Audio Tweaks

We finally arrive at the final section of the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War launch patch notes: the audio!

  • Weapon and footstep noises have been improved.
  • Hit marker sounds are louder.
  • Sound adjustments for all maps.
  • Players can select unlocked tracks as menu music.
  • Various audio presets have been added.

This is a huge pile of information and not even all of it. Just the most important changes in our opinion. Treyarch will of course continue to work on Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War past its launch but for now we just hope to get a good game tomorrow.

Stay with EarlyGame for more quality Call of Duty content. You can also check our YouTube channel for some visuals if reading's not your main thing.

Original article by EarlyGame's Lukas Ballat.