Season 4 of DLC forCall of Duty: Warzoneis now live, and it’s significantly altering the way health bars work. Turns out the big changesdon’t just stop at theWarzone 2.0name.
Dropped roughly a week before Thanksgiving of 2022,Call of Duty: Warzonemarks the franchise’s third foray into the battle royale genre. It is a companion game toCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2that can be purchased as a standalone, with updates usually occurring concurrently between both games. The game has garnered a generally favorable reception but a notably low player retention rate, yet that doesn’t seem to be stopping Activision from continuing to push it with constant waves of post-release content, with the most recent being Season 4, released just today.
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The full update was detailed on the officialCall of Dutysite. In addition to the multitude of new weapons, stability improvements, operators, andthe brand new Vondel map, the most intriguing gameplay change involves the player’s health bar. Base health has been raised from 100 to 150HP, while the maximum upgrade threshold is now 300 when armor parts are donned. The regen delay has been increased from five to seven seconds as well. All of these changes result in enemies taking longer to kill overall.
To compensate for this, various changes have been made to other aspects of the combat in hopes of balancing things out. Armor and ammo pickups are now fixed, with players automatically picking up nine armor plates, while the number gained from armor boxes is set at six. Ammunition counts are also consistent across all munitions boxes, ensuring players always have the bullets they need to take down their toughened-up enemies. Giventhe recent nerf to various in-game rifles, this change could improve their utility at least to an extent. Aside from this, various weapons have had their stats altered to compensate as well.
Call of Duty: Warzonehas suffered from low player retentioncompared to its predecessor, and with such a drastic gameplay change thrown in, it is unclear what effect this might have on the remaining playerbase in terms of reception. It should be interesting to see what effect these changes to the health system could have on the meta in the long run, especially since this now sets a precedent for more gameplay alterations to come in future seasons.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 & Warzone Season 04 Patch Notes (Weapon Balancing):
These changes to Player Health and the application of Armor Damage ultimately result in the Time to Kill feeling slower, more consistent, and more reactable at every engagement distance.
While a select few Weapons are listed below, it is important to note that most Weapons will see their effectiveness altered as a result of the change to Armor Damage. For now, we will be retiring the term “Armor Damage” and any future changes that are Warzone specific will be followed by “Warzone Only.”
Call of Duty: Warzoneis available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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