CoD: Black Ops 6 Beta Patch Notes Detail Much-Needed Jackal PDW Nerf And More

The second and final week of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 beta goes live later today, and a new game update has arrived ahead of time. The patch notes reveal several major adjustments, including changes to weapon movement speed and a nerf to last weekend’s overpowered Jackal PDW submachine gun.

This second weekend raises the level cap from 20 to 30, so players will have access to more of Black Ops 6’s weapons, scorestreaks, perks, and equipment. This includes popular perks, such as Ninja, Cold-Blooded, and Fast Hands.

A change is coming to the swap speeds for all weapons. The weapon-drop time was reduced for sniper rifles by 100ms, while weapons in all other classes were reduced by 50ms. Treyarch says players looking for an even quicker weapon swap should try out the Fast Hands strategist perk.

The movement speeds of weapon classes are also adjusted for week two. The developer explains that these are small adjustments to baseline movement speeds on all weapon classes to “make sure they are sitting in a good spot relative to one another.” These movement adjustments include move speeds and ADS move speeds, which come into play during combat engagements.

However, Treyarch says it’s being mindful of speeding the game up too much and will continue to monitor and assess game data and player feedback.

Another movement change comes from an adjustment to speed up the melee sprint speeds. The developer says it wants players to feel incentivized to pull out their dedicated melee weapon as a means of map traversal and ensure that melee users can catch up to other players who are sprinting with ranged weapons.

The first weekend of the beta was dominated by the Jackal PDW submachine gun, but Treyarch confirmed it was overperforming at medium ranges. The nerf includes an increase to the damage falloff, a reduced damage range, and a slight increase to recoil. Additionally, week two gives players access to the new Tanto .22 submachine gun, so players will have another option for submachine guns to try out.

Spawns are also adjusted based on the feedback from week one. Treyarch has adjusted the game’s general spawn logic to enable additional valid spawns, and also changed the spawn logic across several maps with the goal of reducing a high frequency of spawn flipping.

The full patch notes can be seen below, as shared by Activision.

Here are some recommended Black Ops 6 settings to try for the beta. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 releases on October 25.

GameSpot went hands-on with Black Ops 6 multiplayer and the upcoming Area 99 Warzone map, and here are our first impressions of the game’s new movement system.

GLOBAL

PROGRESSION

• Level Cap increased to 30. New content available to unlock:
  • Level 21:
    • Blast Trap (Lethal Equipment)
    • Scavenger (Perk – Enforcer)
  • Level 22:
    • Interceptors (Scorestreak)
    • Fast Hands (Perk – Strategist)
  • Level 23:
    • Sleeper Agent (Field Upgrade)
    • Cold-Blooded (Perk – Recon)
  • Level 24:
    • Combat Axe (Lethal Equipment)
    • Tac Mask (Perk – Strategist)
  • Level 25:
  • Level 26:
    • Gunfighter (Wildcard)
    • Forward Intel (Perk – Recon)
  • Level 27:
    • Gearhead (Perk – Strategist)
  • Level 28:
    • Decoy (Tactical Equipment)
    • Ninja (Perk – Recon)
  • Level 29:
    • Chopper Gunner (Scorestreak)
  • Level 30:

• New Rewards available to unlock:
  • Level 23: “The Truth Lies” Loading Screen
  • Level 27: “Beta Expert” Animated Calling Card
  • Level 30: “Bug Smasher” XM4 Weapon Blueprint

MULTIPLAYER

WEAPONS

WEAPON SWAP SPEEDS

We’ve seen the feedback about weapon swap speeds, and we agree. We’ll be reducing weapon drop times across the board for an overall increase to swap speeds. Players looking for an even quicker swap speed can try out the Fast Hands Strategist Perk in Week 2 of the Beta.

• Assault Rifle, SMG, Shotgun, LMG, Marksman Rifle, Pistol, and Launcher drop times reduced by 50ms
• Sniper drop times reduced by 100ms

MOVEMENT SPEEDS

We are making small adjustments to baseline movement speeds on all weapon classes to make sure they are sitting in a good spot relative to one another. We have mostly focused on Move Speeds and ADS Move Speeds, which come into play during combat engagements.

Overall we are happy with the weapon class usage and performance we’ve seen in Beta Weekend 1, as well as the upper end of movement pacing offered by SMGs, so these adjustments keep SMGs the same and generally improve other classes. We are mindful of speeding the game up too much and will continue to monitor and assess game data and your feedback.

The other notable change here is to Melee Sprint Speeds. We want players to feel incentivized to pull out their Dedicated Melee weapon as a means of map traversal. We also want to ensure that Melee users can catch up to other players who are sprinting with ranged weapons for those sneaky Body Shields and Finishing Moves.

Movement Speed Adjustments

Weapon Category Adjustments

Assault Rifles

• ADS Crouch Speed increased from 1.75m/s -> 1.88m/s
• Move Speed increased from 4.14m/s -> 4.29m/s
• ADS Move Speed increased from 3.07m/s -> 3.23m/s

SMGs

• Crouch Speed increased from 2.31m/s -> 2.77m/s

Shotguns

• ADS Crouch Speed increased from 1.63m/s -> 1.75m/s
• Move Speed increased from 4.14m/s -> 4.29m/s
• ADS Move Speed increased from 3.07m/s -> 3.23m/s

LMGs

• ADS Crouch Speed increased from 1.14m/s -> 1.3m/s
• Move Speed increased from 3.71m/s -> 3.86m/s
• ADS Move Speed increased from 2.31m/s -> 2.46m/s

Marksman Rifles

• Crouch Speed increased from 2.41m/s -> 2.49m/s
• ADS Crouch Speed increased from 1.37m/s -> 1.55m/s
• Move Speed increased from 3.76m/s -> 3.99m/s
• ADS Move Speed increased from 2.9m/s -> 3m/s

Sniper Rifles

• Crouch Speed decreased from 2.41m/s -> 2.31m/s

Pistols

• Crouch Speed decreased from 2.9m/s -> 2.84m/s
• ADS Crouch Speed increased from 1.88m/s -> 2.24m/s
• Move Speed increased from 4.47m/s -> 4.52m/s
• ADS Move Speed decreased from 3.94m/s -> 3.81m/s

Launchers

• Crouch Speed decreased from 2.44m/s -> 2.18m/s

Melee

• Crouch Speed increased from 2.9m/s -> 2.95m/s
• Jog Speed increased from 5.16m/s -> 5.31m/s
• Sprint Speed increased from 6.93m/s -> 7.16m/s
• Super Sprint Speed increased from 8.41m/s -> 8.66m/s
• Move Speed increased from 4.47m/s -> 4.62

Weapon Adjustments

SMG Adjustments

Weapon Adjustments

Jackal PDW

• Decreased Maximum Damage from 29 -> 26
  • Decreased Maximum Damage range from 15.24m -> 14.61m
• Decreased Near-Medium Damage from 23 -> 22
  • Decreased Near-Medium Damage range from 22.86m -> 17.78m
• Decreased Medium Damage from 22 -> 18
  • Decreased Medium Damage range from 29.21m -> 26.04m
• Decreased Minimum Damage from 19 -> 15
• Small increase to view kick strength and view kick deviation.
• CHF Barrel
  • Headshot multiplier improved from 1.2 -> 1.4

The Jackal PDW ‘s intended strength is best in class handling and decent mobility, balanced by a slower rate of fire compared to many of the other automatic weapons in the game. It was overperforming at medium ranges, so we’ve increased the damage falloff and pulled the ranges closer along with a slight increase to recoil. Maximum damage and CHF Barrel headshot multiplier have been adjusted to maintain the same hit to kill numbers while using the attachment.

C9

• Increased medium damage range from 25.4m -> 27.31m

We feel that the C9 is in a good spot as a well-rounded Submachine Gun with a solid rate of fire. It has higher horizontal recoil compared to other Submachine Guns, so we’ve given a boost to its medium damage falloff range.

Marksman Rifles Adjustments

Weapon Adjustment

SWAT 5.56

• Disabled burst fire queuing, which was queuing an additional burst if the fire input was activated at any time during the previous burst or the burst cooldown.

This is a minor change to improve control with the Swat 5.56 (and any future burst weapons).

ATTACHMENTS

• The Rapid Fire attachment now correctly displays its recoil penalty con. The attachment description has also been updated to indicate the tradeoff.

MAPS

General

• Adjusted general spawn logic to enable additional valid spawns under certain scenarios.
• Adjusted spawn logic across several maps with the goal of reducing a high frequency of spawn flipping.

Our longstanding definition of a “bad spawn” is any time a player deals or receives damage within 3 seconds of spawning. This is the cornerstone of building the spawn system and does not change regardless of map size or game mode. We use this metric (among others) to track bad spawn rates for Black Ops 6, meaning that if you dealt or received damage within 3 seconds in Weekend 1 of the Beta, we saw it.

As an example, our Core Moshpit entry with the highest bad spawn rate in Week 1 was Domination on Skyline with a 4.2% rate, which means 4.2 out of every 100 spawns saw someone give or receive damage within that 3 second window. While we are generally happy with our averages, we know that an average also consists of worst cases, and we’ll continue to assess throughout the lifetime of this game.

We also recognize that we each have our own definition of what a good spawn or a bad spawn is, and that’s not always just about combat situations. For example, did I spawn out too far on Hardpoint? Or why am I spawning on the same side of the map as the enemy team? The overarching spawn system and the placement of spawns in a map are critical to the flow of the match. It is our goal with Black Ops 6, as it has been with every prior Black Ops game, to have a predictable spawn system that results in head-on engagements with your opponents while providing ample time from respawn for decision making. This includes accounting for time before getting into an engagement before you’re ready for it.

For Weekend 2 of our Open Beta, we’ve adjusted general spawn logic and have targeted multiple maps with additional tuning changes with the goal of improving predictability and time to engagement. We know we have some work to do and will continue to process our data, evaluate your feedback, and play the game with you all to draw our own conclusions on how to continue making positive progress.

SCORESTREAKS

• RC-XD
  • Improved handling and general usability.
• Watchdog Helo
• Hellstorm
  • Increased Cluster Bomb damage radius.

EQUIPMENT

• Lethal Equiptment
  • Thermo Grenade
    • Reduced explosive ignition delay.

MOVEMENT

• Slight increase to the time to enter prone or supine during a slide.
• Slight increase to all mantle speeds.
• Slight decrease to time before movement is allowed after landing from a Dive to Prone.
• Slight increase to Dive to Prone landing friction.

PROGRESSION

• Weapon XP
  • Increased awarded Weapon XP, which will decrease the amount of time needed to gain Weapon Levels. The Weapon XP speeds observed in Weekend 1 were slower than expected.
• Daily Challenges
  • Fixed an issue that was causing the Daily Challenge countdown timer to display the incorrect reset time.
  • The “Get 50 Eliminations with the Recon Perk Specialty equipped” Daily Challenge will now track progress correctly.
• General
  • Beta Rewards earned in a match will now appear in the After-Action Report.

AUDIO

• Increased player weapon firing audio volume.
• Additional footstep audio adjustments.
• Reduced audio levels for impact sounds when taking damage.
• Resolved an issue where Shotguns could play more than the intended number of hit impact sounds.
• Resolved an issue where explosion sounds would not play during normal gameplay.
• Resolved an issue where some sounds were not playing during Best Play.
• Reenabled a previously disabled audio occlusion system on PlayStation 5.

BEST PLAY

• Adjustments to underlying Best Play logic which will result in more varied and interesting Best Play selection.

UI

• Improved stability throughout various menus and HUD.
• Addressed various localization issues.

SETTINGS

• Users should no longer encounter issues when switching their ADS Transition Timing to ‘Instant’, when using keyboard and mouse.

GENERAL

• Increased the duration of the Lobby Vote before matches to give players a better opportunity to participate in the vote when returning to the lobby after a completed match.
• Reduced the amount of camera motion in the Dynamic Deathcam.

STABILITY

• Improved stability in Skyline.
• Improved stability in Training Course.
• Improved general server-side stability.