Every weapon buff & nerf in Warzone’s mid-season update

Matt Porter
Warzone players firing weapons in Caldera

Warzone’s Season 1 mid-season patch dropped on January 12, and Raven Software have made some major weapon balancing changes. Here’s every buff and nerf included in the update.

We’ve officially reached the halfway point of Warzone and Vanguard Season 1, and as always, that means the devs have dropped major patches. While there haven’t been any huge additions, Raven have focused on the game’s performance on consoles, bug fixes, and the new Welgun SMG.

Unsurprisingly, Raven have used this patch as an opportunity to tweak the strength of some guns. Each season always has a meta weapon that dominates the game, and it’s up to the devs to try and balance that out.

With the January 12 patch, the devs have specifically focused on Assault Rifles and Shotguns, while also tweaking a number of attachments. You can view the full changes below.

Warzone operators in Caldera

Assault Rifle recoil changes

Vanguard’s Assault Rifles have received a major change in this patch, with Raven focusing on their recoil patterns. Four weapons received buffs, with the STG44, Automaton, AS44, and NZ-41 all seeing their kick reduced.

These changes apply to the stock versions of the weapons, although with different attachments you may see an even bigger decrease in recoil when firing.

  • Assault Rifle Alpha (VG)
    • Visual Recoil decreased
  • Assault Rifle Hotel (VG)
    • Recoil decreased
    • Recoil Deviation decreased
  • AS44 (VG)
    • Initial Recoil decreased
    • Recoil Deviation decreased
  • NZ-41 (VG)
    • Recoil Deviation decreased slightly
    • Recoil ramp-up now occurs one bullet later
stg44 warzone pacific vanguard

Shotgun nerfed

Warzone players have been tortured by the Double-Barrel Shotgun for weeks, with Raven finally nerfing them after plenty of complaints.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the only Shotgun causing issues, with the Einhorn Revolving also causing mayhem on Pacific Caldera and Rebirth Island. With that in mind, the devs have increased the weapon’s hip fire spread in an attempt to end its reign of terror.

  • Einhorn Revolving (VG)
    • Hip Spread increased slightly
Einhorn Revolving shotgun in Warzone

Attachment changes

The biggest number of changes came to attachments, which saw 27 of them receive updates of some sort.

The STG44 has been given a helping hand with five attachments all buffed to decrease visual recoil, while the MP-40 saw changes to make it less effective.

Raven also nerfed attachments linked to Shotguns, which should permanently spell the end of the Double Barrel and Einhorn meta.

Ammo

  • Cooper Carbine (VG)
    • Compressed Rounds
      • Horizontal Recoil Control decreased by 1.04, down from 1.05
      • Visual Recoil decreased slightly

Barrel

  • Assault Rifle Alpha (VG)
    • VDD 760mm 05B
      • Visual Recoil decreased
  • Cooper Carbine (VG)
    • 22″ Cooper Custom
      • Sprint to Fire Speed decreased by 1.2, down from 1.3
  • Light Machine Gun Charlie (VG)
    • Queen’s 705mm Royal
      • No longer removes Damage Falloff
      • Now multiplies Damage Range by 1.5, up from 1
      • Horizontal Recoil Control increased by 1.36, down from 1.37
  • Submachine Gun Charlie (VG)
    • Krausnick 317mm 04B
      • Now decreases Hip Fire Accuracy by 6.4%

Gun Perk

  • Double Barrel (VG)
    • Akimbo
      • Hip Spread Accuracy decreased by 40%, down from 32%

Magazine

  • Assault Rifle Alpha (VG)
    • 7.62 Gorenko 50 Round Mags
      • Visual Recoil decreased
  • Cooper Carbine (VG)
    • .30 Carbine 45 Round Mags
      • Move Speed increased by 4%
      • ADS Speed increased by 1%
      • Horizontal Recoil Control decreased by 1.28, down from 1.3
      • Vertical Recoil Control decreased by 1.28, down from 1.3
  • Light Machine Gun Charlie (VG)
    • 6.5 Sakura 40 Round Mags
      • Vertical Recoil Control increased by 1.17, down from 1.2
      • Horizontal Recoil Control increased by 1.19, down from 1.21

Muzzle

  • Assault Rifle Charlie (VG)
    • Mercury Silencer
      • Vertical Recoil Control increased by 1.07, up from 1.048
      • Horizontal Recoil Control increased by 1.03, up from 1.013
    • MX Silencer
      • Horizontal Recoil Control increased by 1.049, up from 1.036
      • Visual Recoil decreased slightly
  • Assault Rifle Hotel (VG)
    • Mercury Silencer
      • Vertical Recoil Control increased by 1.05, up from 1.035
      • Horizontal Recoil Control increased by 1.02, up from 1.01
      • Visual Recoil decreased slightly
    • MX Silencer
      • ADS Speed decreased by 5.1%, up from 4%
      • Horizontal Recoil Control increased by 1.065, up from 1.03
  • Einhorn Revolving (VG)
    • M97 Full Choke
      • ADS Spread (Bloom) Multiplier decreased to .9, up from .85
        • A reduction to this multiplier will increase the size of its firing cone while ADSing. 

Rear Grip

  • Assault Rifle Alpha (VG)
    • Pine Tar Grip
      • ADS Speed decreased by 4.9%, up from 4%
      • Vertical Recoil Control increased by 1.11, up from 1.1
    • Rubber Grip
      • Now decreases Idle Sway Control by 5%
      • Vertical Recoil Control increased by 1.06, up from 1.047
  • Assault Rifle Hotel (VG)
    • Polymer Grip
      • Visual Recoil decreased slightly

Stock

  • Assault Rifle Alpha (VG)
    • Krausnick S11S Folding
      • Visual Recoil decreased slightly
  • Cooper Carbine (VG)
    • Removed Stock
      • Horizontal Recoil Control decreased by 1.11, down from 1.3
      • Vertical Recoil Control decreased by 1.09, down from 1.1
      • Visual Recoil decreased
  • Einhorn Revolving (VG)
    • Removed Stock
      • Hip Fire Accuracy increased by 6.4%, down from 7.6%
    • VDD Hunter
      • Hip Fire Accuracy increased by 5.6%, down from 7.6%

Underbarrel

  • Assault Rifle Alpha (VG)
    • Carver Foregrip
      • Visual Recoil decreased
    • M1941 Hand Stop
      • Visual Recoil decreased
  • Assault Rifle Charlie (VG)
    • Carver Foregrip
      • Vertical Recoil Control increased by 1.11, up from 1.093
      • Visual Recoil decreased slightly
    • M1930 Strife Angled
      • Now increases Vertical Recoil Control by 1.012
  • Assault Rifle Hotel (VG)
    • Carver Foregrip
      • ADS Speed decreased by 5%, up from 4%
      • Hip Spread Accuracy increased to 1.03, down from 1.04
      • Horizontal Recoil Control increased by 1.025, up from 1.016
      • Vertical Recoil Control increased by 1.072, up from 1.065
      • Visual Recoil decreased slightly
    • M1941 Hand Stop
      • Horizontal Recoil Control increased by 1.06, up from 1.049
      • Idle Sway Control now decreased by 10%
      • Vertical Recoil Control increased by 1.06, up from 1.048
      • Visual Recoil decreased slightly

Image Credits: Raven Software