Warzone 2 Season 2 Reloaded patch notes nerfs your favourite weapon combo

15 March 2023 , 18:14

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Warzone 2 Season 2 Reloaded update puts an end to the annoying shotgun meta (Image: Shabana Arif)

The Warzone 2 Season 2 Reloaded patch notes have arrived, and there are plenty of changes in store for the new season.

The highlight of the Warzone 2 Season 2 Reloaded update is the nerfing of the KV Broadside shotgun and Dragons Breath ammo. The pair have been used in tandem to turn the meta on its head and players that have been gleefully wielding the combo have forced everyone else to get on board, or face the duo's wrath. But not anymore!

The KV Broadside's damage has been reduced (lower torso, specifically), and its 12 gauge ammo has had reduced damage ranges, and reduced close range damage. Meanwhile the Dragons Breath ammo has has the same treatment as the 12 gauge, but a global reduction to 12 gauge Dragon’s Breath maximum residual damage has also been rolled out. So hopefully, we'll see the end of the KV Broadside meta for good!

That's not the end of the nerfs though; while the Lachmann sub has had a few buffs, it's not escaped unscathed and has been slapped with reduced movement speed and reduced aim down sight speed. If you've avoided being drawn dragged into the shotgun meta, you've almost certainly been dabbling with the RAAL LMG, but that's been nerfed as well so it might be time to expand your horizons.

On that front, if you've been craving a snappy SMG, you're in luck, as a handful have been buffed including older community favourites like the Vel 46, MX9, and Lachmann Sub – although the latter has arguably been mored nerfed than buffed. Some attention has been lavished on attachments as well, with reduced ADS penalty on all under barrel grips, and reduced movement speed penalty for all vertical grips.

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And of course, our favourite addition courtesy of this patch, is a much-needed playlist update! No more being relegated to Quads only. Both Al Mazrah and Ashika Island now offer Solos, Duos, Trios, and Quads, with a footnote mentioning that all squad sizes will be available for Resurgence throughout the rest of Warzone 2 Season 2 Reloaded.

An added bonus, in honour of three years of Warzone is a slew of anniversary gifts.. The list of rewards in the Warzone 2 patch notes doesn't mention the weapon blueprint, which was teased before the update, so we almost thought it had been swapped out for something else. But there it is, clear as day, a tweet from the official Call of Duty account.

The full patch notes are pretty lengthy, but if you want to delve into the finer details, you can scroll down for everything you need to know about the Warzone 2 Season 2 Reloaded update.

Warzone 2 Season 2 Reloaded patch notes

General – quality of life

• Killstreak Availability
  • The existing “Airspace is too crowded” message will now have a trailing “for X seconds” attached to it to add better context for players.

• Cluster Strike & Precision Airstrike Improvements
  • Improved the Airstrike danger notification to be more consistent based on each damage location.
  • Improved directional tracing to prevent the Precision Airstrike targeting from sometimes landing behind the Players.
  • Players will now be notified when calling a Cluster Strike or Precision Airstrike if they are too close to the affected zone.

• Give-Up Timer Consistency
  • The give-up timer while downed is now more consistent across modes and will last at least 3 seconds.

• Navigation Pings
  • Increased the scale of navigation pings on the Tacmap and Mini-Map for improved readability.

• Armor Break
  • The text has been removed from the Armor Break notification (when breaking all of an opponent’s Armor Plates) for improved clarity, whilst the icon has remained.

• Auto-Looting Armor Plates
  • As Armor Plates are a critical part of the gameplay loop, Players will now automatically pick up Armor Plates as long as they have available inventory or Backpack space.

• Spawn Protection
  • Spawn Protection will now disable at 25 meters, up from 19 meters, from the ground or a grounded player in Battle Royale modes.
  • We will continue to refine as we move forwards given the importance of this feature to redeploying players.

• Resurgence Killfeed
  • The killfeed will now display who is about to redeploy when their Resurgence timer reaches 0.

General – UI/UX

• Spectating
  • Friendly pings and splash screens are now visible to spectators.

• Gas Mask
  • Loot cards for gas mask now more accurately reflect their damage amounts.

General – bug fixes

• Fixed some issues causing rainbow glare to appear on the horizon in Al Mazrah (Xbox only).

Tac Map & Minimap

• Fixed an issue preventing elevation arrows on map icons not accurately indicating their position.
• Fixed an issue causing the Counter UAV to affect Player maps even while outside of the effective range.

Battle royale – playlist

Al Mazrah

• Standard
  • Solos
    • Max Players: 150
    • Assimilation: Off
  • Duos
    • Max Players: 150
    • Assimilation: Refill
  • Trios
    • Max Players: 150
    • Assimilation: Refill
  • Quads
    • Max Players: 152
    • Assimilation: Refill

Ashika Island

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• Resurgence
  • Solos
    • Max Players: 52
    • Assimilation: Off
  • Duos
    • Max Players: 52
    • Assimilation: Off
  • Trios
    • Max Players: 52
    • Assimilation: Off
  • Quads
    • Max Players: 52
    • Assimilation: Off

All squad sizes for Resurgence will be available through Season 02 Reloaded!

Events

To celebrate three years of Warzone, Players will be able to redeem a new free gift each day via the in-game Store that are symbolic of memories made since its surprise launch on March 10, 2020.

Rewards:

• Verdansk Anniversary Calling Card
• Verdansk Emblem
• Caldera Anniversary Calling Card
• Blacksite Completionist Calling Card
• Blacksite Sticker
• Blacksite Emblem (Animated)
• Stronghold Calling Card

General

• Bomb Drones
  • Bomb Drones have been temporarily removed while we fine tune them.

Gameplay – General

• Pacing Balancing
  • As a team we are focused on two core areas of the pacing of Battle Royale:
    • The combat engagements in the mid-game
    • The regain opportunities in the late game
  • We will be addressing this across Season 02 Reloaded and going into Season 03, with the first change being a guaranteed “Restock” Public Event in the 4th Circle.
  • Future improvements will include:
    • More ground loot Supply Boxes, especially in the North of the map
    • Resurgence Supply Boxes being sprinkled throughout the map
    • Additional Ammo Caches
    • And more…

Gameplay – Adjustments

Al Mazrah | Battle Royale

• Light Helo
  • The Light Helo has been disabled in Solos. We are protective of the Solos squad size being a fair and balanced experience, and the Light Helo went against that ethos.

• Contract Availability
  • Increased the number of Contracts revealed over the course of the match to increase their availability in later circles.

• Final Circles
  • We are temporarily disabling final circles in the north-western section of the map while we work on improvements for upcoming seasons.

Ashika Island | Resurgence

• Redeployment Drones
  • Redeployment Drones are currently active across Ashika Island and will remain live as part of the Resurgence experience.

• AI Combatant Departure
  • As the Path of the Ronin event comes to an end, the Shadow Company operatives that have occupied the island will depart in pursuit of their next mission.
  • Players will now be public enemy number one for Search & Seizure Contracts and the Data Heist Public Event.

• Circle Balancing
  • The first circle will be approximately 20% larger, and more likely to be on land, to better enable a successful Infil.

• Pacing Balancing
  • Actions that affect the Resurgence Countdown have been adjusted to allow for more windows of opportunity to Team Wipe the opposing team.

• Buy Station Availability
  • Improvements have been made to better spread the Buy Stations more evenly through the map.

Quality of life

• Spawn Protection
  • Spawn Protection will now disable at 25 meters, up from 19 meters, from the ground or a grounded player in Battle Royale modes.
    • We will continue to refine as we move forwards given the importance of this feature to redeploying players.

• Resurgence Killfeed
  • The killfeed will now display who is about to redeploy when their Resurgence timer reaches 0.

Bug fixes

• Redeploy Token
  
  • Fixed an issue allowing Redeploy Tokens to appear in Buy Stations even after the Gulag had closed.

DMZ

Gameplay

• We have updated the usage requirements for Building 21 Access Cards:
  • Players no longer need to bring Building 21 Access Cards into the match by equipping them prior to infiltration
  • At least one Player in a squad must have a Building 21 Access Card in their Inventory to allow infiltration
  • If a Player does infil to Building 21 with an Access Card in their Backpack, they will lose that card if they do not extract with it
  • This change only impacts Building 21 Access Cards and not the Access/Key Cards for locked spaces inside Building 21, as those must still be equipped in your Backpack prior to infiltration
• Enemy combatants in DMZ can now operate or arrive in a variety of vehicles, not just the Armored Truck
• We have added some variations to infiltration and exfiltration points
• The Destroy Supplies Contract has been updated to reveal the 4 closest safes, instead of revealing all safes within a distance of the Contract
• Reduced the total number of vehicles in Modern City for more even distribution of vehicles throughout Al Mazrah
• Enemy combatants now have a small chance to drop upgraded weapons upon death

Bug fixes

• Fixed several Stronghold access issues across DMZ
• Fixed an issue where the Secure Nuclear Material contract could select a locked toolbox on Ashika Island
• Increased minimum distance between Secure Nuclear Material contracts on Ashika Island so they do not overlap
• Fixed Favor for a Friend Mission having an incorrect location description
• Fixed description for Stronghold Reacquisition Mission incorrectly stating that the Legion Deal Intel must be extracted
• Fixed an issue where taking a weapon directly from an enemy's Backpack wouldn't register it as an enemy weapon for some Missions
• Fixed issue where the Overlord voiceover would fade out improperly when extracting
• Fixed issues where certain Missions weren't sharing progress with squadmates, including missions that have you use field upgrades and killstreaks such as Death From Above
• Fixed issue where Key Elimination wasn't giving progress for unlocking a cache instead of a locked door
• Fixed an issue where some Players did not get credit for the final exfil due to timer
• Fixed an issue where match search would stop if the party leader left the group
• Fixed an issue that would prevent the Player from using their Armor temporarily, when trying to use Armor and the Radiation Blocker at the same time

Nathan Bliss