Call of Duty: Warzone Making Big Change to Player Health

Season 4 of DLC for Call of Duty: Warzone is now live, and it's significantly altering the way health bars work. Turns out the big changes don't just stop at the Warzone 2.0 name.

Dropped roughly a week before Thanksgiving of 2022, Call of Duty: Warzone marks the franchise's third foray into the battle royale genre. It is a companion game to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 that 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.

The full update was detailed on the official Call of Duty site. In addition to the multitude of new weapons, stability improvements, operators, and the 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. Given the 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: Warzone has suffered from low player retention compared 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.”

» Battle Rifles «

Cronen Squall
- Full-Auto
  - Bullets to Kill increased by 2 | Warzone Only
  - Maximum Damage increased | Warzone Only
  - Minimum Damage added | Warzone Only
- Semi-Auto
  - Bullets to Kill increased by 1 | Warzone Only
  - Maximum Damage decreased | Warzone Only
  - Minimum Damage increased | Warzone Only

» Shotguns «

Bryson 800
- Minimum Damage decreased | Warzone Only
- Head Multiplier increased
- Neck Multiplier increased
- Upper Torso Multiplier increased
- Arm Multipliers increased
- Leg Multipliers increased

Bryson 890
- Minimum Damage decreased | Warzone Only
- Head Multiplier increased
- Neck Multiplier increased
- Upper Torso Multiplier increased
- Arm Multipliers increased
- Leg Multipliers increased

Expedite 12
- Minimum Damage added | Warzone Only
- Leg Multipliers increased

KV Broadside
- Mid Damage decreased

Lockwood 300
- Minimum Damage decreased | Warzone Only
- Head Multiplier increased
- Neck Multiplier increased
- Upper Torso Multiplier increased
- Arm Multipliers increased
- Leg Multipliers increased
- Hip to ADS Spread transition speed increased
  - Becomes accurate faster after aiming down sights
- Mid Damage Ranges increased
- Mid Damage decreased slightly

» Submachine Guns «

Fennec 45
- Bullets to Kill decreased by 1 | Warzone Only

Attachments

FTAC Siege
- Akimbo FTAC Siege (NEW)
  - Unlock through in-game Challenge: 25 Hip Fire Operator kills with the FTAC Siege
Kastov-74u
- KSTV-17 Barrel (NEW)
  - Added to Kastov-74u progression, replaces 5.45 Tracer at Level 9
    - Players who have progressed beyond this level will have it retroactively granted to their account following the launch of Season 4
KV Broadside
- 12 Gauge Dragon’s Breath
  - Close-range Damage increased slightly