Black Ops 4 Zombies receives major balancing changes with October 26 update – full patch notes

❘ Updated: 2018-10-26T21:07:29

Zombies is the biggest focus of Treyarch’s latest update to Black Ops 4, with the mode receiving its first major balancing pass.

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While Treyarch have released many updates to Black Ops 4 since the game released on October 12, this is the first one to feature major updates to the Zombies game mode.

Along with the Zombies balance changes, Treyarch have put those who are utilizing various glitches on notice with a reminder on their enforcement policy.

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The bulk of the October 26 update centers around the first balancing pass for Zombies, as Treyarch strives to make the mode as balanced as possible.

Read More: Black Market live for Black Ops 4 players on all platforms

The biggest changes come in the form of the bleed-out timer for the last zombie in each round being increased from five to 10 minutes and the XP earn rate being increased in both solo and two-player matches.

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Other changes to Zombies include being able to use four Elixirs in each round and an overall reduced frequency of Hellhounds on the Blood of the Dead and Classified maps. Various bug fixes and other gameplay improvements for Zombies can be read in the full patch notes down below.

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Before diving into the patch notes, Treyarch also made sure to note that they are monitoring the use of any exploits in the game and outlined the penalties for Glitching, which are as follows:

First offense: Player will be temporarily suspended from playing the game online, will have their stats, Emblems, and Paintjobs reset, will have online splitscreen privileges revoked, and will have their Leaderboard entries deleted.
Extreme or repeat offenses: Player will be permanently suspended from playing the game online, will have their stats, Emblems, and Paintjobs reset, and will be blocked permanently from appearing in Leaderboards.

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The full patch notes can be read below:

Oct. 26 Update: Zombies Gameplay Updates, Black Market Live on All Platforms

With today’s game update, our latest Zombies balancing pass is now live on all platforms, delivering several highly-requested gameplay changes across all Zombies maps.

Let’s cut right to the chase: last zombie bleed-out time has been doubled, XP earn rates have been boosted for solo and 2-player matches, we’re spawning fewer Hellhounds on mixed rounds in Blood of the Dead and Classified, and players can now use four unique Elixirs per round. We’ve also made other tweaks to ensure a more balanced Zombies experience in addition to these changes, so check out the full list below, jump into some matches, and let us know what you think.

The Black Market is also now live across all platforms starting today, granting all players access to hundreds of cosmetic items by progressing through our first Contraband collection, Operation: First Strike. Earn your way across a full season of rewards in Multiplayer and Blackout, including new Signature Weapons, Gestures, Outfits, Calling Cards, Tags, Stickers, Blackout characters, and more.

And tomorrow, our free Halloween Event content stream goes live across all platforms, adding a time-limited second stream to the Black Market with spooky seasonal cosmetics to unlock! Get out there and show off your favorite new loot, just in time for All Hallow’s Eve.

Lastly, before we dig into today’s full notes: we are currently tracking players implementing an exploit that allows multiple copies of the same Perk to be equipped in Multiplayer. We are clearing those players’ Create-a-Class entries as a warning and will be banning repeat offenders after this point. This exploit will be resolved in an upcoming update.

As a reminder of our enforcement policy in Black Ops 4: Any player who abuses an exploit in game code or other established rule of play is subject to penalty. These penalties for Glitching include:

First offense: Player will be temporarily suspended from playing the game online, will have their stats, Emblems, and Paintjobs reset, will have online splitscreen privileges revoked, and will have their Leaderboard entries deleted.
Extreme or repeat offenses: Player will be permanently suspended from playing the game online, will have their stats, Emblems, and Paintjobs reset, and will be blocked permanently from appearing in Leaderboards.

Play nice out there! Now, onto the patch notes:

We’ve made the following updates to the game today (Global):

General
- Black Market
  - Black Market and Operation: First Strike now live on all platforms.
  - Resolved a delay in displaying Black Market reward images in the After Action Report.
- Miscellaneous
  - General stability fixes and improvements across Multiplayer, Zombies, and Blackout.
Zombies
- Gameplay
  - Doubled the bleed-out timer on the last zombie per round from 5 to 10 minutes.
  - Increased the XP earn rate in solo and 2-player matches.
  - Reduced frequency of Hellhounds that spawn on mixed rounds in Blood of the Dead and Classified.
- Elixirs
  - Increased maximum unique Elixir usage per round from 3 to 4.
  - Decreased cooldown time on Common, Rare, Legendary, and Epic Elixirs.
  - Decreased effective time on Aftertaste Elixir.
  - Reduced effectiveness of Head Scan Elixir.
  - Increased cooldown time on Classic Elixirs to balance increased last zombie bleed-out time.
  - Adjusted cooldown for all Elixirs in Rush Mode.
  - Corrected the Elixir cooldown reduction effect granted by the Time Slip Perk.
- Challenges
  - Resolved an issue preventing players from completing the “Coming Through” Challenge.
  - Resolved an issue where the “Up Close” and “Death Slider” Prestigious Challenges would reward the same Calling Card.
- Miscellaneous
  - Resolved a crash that occurred when triggering Brain Rot on underwater Zombies.
Multiplayer
- Miscellaneous
  - Resolved an issue where joining a match after a round switch would record a Loss if your team lost the match.
- Create-a-Class
  - Resolved an issue preventing the Reactive Camo for the GKS Damascus from properly unlocking.
  - Resolved an issue allowing the Access Denied Camo for the Strife to display as brighter than intended.

We’ve also made the following update specific to PC:

Blackout
- Improved connection stability during Blackout loading screens.

We’re also working on the following items for future updates:

Zombies Nebulium Plasma
- The Zombies team is planning to increase the earn rate for Nebulium Plasma across the board in an upcoming game update. Keep an eye on the patch notes soon!
Zombies XP Earn Rates
- The earn rate for Zombies XP on Hardened and Realistic difficulties will also be increased in a future update, to help ensure our most intrepid zombie slayers are rewarded for their efforts.
Splitscreen Pausing in Zombies
- We have heard the whispered prayers of high-round couch co-op players in need of a bathroom break! The ability to pause a local Zombies match in splitscreen is in the works.
Mastery Camos in Zombies
- As mentioned previously, we’re working on enabling Mastery Camos unlocked in Multiplayer to be applied to weapons in Zombies. Stay tuned.