Warzone YouTuber reveals how “fishy” weapon changes are impacting the game

Brad Norton
Warzone gameplay

Secret weapon adjustments appear to be all too common in Warzone, according to detailed breakdowns from popular Call of Duty YouTuber ‘JGOD.’

Despite patch notes accompanying every Warzone update, there are supposedly a good number of tweaks that fly under the radar. From weapon buffs and nerfs to attachment changes that could make your loadouts feel completely different.

Why these tweaks are excluded from the overview remains a mystery. Though it could be an increasingly frequent issue as the seasons roll on. No weapons are safe from these stealth updates and some could have already gone unnoticed for weeks. 

One of the most intricate studies, conducted by JGOD, highlights just how severe some of the latest sneaky updates have been. Here’s how these “fishy” adjustments are impacting Warzone today.

Warzone gameplay
Warzone’s weapons appear to be changing without us knowing.

The most recent area of focus has been on Barrel attachments. These are intended to help weapons when it comes to bullet velocity and fire rate. Though a recent update has reportedly altered this attachment when it comes to Assault Rifles and Tactical Rifles.

Without directly nerfing the weapons themselves, secretly nerfing this attachment feels as real as any proper nerf. “You essentially nerf the weapon even though nothing has changed,” JGOD explained. “The [Barrel] being [powerful] is what made it part of the meta.”

For a specific example, the Titanium Barrel “was pretty broken for the AUG and the M16 because of how much it increased the bullet velocity but also increased the fire rate.”

With a new wave of secret changes under the hood, the effectiveness of this attachment has now been halved. The Titanium Barrel went from providing the best velocity of any Tac Rifle to being identical with four other Barrels.

Given this extreme change that landed in Warzone without being addressed, there could be “a lot of other subtle changes” according to JGOD.

In another instance, the base version of the XM4 was recently buffed in Warzone without confirmation from the devs. The velocity of the base weapon was brought in line with every other base AR in the game. Though Barrel attachments still haven’t been tweaked in light of this change.

As a result, four of seven Barrells now actually reduce the gun’s power, rather than providing any buffs. You should steer clear of the Reinforced Heavy, Extended, Takedown, and Task Force Barrels for the XM4.

JGOD has asked a number of times for more detailed patch notes, but the devs are yet to respond at this point in time. Perhaps future updates will come with every single tweak if the community demands it.

For the time being, however, there will continue to be a number of “fishy changes happening without us knowing.” You can check every secret change with JGOD’s spreadsheet here.

About The Author

Brad Norton is the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. He graduated from Swinburne University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and has been working full-time in the field for the past six years at the likes of Gamurs Group and now Dexerto. He loves all things single-player gaming (with Uncharted a personal favorite) but has a history on the competitive side having previously run Oceanic esports org Mindfreak. You can contact Brad at brad.norton@dexerto.com