Black Ops 7 Season 2 Reloaded Patch Notes: Full Weapon Tuning Breakdown

Treyarch and Activision released the patch notes for the Black Ops 7 midseason update ahead of its January 8 go-live date, and there's a lot to unpack. The update, tracked by community coverage and YouTube breakdowns as Update 1.88, touches multiplayer, Warzone, Zombies, and the campaign's Endgame mode simultaneously. Before diving in, one note worth flagging: multiple outlets including GameSpot and Dexerto covered this patch under the "Season 1 Reloaded" label, while other references have called it "Season 2 Reloaded." The official numbering is what matters for your in-game menus and unlock tracking, so confirm which season the patch registers as on your platform before chasing event rewards.

Two New Weapons, Both Event Rewards

The headliners are the Sturmwolf 45 SMG and the Hawker HX sniper rifle, both locked behind event rewards rather than the Battle Pass. The Sturmwolf 45 is a full-auto submachine gun built around a flat, consistent recoil pattern. Per the official descriptor shared via Activision: it offers very low recoil and good headshot damage, with the tradeoff being lower handling, mobility, and range. If you're running Nuketown rotations or any other tight-corridor map where you need something that just tracks reliably, this is the gun. The recoil pattern is explicitly described as "easy to control and recognizable," which is exactly what you want when you're sprinting into a building and can't afford to fight the gun itself.

The Hawker HX is the more interesting addition for players who've been waiting on a new sniper option. It's a bolt-action with fast handling and mobility, but it comes with higher recoil and flinch than you'd expect from a long-range rifle, meaning you'll need to use ADS breath control to stabilize your shots. The official description puts it plainly: "hold breath while ADS to steady." Community breakdowns have clocked it at 38 unlock levels, four magazine types, a default mag size of seven rounds, and mastery badge support with the standard attachment suite. Visually and in feel, it draws comparisons to the Ballista from Black Ops 2, which tells you a lot about the intended playstyle: fast, aggressive sniping rather than prone-camping at 200 meters. The official description calls it "absolutely lethal in the hands of the Operator who can line up their shots and hit the mark," which is accurate but also undersells how punishing the flinch will be if you try to trade shots without holding breath.

Warzone Tuning: The MK.78 Gets a Range Buff

Warzone received immediate, numeric weapon tuning in this patch, and the MK.78 LMG is the most concrete example in the notes. Its maximum damage range expanded from 0-42m to 0-52m, a 10-meter gain that meaningfully extends where you're dealing full 35-damage hits. The medium damage range (32 damage) shifted accordingly, from 42-70m to 52-70m. The minimum damage floor also got a bump, moving from 28 to 30 beyond 70 meters. That last change is small in absolute numbers but matters in Warzone's longer engagement distances, where every point of damage affects how many bullets it takes to finish a fight. The SHADOW SK sniper rifle and attachment adjustments for the RK-9 and RYDEN 45K are also referenced in the notes, though the specific numeric changes for those weapons weren't fully detailed in available patch note summaries at launch.

Warzone also sees a notable gameplay change beyond weapon stats: the gas mask is back in battle royale. If you've played Warzone through previous seasons, you know how much a gas mask changes the late-circle calculus. Sitting in the circle's edge becomes a viable repositioning tool again rather than an instant death sentence.

Black Ops 7 Weapon Tuning Is Coming Separately

Here's the critical thing if you're playing Black Ops 7 rather than Warzone: the full buff and nerf list for the base game was not included in the patch notes at launch. The developers stated directly in the notes: "Weapon tuning, including adjustments to the Maddox, will be coming shortly after the launch of Season 01 Reloaded." That means the Maddox RFB, which had already been flagged as a weapon needing adjustment, was getting tuned in a secondary release rather than baked into the day-one patch. If you were holding off on building a Maddox class because you expected it to get hit, you were right, but you'd need to wait on the exact numbers.

The Maddox RFB and Sokol 545 LMG were both introduced earlier in Season 1 when Black Ops 7 fully integrated with Warzone. The Sokol 545 in particular was noted as part of that initial content drop alongside the Haven's Hollow Resurgence map. So the weapon roster going into this midseason update was already expanded, and the Reloaded patch layers on two more with the Sturmwolf 45 and Hawker HX while the balance pass catches up.

Multiplayer Maps, Zombies, and Campaign Endgame

Beyond weapons, the midseason update adds more multiplayer maps, though the complete list wasn't detailed in available patch note summaries. What's confirmed is that a Nuketown variation is included in the update, which ties directly into the Fallout crossover content. There's also expanded Zombies content and, notably, two new world events for the campaign's Endgame mode. The Endgame additions are an unusual touch because most players have moved through the campaign once and don't return; new world events give completionists and lore-focused players a reason to load it back up.

On the Zombies side, the patch notes reference new content without the full details available in the summaries that circulated at launch. If Zombies is your primary mode, check the official Activision patch notes directly for the complete breakdown.

The Fallout Crossover

The Call of Duty x Fallout collaboration is live with this update and includes character skins, an event pass, and several game modes themed around the Fallout series. The Nuketown variation built around the crossover is the most visible piece of that collaboration in multiplayer. Fallout-themed modes also extend into Warzone and Zombies, which means the crossover is woven into the game more broadly rather than just being a cosmetic skin pack. Community reaction has been mixed in the way most crossovers are, but the Nuketown variant in particular is worth checking out if you spend any time on small maps, because the streak behavior on that layout is going to be chaotic. The Grim Reaper and War Machine scorestreaks on a small map with boosted streak momentum is the kind of lobby that either ends in a nuke or a complete meltdown, depending on which side of those streaks you're on.

Anti-Cheat and Stability

The patch also includes a Ricochet anti-cheat update, which GameSpot confirmed is part of the official notes as shared by Activision. The specific changes to Ricochet's detection or enforcement weren't detailed in available summaries, but Ricochet updates typically involve backend detection improvements rather than visible in-game changes. Alongside the anti-cheat work, the notes include bug fixes and map improvements across all modes, which is standard for a midseason patch of this scale.

The staggered weapon tuning release for Black Ops 7 is the wrinkle to watch. Warzone players got concrete numbers immediately; Black Ops 7 players are waiting on a follow-up. Once those BO7-specific balance changes drop, particularly around the Maddox, the meta picture for both the standard playlist and ranked play will be clearer.