MW3’s latest update includes substantial buffs for several MW2 guns, for some reason

Modern Warfare 3‘s year as a live-service title is winding down to its end, with Black Ops 6 just over the horizon.

BO6 is set to launch in just over three weeks, so there’s a handful of updates and content left to come in MW3. One of those updates dropped today, and it’s a bit of a head-scratcher thanks to what it contains, which is mainly buffs to old weapons.

Here’s the patch notes for MW3’s update on Oct. 1.

MW3 patch notes today: Oct. 1

It’s anyone’s guess as to why, but the first update in the final live-service month of MW3 has buffed a number of weapons from 2022’s Modern Warfare 2. All of MW2’s guns carried forward into MW3, and have gone largely unused in the year since the game dropped.

Just one new gun has been tweaked (the new DTIR 30-06 got nerfed again, now with a lower torso damage multiplier), and the rest touched in the patch notes are from MW2. The developers did not give any reasoning as to why the guns got changed, but several have been buffed pretty nicely.

For shotguns, the KV Broadside, Lockwood 300, Expedite 12, Bryson 800, and Bryson 890 got buffs for their range. The Lockwood 300 got the biggest buff, with a whopping 86 percent buff to maximum damage range.

The next archetype to receive buffs is MW2’s marksman rifles, including the Crossbow and SA-B 50. The bow’s bolt velocity has been buffed by 81 percent, and the SA-B 50 has gotten changes to make it perform better at close range.

Seven MW2 pistols have been buffed, likely to add variety since MW3 did not add any new pistols post-launch as part of seasonal content. The P890, .50 GS, X12, Basilisk, FTAC Siege, GS Magna, and X13 Auto all got buffed to compete better with MW3‘s guns and give players a bit more of a choice to make for a secondary weapon besides the Renetti. In general, the MW2 sidearms have gotten increases to minimum and maximum damage.

The final change is to the M13C assault rifle, also from MW2, which had a very minor damage buff from 31 to 32. But this slight tweak will now make the gun capable of a four-shot kill if at least one bullet is a headshot within its maximum damage range.

Only one gun has been changed in Warzone as part of today’s update, and it’s the Crossbow from MW2, which got the same changes as it did in MW3. And now, the wait for Warzone’s Black Ops 6 integration truly begins.

Elsewhere, the update contains a fix that was causing “inconsistent spawn availability” between the variants of Shipment, so the spawns should remain similar on the maps despite which color palette or time of day it has.

“Based on player feedback supported by our analytics, spawn quality improved by approximately 10 percent on Shipmas compared to Celship and Ghost Ship,” Sledgehammer Games said. “Today’s changes ensure that all variants of Shipment utilize the improved selection of available spawns.”

For more info on the patch notes, check out the Call of Duty website.