The patch notes for Modern Warfare 2’s season one Reloaded update are lengthy but chock-full of great changes

Happy holidays, Call of Duty gamers. Modern Warfare 2’s midseason update has arrived ahead of the holiday break, and the patch notes are also here to be read next to some chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

While the update’s flashiest additions include the fan-favorite Shipment map, a new weapon, the first-ever CoD raid, and the return of Gaz as an operator, the patch notes are focused on a staggering amount of quality of life changes for the multiplayer shooter.

One of the most welcome changes is the addition of an XP token timer. Players previously had to time their tokens themselves as the timer was nowhere to be found in the game, but the very top of the patch notes revealed that the long-awaited change has finally arrived.

The update also includes a bunch of weapon tuning, including a nerf to the Kastov-74u, and buffs to weapons like the MX9, Kastov 545, and .50 GS Pistol.

Other tweaks include a bit of a nerf to the LA Thieves CDL skin, which is now more visible thanks to some color alterations, improvements to the in-game social tab, and a slew of other general updates for quality of life.

Here are all of the changes coming to MW2 in today’s big update:

MW2 season one Reloaded patch notes

Quality of life changes

General

• The XP tokens menu has been changed to display how much time is left on your XP tokens in the lobby screen.
• XP Tokens can now be equipped in the pause menu while in-game.
• XP Tokens can no longer be accidentally activated during Double XP events.
• Players who join a game in progress will no longer get a loss if their team loses the match.
• Attachments now have a tuning icon on them in preview, indicating which ones can be tuned and which ones cannot.
• Finishing Moves now count towards the 30 kills in third-person Daily Challenge in Special Ops.
• “Stickerbook Challenges” in the After Action Report screen now say “Calling Card Challenge” instead.
• Operator bios are no longer cut off part of the way through.
• Acquiring a new blueprint will now display a pulsing dot next to the associated weapon in Gunsmith.
• Players will no longer seeing a black screen on some platforms when trying to purchase CP.
• Various issues with weapon and attachment unlocks and progression have been addressed, including stats display.

Social

• Merged Hub & Friends tabs together.
• Switched to smaller Player Card widgets for Friends.
• Added support for batch/bulk sending of friend requests.
• Fixed various bugs impacting the join and/or invite to party features.
• Transition to Grid view when scrolling in Friends list.

Showcases

• Camera positions on Operators have been adjusted for better positioning with the UI
• Adjustments to Filter/Sort
• Fixed the Player Browser so it no longer scrolls when it isn’t full.
• Fixed an issue with Calling Cards not showing up in a players Showcase after they have set them.
• Fixed an issue where players weren’t properly sorting by progression in the Player Browser.
• Hides the empty attachments nodes on Weapon Inspection when there are no attachments slotted.

Channels

• Adjusted member list states (muted, talking, connected, etc.) to be more clear
• Adjusted text message states in-game channel to be more clear who they were sent to
• Players in member list will now be divided by team in lobbies
• Fixed an issue where lobby players were still able to be heard when connected to a custom channel
• Added the ability to text chat with “Group” members 

Groups

• Find or create communities with this new social feature. Check out the most recent COD Blog for more.

Weapon balance

» General «

• Akimbo P890, X12, Basilisk, and .50 GS have received a damage reduction against armored opponents
• Fixed an issue causing shotguns to inconsistently display the broken armor hitmarker 

» Assault Rifles «

MX9 

• Increased movement speed, ADS speed, and sprint to fire speed on the 32 round magazine

M13B

• Blocking underbarrel launcher and shotgun on 7” Bruen B-M20 barrel

Kastov-74u

• Small reduction to close damage; three hits to kill requires at least one chest hit 

Kastov 545

• Increase to muzzle velocity
• Small decrease to hip spread
• Increase close damage
• Increase to chest damage multiplier 

» SMGs «

VEL 47 SMG

• Reduced hip spread.
• Increased movement speed.
• Increased far damage.

» Pistols «

Basilisk Revolver

• Blocking Basilisk compensators and flash hider on the FTAC ARROW barrel
• Adding muzzle attachment usage on the FTAC ARROW barrel: LOCKSHOT KT85, SA LEVELER 55, CRONEN DARK KX30

.50 GS Pistol

• Reduced hip spread
• Increased 1 hit headshot range
• Increased damage range
• Increased neck and upper shoulder location damage multipliers
• Increased bullet velocity
• Increased damage range on SA LONGSHOT – 50 and SA TYRANT FIFTY barrel

» Shotguns «

• Shotguns can no longer kill fully armored players in one shot

Expedite 12 Shotgun

• Added guard category:
  • TV CF40 Guard
  • AZ-40 Shotguard
  • AZAROV T15

» Melee «

Riot Shield

• Reduced movement speed
• Reduced melee damage to 3 hit kill
• Shield movement animation improvement
• Longer switch time pulling out throwing knife when riot shield is equipped

» Launchers «

JOKR

• Missiles no longer land out of bounds when targeting a wall on the edge of a map
• Improved the thermal readability when aiming in

Other balance changes

Vehicles

• Reduced collision damage taken by the Heavy Chopper, especially from landing.
• Increase health and damage resistance of the UTV.
• Increased falling damage to the ATV & UTV.
• Added custom turret rotation speed for the APC, Light Tank & Heavy Tank.
• Increased damage done by A.I to both LTV versions.
• Reduced distance that boats can be piloted when completely out of water
• Adjusted vehicle exits to limit chances of not being able to exit on steep slopes
• Players will no longer get the “out of bounds” countdown when taking a vehicle from an enemy’s restricted area in Ground War, and driving out of the zone
• Fixed an issue where the player would continue to see the countdown if they get into a vehicle just outside the zone

Ally Visibility

• Ally nameplates disappear when an enemy is in the direct path of an ally, to prevent mistaking enemies for allies.
• In Tier 1 mode, this change only applies to allies behind geo. Allies with line of sight will always show nameplates to prevent friendly fire.

Killstreaks

• Players that have been killed in one-life modes with revive capabilities, such as Knock Out, will no longer be marked as an active player when using the Cruise Missile, Chopper Gunner, or Gunship

Care Package

• Fixed an issue that allowed players to spawn on a position where a care package is occupying, resulting in an immediate death

MGB

• Fixed an issue that prevented players from calling out the MGB while swimming underwater

Juggernaut 

• The Juggernaut should now correctly switch between their minigun and pistol when entering and exiting water
• Explosive weapons that stick to the Juggernaut (such as the Semtex, Drill Charge, etc…) should now inflict more damage against it
• Fixed an issue where Juggernauts sometimes died to a single throwing knife in Tier 1

SAE

• Fixed an issue that prevented explosions from doing damage to neutral and enemy occupied vehicles

Sentry Gun

• Fixed an exploit that allowed Sentry Guns to be placed under the map in certain locations

Field Upgrades

Portable Radar

• Portable Radars can now stick to vehicles

Equipment

Radiation Blocker

• Now prevents the use of this equipment when performing a number of different actions such as slotting in armor.
• This should resolve a few issues where players no longer had their weapon, or could not interact with items.
• Thermite Grenades
  • Thermites will no longer persist on a player that was stuck, then died, and respawned again.

Attachments

Tuning

• Most beneficial Tuning value magnitudes have been increased.
• Some harmful Tuning value magnitudes have been decreased.

Optics

Thermal Optics

• Increased range of all optics thermal target identification range
• Enemies’ heat signature fades when they are killed

DRESXOM PRIME-90

• Improved quality of thermal image for improved target acquisition (including the Basileus Victus XMR blueprint from the Battlepass)

XTEN ANGEL-40 

• Fixed rangefinder to fit in lens on the GS .50 

SZ HoloTerm

• Increased contrast on optic thermal rendering for improved target acquisition
  • Added thermal toggle feature 

THERMO-OPTIC X9

• Increased contrast on optic thermal rendering for improved target acquisition

Weapon customization UI/UX

Graphs

• Default weapon attachments graph contribution no longer shows up as modification on stat graphs.
• Prevents seeing red or green on a default weapon’s stat graph.
• Fixes miscalculations shown in attachment tuning spider graph.
  • Issue was prominent in sniper weapon optic’s category, Chimera’s barrel category, Bryson 800 stock category, SP-R 208 stock category, SO-14 stock category, and LA-B 330 stock category.

Operators

CDL

LA THIEVES

• Added accent colors to goggles and straps for enhanced visibility.

NEW YORK SUBLINERS

• Adjusted accent colors for NYSL branding.

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue causing the game client to freeze upon unlocking Sector A15 in the Battle Pass.
• Fixed an issue causing reward previews to not appear as intended while navigating the Battle Pass.
• Fixed audio cutting off when skidding.
• Fixed attacking with fists causing players to lean out of vehicles.

Store

• Added 3D models for Operators and Blueprints when previewing Store Bundles.

Audio

• Fixed Dolby Atmos data issue where some sounds were not panning to ceiling speakers.
• Audio occlusion remains disabled in multiplayer as we investigate continuity issues impacting some players.

PC specific

• Fixed an issue related to the menus causing FPS drops in the Firing Range.
• Fixed an issue that would make controllers vibrate even when the game wasn’t the main window (tab/minimized).
• Fixed Night Vision Goggles prompt in the HUD.

Multiplayer

Game modes

• Tier 1
  • Fixed an issue where the minimap was not always appearing, or staying up, when calling in a UAV or Advanced UAV
• Invasion
  • Friendly AI will no longer set off Suppression Mines from the same team

Map updates

• Battle Maps
  • Fixed player collision issues in Santa Sena
  • Fixed for various tactical camera exploits
  • Fixed bullet collision exploits

• Core 6v6
  • Fixed various tactical camera exploits
  • Fixed for bullet penetration issues across some of the core maps
  • Fixed a few exploits where players could get to unintended areas
  • Fixed issues relating to lethal and tactical collision on the environment
  • Shoot House can once again be played in Private Matches

Special Ops

• High Ground – Game will end if player leaves before picking a role if timeout to select a role has occurred
• High Ground – Fix to prevent player from leaving chopper gunner physics
• Defender Mt. Zaya – Fix for players accessing hidden intel without a key
• Defender Mt. Zaya – Fixed rare loss of functionality issue that could occur if a player joined on an already matchmaking player
• Low Profile – Fix for “run over 10 enemies” daily challenge not tracking properly
• Added a popup hint for players attempting to reuse an armor box they’ve already used
• Fixed issue that caused ammo discrepancies when firing/reloading
• Fixed last stand zoom camera to no longer clip through ceilings 
• Fixed “drop ammo” not functioning for equipped weapon when viewing backpack

CDL Moshpit

• CDL Moshpit is now live as of December 1st. Play competitive, 4v4 matches using the same modes, maps, and settings used in the Call of Duty League 2023 ruleset.
  • Select Weapons, Attachments, Equipment, Perks, Field Upgrades, and Streaks are restricted based on official CDL Competitive rules. 
  • Game Modes and Maps:
    • CDL Search and Destroy
      • Al Bagra Fortress
      • Breenburgh Hotel
      • El Asilo
      • Embassy
      • Mercado Las Almas
    • CDL Hardpoint
      • Al Bagra Fortress
      • Breenburgh Hotel
      • Embassy
      • Mercado Las Almas
      • Zarqwa Hydroelectric
    • CDL Control
      • Al Bagra Fortress
      • Breenburgh Hotel
      • El Asilo