All gameplay changes in Warzone Season 4

Call of Duty has introduced a plethora of gameplay changes in Warzone Season 4. Some of the major changes include Buy Station adjustments, Perk updates, and many more. The tweaks might be minor in some cases, but their impact on the title are significant. For instance, moving forward, players will begin the Gulag matches with a single Armor Plate. This incentivizes players to play it strategically instead of running and gunning.

With that out of the way, let's now take a quick look at all the gameplay changes in Warzone Season 4.

Exploring all the gameplay changes in Warzone Season 4

According to the official Warzone Season 4 patch notes, the following are all the gameplay changes:

General Gameplay

Gulag

Players will now start with a single Armor Plate equipped in the Gulag.

Developer note: This change seeks to help players in scenarios where no armor would result in certain weapons killing faster than intended - faster even than in Multiplayer - due to Warzone’s higher damage-per-shot values. This change is intended to reduce extreme time-to-kill cases without overcorrecting.

Coughing in Gas (Quality of Life)

Enemies will appear as a red dot on the tac map when coughing in the gas.

Loot and Economy

Verdansk

Updated Ground Loot Weapons
Reduced the drop rate of LMGs in Battle Royale ground loot.
Slightly increased the drop rate of SMGs in Battle Royale ground loot.
Updated underbarrel and stock attachments on legendary Assault Rifles to better match their intended playstyle.
Adjusted the possible optics available on Assault Rifles found in ground loot.

Resurgence, Plunder

Lootable Perks
The lootable perks available in Resurgence and Plunder have been updated as follows:
Irradiated
Shrouded
Low Profile
Reactive Armor
Loot Master
Ghost

Developer note: We've updated ground loot to better support close-quarters combat, providing players with more effective options in confined spaces. These adjustments align with this season's broader weapon-balancing theme, which emphasizes close-range viability and loadout diversity. Additionally, we've improved ground loot weapon builds, particularly enhancing optics and legendary sniper-support weapons for increased usability and reliability.

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Buy Stations

Battle Royale

Buy Stations on Verdansk

Buy Station locations have been shuffled to inspire fresh combat encounters and new rotation strategies.
The total count has been increased to 49, up from 47.

Contracts

Battle Royale

Supply Run

Adjusted the Fire Sale reward from the Supply Run contract so it is only consumed during a Fire Sale Public Event if a free item is purchased.

Equipment

Flash Grenade

Flash Angles increased by 20% - meaning that you need to turn further away from the device to mitigate its effects.

Concussion Grenade

Stun maximum duration increased from 1.61 seconds to 2.3 seconds.
Stun minimum duration decreased from 1.47 seconds to 1.15 seconds.

Developer note: Flash and Concussion Grenade are seeing some moderate improvement in their base effectiveness. At the same time we’re enabling a harder counter to them in the form of the Veteran Perk.

Perks

Veteran

Significantly increased resistance to flash and stun.

Developer note: We’re making Veteran a hard counter to the recently buffed Flash and Stun grenades. The effects are diminished enough to "shrug" them off almost immediately.

Mountaineer

Fall damage reduction increased to 35% up from 33%.

Developer note: This minor increase is enough to more consistently allow a safer jump from taller buildings.

Wildcards

Bandolier Removal

The Bandolier Wildcard has been removed from all modes.

Developer note: We've disabled and removed the Bandolier Wildcard from all game modes. Originally introduced to ease the transition from a backpack-based system to a streamlined experience, this wildcard unfortunately contributed to a muddied combat experience by encouraging reckless item usage over strategic gameplay.

UI/UX

Death Recap Widget (Quality of Life)

The Death Recap system has been expanded to provide clearer insights into the circumstances surrounding your elimination. New indicators now include:
Precision Airstrike Reveal: Indicates if your position was revealed on the minimap by using the Precision Airstrike killstreak.
Cluster Strike Reveal: Indicates if your position was revealed on the minimap by using the Cluster Strike killstreak.
Bunker Buster Reveal: Indicates if your position was revealed on the minimap by using the Bunker Buster killstreak.
Coughing: Indicates if your position was revealed on the minimap due to coughing in gas.
Tracker ADS Auto-Ping: Indicates if you were pinged by an opponent using the Tracker perk.
Alertness Detection: Indicates if your presence was revealed to an opponent using the Alertness perk.

Updated Tactical and Lethal Icons (Quality of Life)

We have updated the icons for the Shick Stick, Stun, Throwing Knife, and Impact Grenade for better readability.

Challenges

Specialist Perk Tracking

Challenges requiring perk activation will now also track progress when players acquire the Specialist perk (which grants all perks).

UAV Killstreak Challenge

The Daily Challenge "Activate 2 UAV Killstreaks" will now also track Advanced UAV activations.

Camo Challenge Clarification

Updated camo challenge description from "Get Kills shortly after sliding" to "Get Kills while sliding" for clarity.

New Armory Challenge

Added an Armory challenge for the JAK Intimidator via the Armory menu.

That covers all the gameplay changes in Warzone Season 4, as observed in the official Season 4 patch notes.

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About the author

Rishabh is a gaming journalist at Sportskeeda who mainly covers Call of Duty and Valorant content. After completing his post-graduation in Finance, he went off the beaten track and decided to build a career in video game journalism. The opportunity to interview Valorant Pacific franchised teams back during VCT 2023: Pacific was a career highlight for Rishabh.

Rishabh prioritizes diving into the game himself and figuring out the specifics to ensure authenticity of content. He also tracks the social media accounts and blogs of developers and publishers to learn about official announcements and press releases, and cross-checks all facts even if they are derived from reputed sources.

Rishabh embarked on his video game journey in 2002, playing Contra and Mario, and his first AAA title was Max Payne 1. Currently, first-person shooter games engage him the most.

Rishabh regards streamer and esports athlete Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek as an inspirational figure since he rose from a humble background to become one of the biggest CS players and streamers in the world through sheer hard work and dedication.

Rishabh likes to keep himself updated on the latest trends in technology and listens to progressive rock music in his spare time.

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Edited by Rishabh Kalita