Modern Warfare 4 and Warzone Season 1: The First Major Weapon Balance Pass Is Here

Season 1 of Modern Warfare 4 and Warzone brings more than just new content: it also delivers the first major overhaul of the arsenal. As reported by Dexerto, the update includes a round of buffs and nerfs to weapons that affect both multiplayer and the battle royale, and the outlet has gathered the full list of changes into a single guide so nobody has to jump in blind.

This matters because a balance patch at the start of a season is the one that defines the meta for the weeks ahead. Weapons that have dominated since launch can lose their crown, those nobody touched can come back into play, and for anyone who competes or creates content, that means re-testing loadouts, reviewing attachments and adjusting playstyles before the opposition does.

What you need to know

• Season 1 of Modern Warfare 4 and Warzone introduces weapon balance changes, with buffs and nerfs spread across the arsenal.
• The adjustments apply to both games, so the multiplayer meta and the battle royale meta shift at the same time.
• Dexerto has published the full list of buffs and nerfs; it is worth going through it weapon by weapon before jumping into ranked matches.
• This is the first major balance pass since launch, the point at which studios usually rein in the weapons that surged in popularity during the opening weeks.
• We will not be reproducing the exact figures for each change here: refer to the original source for the specific numbers.

What is changing and who it affects

A package of buffs and nerfs is not a simple cosmetic tweak. In a Call of Duty title, balance adjustments typically touch areas such as damage, range, fire rate, recoil or mobility, and shifting just one of those values is enough to turn a weapon from a must-pick into something gathering dust at the back of the armory. That is why the full list compiled by Dexerto is so valuable: it is not about skimming headlines, but about understanding which weapons came out stronger and which ones were cut back.

The fact that the changes hit Modern Warfare 4 and Warzone at the same time has a practical consequence. Multiplayer players and battle royale players share the same base arsenal, but they do not use it the same way: a nerf designed to hold back a weapon on small maps can feel very different in the medium- and long-range fights of Warzone. Anyone who plays both modes will need to evaluate each change twice over.

Why the first patch carries so much weight

The opening weeks of any Call of Duty are a laboratory. The community discovers which attachment combination breaks the game, creators turn it into videos, and within days half the lobby is running the same loadout. Historically, Season 1 is the studio's first real opportunity to respond to that trend with data from millions of matches in hand. The fact that the patch brings both buffs and nerfs points to an intention to redistribute power rather than simply punish whatever was used the most.

For the competitive scene, the timing is also delicate. Teams that had spent weeks fine-tuning their weapon pool find themselves facing a different board just as the season kicks off, and whoever adapts fastest gains the edge. The same goes for creators: the first loadout guide after a patch is usually the one that gets shared the most.

Our take

Here at the Underworld Lordz editorial team, we welcome the fact that the first major balance pass arrives with Season 1 rather than being pushed further down the road. A stagnant sandbox gets boring, and nothing kills a competitive community faster than everyone running the same weapon for months. Having buffs and nerfs in the same pass is the right way to do it: nerfs alone breed frustration, buffs alone inflate overall damage, and the combination of both is what genuinely widens the range of options.

That said, we are critical of a pattern that keeps repeating across the franchise. Balance patches are published as technical lists that the average player never reads, and the studio rarely explains the reasoning behind each change. If a guide from an outlet like Dexerto is what ends up organizing the information, it is because official communication is not doing a good enough job. Competitive players gain little from knowing a weapon has changed if they do not understand what problem it was meant to solve.

Our advice for the team is simple: do not write off any weapon until you have tried it in the firing range and in real matches, and do not assume that what worked in multiplayer carries over the same way to Warzone. Creators have a clear opportunity here to add value by explaining the changes clearly instead of just repeating the list.

What do you think?

The changes are already live and the meta is going to shift one way or another over the coming days. Now we want to hear your read on it: do you think Season 1 got the adjustments right, or is there a nerf you are still waiting for? Let us know in the team chat or on our Discord.