Black Ops 6 beta patch notes today heavily nerf Jackal PDW SMG, increase level cap

If you managed to join the first Black Ops 6 beta weekend, you’re probably traumatized by the sheer amount of players using the Jackal PDW SMG to wreak havoc in lobbies. But fear not, dear CoD players, because Activision and Treyarch are here to make the second open beta weekend a Jackal-free zone.

According to the Black Ops 6 patch notes today, the dev team has bombarded the Jackal PDW SMG with nerfs, making it practically weaker than the bevy of other guns you can use. Treyarch had this to say about the changes they made to this weapon, “It was overperforming at medium ranges, so we’ve increased the damage falloff and pulled the ranges closer along with a slight increase to recoil.” So, in addition to dealing less damage, it’s spray is now also a bit harder to control.

But it isn’t all bad news for SMG loyalists. Since Treyarch has increased the level cap to 30 for the open beta, new rewards are also available as you rank up. And one of the biggest prizes you can get by reaching the max rank is the newly introduced Tanto .22 SMG. That, along with more scorestreaks, lethal equipment, perks, and another Marksman Rifle, are all up for grabs.

Of course, these aren’t the only changes included in the Black Ops 6 patch notes today, and you can check out the rest below:

Black Ops 6 open beta patch notes

Here are all of the tweaks Treyarch has included in its latest patch:

GLOBAL

PROGRESSION

• Level Cap increased to 30. New content available to unlock:
  • Level 21:
    • Blast Trap (Lethal Equipment) 
    • Scavenger (Perk – Enforcer) 
  • Level 22:
    • Interceptors (Scorestreak) 
    • Fast Hands (Perk – Strategist) 
  • Level 23:
    • Sleeper Agent (Field Upgrade) 
    • Cold-Blooded (Perk – Recon) 
  • Level 24:
    • Combat Axe (Lethal Equipment) 
    • Tac Mask (Perk – Strategist) 
  • Level 25:
    • DM-10 (Marksman Rifle) 
  • Level 26:
    • Gunfighter (Wildcard) 
    • Forward Intel (Perk – Recon) 
  • Level 27:
    • Gearhead (Perk – Strategist) 
  • Level 28:
    • Decoy (Tactical Equipment) 
    • Ninja (Perk – Recon) 
  • Level 29:
    • Chopper Gunner (Scorestreak) 
  • Level 30:
    • Tanto .22 (SMG) 

• New Rewards available to unlock:
  • Level 23: “The Truth Lies” Loading Screen  
  • Level 27: “Beta Expert” Animated Calling Card  
  • Level 30: “Bug Smasher” XM4 Weapon Blueprint

MULTIPLAYER

WEAPONS

WEAPON SWAP SPEEDS

We’ve seen the feedback about weapon swap speeds, and we agree. We’ll be reducing weapon drop times across the board for an overall increase to swap speeds. Players looking for an even quicker swap speed can try out the Fast Hands Strategist Perk in Week 2 of the Beta. 

• Assault Rifle, SMG, Shotgun, LMG, Marksman Rifle, Pistol, and Launcher drop times reduced by 50ms 
• Sniper drop times reduced by 100ms 

MOVEMENT SPEEDS

We are making small adjustments to baseline movement speeds on all weapon classes to make sure they are sitting in a good spot relative to one another. We have mostly focused on Move Speeds and ADS Move Speeds, which come into play during combat engagements.

Overall we are happy with the weapon class usage and performance we’ve seen in Beta Weekend 1, as well as the upper end of movement pacing offered by SMGs, so these adjustments keep SMGs the same and generally improve other classes. We are mindful of speeding the game up too much and will continue to monitor and assess game data and your feedback. 

The other notable change here is to Melee Sprint Speeds. We want players to feel incentivized to pull out their Dedicated Melee weapon as a means of map traversal. We also want to ensure that Melee users can catch up to other players who are sprinting with ranged weapons for those sneaky Body Shields and Finishing Moves.

Movement Speed Adjustments

Weapon Category

Adjustments

Assault Rifles

• ADS Crouch Speed increased from 1.75m/s -> 1.88m/s 
• Move Speed increased from 4.14m/s -> 4.29m/s 
• ADS Move Speed increased from 3.07m/s -> 3.23m/s 

SMGs

• Crouch Speed increased from 2.31m/s -> 2.77m/s

Shotguns

• ADS Crouch Speed increased from 1.63m/s -> 1.75m/s
• Move Speed increased from 4.14m/s -> 4.29m/s
• ADS Move Speed increased from 3.07m/s -> 3.23m/s

LMGs

• ADS Crouch Speed increased from 1.14m/s -> 1.3m/s
• Move Speed increased from 3.71m/s -> 3.86m/s
• ADS Move Speed increased from 2.31m/s -> 2.46m/s

Marksman Rifles

• Crouch Speed increased from 2.41m/s -> 2.49m/s
• ADS Crouch Speed increased from 1.37m/s -> 1.55m/s
• Move Speed increased from 3.76m/s -> 3.99m/s
• ADS Move Speed increased from 2.9m/s -> 3m/s

Sniper Rifles

• Crouch Speed decreased from 2.41m/s -> 2.31m/s

Pistols

• Crouch Speed decreased from 2.9m/s -> 2.84m/s
• ADS Crouch Speed increased from 1.88m/s -> 2.24m/s
• Move Speed increased from 4.47m/s -> 4.52m/s
• ADS Move Speed decreased from 3.94m/s -> 3.81m/s

Launchers

• Crouch Speed decreased from 2.44m/s -> 2.18m/s

Melee

• Crouch Speed increased from 2.9m/s -> 2.95m/s
• Jog Speed increased from 5.16m/s -> 5.31m/s
• Sprint Speed increased from 6.93m/s -> 7.16m/s
• Tactical Sprint Speed increased from 8.41m/s -> 8.66m/s
• Move Speed increased from 4.47m/s -> 4.62

Weapon Adjustments

SMG Adjustments

Weapon

Adjustments

Jackal PDW

• Decreased Maximum Damage from 29 -> 26
  • Decreased Maximum Damage range from 15.24m -> 14.61m 
• Decreased Near-Medium Damage from 23 -> 22
  • Decreased Near-Medium Damage range from 22.86m -> 17.78m 
• Decreased Medium Damage from 22 -> 18
  • Decreased Medium Damage range from 29.21m -> 26.04m 
• Decreased Minimum Damage from 19 -> 15 
• Small increase to view kick strength and view kick deviation.
• CHF Barrel
  • Headshot multiplier improved from 1.2 -> 1.4 

C9

• Increased medium damage range from 25.4m -> 27.31m 

Marksman Rifles Adjustments

Weapon

Adjustment

SWAT 5.56

• Disabled burst fire queuing, which was queuing an additional burst if the fire input was activated at any time during the previous burst or the burst cooldown.

ATTACHMENTS

• The Rapid Fire attachment now correctly displays its recoil penalty con. The attachment description has also been updated to indicate the tradeoff. 

MAPS

General 

• Adjusted general spawn logic to enable additional valid spawns under certain scenarios. 
• Adjusted spawn logic across several maps with the goal of reducing a high frequency of spawn flipping.  

SCORESTREAKS

• RC-XD
  • Improved handling and general usability.    
• Watchdog Helo
  • Increased base health.
• Hellstorm
  • Increased Cluster Bomb damage radius.

EQUIPMENT

• Lethal Equipment
  • Thermo Grenade
    •     Reduced explosive ignition delay.

MOVEMENT

• Slight increase to the time to enter prone or supine during a slide. 
• Slight increase to all mantle speeds. 
• Slight decrease to time before movement is allowed after landing from a Dive to Prone. 
• Slight increase to Dive to Prone landing friction. 

PROGRESSION

• Weapon XP 
  • Increased awarded Weapon XP, which will decrease the amount of time needed to gain Weapon Levels. The Weapon XP speeds observed in Weekend 1 were slower than expected.  
• Daily Challenges 
  • Fixed an issue that was causing the Daily Challenge countdown timer to display the incorrect reset time. 
  • The “Get 50 Eliminations with the Recon Perk Specialty equipped” Daily Challenge will now track progress correctly. 
• General 
  • Beta Rewards earned in a match will now appear in the After-Action Report. 

AUDIO

• Increased player weapon firing audio volume. 
• Additional footstep audio adjustments. 
• Reduced audio levels for impact sounds when taking damage. 
• Resolved an issue where Shotguns could play more than the intended number of hit impact sounds. 
• Resolved an issue where explosion sounds would not play during normal gameplay. 
• Resolved an issue where some sounds were not playing during Best Play.
• Reenabled a previously disabled audio occlusion system on PlayStation 5. 

BEST PLAY

• Adjustments to underlying Best Play logic which will result in more varied and interesting Best Play selection. 

UI

• Improved stability throughout various menus and HUD. 
• Addressed various localization issues. 

SETTINGS

• Users should no longer encounter issues when switching their ADS Transition Timing to ‘Instant’, when using keyboard and mouse. 

GENERAL

• Increased the duration of the Lobby Vote before matches to give players a better opportunity to participate in the vote when returning to the lobby after a completed match. 
• Reduced the amount of camera motion in the Dynamic Deathcam. 

STABILITY

• Improved stability in Skyline. 
• Improved stability in Training Course. 
• Improved general server-side stability.