13/11/2025
🧨 Black Ops 7 Launch Week: Aim Assist Rework, Weapon Tuning & Big Zombies Buffs
Black Ops 7, billed as the biggest Black Ops game ever, is launching this week, and Treyarch has revealed a massive “Road to Launch” update packed with balance changes and quality-of-life improvements. From aim assist adjustments to shotgun overhauls and Zombies tuning, this day-one patch is designed to create a more competitive and rewarding experience across Multiplayer, Zombies, and Warzone (with some changes carrying into Season 01).
Here’s a breakdown of the key highlights.
Aim Assist: More Skill-Based, Less “Free” Help
Following the Black Ops 7 Beta, Treyarch is making targeted changes to Rotational Aim Assist to better balance controller and keyboard/mouse players without losing the classic Call of Duty “controller feel”.
Stronger rotational aim assist at close and long ranges – but tuned more carefully.
New right-stick requirement: full rotational aim assist now only kicks in when your right stick is actively tracking an enemy.
If you’re only using the left stick to strafe, aim assist strength is reduced.
Data shows controller was slightly favored up close and KBM at long range, so these changes try to keep that identity while rewarding proper tracking and input.
The goal is a fairer, more competitive experience where good crosshair placement and tracking matter more than simply relying on aim assist.
Movement & XP: Smoother Mantles, Slight Slide Nerfs, Faster Progression
Movement has been subtly refined:
Mantling has been adjusted to feel smoother, faster, and more consistent.
An issue causing players to dive when moving slower than intended has been fixed.
Slide acceleration, speed, and duration have been slightly reduced, toning down overly aggressive slide spam.
Progression is getting a noticeable buff:
Weapon XP gain increased – guns level up around 25% faster than in Black Ops 6.
Overclock earn rates have been normalized so all Lethals, Tacticals, Field Upgrades, and Scorestreaks reward you more consistently.
Daily Challenge bonus XP increased from 3,000 to 5,000 XP.
You can now re-roll one Daily Challenge per day per mode, letting you swap a bad challenge for one that fits your playstyle.
Weapons: AR, SMG, Shotgun & Sniper Meta Shake-Up
Treyarch is bringing a large suite of weapon and attachment tuning to launch, with a focus on balancing range, recoil, and mobility so builds don’t become too extreme when stacking nodes.
Common themes across weapons:
Jump ADS and Jump Sprint-to-Fire penalties are increased for most guns, especially ARs, SMGs, shotguns, LMGs, and marksman rifles. This supports the new Wall Jump meta and forces players to invest into movement via attachments if they want to stay snappy in the air.
Many attachments that boosted Damage Range, Bullet Velocity, Recoil Control, and Movement Speed have been toned down slightly, because you can now push those stats further using more nodes and Prestige Attachments.
Assault Rifles
M15 MOD 0 gets a new mid damage range, making 4-shot kills with headshots harder to achieve at longer distances.
Several AR barrels, grips, and stocks have reduced range, recoil control, and mobility bonuses.
ARs face heavier jump penalties, but can still be built for strong combat movement with the right attachments.
Submachine Guns
SMGs are being pushed more firmly into a close-quarters role:
Damage ranges reduced across the board; some of that lost range is moved into barrel attachments.
Tac Stance ADS speed bonuses reduced.
Jump penalties increased, and some hipfire spreads increased, especially when sprinting, jumping, or sliding.
Key SMGs:
Ryden 45K & Razor 9mm: slightly shorter effective ranges, small recoil and mobility tuning, with certain barrels making up some lost range.
Dravec 45:
Lower max damage and shorter ranges, plus increased hipfire spread.
Headshot multiplier increased, keeping it strong when landing precise shots.
Still meant to be an accurate, low-recoil laser, but without dominating at long distance.
Shotguns: New Damage Model & Stronger Slugs
Shotguns get one of the biggest reworks in the patch:
Each shotgun now has two damage components:
Pellet Damage – per pellet hit, as before.
Base Damage – applied once per shot that hits, regardless of pellet count.
All pellets now do damage (no more cap of only four registering), but lower pellet values help avoid extreme, inconsistent one-shots.
This system lets Treyarch control minimum damage and consistency while avoiding crazy spikes.
Slugs have been improved to make longer-range shotgun builds more viable — better damage scaling, bullet velocity, and headshot multipliers, but with stricter limb multipliers.
Examples:
M10 Breacher & Echo 12:
Gain base damage plus pellet damage across ranges.
Sprint hipfire spreads and Tac Stance spreads adjusted.
Dragon’s Breath and slug variants have detailed range/damage rewrites, with buffed slug damage at various ranges and improved velocity and accuracy when fully charged.
Akita (third launch shotgun) receives published base + pellet damage values so players can better understand its performance in close to mid range.
LMGs, Marksman & Snipers
LMGs: Slightly heavier jump penalties and toned-down recoil and range bonuses on key attachments. Some large belts now also penalize ADS and sprint-to-fire more, reflecting their high ammo capacity.
Marksman Rifles: Similar jump penalties, with lasers and stocks slightly nerfed for damage range and mobility.
Sniper Rifles (VS Recon & XR-3 Ion):
Rechamber stability improved on VS Recon.
Barrels slightly lose damage range.
Headshot multipliers raised to 3x, neck to 2x, and specific limb multipliers adjusted to better reward precision.
Extended mags now penalize ADS and sprint-to-fire more, while some fast mags and grips improve snappiness.
Pistols & Launchers
Jager 45 & Coda 9 pistols:
Tac Stance spread increased.
Several recoil, damage range, and velocity attachments toned down.
Large mags now impose ADS and sprint-to-fire penalties; fast reload options got small buffs to compensate.
Akimbo: fixed an issue that made sprint-to-fire slower than intended.
A.R.C. M1 launcher:
Projectiles now travel in a consistent straight path.
Fixed a bug where interrupting charge-up with a melee could lead to unintended instant shots.
Turn sway and idle motion have been reduced, and idle sway behavior while ADS is now more predictable.
Attachments & Millimeter Scanner: Stronger Identity, Less Abuse
Some global attachment logic has changed:
Mobility Spread Muzzle now improves Tac Stance and all hip spreads, including jump/slide/dive.
Mobility Foregrip now boosts movement speed only, no longer sprint speed.
Fast & Flip Mags get better starting and max stock ammo to offset their smaller magazine sizes.
Tactical Spread Stock improves all hip spread values, with extra Tac Stance benefits (especially on SMGs).
Millimeter Scanner is back and improved:
Scan distance increased from 15m to 30m.
Movement speed threshold to appear on scans increased, catching more slowly moving or strafing targets.
Cold Blooded still hard-counters scans.
The idea is to make it powerful but situational – not the best attachment in every scenario.
Multiplayer: Map Spawns, Modes & Perk Consolidation
Maps
Several launch maps get spawn and objective refinements:
Exposure
Spawns updated in all modes.
Hardpoint hills slightly enlarged; Overload zones pushed slightly deeper.
Domination A point adjusted for clearer minimap read.
New Search & Destroy bomb placements.
Imprint
Inclinator button prompts clarified.
The Forge
Overload starting device locations adjusted.
Cortex
Spawns and objective locations polished across modes.
Modes & Scorestreaks
Overload:
Device reset timer reduced from 60s to 15s, speeding up the mode.
UI and medal updates for clarity.
Scorestreaks:
Health, score cost, and damage tuned across the board.
Clearer messaging when streaks are earned and ready.
D.A.W.G. now fires faster, can have two active per team, and uses map traversals more often.
Sentry Turrets lock on faster and at longer distances.
Rhino melee and EMP interactions adjusted.
Hellstorm cluster damage vs Scorestreaks corrected.
New Drone Pod score event (“Drone Damaged Enemy”) added so players better understand when their drones are doing work.
Perks, Equipment & Field Upgrades
To make perk choices more meaningful, several weaker perks have been merged into others:
Gearhead + Quartermaster
Assassin + Vendetta
Close Shave + Bruiser
Engineer + Shadow
Tracker + Hunter’s Instinct
Vigilance now offers improved minimap visibility.
Assist score radiuses for Charge Link and Blast Link slightly increased.
Tactician Combat Specialty elimination score increased.
Equipment & Field Upgrades:
Needle Drone now one-shots on direct impact and gives earlier HUD warnings.
Sensor Gr***de tagging is more responsive.
EMP Gr***de HUD scramble duration reduced.
Field Upgrade charge times have been rebalanced; Drone Pod score credit fixed; Squad Link’s duration and AoE reduced, with a max of one active; Trophy Systems can no longer be placed underwater.
Zombies: Stronger Weapons, Better Economy, Smarter Exfil
In Zombies, Treyarch is focusing on weapon effectiveness, Pack-a-Punch economy, and map interactions.
Vandorn Farm (Survival)
Fixed an issue where Chompy would fail to eat a weapon but still reward the player.
Salvage from Chompy reduced, trap costs increased, and trap kills no longer drop loot.
T.E.D.D. Tasks now spawn on the map, adding more objectives.
Weapon & Pack-a-Punch Adjustments
Bullet weapons now keep more damage when penetrating enemies (pe*******on penalty reduced).
Small buffs to Legendary and Pack-a-Punch III damage multipliers for ARs, SMGs, marksman rifles, and shotguns to keep the economy loop viable when combined with Augments.
Pack-a-Punched SMGs get a 50% short-range damage buff, making them stronger up close.
Specific changes include:
MXR-17: more stock ammo on the Pack-a-Punched version.
A.R.C M1: faster charge gain.
Flatline MK.II: lowered non-PAP heavy melee damage and head multiplier; clear PAP II and PAP III damage multipliers.
Dravec 45: less visual kick on the Pack-a-Punch variant to make it feel more stable.
Enemies:
Zombies now interact properly with the ARC-XD, fixing issues where they had trouble attacking it.
UI:
Exfil vote widget updated: players can individually opt in or out of an Exfil started by another player.
Those who accept leave the match; those who decline can stay and keep playing until they choose to Exfil or die.
Known Issues & Communication
The Doomsteel Mastery Camo currently shows a requirement of 30 Elite Zombie eliminations, but you only need 10. This will be corrected shortly after launch.
Players are encouraged to follow , , and and to report bugs with details like Activision ID, platform, region, and reproduction steps.
With these launch-week updates, Black Ops 7 is aiming for a cleaner meta, more meaningful build variety, and a healthier balance between casual fun and high-level competitive play in Multiplayer, Zombies, and eventually Warzone Season 01.
