Warzone update reverts nerfs to Shadow Rift – Full patch motes

A new Call of Duty: Warzone update has dropped and the developers have finally paid heed to the community feedback. The previous Squid Games update failed to meet expectations and was widely criticized. Here's all you need to know in today's Warzone patch notes.

In today's update, the developers have finally reverted some of the changes. The Round cap is now 20 and the devs will further increase in in the upcoming week. Shadow Rift receives four new buffs to make it more active. The update also promises a future change that will allow speedrunners to safely use the Shock Charge Tactic in Terminus again.

In the January 3 update, the devs claimed to have removed the Vermin One-shot kill bug. However, the bug continued to persist in-game, something the devs acknowledged in today's update.

Here are the full Call of Duty Warzone Patch Notes for January 9, 2025.

Characters

UI

Audio

Modes

Stability

Hey everyone, let’s talk about those changes from January 3rd. The team is always focused on making Zombies fun and rewarding (it’s why we make video games!), but we don’t always nail it the first time.

Some fixes for bugs or exploits can become lower priority as more important issues come up, and some need to be held for an update further down the line. Last Friday’s changes to Big Game for Shadow Rift, the Shock Charge speedrun step for Terminus, and Directed Mode spawn delays after 5 looped rounds are prime examples of these.

We know it’s not fun to see a “fix” multiple weeks later for something that wasn’t bothering you in the first place, so we’re reverting the Directed Mode changes, giving Shadow Rift four new buffs, and scheduling a fix to allow speedrunners to safely use the Shock Charge tactic in Terminus again. The first two are live now, with the speedrun fix needing some extra testing before it goes live.

Thanks to everyone for the reports of visual FX not showing properly in Citadelle des Morts and crashes that can happen when you’re using a sword while Aether Shroud is active with the Void Sheath Augment. The team produced fixes for these bugs shortly after they popped up, and they’re live today.

Maps

Modes 

Ammo Mods

The Big Game Augment for Shadow Rift was never intended to one-shot Elites, but we know it worked like that for months and we heard you about this latest change taking too much away from Shadow Rift overall. So, we’ve added four buffs to make Shadow Rift activate more frequently, including a 25% cooldown reduction, to keep it powerful and fun to use.

LTM Highlights / Adjustments

With the launch of Dead Light, Green Light, we wanted to ease players into the LTM with a single map and a 10-Round cap before Exfil to make sure the majority of players had a chance to be successful without feeling they needed GobbleGums to survive. Basically, a bite-sized experience that’s not too punishing. Looks like it was too easy and over too soon for a lot of you!

Starting today, we’ve added Liberty Falls to the map selection and extended the round cap to 20. After that, we’ll plan Week 3’s round cap extension based on how crazy the community wants the challenge to get.

Stability

Sometimes bugs appear fixed in testing but turn out to still be an issue in the live game after the patch goes out. This sucks for everyone involved, and it can lead to inaccurate patch notes, which we never want. The Vermin double-attack bug is one of these, and like the Terminus speedrun fix, the proper solution for it, unfortunately, can’t be implemented as quickly as some of the other items listed above. Look for both of those fixes when Season 02 launches on Jan. 28.

Call of Duty players received the announcement with excitement. Several players were happy with the decision to revert the changes - albeit it was a bit too late for some.

Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Call of Duty news and updates.