MW4 Season 1: weapon changes, X01 and the DMZ requirements to recheck

Modern Warfare 4 Season 1 is scheduled for 3 pm Queensland / 4 pm Sydney and Melbourne on Friday 6 November. Infinity Ward published its notes on 5 November in the US, with a further set of changes at the top of the same page. For the morning in Australia, this is preparation for the scheduled update, not confirmation that it is playable.

The useful changes go beyond X01: longer effective ranges for several weapons, a substantial Hyeon Hyperburst damage reduction, shorter mine arming times and a 120 Hz console mode. DMZ players should check their printer before spending ingredients because the addendum says some requirements have changed. Read the original MW4 notes; Warzone has its own breakdown.

What to do before your first match

1. Check the download and playlist after the scheduled start. A countdown reaching zero does not prove your platform’s update or servers are ready.
2. On PS5 or Xbox Series X|S, a 120 Hz display is required for the new performance mode. VRR is recommended, not required. This is a supported mode, not our measurement of a locked 120 fps.
3. Recheck your loadout against the values below. Range extensions do not by themselves establish a new time-to-kill ranking.
4. For DMZ, compare the current printer and vendor menus with your saved goals before selling or crafting. Keep a stash backup.

Maps, weapons and what is still coming

Backstab, Canyon, Shoot House and Kill Block Crash feature in the Season 1 multiplayer offering. Grind and Drop Zone are part of the mode changes. The latest notes mark Gauntlet 1v1 and Wager Match as coming soon: an earlier season preview is not proof of day-one availability.

The 100-tier linear Battle Pass places the Cronen Osprey assault rifle at tier 16 and CSG-35 SMG at tier 36; their listed blueprints sit at tiers 87 and 73 respectively. JAK-12 and ZLR Talonhawk are in-season additions. Do not buy a pass expecting every announced weapon or mode to be available at launch. BlackCell vendor additions in DMZ apply to Season 1 BlackCell owners.

The weapon changes that affect loadout decisions

Axion and M4 gain range; Kastov 762 gains medium-range damage and small multiplier increases. Hyeon Burst gets a medium-damage increase, but its Hyperburst Apex variant moves in a different direction: maximum damage falls from 30 to 23 and minimum damage from 25 to 20, alongside a longer maximum range and removal of its medium tier.

VEL 46 is a mixed adjustment: its first three ranges shrink while minimum damage rises. APOC .338 loses a point of minimum damage and a little headshot multiplier. Both Rezi 12 variants gain useful range or minimum-damage changes. Use the class-by-class reference at the end for the actual numbers rather than a blanket “buffed” label.

DMZ: X01, changed requirements and safer stash decisions

X01 is an underground GRANIT facility reached through Hājīn, with new Orders, threats and equipment, including an in-world 3D Printer. The patch notes do not provide a complete entrance route, floor plan or printer recipe list. Our X01 guide keeps those gaps explicit; the Hājīn map is not a fabricated X01 floor plan.

The additional 5 November update changes FOB vendors, recipes and assembly requirements without publishing a complete new quantity table. Our six starting craft costs retain their dated October publisher reference. The supplied upgrade captures are from 4 November. Neither is post-Season 1 in-game proof. Saved counts and goals remain yours; verify the current menu before treating a covered total as sufficient.

• Supplied Drops: its extra-container trait chance rises from 25% to 50%, and the trait now applies to Dynamic Operations crates. This is not a yellow-container spawn rate or a rare-item drop probability.
• Possum: the required enemy-squad distance becomes 2.5 times farther away; its failsafe rises from four to five minutes. The notes do not establish an absolute distance in metres.
• Bank batteries: spawn frequency is reduced, with no percentage supplied. A reported search area is not a guaranteed battery source.
• Progression fixes: Encrypted Voice Log spawns, care-package and second-crate reward claims, Secure Slot armour filling, headgear loss and full-backpack Emergency Egress Keycard handling receive fixes. A fix does not establish a new guaranteed loot location.
• Boss and operation conditions: the Colossus should no longer appear before the Military Base Armory opens. Dead Man Cache activation at Daesong Ridge and a Shopping Hacks Lab door re-lock issue are fixed. These are conditions and bug fixes, not newly verified coordinates.
• Materials and XP: unused Hydrochloric Acid spawning is fixed; do not stockpile it as a newly required ingredient. Weapon XP from vehicle kills against AI is reduced while Operator XP is unchanged.

Equipment and mode changes are not interchangeable

The addendum lowers Hardcore maximum health from 30 to 22. Argonaut health rises from 800 to 1,200. Proximity Mine arming falls from 1.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds; Claymore arming falls from one second to 0.75 seconds, with forward trigger distance increasing from 2.29 to 3.18 metres and its cone from 60 to 80 degrees.

In multiplayer, Crossfire gets a 25% bullet-radius reduction and 50% bullet-damage reduction, plus spawn-protection and camera-shake adjustments. DMZ’s Crossfire damage against vehicles and tanks increases. Applying the multiplayer damage reduction to that DMZ vehicle change would reverse what the notes say.

Fixes worth checking on your platform

Infinity Ward lists stability work around split-screen, suspend/resume and Campaign performance, alongside controls and interface corrections. Motion Sickness and Visual Support presets should now disable world motion blur correctly; a third-person FOV reset should return to 90 rather than 95. The notes also address Gunsmith reticles, locked attachments and Quick Play selection.

In DMZ, final-exfil plane failures, disappearing helicopters, revival black screens and the Threat Meter are among the fixes. Check your own build after updating; this article reports the publisher’s change list and does not claim independent reproduction of every fix.

What we verified, and what remains open

We read the complete MW4 notes and the additional 5 November section, cross-checked the schedule against the original announcement, and kept Warzone-specific systems separate. We have not tested Season 1 combat, X01 entry, performance or revised recipe quantities in a live match. Two ambiguous weapon rows are identified below. Existing article dates and screenshot dates remain visible.

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