Modern Warfare March 10 patch notes: new shotgun, 725 changes, more

Call of Duty developers Infinity Ward have released the 1.17 update for Modern Warfare Season 2, introducing the Warzone battle royale mode, a new shotgun called VLK Rogue, as well as changes to several aspects of the game, including the controversial 725.

March 10 was a huge day in the world of Call of Duty, as Modern Warfare’s new Warzone battle royale was launched with the option of playing it for free.

It came as part of a huge patch, which also introduced an “agile 12-gauge mag fed shotgun” called the VLK Rogue, the first new weapon of that category since the game’s launch.

Speaking of shotguns, this update made some changes to arguably the most controversial one in the game – the 725, or more specifically, its Sawed-Off Barrel.

• Read More: How to get free Combat Pack cosmetics for Warzone

Also added via this patch was the return of the classic mode Search and Rescue, as well as a new 10v10 Mayhem Moshpit playlist, while Boots on the Ground War was removed.

A full breakdown of all the new content and changes can be found below, as well as the official patch notes.

Warzone battle royale

Warzone is the name of Call of Duty’s newest battle royale, the franchise’s second run at the genre following the release of Blackout in 2018.

While technically part of Modern Warfare in terms of player progression, Warzone is more or less a standalone game, and it’s free to play, meaning you don’t have to own or buy MW to enjoy the new BR experience.

• Read More: How to play Warzone for free & without MW

That said, those who do own the full game have some perks, such as getting to play it four hours early and other in-game bonuses. For full details, visit our hub on everything you need to know about Warzone battle royale.

New shotgun – VLK Rogue

VLK Rogue is the newest shotgun in Modern Warfare multiplayer, and it’s the first addition to that weapon category since the game’s launch. It’s described in-game as an “agile 12-gauge mag fed shotgun from VLK with extensive options to modify range, stability, and maneuverability.”

Unlocking it is pretty straightforward, albeit a bit time consuming; all you have to do is get seven kills using a weapon with five attachments in 15 different matches.

For more details about this new gun, including the list of all available attachments in Gunsmith, check out our VLK Rogue shotgun info hub.

725 changes

Staying on the topic of shotguns, Infinity Ward made several changes to the 725’s Sawed-Off Barrel – a combination of nerfs and buffs.

Three of the changes boosted the attachment, while the other two can be considered nerfs:

• Increased move speed
• Increased ADS Spread
• Reduced ADS damage
• Reduced far damage range
• Extended very lethal close damage range

That was the only real major set of adjustments to weapons; the other gun-related changes included in this patch were either just bug fixes or updates to the descriptions of certain attachments.

Playlist update

As is almost always the case every time Infinity Ward release a new patch for Modern Warfare, 1.17 included a playlist update that shuffled around some of the modes available in multiplayer.

The big new addition is Search and Rescue, a classic mode that’s featured in several Call of Duty games dating all the way back to Ghosts. It’s a combination of Search & Destroy and Kill confirmed in that players drop tags when killed, and grabbing a teammate’s tag will revive them – but if an enemy gets to it first, the player will be eliminated from the round.

• Read More: How to get killstreaks & loadouts in Warzone BR

Also introduced is the Mayhem Mosh Pit, which is a 10v10 playlist featuring the three modes Grind, Drop Zone, and Cranked. The third and final change was the removal of Boots on the Ground War, which had a series of problems from the day it was added and never turned out to be a successful or popular mode.

Here are the full patch notes for this update, as provided in the latest Infinity Ward post.

PLAYLIST UPDATE:

• Added Search and Rescue
• Added Mayhem Mosh Pit (10v10 Grind, Drop Zone, and Cranked)
• Removing “Boots on the Ground War”

GENERAL FIXES:

• NEW Shotgun: “VLK Rogue”
• Fixed a bug that prevented respawning after a Defcon Nuke had been set off in Realism Ground War 
• Increased damage to Juggernauts when being hit by a Thermite Crossbow 
• Various Exploit fixes, including fixes to Hackney Yard and Piccadilly 
• Fix for a bug where a different pistol than one that was equipped would appear when climbing a ladder 
• Fixed a bug where any charm used alongside the MP7 Bengal variant would clip through the weapon 
• Various Ground War exploit fixes
• Fix for a bug where a constant yellow “High Alert” screen would persist after death if the player died while the perk was granted via Specialist 
• Fixed a bug in the After-Action Report that would display 0 in the Challenge field even if a Challenge had been completed 
• Fixed a bug that would spawn players elsewhere on the map after using a Tactical Insertion near the crawl space on Rust 
• Fixed a bug in the Giant Infection mode that spammed radio VO across all teammates when a player is a driver or passenger 
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to deploy throwable Field Upgrades during the round countdown. After the countdown ends, the player would still have another Field Upgrade available. This has been fixed 
• Added option to toggle a square or circular minimap 

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Weapons:

• 725 Sawed-Off Barrel:
  • Increased move speed
  • Increased ADS Spread
  • Reduced ADS damage
  • Reduced far damage range
  • Extended very lethal close damage range
• Fix for the RAM-7 variant, “The Corrupter” not allowing the use of any sniper scopes
• Fixed a bug that could create an ‘infinite ammo’ glitch on the Model 680 
• Updating the ammo descriptions to the “Bludgeoner” LMG and the “Skull Hammer” Shotgun 
• Fix for a bug where using an NVG Thermal Scope on the Grau 5.56 could cause a graphical bug 

Missions and Challenges:

• Fix for a bug that only displayed the “One Shot One Kill” splash medal on screen when a sniper rifle was used. This is fixed to display whenever any one-shot weapon like shotguns or marksman rifles are used
• Fix for the “Get 50 Kills with Light Machine Guns” challenge not tracking as intended
• Fix for Golem’s 3 Mission Objective, “Get 5 Kills using Lethal Equipment” not tracking properly 
• All vehicles now award progress to any challenges that require “X vehicle run over kills” 
• Updates to the splash screen and in-game HUD as players make progress in the “Alliance” Missions

Classic Special Operations:

• Fixed a bug that prevented players for being able to use finishing moves on enemy AI. This has been fixed 
• Bomb Squad: Fix for a bug there enemies might not spawn until after the last bomb is defused 

Special Operations: Survival – Leaderboards for Azhir Cave (night) and St. Petrograd have been added

Special Operations:

• Camera is now in a fixed position when reviving while prone or crouched
• Hostages will reset to a safe area if dropped out of bounds
• Fix match ending if the last-alive player calls in a Team Revive but goes down before the other players revive themselves.
• Fix some instances where the juggernaut music could stay on unintentionally 
• Increase Heavy Hitter weapon perk to 2x melee damage
• Ensure that players who are parachuting receive the ‘out of bounds’ warning if they drift out of bounds
• Fix for hint prompts showing up while players are in last stand
• Fix for an edge case that could prevent the 4 squad leader from spawning in during Operation Headhunter
• Operation Just Reward: Fixed an issue where the cell phone intel would fail to drop
• Operation Strongbox: Fixed a bug where destroying an enemy Wheelson was not granting any XP

Keyboard and Mouse: a contextual menu is now displayed when KBM player right-click on usernames in the Social menu’s Party tab

PC:

• Several fixes to prevent crashes and improve stability
• New PC players that are using the latest Battle.net client now have access to a simple, one-click way of creating their Activision account using their Battle.net credentials
• Fixed a few cases where certain Social menu pop-up messages would display incorrectly in higher aspect ratios