Back 4 Blood December 16 update: Nightmare nerfs, Ridden spawns, patch notes

The new Back 4 Blood patch is finally here, with the Turtle Rock Studios developers stuffing their meaty December update full of huge changes for the popular zombies title ⁠— here’s all the details & patch notes.

Back 4 Blood dropped in mid-October for eager Left 4 Dead 2 players and zombie-shooter fans alike, but after a big launch plagued with issues, lost its early steam.

Since then, developers Turtle Rock Studios have been hard at work behind the scenes tweaking, fixing, and changing everything in their 2021 title, from Ridden spawn rates, to the Nightmare difficulty mode, Cleaner and Corruption cards, gun stats, and several major errors.

And now, the fruits of their labor are finally here.

Back 4 Blood players can get their hands on Turtle Rock’s December update when it ships on Thursday, and we’ve got all the patch notes for fans to pour through.

The December update is definitely a meaty morsel, with Turtle Rock Studios’ weighty patch notes clocking in at just under 3,000 words in changes, buffs, and nerfs.

For the most part, however, it’s all good news.

Back 4 Blood players have been begging Turtle Rock for a dial tweak on the game’s Nightmare difficulty since launch, especially Ridden spawns and how punishing the top-class mode can be for players who don’t sprint entire levels.

The devs have listened and skewered some of the more brutal elements of the mode, including heal options, trauma regen, Ridden resistances, and how many Cleaner Cards each player gets in reset saferooms. Enemies have also had their “stumble” resistance chopped down in a major change.

• Read More: Rip-roaring Back 4 Blood balances on house of cards

A handful of meta movement cards, including Run Like Hell and Speed Demon have been hit with nerfs, as has the popular Experienced EMT healing card.

Below are the Back 4 Blood patch notes for December.

Eager players on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC will have to install an update on Thursday, which Dexerto can confirm will be at least a few gigabytes in size.

Back 4 Blood December patch notes

New Features

• Offline Campaign with Progression
• New Supply Lines – Roving Merchants
  • Time-limited track added that provides new unlocks to spend Supply Points on
• New Card Type – Burn Cards
  • New card type added that is available through the Roving Merchants Supply Lines
  • This card type can be played in each Saferoom to gain temporary effects like instant healing, currency boosts, increasing resistances, and more
• Holiday Seasonal Event
  • Holiday decorations added to Fort Hope and the Firing Range
  • Unlockable seasonal character skins, weapon skins, emblems, and sprays added
• New (non-Burn) Cards
  • Belt Clip – Increase Quickslot Inventory by 1
  • Utility Belt -Increase Quickslot Inventory by 2. -10% Damage Dealt
  • Tool Belts – Increase Team Quickslot Inventory by 1
• Ridden Practice Area added to Fort Hope
  • Option added to play as a Ridden while in Fort Hope to practice fighting and exploring Mutation abilities
• Bots that accompany the player in Campaign are randomized
• Ultrawide improvements
• Stat tracking now enabled in Training
• Fixed an exploit that allowed players to duplicate offensive utility items
• Fixed an exploit that allowed players to select one card instead of duplicates

Campaign Updates

General

• Developer Note: We made the following changes to make the controls on PC feel more snappy.
  • Increase player acceleration to 2100 (was 1900)
  • Brake friction to 7 (was 6.5)
• Player starts with max ammo when beginning a run
• Cleaner hitboxes are more accurate, reducing accidental friendly fire
• Aim assist when targeting armored commons is improved
• Friendly fire damage no longer increases with each weapon tier
• Healing Efficiency now improves temporary healing
• Bots now keep their existing inventory and upgrade their weapons with each map
• Made improvements to saving individual matchmaking settings in Quickplay, Campaign, and Training runs
• Added clarification to the “Leave Game” prompt while in a party
• Smoothed out player collision near the Ogre’s spawn points
• ZWAT achievements now also grant the ZWAT Team title
• Added one additional card draw to Acts 2 and 3
• Improved the navigation of large special Ridden between the first and second objectives on Search and Rescue: A Clean Sweep
• The jukebox can no longer be damaged after the last bus is loaded on Search and Rescue: Bar Room Blitz
• The remaining research boxes will be highlighted after a certain amount of time has passed on Dr. Rogers’ Neighborhood: T-5
• Improved navigation for special Ridden inside of the saferoom on Dr. Rogers’ Neighborhood: Garden Party
• Made improvements to collision around the mortuary for Ridden and Cleaners on Remnants: A Friend in Need
• Adjusted the waypoint for the gate objective on Remnants: The Road to Hell
• Added additional spots for Ridden to enter the quarantine area if the one way door is closed on Remnants: The Road to Hell
• Readjusted the appearance of an NPC in Job 10:22: Heralds of the Worm, Part 1 for consistency in Campaign and Training modes
• Confirmation is now given immediately after reporting a player
• Changes have been made to the Credits

Card Updates

Speed Cards

We noticed that the use of speed running decks was creating tension between players as a single player would utilize a speed running deck to separate from the rest of their team to rush ahead to finish the level. We made the following changes to bring speed running more in line with the viability of other strategies and builds.

• Evasive – Speed reduced to 15% (from 20%)
• Fleet of Foot – Move Speed bonus reduced to 8% (was 10%)
• Fleet of Foot – Damage Resistance trade off increased to -7% (was -5%)
• Mad Dash – Stamina Efficiency reduced to -40% (was -30%)
• Olympic Sprinter – Damage Resistance trade off increased to -7% (was -5%)
• Pep in your Step – Move Speed bonus reduced to 8% (was 10%)
• Rhythmic Breathing – Stamina bonus reduced to 40% (was 60%)
• Rhythmic Breathing – Now +40% Stamina, removed drawback -20% slow resistance
• Run Like Hell – Changed to remove the Move Speed buff for 3 seconds when getting hit
• Run Like Hell – Move Speed bonus reduced to 12% (was 15%)
• Speed Demon – Move Speed bonus reduced to 4% (was 6%)
• Stimulants – Card Refactored. No longer gives move speed. Now gives 20% stamina regeneration, increased reload to 15% (was 10%), & increased swap speed to 15% (was 10%)

Combat Cards

We received feedback that players did not feel that slow and steady combat was as viable as other strategies. Additionally, we wanted to balance the nerfs to speed running in general. We’ve refactored and buffed the following combat cards to make combat more viable.

• Cold Brew Coffee – Now ADS Speed +25%, Weapon Swap +25% ,Use Speed +25%, Reload Speed +15%
• Combat Training – Removed 50% bullet penetration. Added +1 bullet stumble and +5 melee stumble
• Combat Training – Now +5% bullet damage, +25% Bullet Stumble
• Energy Drink – Stamina reduced to 15% (was 40%), Removed -5% damage resistance, Added Weapon Swap +25%, Move speed while firing +15%, Slow resistance +10%
• Highwayman – Tooltip update to include all secondary weapons, ammo chance increased to 3% (was 2%), now has a chance to spawn Molotovs
• Large Caliber Rounds – Now +7.5% bullet damage damage, +200% bullet pen, penalty removed
• Line ‘Em Up – Now Range fall off +10%, Recoil Control +15, Bullet Pen +25%, ADS speed +25%. No longer requires ARs
• Marathon Runner – No longer disables sprint
  • Developer Note: Intent with this is to enable kiting.
• Mugger – Ammo chance increased to 3% (was 2%), now has a chance to drop razor wire
• Patient Hunter – Reduced time per stack to 0.75 (was 1)
• Power Swap – Effect can no longer be stacked
• Power Swap – Weapon swap window increased to 1 second (was 0.75)
• Power Reload – Reload window increased to 1 second (was 0.75)
• Silver Bullets – Now +10% bullet damage, +15% to range falloff, penalty removed
• Steady Aim – Added a stacking buff while ADS with that gives 10/20/30% recoil reduction over 2.25 seconds
• Tunnel Vision – Added stat that increases weak spot damage the longer player is in ADS 5/10/15% over 2.25 seconds
• Team Ammo (Vendor card) – Now also gives +1% increased damage
• Well Fed – Removed 20% stamina efficiency

Healing Cards

• In addition to the combat card buffs, we’ve made the following changes and buffs to healing cards.
• Fresh Bandage – Now heals 15 health at the start of each level
• Fresh Bandage – Trauma recovery increased to 15 (was 10)
  • Developer Note: This was buffed to mitigate the loss of trauma heal on Experienced EMT
• Group Therapy – Heal increased to 8 (was 5)
• Life Insurance – Life reduced to 1 (was 2), Now reduces team incap trauma by 15%, Remove copper loss
• Needs of the Many – Health penalty reduced to -10 (was -20%)
• Pep Talk – Now gives 3 flat damage resistance from all sources while reviving & grants 10 health to the revived target
• Saferoom Recovery – Now also heals 15 health and trauma recovery up to 7 (was 5)
  • Developer Note: This was buffed to mitigate the loss of trauma heal on Experienced EMT

General Cards

• The cards Share the Wealth, Box O’ Bags, Surplus Pouches, Experienced EMT, and Saferoom Recovery no longer apply their effects an additional time after a team wipe
  • Developer Note: We identified a bug where a number of cards were applied more or not as intended after a team wipe.
• Team ammo cards on the vendor now give a 1% damage increase
• Adrenaline Fueled – Card Refactored. No longer gives bonus stamina, no longer reduced stamina regen, no longer gives instant stamina, fueled stamina regen now stacks 5 times and gives 7 stamina over 7 seconds
• Ammo Mule – No longer disables support items, but lowers move speed by 5%
• Bounty Hunter – Updated text to mention contributing team kills
• Experienced EMT – Card Refactored. Bonus Health reduced to 10% (was 20%), now also increases Stamina and Stamina Regen 10%
• Card was refactored to make it usable in more situations.
• Experienced EMT – No longer heals trauma
  • Developer Note: Due to the bug fix where this card was applying its effect more than intended, this ended up healing trauma which was not intended. We have buffed other cards such as Fresh Bandage and Saferoom Recovery to mitigate this change as well as adding a free first aid cabinet recharge to Nightmare.
• Energy Bar – Stamina Regen increased to 30% (was 20%)
• Hyper-Focused – Adjusted penalty to -40% move speed while shooting or melee attacking (was -75% ADS move speed)
• Wooden Armor – No longer increases explosion damage take

Corruption Cards

• Corruption Boss cards will no longer appear at the start of an Act
  • Developer Note: These cards were causing a difficulty spike in all difficulties. We want players to have more time to prepare for bosses and later chapters.
• Hag will no longer spawn with The Fog corruption card
  • Developer Note: The Hag was stacking with boss objectives, causing a difficulty spike in all difficulties.
• Fog’s maximum density reduced for Gloom and The Fog corruption cards
• Breakers removed from all difficulties of Search and Rescue: Book Worms

Balance Updates

• All guns set to have the same Aim Assist snap length-duration
• Aim Assist now locks onto the center of Sleeper base instead of the body
• Aim snap time reduced to 0.1 seconds (was 0.25)
• Made Aim Assist feel smoother when aiming at targets
• Bird’s health reduced to 1 (was 10)
• Flash Grenade damage reduced to 1 (was 5)
• M16’s damage increased to 16 (was 14)
• Burst M9’s damage increased to 12 (was 10)
• Razor Wire is now a Quick Slot item
• MP5 – Fire rate increased to 50%
  • Developer Note: decreased functionality was not intended, the MP5 is now in line with expectations.
• 870 – Fire rate reduced to 0.40 (was 0.55)
• Combat Knife – Increased combat attack width
• Lightweight Stock – Blue attachment movement speed buff reduced to +7.5% (was +10%)
• Lightweight Stock – Purple attachment movement speed buff reduced to +10% (was +15%)
• Nightmare and the shooting range in Fort Hope now multiply base friendly fire damage values by 2x

Difficulty Updates

One of our goals this patch is to decrease the disparity between the various difficulties so there isn’t as much of a jump from Recruit to Veteran to Nightmare.

Recruit

• Player base damage resist increased to 25% (was 20%)
• Continue currency bonus increased to 300 (was 250)
• Continue Heal bonus increased to 75 (was 25)
• Continue Trauma heal bonus increased to 25 (was 20)

Veteran

• Rescaled friendly fire values
• Sleepers no longer call hordes
• Player base damage increased to 120% (was 100%)
• Player base Health increased to 115 (was 100)
• Player Base ammo capacity increased 120% (was 100%)
• Trauma heals per safe room +5 (was 0)
• Continue currency bonus increased to 200 (was 150)
• Continue Heal bonus increased to 25 (was 15)
• First aid cabinet free use increased to 2 (was 1)

Nightmare

• Rescaled friendly fire values
• First aid cabinet free use increased to 1 (was 0)
• Special damage reduced by 35% (was 75%)
• Common damage reduced by 50% (was 100%)
• Nightmare extra trauma from incap reduced to 5 (was 10)
• Reduce nightmare stumble resist on nightmare 25% (was 40%)
• Reduced nightmare special health buff to 7.5% (was 15%)
• Continue currency bonus increased to 100 (was 0)
• Continue Heal bonus increased to 10 (was 0)
• Continue Trauma heal bonus increased to 5 (was 0)
• Continue Card draw bonus increased to 1 (was 0)
• Continue Ammo bonus increased to 15% (was 0)
• Extra incap trauma reduced to 7 (was 10)

Spawning Updates

• During endless Hordes and back-to-back hordes, all Horde Special Ridden are limited to 2 of a given type and a maximum of 4
• Added a Horde Special Ridden cooldown
  • Developer Note: This helps avoid the doubling of Specials when multiple hordes are triggered.
• Timed Hordes made to have a longer minimum resume time of 60 seconds (was 30) with the exception of custom events.
  • Developer Note: If you triggered a horde while having a timed horde, it was possible to have the timed horde trigger too soon after the initial horde.
• Roaming Special max count now 4 (was 6)
  • Developer Note: Limits the potential Special counts in certain situations.
• Reduced chance for all Tallboy variants on Veteran and Nightmare difficulties
• Increased Roaming Special minimum spawn distance to 30m (was 20m)
• Increased Wander Special minimum spawn distance to 10m (was 5m)

Ridden AI Updates

• Blighted Ridden no longer deal instant explosion damage when they die
• Special Ridden’s defense against bullet penetration to weak spots has been reduced
• Sleepers will more accurately connect with their targets
• Tallboy & Bruiser hit boxes are more accurate and their weak spots are easier to hit
  • Developer Note: we cleaned up the Tallboy’s hit boxes to make them easier to hit. It should now be possible to hit their weak spot from the front if you have a precise weapon.
  • Developer Note: The following changes make their attacks a bit more forgiving to dodge.
• Tallboy & Smasher Overhead attack damage radius reduced to 200 units (was 250)
• Tallboys have less ability to turn during a Burst traversal
• Decreased Crusher squeeze attach distance for squeeze attack to 200 units (was 300)
• Vomiter’s effective range in meters decreased to 22 (was 25), tracking and ramp up time adjusted to work better
• Vomiter will rotate slightly slower and will track the target for slightly longer during vomit attack (2.25 seconds from 1.6)
• Vomiter projectile spray starts at a lower velocity now (75% of max instead of 90% of max) and ramps up to max velocity over a longer period of time (0.75 seconds instead of 0.4 seconds)
• Exploder’s explosion radius is now visible to the Ridden player
  • Developer Note: With the following changes, the Hocker’s ability should not be used as much, should be easier to dodge, and you should not take as much damage if an attack landed.
• Hocker pin projectile speed reduced to 2500 (was 3500)
• Hocker pin miss cooldown increased to 8 seconds (was 0)
• Hocker pin hit cooldown increased to 8 seconds (was 2)
• Hocker initial damage reduced to 5 (was 10)
• Hocker damage over time increased to 3 (was 2)
• Hag health reduced to 7500 (8200)
• Hag weak spot multiplier increased to 2.25 (was 2)
• Stinger projectile cooldown while perched increased
  • Developer Note: When the Stinger was perched, there was no cooldown on her projectile so she was able to rapidly attack Cleaners.

Swarm PVP Updates

General

• Facial icons now appear when Ridden players ping Cleaners
• All Cleaner dialogue for pinging special Ridden is now audible to Ridden players
• Survivor nameplates are visible to Ridden players

Card Updates

• Inspiring Sacrifice – Sound effects volume reduced when effect is active

Balance Updates

• Added leaver penalty warning popup in Fort Hope after leaving a PvP match
• Cleaners now start each round with full ammo

• Mutation Points from players that disconnect in Swarm mode are now redistributed to their remaining teammates
• Each player’s Mutation Points are now visible on their party frames
• Hocker pin duration reduced back to 7 seconds (was showing 9999 on some pins)
• Hocker pin damage reduced initial damage to 5 (was 10), increased the damage over time to 3 (was 2)

Controller Updates

• Aim Assist Strength slider has been replaced by two separate sliders for Aim Assist Friction and Aim Assist Magnetism for Gamepad in the Options menu
• Added options for Camera Acceleration (On/Off), Camera Movement (Linear/Exponential), and Player Movement (Linear/Exponential) to the Gamepad tab in the Options menu

UI/UX Updates

• Cleaners being pursued by a Hag will now see a corresponding screen effect to indicate this
• Can now easily duplicate decks in the Deck Manager
• “Camera Smoothing Duration” has a slider added in the Options menu
• Field of View options sliders separated for Cleaners and Ridden in the Graphics Options menu
• FOV settings better support Ultrawide/ Multimonitor configurations
• Added an option to toggle Blood / Vomit / Mud Drench in the Options menu
• Added an option to set “Audio Input Device” in the Audio Options menu
• The “Mute All” option is now toggled off automatically when you return to Fort Hope
• Toggling VOIP on/off in options will enable/disable the other voice-related options & volume sliders. Warning message will say why it’s disabled
• Improved the contrast and brightness of graphics on Xbox Series X
• Jukebox tracks are now controlled by the Music slider instead of the SFX slider
• Subtitles are now off by default
• Social menu can now be brought up by selecting a player’s own banner in the Campaign menu
• Updates to NVidia DLSS requires NVidia Driver 471.11 or later

Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed an issue where players were unable to replay the tutorial from the main menu
• Fixed HUD not displaying properly on Ultrawide resolutions
• Fixed an issue with the look of loading screens on ultrawide resolutions
• Fixed the available amount of resolutions when in windowed mode when using a 21:9 monitor
• Fixed Supply Lines and Character Selection screens not displaying properly on Ultra Wide resolutions
• Fixed an issue with the contrast levels of the contrast slider
• Fixed an issue where weapons did not automatically swap from the primary to the secondary when out of ammo while “Auto Switch Weapons On Depleted Ammo” was toggled on in the options menu
• Fixed a bug preventing viewers names being associated with Ridden who killed cleaners in the kill feed
• Fix for Windows Store Builds that was preventing Authentication with the Extension
• Fixed a bug that was causing the Name a Ridden feature to have duplicate names for a single viewer transaction

For the full list of Back 4 Blood bug fixes, click here.