In a swift response to community feedback, Treyarch has reversed the controversial zombie spawn delay change in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's Zombies Directed Mode. This rollback came with the latest update released on January 9, ensuring that the gameplay remains engaging and rewarding for players. Alongside this major adjustment, the update also included essential bug fixes for the Citadelle des Morts Zombies map and significant enhancements to the Shadow Rift Ammo Mod, making it a more potent tool in players' arsenals.

The January 3 update had initially introduced changes to Directed Mode on the Citadelle des Morts map, specifically extending the time between rounds and the delay between zombie spawns after five looped rounds on round 15. This adjustment was met with frustration from the community, as it hindered players' ability to farm kills and complete camo challenges effectively. Concerns also arose about potential future restrictions on XP gains and rewards, but Treyarch quickly addressed these worries by reverting the spawn delay change to its original state, maintaining a maximum delay of roughly 20 seconds after five looped rounds.

The update also tackled various bugs affecting Directed Mode on Citadelle des Morts, ensuring smoother progression and completion of the main quest without glitches related to stamps. Additionally, fixes were implemented to resolve visual effect glitches and crashes associated with the Void Sheath Augment for Aether Shroud.

Players can now benefit from four new buffs to the Shadow Rift Ammo Mod. These include increased activation rates for normal, special, and elite enemies, now set at 20%, 7%, and 7% respectively when equipped with the Big Game Augment. The cooldown rate for Shadow Rift has also been reduced by 25%, enhancing its overall effectiveness and appeal in gameplay.

Looking ahead, the patch notes confirm that Black Ops 6 Season 2 will kick off on January 28, bringing with it further bug fixes and updates. Until then, players have the opportunity to earn rewards by completing the Citadelle des Morts main quest in Zombies before the end of Season 1 Reloaded.

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 January 9 Update Patch Notes

GLOBAL

Characters

• Addressed an issue where Maya’s “Joyride” Operator Skin would not be visible past 70 meters.

UI

• Addressed some visual issues with the Events tab.

Audio

• Addressed an issue where audio was not playing for Event milestone banners in-game.

MULTIPLAYER

Modes

• Red Light, Green Light
  • Increased XP awarded from match bonus.

Stability

• Added various stability fixes.

ZOMBIES

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

• Citadelle des Morts
  • Addressed an issue where using the Void Sheath Augment for Aether Shroud with one of the Elemental Swords would cause the match to crash.
  • Addressed an issue where many visual effects would stop playing.
  • Directed Mode
    • Addressed an issue where guidance would be incorrect if a player disconnected with a stamp.
    • Addressed an issue where guidance would be incorrect each time a new stamp spawned.
    • Addressed an issue where picking up Solais after a stamp was spawned could prevent quest progression.

Modes

• Directed Mode
  • Removed the extended time between rounds and the delay between spawning zombies after five looped rounds at the round cap.

Ammo Mods

• Shadow Rift
  • Activation Rates
    • Normal enemy activation rate increased from 15% to 20%.
    • Special enemy activation rate increased from 5% to 7%.
    • Elite enemy activation rate with Big Game Augment equipped increased from 5% to 7%.
  • Cooldown Timer
    • Decreased cooldown by 25%.

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

• Dead Light, Green Light
  • Added Liberty Falls to map selection.
  • Increased round cap to 20 before Exfil.

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

• Various stability fixes.

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.