The much-anticipated Season 5 update is finally here--check out the full patch notes.

By Eddie Makuch on August 24, 2022 at 8:58AM PDT

It is a big day for Call of Duty: Warzone, as the battle royale game's much-anticipated Season 5 update is launching today, August 24. This update makes a number of significant changes to Warzone, including lighting changes on Caldera, a volcanic eruption featuring lava, new items, additional Operators, and more.

In terms of its file size, this is another big update, clocking in at around 10 GB on all platforms.

To begin, Warzone's Season 5 update adds a new battle pass with 100 tiers of additional content. This includes a new Operator, Raul Menendez, new weapons--the EX1 assault rifle energy weapon and the RA 225 submachine gun--as well as more weapon blueprints, charms, and calling cards.

A new event called Heroes vs Villains begins today, August 24, and runs through September 14. Players will collect villain or hero tokens to add to their team's score. The winning team will get a special weapon blueprint and the opportunity to earn additional rewards.

A new mode called Operator: Last Call is launching today, too. The limited-time mode is inspired by Search and Destroy, calling on players to defuse bombs across the island, or sabotage them. Additionally, the Fortune's Keep Resurgence mode gets an update that increases the maximum player count per match.

In terms of map changes, Caldera's volcano has exploded and lava is running down the mountainside. The Task Force Tyrants HQ, meanwhile, has been given a "hazardous makeover" with flowing lava. Season 5 also ushers in a new gulag, Boiler Room, which is inspired by Warzone's original gulag.

Additionally, Warzone has new weather and lighting effects that showcase smoke from the volcano and sunlight in the sky. Rebirth Island is now sunnier, too, while the map also gets a limited-time mode called Rebirth After Dark, which is a nighttime version of the map.

The Season 5 update also fixes various bugs, including collision issues and another issue that caused prestige levels to display incorrectly.

There are new items in the Season 5 update as well, including the Doomsday Station, which causes enemy AI to invade the position through a helicopter drop--this costs $10,000. Another new item is the Supply Box UAV killstreak, which marks nearby unopened supply boxes on the map for 20 seconds. A new field upgrade called Rage Serum comes with the update, too. This boosts a player's close-quarters capabilities for 40 seconds by increasing movement speed and lung distance, among other things.

Season 5 also nerfs the Serpentine perk by removing its bonus protection to fire and explosive damage. "This should also restore the value to E.O.D. that Serpentine had cannibalized," Activision said.

As for weapon balance changes, Activision said Season 5 is "all about widening options even further by addressing the top performers to be more in-line, along with lifting up both individual weapons and classes of weapons that are under-utilized."

To that end, Vanguard marksman rifles now have assault rifle ammunition, while variable scopes have been adjusted to have a glint on them, reduced recoil control, and adjusted ADS time. Finally, aggressive and heavy sniper rifles will see a "large reduction," Activision said.

This is just a small snapshot of what's included in Warzone's big Season 5 update. You can see the full patch notes below, as shared on Call of Duty's website.

In other news, Warzone 2.0 is coming this year, and we'll learn more about it during the Call of Duty Next event on September 15.

Doomsday Station New Gameplay | Caldera Battle Royale

Supply Box UAV New Killstreak | All Maps & Modes

Personal Supply Box New Lootable Supply Box | All Maps & Modes

Rage Serum New Field Upgrade | All Maps & Modes

In the absence of any recent changes to the Precision Airstrike behavior, we’ve still seen an uptick in Player sentiment and discussion around Precision Airstrikes lately. As such our engineering team have completed a detailed review of the system to make sure it is working as intended and as a result have made some changes to further improve and optimize the system. Note that Precision Airstrikes will continue to shoot through glass, balconies and wall-bang penetrable buildings.

We felt that C4 and ground loot Perks were too similar in appearance and presentation, so we’ve updated C4 to make it more distinguishable visually when compared to a vertically standing ground loot Perk satchel.

We have made many targeted Quality of Life improvements to the auto Gas Mask behavior over the course of this year, and with it being in a much better place for all of our Players - now is the time to take the next step to give Players more agency and control over their experience with a Manual Equip setting.

During Season Four we made a change to optimize the Loadout interface so that the cursor selection starts at the top of the list. Whilst we heard positive feedback on this change, we also heard feedback from others that this was less optimized for their playstyle. Enjoy!

We have made a change to Battle Royale to bring Planes inline with other vehicles. Upon review, it simply didn't feel rewarding for Players to invest in eliminating enemy Planes only to see them respawn moments later.

Serpentine continues to be a top-3 pick in the blue Perk category after Season Four Reloaded’s update. As a result, we’re removing the bonus protection to Fire and Explosive Damage. This should also restore the value to E.O.D that Serpentine had cannibalized.

Later in the season we’ll be making an additional change that causes Serpentine to only be in effect while Tactical Sprinting, instead of regular sprint.

We felt we could bring more value to Battle Hardened, especially as it is now present as a lootable ground Perk, with our target for the effects of Stun and Flash to be mitigated to less than a second with the Perk equipped. Some Players may wonder why this change is happening now, to which our reply is that there may be a surprise in-store during Season Five that warrants this change.

Season Five is all about widening options even further by addressing the top performers to be more in-line, along with lifting up both individual Weapons and classes of Weapons that are under-utilized.

We've made a large amount of changes to these Weapons and expect to make some more following Season Five launch so that these Weapons are viable, but we don't see a repeat of the DMR 14 (BOCW) meta.

They now have a glint on them, reduced recoil control, and adjusted ADS time. This will have a significant impact on the long-range playstyle, enabling wider options and not total domination from Vanguard Assault rifles.

Snipers are in a good spot, but we're not done with them yet. Combined with the above, we are expecting many viable options and variability in long-range engagements.

In Call of Duty: Warzone we've made some substantial differences to the EX1(VG) to better accommodate BR gameplay vs Vanguard multiplayer gameplay. The EX1(VG) has limited ammunition, increased recoil and substantially lower bullet velocity.

The unquestioned strength of the AS44 (VG) was encroaching on the sub-machine gun class and less its Assault Rifle brethren. We’re making a modification to the close-range damage profile and compensating with more recoil control, enabling the Weapon to perform as a more reliable Sniper-Support.

The KG M40 (VG) continued to climb after the last round of adjustments, so we’re making a further reduction of its long-range damage profile combined with some reasonable accuracy adjustments. The result is a Weapon that should exist firmly in the camp of “Newcomer friendly” but other Weapons will be preferable for higher skilled Players.

Season Four Reloaded’s newcomer struggled to find a firm identity in the long-range AR class. We’re making some all-round modifications to smoothen out the experience, while compensating for the slightly below average Torso damage profile with the most generous “Critical Box” of the Vanguard Assault Rifles, with the Neck now matching the Headshot multiplier.

Vanguard Marksman Rifles have been held back by their restriction of using Sniper Ammunition. In Season Five we’re making large changes to these Weapons to now use Assault Rifle Ammunition instead, along with rebalancing the handling and damage potential of each Weapon in the class.

Snipers have almost climbed to the ideal healthy usage rate, and for the first time we’re seeing a good spread of different Weapons being used depending on map and situation. With the rebalancing of some of the Vanguard Optics and a further reduction of flinch, we expect this category of Weapons to be in a solid position going forward.

We’re making some adjustments to widen the Close Range meta even further by making additional changes to the best performers, and giving some much needed attention to some old favorites.

SVT-40 PU Scope 3-6x

All four Operators of Task Force Tyrants feature a 20-level Operator XP progression path, including three Operator Quips, additional Skins, XP bonuses, and more. Equip their favorite Weapons and complete their individual challenges to rank up more quickly. Level all four Tyrants members to 20 to unlock their Mastery Reward Operator Skins.

Task Force Tyrants begin to deploy on August 24 with the launch of Last Stand, the fifth season for Vanguard and Call of Duty®: Warzone™. It’s good to be bad, and these are the worst of the worst. It’s time to get notorious.

First appearing in Call of Duty®: Black Ops II, Menendez orchestrated a cyberattack against automated drones, turning them against major cities across the United States and China.

Unlock the Legendary “Ivory Mystique” Operator Skin immediately at Tier 0 through purchase of the Last Stand Battle Pass. Complete the Battle Pass to earn his Ultra “Populist Revolutionary” Operator Skin at Tier 100.

The main antagonist of Call of Duty®: Ghosts, Rorke formerly led the Ghosts before being turned against them, paving the way for the Federation’s occupation of the United States.

Unlock Gabriel T. Rorke by purchasing his Bundle when it arrives later in Last Stand.

Seraph first appeared in Call of Duty®: Black Ops III as a playable Specialist. She is utterly devoted to furthering her father’s legacy by promoting the 54 Immortals’ objectives.

Unlock Seraph by purchasing her Bundle, which arrives later in Last Stand.

A Middle Eastern warlord and key antagonist throughout the Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® series, Al-Asad is the second of “The Four Horsemen,” outranked only by Vladimir Makarov himself.

Unlock the infamous Operator via the Khaled Al-Asad Operator Bundle, releasing in the Store shortly after the launch of the Last Stand Season.

Additionally, players who have digitally pre-ordered either the Cross-Gen (console), Standard (PC), or Vault Edition (console or PC) versions of Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II will receive the Khaled Al-Asad Operator Bundle for free and will have immediate access once it becomes available in the Store, for use in Vanguard and Call of Duty®: Warzone™.

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