Modern Warfare 4 Update: What the Launch Patches Changed

Modern Warfare 4 has taken four updates in five days. A pre-launch patch landed on October 21, then Infinity Ward pushed daily patches on October 23, 24 and 25. The newest one, October 25, triples kill XP in Search and Destroy and Collateral from 100 to 300, rolls back a bomb-stretching fix that broke bomb pickups, and cuts Drill Charge damage against enemy Colossus vehicles in DMZ.

• Latest update: October 25, 2026, posted by Infinity Ward on the official patch notes page
• Biggest player-facing change: one kill in Search and Destroy or Collateral now pays 300 XP instead of 100
• Reversed change: the Search and Destroy bomb-stretching fix was pulled because players could no longer pick up the bomb in some spots
• No weapon tuning yet: Infinity Ward says balance changes are being looked at for a future update, with no numbers or date
• No patch sizes published: Activision has not posted download sizes for any of the four updates

Official source: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Launch Patch Notes, the running log maintained by Infinity Ward. At the time of writing the newest dated entry is October 25, 2026.

Modern Warfare 4 update history at a glance

The cadence is the story here. Four patches in five days is a normal launch-week response for a Call of Duty title, and it tells you two things worth knowing: the game shipped with a working build, and the team is still in reactive mode rather than tuning mode. Balance is the part that has not started yet.

What did the October 25 update change?

This is the patch most players are asking about, and it is short enough to quote in full.

Search and Destroy and Collateral XP. XP for one kill was boosted from 100 to 300 in both modes. That is the single largest progression change since launch, and it lands hardest on Collateral, the round-based mode with a buy phase, where kill income competes with objective income for the same cash pool. Infinity Ward framed it as the first step: "We're also looking at XP earn rates in Multiplayer modes and will be making some changes, starting with this update." Expect more of this rather than a one-off.

The bomb-stretching fix was reversed. The October 25 notes admit the earlier fix created a knock-on problem where players could not pick up the bomb in certain positions, so it was rolled back. Bomb stretching is back on the known-issues list, with the team saying it will be addressed again "as soon as we are able." If you see the exploit in a match right now, it is not a client bug on your end.

DMZ changes. Drill Charge damage against enemy Colossus units was decreased. Players who were able to bypass the Hospital Elevator objective during the Critical Extraction Story Mission no longer can. Anyone with items left in the Overflow Stash now has to reconcile it before deploying, which is a rule change rather than a bug fix and will matter if you have been hoarding.

Smaller fixes. Locked Attachments now show weapon stats in Gunsmith, the Prestige reset clears Loadouts properly, and the Patriot XMR, Oden and Cronen Squall are no longer labelled as Battle Rifles. The DMZ Boss Board also stopped losing Lieutenant Intel requirements when you hover over an eliminated target.

What did the October 24 update change?

The October 24 patch is the biggest of the three post-launch ones, and its headline item is Hijack. Infinity Ward says it "improved spawn locations and respawn timing" in the mode, which had been the loudest complaint about the new data spike mode in the first 48 hours.

Multiplayer also got four specific exploit and quality fixes:

• Search and Destroy no longer allows a defuse from an unintended distance or position
• The Deathstalker Killstreak can no longer travel outside the map boundaries on Rooftops
• Portable Radar now displays the minimap while active in Hardcore
• Favorite Operators are properly equipped in Collateral

On the DMZ side the patch is long and mostly structural. Party Leaders can no longer pull teammates out of a deployment without consent, which used to mark those players' Active Duty Operators as MIA. The FOB lost an out-of-bounds route. Exfil helicopters no longer disappear while players are still inside. More spots on Hajin where players got stuck in rocks were sealed. Looted Dog Tags and Bounties stopped showing incorrect data. Various exploits were closed.

The Known Issues block from that day is still worth checking against the live game: the regional map animation during matchmaking was temporarily disabled while hitching reports are investigated, some players are still being kicked while spectating, and PC players can hit a network error when extracting from DMZ with a looted Dog Tag.

What did the launch patch on October 23 fix?

Launch day itself was mostly about progression bugs, because that is what a fresh account hits first. Military Camos and Apex Attachments could appear locked again after you Prestiged a weapon. Several camo unlock requirements were displayed inaccurately. Killstreak indicators from a previous Multiplayer match could carry into a DMZ deployment. Night Vision Goggles appeared twice in the Underground Chapter rewards menu.

Two lines in that patch are easy to miss and matter more than they look. Weapon Prestiging and Player Prestiging are unavailable while you are actively searching for a match, and the UI now says so. And a DMZ Challenge was listing Longshot kills when it wanted Headshot kills, which quietly wasted progress for anyone grinding it.

The same notes confirm two launch-week additions that are not really bug fixes: parties of up to four players can now queue together in Free-for-All, and in DMZ you can steal back UAV Towers from enemy control. The UAV change is the more interesting one for squad play, since it turns a captured tower into a contested objective instead of a permanent buff.

Where are the Apex Attachments and the weapon tuning?

Both were addressed, neither has a date.

On Apex Attachments, the October 23 notes are unusually candid: a few early seasonal event Apex Attachments and weapon attachments were in the beta to test balance, they were pulled for launch, and "they will return soon." There is no date in the notes and no list of which ones come back first.

On weapon tuning, the October 23 post says the team is "looking at potential weapon tuning for next week." The October 25 post softens that to "potential weapon tuning changes for a future update." In practice that means no confirmed balance patch has shipped yet, and no weapon has received documented damage or recoil changes since launch. If you are following a beta-era tier list, it is still roughly valid, which is exactly why the best weapons and loadouts breakdown has not needed a rewrite in week one.

Official source: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Launch Patch Notes - the Apex Attachment and weapon tuning statements sit in the October 23 and October 25 entries.

How do you update Modern Warfare 4?

There is no manual patch download. Steam, Battle.net, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2 all push the update through their own storefront, and the game refuses to matchmake on an outdated build. If your client is behind, the platform downloads first and the game catches up on the next launch.

• Steam: the client queues the update automatically; verify the install if the download stalls
• Battle.net: update button appears in the launcher, game will not start until it completes
• PS5 and Xbox: updates install in rest mode if the console is set to auto-update
• Switch 2: same storefront rule, and the build has grown with each patch

If a patch has just gone live and you cannot connect, the connection errors page walks through the version-mismatch case first, since it produces the same symptom as a real outage. Storage planning is covered on the preload and download size page, which also explains why the PC figure of 115 GB is the only official number on record.

What is coming in the next Modern Warfare 4 update?

Three things are on the official record, one is press-reported only.

Infected and Possession were named in the October 21 pre-launch notes as "dropping next week as a Halloween treat," which puts them in the week after launch. Both are mode additions rather than patches, and neither was live at the time of writing. Season 1 follows on November 6, with the Battle Pass and BlackCell, and the Season 1 and Battle Pass page covers what is confirmed there.

Shipment is the one item to treat carefully. Press reported on October 26 that the map returns on October 27, 2026 as a 6v6 Core map set in a Russian harbor, citing the announcement rather than the patch notes. It does not appear in Infinity Ward's patch notes log, so if you are planning around it, check the in-game playlist rather than assuming the date held.

Official source: Modern Warfare 4 Shipment return report - press coverage of the October 27 date, not an Infinity Ward patch note entry.

For the patch-by-patch reporting on the October 24 changes, PCGamesN's writeup mirrors the official notes closely and is a useful cross-check if a line disappears from the running log.

FAQ

When was the latest Modern Warfare 4 update?

October 25, 2026. It was the third post-launch patch in three days, following the October 23 launch patch and the October 24 patch. The pre-launch notes went up on October 21.

Did the update change weapon balance?

No. No patch so far has published damage, recoil or range changes. Infinity Ward said on October 23 that it was looking at weapon tuning for the following week, then on October 25 described the same work as changes for "a future update," so the balance pass is still unscheduled.

How big is the Modern Warfare 4 update?

Activision has not published a size for any of the four patches. Any exact download figure you see is a platform-specific community measurement, and the only official storage number attached to the game remains the 115 GB PC requirement on an SSD.

Are Apex Attachments back in Modern Warfare 4?

Not yet. The October 23 notes say they were pulled after the beta and "will return soon," without a date or a list. Weapon progression, including how Apex Attachments unlock at max weapon level, still works as described on the Apex Attachments guide.

Is the Search and Destroy bomb-stretching exploit still working?

Yes. The fix shipped and was rolled back in the October 25 patch because it stopped players picking up the bomb in certain positions. Infinity Ward says it will address it again in a future update.

Related Guides

• Modern Warfare 4 Season 1 and Battle Pass - the November 6 start date and what BlackCell includes
• Modern Warfare 4 connection errors - what to try when a patch leaves you unable to matchmake
• Modern Warfare 4 preload and download size - the only official storage figure and how it was measured
• Best weapons and loadouts - still accurate, because no balance patch has shipped