MW4 Beta Patch Notes (August 28): TTK, Tac Sprint Perk, Aim Assist & Every Weapon Tuned

Infinity Ward has published the August 28 Modern Warfare 4 Beta patch notes — Open Beta day one, live from 10:00 AM PT. Weekend Two is a full gameplay rewrite, not a content drop with a few nerfs on the side. The studio’s focus is five systems: TTK, spawns, movement, killstreaks, and aim assist. Every Beta weapon is retuned. Tactical Sprint is no longer on by default.

Thursday’s notes were the Zodiac Resurgence preview. This is the Multiplayer patch that post promised. Weekend One’s last TTK pass is still August 24.

Infinity Ward says more work is coming. Like Weekend One, they plan to update every full day of Open Beta.

Time-to-kill

Infinity Ward still wants a slightly longer TTK. They did not raise base health. They tuned weapons so players survive more bullets without the guns going limp at range. The claim is that every single weapon in the Beta received an update for Weekend Two.

The tools are familiar from last weekend: lower close-range damage, deleted mid-range bands, flattened locational multipliers, and a few range extensions so the floor is not a pea-shooter. Headshots still matter. Centre-mass spray wins fewer fights.

Snipers take +28% received flinch. Marksman rifles take +17%. That is a class-wide change, not a per-gun footnote.

Spawns

In the last hours of Weekend One, Infinity Ward already pushed spawn logic to separate players and deprioritize spawning on squadmates. Weekend Two keeps those changes and adds a Hardpoint-specific pass.

The studio wants Hardpoint spawns to feel consistent and predictable. Today’s version is a prototype. Small maps can still spit you out in a bad spot. Large maps can dump you too far from the hill. They want feedback with a match ID.

• Spawn logic updated to better separate players (end of Weekend One)
• Spawning near teammates deprioritized (end of Weekend One)
• Hardpoint spawn system partially improved for predictability
• Battle Hardened is now applied during temporary spawn protection — flashes and concussions hit less right after you spawn
• Hardpoint is temporarily disabled on Rooftops because of a spawn bug

Movement: Tac Sprint is a perk

Tactical Sprint is off by default. Infinity Ward says that slows the pace and makes the game feel more classic. If you want the old burst, you take Blood Rush. Tac Sprint on that perk also loses its sprint-to-fire penalty — it now matches base sprint — and the sprint itself is 4% slower.

This is flagged as a Beta experiment. If it ships, they still have to decide where Blood Rush sits in the perk table and what else moves with it.

• Tac Sprint — moved to Blood Rush; sprint-to-fire matches base sprint; speed −4%
• Sprint — knife and all pistols get faster base sprint
• Slide — longer slide-to-jump delay; distance −10%; speed −9%
• Stamina −8%
• Mantle — players could mantle much higher than intended; fixed
• Climbing — ladder and pipe stutter fixed

Warzone movement is close to Multiplayer, not 1-to-1. Zodiac still uses the Warzone-specific mobility and TTK from yesterday’s notes.

Aim assist

Aim assist is reduced for Weekend Two. Infinity Ward is explicit: this is not the final launch tune. The change is global and applies to Warzone as well as Multiplayer. There are no numbers in the notes.

Killstreaks

Weekend One felt streak-heavy, and duplicated announcer callouts made it worse. The announcer bug is fixed. Every Killstreak now costs +1 kill.

Two streaks also lose raw power:

• UAV — health −60%; height −12% (easier to shoot down)
• Artillery Beacon — 6 missiles → 5; inner damage radius 15.24m → 10.16m; outer 25.4m → 17.78m; knockdown shockwave radius 10.16m

What’s new this weekend

Lithium is the new 6v6 map — a damaged lithium processing plant in rural Mexico. Hijack is the new mode: carry or throw a data spike, plant it on a comms tower, defend or defuse. Ground War: Combat Outpost (two new Ground War maps) lands Saturday. Zodiac Resurgence Quads is live now — first Warzone mode in a Call of Duty Beta.

Level cap is 30.

Mode scoring

• Team Deathmatch — score limit 75 → 100
• Kill Confirmed — score limit 65 → 75
• 10v10 Gunfight — team chat no longer falls off over distance

Weapons

Read this as a durability pass. Most ARs and SMGs lose close-range damage and lose a mid-range band. A few guns get range back so the floor is not a joke. Locational bonuses that padded chest shots are mostly gone.

Assault rifles

Kastov 762

Third straight weekend of cuts. Close-range max is now 30 instead of 34, and the medium band drops to 24. The Kastov 545 Apex conversion is hit harder on range — max damage now ends at 11m instead of 17.7m.

• Head multiplier 1.35 → 1.33
• Kastov 545 Apex: max 31 → 30 ending at 11m (was 17.7m); mid starts at 11.1m and ends at 20.5m (was 34m)

Han 86

Max damage 26 → 22. The mid band is gone, so after 28.4m you are on 18 damage. Neck and upper-torso 1.1x bonuses are deleted.

M4

The default AR is now a two-band gun. Close-range max is 24 instead of 28. Both mid bands are gone. Minimum damage actually goes up from 16 to 19 — but that floor now starts at 26.3m instead of 51.6m. Most of the map is the floor.

M4 Hurricane Apex: max 34 → 30 (to 10.5m), mid-1 30 → 22, mid-2 removed, min 22 → 18 after 20m.

Hyeon Burst

Damage down at every range (36/31/28 → 30/24/22). Head 1.4 → 1.3. Neck, upper torso, and upper arms lose their 1.1x. Legs and feet go from 0.9 to 1.0 — limb shots are no longer a penalty, but the gun still shoots softer overall.

Hyeon Hyperburst Apex: damage numbers unchanged; all range bands pull in (max ends 29.4m → 24.6m).

Patriot XMR

Max 35 → 30, but the max band now reaches 29.9m (was 22.2m). Mid 31 → 24 out to 50m. Headshot multiplier is one of the few buffs today: 1.22 → 1.30.

Marksman rifles

Class-wide: +17% received flinch.

Oris 8.6

Damage numbers hold. The old 62-damage mid-3 band is gone, so minimum 58 now starts after 45.9m instead of 67m.

MAR-9

Max range 20.8m → 19m. Mid-1 48 → 42 and ends at 28.7m. Mid-2 is removed. Head 2.05 → 2.00. Upper torso actually goes up, 1.0 → 1.1.

MAR-9 Auto Apex: max 37 → 30, mid 28 → 24, min 22 → 21; head 1.55 → 1.30.

LMGs

FiNN LMG

The base gun is the rare range buff: max band out to 23.6m, min damage 24 → 26. Neck, upper torso, and upper arms lose 1.1x. The FiN Adverse Apex is the opposite — max 29 → 20 ending at 16m, with mid and min cut as well.

Type 73

Max 30 → 28, mid 27 → 22, min 22 → 19. Head 1.30 → 1.25; neck and upper torso 1.1 → 1.0. Tango 73 Assault Apex: max 33 → 30, mid 30 → 24, min 24 → 22 (ranges unchanged).

SMGs

Same pattern on all three: lower close damage, delete the farthest mid band, keep or slightly raise the floor so they are not completely empty past 25m.

Pistols, shotgun, snipers

• .50 GS — max range 22.1m → 27.9m; mid damage 58 → 49 and a shorter mid band. Nearly every locational multiplier is flattened (head 1.62 → 1.50; most limbs to 1.0).
• Krait P68 — one of the few close-range buffs: max 42 → 46 (but only to 10.2m), mid-1 37 → 39. Head 1.4 → 1.3; neck and upper torso 1.15 → 1.0. Pistol sprint speed is up across the class.
• Rezi 12 — pellet ranges pull in a few tenths of a metre. Slug and Apex slug: max 100 → 99, min 55 → 48, far bands shortened. Head and neck slug multipliers go to 1.6; legs are no longer 0.7x.
• KG-7 Vulcan — max range out to 67.5m; lower torso 1.02 → 1.00. SIGNAL 50 — far drop-off 67.3m → 66m; upper torso 1.75 → 1.30. Both snipers flinch harder (+28%).

Attachments

• Barrel, magazine, muzzle, stock, underbarrel — handling and mobility penalties reduced across the board
• Overpressured Rounds — flinch inflicted +2%
• Aim Grip — ADS move-speed penalty removed
• Underbarrel shotguns — mid ranges pulled in; a 14-damage min band is added from 10.4–24.1m (mid-3 damage 18 → 20)

Audio, UI, and PC

• New kill and headshot sounds
• Enemy UAV, death’s door, and Gunfight intro mixes adjusted
• Search and Destroy bomb-plant audio range reduced; pickup and drop sounds no longer broadcast to both teams
• Underhand Throw default keybind on keyboard and mouse is now melee (was ADS); description updated
• PC: better frame-rate stability, less memory use on high-VRAM GPUs, fewer intermittent hitches across vendors

Bug fixes

Player-facing fixes in this drop include Campaign camera and pipe-grab issues in the escape sequence, combat difficulty outside the Nuclear Reactor Facility, blood-screen effects sticking across state changes, Search and Destroy XP per elim, Gunsmith and Create-a-Class UI, Han 86 optic / airburst / grip pose bugs, Kastov sticker display, Hyeon Burst optics in supine prone, Sang 9mm inspect and akimbo reload, C4 detonation hands, Spotter Scope head icons, a mounting crash, Single Player FOV indication, Vault Edition camos on melee, Play of the Game floating stocksaw and knife attachments, After Action Report XP overlap and progression SFX sync, Operator menu closes and skin-select locks, killstreak HUD disappearing, marksman rifles labelled as snipers in Killcam, Calling Card updates on Quick Nav, and the keyboard overlay also opening Quick Nav.

Known issues

• Hijack — the data spike can become unrecoverable
• Hardpoint disabled on Rooftops
• Attachment-skip UI in the front end is still unclear
• Teammate dots sometimes persist on the mini-map — under investigation

Infinity Ward is tracking live issues throughout Open Beta.

RICOCHET / PC attestation

Online PC play still requires TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot. Some machines fail Microsoft Azure Attestation after the wizard because of firmware, hardware, or OS issues. Infinity Ward is working with Microsoft and motherboard vendors. Failing the Beta check does not mean you cannot play at launch. Specs and setup: MW4 Beta PC specs.

What’s next

Open Beta runs through September 1. Combat Outpost joins Saturday. Infinity Ward says they will keep patching every full day of the test. Send feedback with media or a match ID.

Full schedule, platforms, and rewards: MW4 Beta hub. Thursday’s Warzone notes: August 27 Zodiac preview. Weekend Two map split: what to play first.

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Source: Call of Duty — Modern Warfare 4 Beta Patch Notes (August 28, 2026). Reporting by Chandler Bellgrave. This page covers Friday’s Open Beta Multiplayer update — not Thursday’s Warzone / Zodiac preview, and not the August 21–25 Early Access notes.

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Source: official Call of Duty / Activision information, cross-checked against the MW4 archive. This page is an independent reference.