Infinity Ward’s October 25 patch notes for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 bring a threefold kill XP increase in Search and Destroy and Collateral, a rollback of an earlier bomb fix, and a long list of DMZ corrections. The update lands two days after the October 23 launch and appears as the newest section on the official rolling patch page, following the October 23 launch notes and an October 24 fix round.
Infinity Ward frames the update as a direct response to player reports. “We’ve been keeping a close eye on the issues you’ve been reporting and working through them as quickly as we can,” the studio writes in the patch notes, adding that “there’s more work ahead, and we’re not slowing down.”
The multiplayer economy shift is the most visible change. Before the patch, a kill in Search and Destroy or Collateral awarded 100 XP. The same kill now awards 300 XP, triple the previous figure. In practice, a player who lands 10 kills in one of those modes now earns 3,000 XP from kills alone, up from 1,000. Search and Destroy tends to produce lower kill counts than respawn modes, so this raised per-kill value gives objective players a stronger progression floor. Infinity Ward says it is looking at XP earn rates in Multiplayer and is starting changes with this update, and more XP changes may follow in other modes. For now, Search and Destroy and Collateral are the only two modes called out with the new kill value. Search and Destroy gives every player one life per round, so a match’s total kill pool is capped by the round count. Tripling the per-kill figure still moves rank and weapon progression faster in that mode, but the kill ceiling keeps the total payout smaller than it would be in a high-respawn mode.
Infinity Ward had previously shipped a fix for “bomb stretching” in Search and Destroy. That fix also blocked players from picking up the bomb in certain positions. The October 25 patch rolls back the earlier fix, removing the pickup blocker. The tradeoff is that the original bomb stretching problem is no longer suppressed, and the patch notes call it a rollback of a previous fix. The team says it will address bomb stretching again in a future update. Search and Destroy has no respawns, so a bomb that cannot be picked up stalls the round outright.
Multiplayer fixes beyond the XP change
Three other Multiplayer bugs are fixed in this update. The bomb no longer disappears on Collateral after players interact with it. The game no longer briefly freezes when editing a Loadout for the first time during a match. The announcer’s game mode introduction now plays at the start of Frontline and Hijack matches.
On the platform side, the patch fixes an Xbox and PC issue where players using the full Korean language setting could not launch Black Ops 7 from Modern Warfare 4.
Infinity Ward also says it has addressed players being AFK kicked while spectating in some Multiplayer modes, a quality of life fix included in the recently updated live issue list.
Gunsmith, Prestige, and weapon type corrections
The UI and loadout cleanup covers several systems. In Gunsmith, weapon stats now display for locked Attachments. The Prestige reset process has been updated so Loadouts are properly cleared when Prestiging, which stops leftover class items from carrying through a reset. A visual issue in the Optic Rail Placement menu is fixed, and the Resource Management Trait description no longer scrolls too fast to read.
Weapon classification errors were corrected for the Patriot XMR, Oden, and Cronen Squall, which had been showing as Battle Rifles in various places. The patch notes list only the classification fix for those weapons, with no stat adjustments. These changes affect the same loadout and Gunsmith systems detailed in the Modern Warfare 4 operators, weapons, and loadout reveal.
On the DMZ Boss Board, Lieutenant Intel unlock requirements are fixed, and the eliminated indicator no longer disappears when hovering over previously eliminated Lieutenants.
DMZ fixes and what remains unconfirmed
Several DMZ fixes change how operators interact with objectives and enemies. Players can no longer bypass the Hospital Elevator objective during the Critical Extraction Story Mission. Drill Charge damage against enemy Colossus has been decreased, which makes the Colossus more resistant to that specific equipment. Infinity Ward did not specify how much Drill Charge damage decreased, only that it is lower against the Colossus. A Sedan missing from its marked Tac-Map location is fixed, enemy AI no longer clips through the Crashed Drone, and the Last Stand icon no longer appears oversized on the Minimap.
Two fixes affect DMZ economy and deployment. Purchasing saved Builds from modified Blueprints previously charged the full cost of the original Blueprint, and that incorrect charge is now removed. Players can no longer deploy while items remain in their Overflow Stash, so Operators must reconcile the stash before the next deployment. Several issues in the Breaking New Ground onboarding mission are fixed as well. These changes land in the DMZ space covered in the Modern Warfare 4 DMZ deep dive on Hajin Threats and FOB Stations.
Infinity Ward hasn’t said which weapons it will tune or when. The team is looking at potential weapon tuning changes for a future update, but no date, weapon list, or tuning values were published. Live issues continue to be tracked on the official Trello board and CODUpdates, and various DMZ exploits are listed as closed.
