Modern Warfare 4 Beta Patch Notes: TTK, Footsteps, New Maps and What Changed

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has only been in Early Access beta for a few days, and Infinity Ward is already changing the parts players are fighting about most.

The studio has reduced enemy footstep audio, cut the lethality of several weapons, started another pass on spawn logic, brightened visibility on Transit 213 and expanded the map pool with Cachette and Lotus. Infinity Ward’s official beta patch notes also make clear that TTK tuning is still ongoing rather than finished.

Weekend One runs through August 25 at 10:00 AM PT for eligible Early Access players on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. The free Open Beta begins August 28 at 10:00 AM PT and ends September 1 at 10:00 AM PT, adding Nintendo Switch 2. The full game launches October 23, with Campaign Early Access starting October 16 for eligible digital pre-orders.

Infinity Ward Has Already Hit TTK and Footsteps

The first major complaint was simple: some fights were ending too quickly.

Infinity Ward agreed that TTK “isn’t quite right yet” and started lowering weapon lethality. The August 23 patch went further with a much more detailed balance pass.

Among the confirmed changes:

• M4: head damage multiplier reduced from 1.5 to 1.2
• Kastov 762: head multiplier reduced from 1.35 to 1.3, with neck and upper-torso multipliers also lowered
• ISO Nightshade: damage and effective ranges reduced across several bands, with the headshot multiplier lowered from 1.4 to 1.3
• Oris 8.6: maximum-damage range reduced from 23.6m to 20.8m, with its head multiplier cut from 1.7x to 1.6x

That is not the entire balance sheet, but it shows the direction Infinity Ward is taking: fewer instant-feeling kills and less reward for a handful of weapons that were overperforming during the opening weekend.

Footstep audio was hit directly too. Infinity Ward reduced both the distance at which enemy footsteps and gear can be heard and their overall volume. The studio says the goal is to warn players that someone is approaching without letting audio reveal an exact position from too far away.

Transit 213 also received a visibility pass, with shadowed areas brightened and the overall color balance adjusted.

Spawns Are Still a Work in Progress

Infinity Ward is not pretending the spawn problem is solved.

In its August 23 update, the studio said the beta is giving it the volume of matches needed to identify bad patterns and that it needs to improve spawn placement and logic across all maps and modes.

That distinction matters. These are active beta changes, not launch-final fixes. Spawn behavior, weapon balance and audio can all change again during Weekend Two and before October 23.

Cachette and Lotus Expand the Beta

Cachette arrived on August 22 and gave the Core 6v6 pool enough maps for map voting to be enabled. The map is built around a covert armory beside a French rail terminal, using an abandoned wine warehouse, mechanic’s garage, containers and compact interiors to create short flanking routes.

Lotus followed on August 23.

Official Modern Warfare 4 beta image for Lotus. Credit: Activision / Infinity Ward.

The Korean fishing-village map mixes narrow streets and accessible interiors with longer sightlines through the damaged settlement. Sunday also added Gunfight 3v3 on Kill Block and a Transit 24/7 playlist.

Entrenched Is a Real Campaign Mission, Not a Trailer

The beta is also doing something Call of Duty has not done before: letting players play a complete Campaign mission before launch.

According to Activision’s official Weekend One overview, Entrenched puts players into a large-scale assault around a strategically important nuclear power station, fighting alongside friendly infantry and armored vehicles.

Official Modern Warfare 4 campaign artwork used for the beta’s Entrenched mission. Credit: Activision / Infinity Ward.

Activision describes it as the first Campaign mission ever included in a Call of Duty beta. It is a useful distinction from the usual pre-release campaign footage: this is playable content inside the beta itself.

Movement Is Grounded, but Much More Flexible

Infinity Ward is framing Modern Warfare 4 around boots-on-the-ground movement rather than a return to slower old-school traversal.

The beta’s Mobility Course teaches the new systems directly. Confirmed mechanics include Mantle Slide, Mantle Momentum, Mantle Steering, Supine Slide, pipe climbing, fast pipe sliding, Hang Shimmy, Hang Lean and directional Climbing Jumps.

The point is momentum and traversal freedom without turning every fight into unrestricted aerial movement. The Mobility Course lets players practice those mechanics through tutorials and timed runs before taking them into Multiplayer.

Kill Block pushes that same idea into map design. In its Gunfight variants, the battlefield is built from three modular sections called Slabs. Every two rounds, those sections form a new Combo and the shared loadout changes with them. Some Slabs draw from recognizable Modern Warfare locations, but the surrounding layout changes how those familiar spaces play.

What Changes in the August 28 Open Beta

Weekend Two is the bigger public test.

The official beta guide confirms:

• the level cap rises from 20 to 30
• Nintendo Switch 2 joins the test
• Ground War: Combat Outpost becomes available
• Call of Duty: Warzone Resurgence testing begins on the new Zodiac map
• additional maps, weapons, equipment and progression rewards unlock

No pre-order is required for Weekend Two.

Switch 2 Is a Native Version — but Final Performance Is Still an Open Question

The Nintendo release is more than a streamed version of the console game.

Activision says Infinity Ward and Digital Legends are developing Modern Warfare 4 natively for Nintendo Switch 2, marking Call of Duty’s return to Nintendo hardware for the first time in more than 13 years.

The Switch 2 version first becomes publicly playable when the Open Beta starts on August 28. Early preview coverage has been encouraging about frame rate, but it should not be oversold: Nintendo Life’s roundup describes preview builds as targeting roughly 60fps rather than holding a perfectly locked 60 at all times, with visible compromises to image quality.

Activision has not published final resolution or performance targets yet, so beta footage is still beta footage.

For handheld players comparing that native Switch 2 release with PC handhelds, our SteamOS handheld breakdown explains why modern Call of Duty remains a problem on Linux-based SteamOS systems.

What Is Not in the Beta

One major launch mode is still being held back.

DMZ is confirmed as part of Modern Warfare 4, and Activision’s launch materials describe the new Hajin exclusion zone and DMZ progression systems. But DMZ is not listed among the playable content for either beta weekend.

The full game is also skipping PS4 and Xbox One entirely. Activision’s original announcement confirms the launch platforms as PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2.

For now, the beta is doing exactly what a beta is supposed to do: exposing the weak spots while Infinity Ward still has time to change them. TTK, footsteps and spawns are already moving targets, and Weekend Two should make the next round of problems much easier to see.