Call of Duty: Warzone & MW3 October 1 Patch — Crossbow Rework and Every Change Explained

Treyarch and Raven Software pushed a new Call of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare 3 update on October 1, and while it isn't a full seasonal content drop, it reworks one of the game's most divisive weapons and quietly fixes three bugs players have been reporting since Season 06 launched. Here's exactly what changed, why it matters, and how it fits into the final stretch before Black Ops 7 hands off to the next Call of Duty.

1. The Headline Change: A Full Crossbow Rework

The October 1 patch's biggest swing is aimed at the Crossbow. Treyarch increased bolt velocity from 110m/s to 200m/s — nearly double — and cut bolt gravity influence by 70%. In practical terms, that means bolts now fly in a much flatter line and arrive far faster, instead of lobbing in a visible arc that gave target time to react or move.

The patch also removed aim-down-sight spread from three specific bolt types: the Brightblaze 20" Bolts, Blastcap 20" Bolts, and FTAC Caustic 20" Bolts. Previously, those attachments cost the weapon some precision while aiming; with spread removed, shots fired from ADS land exactly where the reticle is pointed.

The Crossbow is a special weapon that kills in one hit to any part of the body at any range, which is exactly why it has been balanced so cautiously in past seasons — a Season 5 nerf to its handling made it feel sluggish and largely fell out of competitive use. This update doesn't touch its one-shot lethality, only how reliably a bolt actually lands, which should make it a realistic pick again on close- and mid-range maps instead of a novelty weapon.

Why the Crossbow Needed This

The Crossbow has always been a one-shot weapon, which should make it one of the strongest picks in the game, but low bolt velocity and heavy drop meant that landing a shot past short range took serious lead and guesswork. Most players treated it as a novelty or a last-resort sidearm rather than a real loadout choice. By nearly doubling velocity and slashing gravity influence, Treyarch has turned it from a weapon that rewards memorizing drop charts into one that behaves much closer to a hitscan gun at the ranges most Warzone and Rebirth Island fights actually happen at.

2. Rebirth Island's Purgatory Gets a Progression Fix

On Rebirth Island, the Purgatory point of interest got a targeted change tied to the Terriball Challenge: downing an enemy now counts toward the challenge's progression, not just confirmed kills. Players had been grinding Purgatory specifically for this challenge and finding their downs weren't registering, so this is a straightforward fairness fix rather than a balance change.

3. Modern Warfare 3 Weapon Balancing

Warzone's weapon pool still draws from Modern Warfare 3's arsenal, and this update adjusted two guns from that side of the roster. The M13C had its maximum damage raised from 31 to 32 — a small 3% increase, but one that's enough to let it secure a 4-shot kill as long as at least one of those shots is a headshot landed within its maximum damage range. That's a meaningful quality-of-life buff for a rifle that had been sitting just outside 4-shot territory.

The DTIR 30-06 battle rifle, which has been one of Warzone's dominant long-range picks for several patches, had its lower-torso damage multiplier reduced. Treyarch didn't attach a specific new multiplier value to the change in the patch notes, but the direction is clear: center-mass hits below the chest are less forgiving than they were, trimming some of the rifle's consistency without touching its headshot potential.

4. Bug Fixes Bundled Into the Update

Three other issues were resolved in the same patch:

• Contract spawning: Fixed a bug preventing new contracts from appearing after the match reached the second circle, which had been cutting off a source of cash and loot in the back half of games.
• Decoy grenade XP exploit: Closed an exploit in Purgatory that let players farm more experience than intended by repeatedly triggering decoy grenades.
• Execution prompt: Fixed an issue where the finishing-move prompt failed to appear when standing directly behind an unaware enemy, which had been blocking players from pulling off executions altogether.

5. Where This Fits in the Season 6 Timeline

This patch lands roughly two weeks into Season 06: The Haunting, the Halloween-themed season that brought a full DOOM crossover, the Haunted Hollow Resurgence variant, and a 64-player Giant Infected mode to Warzone when it launched on September 17. If you haven't been following the season's bigger content drop, our full breakdown of The Haunting covers the new maps, modes, and the Doom Slayer event pass in detail, and the September 24 patch notes cover the balance pass that came immediately before this one.

Season 06 is also notable for being Treyarch's final season of this Black Ops cycle. Activision has confirmed Modern Warfare 4 — the next entry in the franchise, built by Infinity Ward — launches October 23, closing out Black Ops 7's run. Expect balance patches like this one to keep arriving on their usual cadence right up until that transition; if you want the full picture on what's changing with the new title, our Modern Warfare 4 release guide covers confirmed platforms, editions, and what's been said about Warzone's future so far.

The Haunting itself is built around a Halloween event layered on top of regular Season 06 content: two new multiplayer maps (Quantum and Bloodstead), the Tenshu Survival map in Zombies, a reworked Rogue Run mode with new Pack-a-Punch rewards, and a DOOM-themed event pass that unlocks the Doom Slayer as a playable operator. The weapon and bug fixes in this October 1 update sit on top of all of that content rather than replacing it — nothing about The Haunting's maps, modes, or event pass changed with this patch.

Quick-Tips Recap

• The Crossbow is significantly easier to land hits with now — bolt velocity nearly doubled and gravity drop cut by 70%, making it worth another look if you wrote it off after the Season 5 nerf.
• Brightblaze, Blastcap, and FTAC Caustic 20" Bolts no longer lose accuracy while aiming down sights.
• Grinding the Terriball Challenge in Purgatory on Rebirth Island? Downs now count, not just kills.
• The M13C can now 4-shot with a single headshot in range; the DTIR 30-06 is slightly less forgiving on lower-torso hits.
• Contract spawns after the second circle, the Purgatory decoy grenade XP exploit, and a broken execution prompt have all been fixed.

Official Resources

• Call of Duty official site
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 on Steam

For more on what else is happening this week in Call of Duty's current season, check out our guide to Season 06's new multiplayer maps and modes, or browse the full walkthroughs and guides archive for everything else we've covered.