Call of Duty: Warzone Season 1 — The Smoke Grenade Nerf and Global Hitscan Rework Explained

Call of Duty: Warzone's Season 1 patch notes page quietly logged two of the most consequential gunplay changes of the season this week. On November 12, Raven Software switched off aim assist when players shoot through smoke from Smoke Grenades and the Smoke Wall field upgrade. A day earlier, Infinity Ward rolled out a global hitscan and bullet-travel rework that Raven's notes say pushes true hitscan range to roughly 35 meters, a 288% increase from Modern Warfare 4's launch values. Here's exactly what both changes do, why the developers made them, and what else shipped alongside them.

1. Two Big Changes, One Rolling Patch Notes Page

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and Warzone Season 1 launched on November 5-6, 2026, bringing the Hajin and Zodiac maps, the new Rally Point mode, and a full Battle Pass reset into Warzone. Since then, Raven Software has kept a single rolling patch notes page updated almost daily rather than shipping one large mid-season update. The two changes covered here come from the dated entries for Thursday, November 12 and Wednesday, November 11, both logged on the official Call of Duty: Warzone Season 1 patch notes page.

If you've mostly been tracking Season 1's Rally Point and Resurgence mode changes, these two updates are easy to miss because neither one got its own announcement post — they're buried in the day-by-day notes. But both affect essentially every gunfight in the game, which makes them worth understanding in detail.

2. The Smoke Grenade and Smoke Wall Aim-Assist Change

What the patch notes actually say

The November 12 entry is short but specific. Under "Gameplay," Raven Software wrote that aim assist is now disabled when shooting through smoke from Smoke Grenades and the Smoke Wall field upgrade, "even if gunfire or explosions open gaps in the smoke." That last clause matters: previously, once a bullet, grenade, or killstreak tore a visible hole in a smoke cloud, players shooting through that gap would still get the benefit of controller aim assist. Now, being inside a Smoke Grenade's radius turns aim assist off entirely for anyone firing through it, gap or no gap.

Why it's a meaningful change

Smoke has always been one of Warzone's most reliable tools for disengaging from a losing fight or reviving a downed teammate under fire. The problem Raven Software appears to be addressing is that some players were abusing partially-cleared smoke to effectively "see" and track targets with full aim-assist support, turning a defensive tool into an offensive one. With this change, popping smoke to push or clear an angle through it no longer gives controller players the tracking benefits they'd get in the open. Smoke Wall, the Field Upgrade version introduced this season that extinguishes Molotovs and Fire Barrels, is covered by the same rule.

Practically, this means you should treat smoke purely as a vision and movement tool again: use it to break line of sight, reposition, or revive, but don't expect to hold an angle and track a moving target through it on a controller the way you could before November 12. Mouse-and-keyboard players, who never had aim assist to begin with, see no change here.

3. Infinity Ward's Global Hitscan and Ballistics Rework

The problem the rework fixes

The bigger structural change actually shipped a day earlier, on November 11, and was first detailed in what Raven Software's notes call "Infinity Ward's Weekly Update." According to the patch notes, Infinity Ward had previously increased the refresh rate of Modern Warfare 4's ballistic simulation — the system governing bullet drop and velocity over distance — specifically to improve accuracy when leading long-range targets. That change worked as intended at range, but the notes say it had a side effect: it reduced weapons' initial hitscan range, meaning bullets stopped being instantly registered as hits at close range sooner than players expected, and instead briefly behaved like simulated, travel-time projectiles.

The fix, in the developers' own numbers

The November 11 update is Infinity Ward's correction for that side effect. Per the official notes, the fix "increases the true hitscan distance 288% from launch," pushing the point where bullets register instantly outward to roughly 35 meters on average — while keeping the same high-resolution ballistic simulation for anything beyond that range. A separate line in the same section describes this as a "3.91x hitscan increase at all ranges." Raven Software's notes don't explain how those two figures relate to each other, but both describe the same underlying fix. On top of the hitscan change, Infinity Ward also introduced a new long-range bullet simulation technique that shaves 34 milliseconds off the time it takes a ballistic bullet to connect at distance — intended to make mid- and long-range assault rifle fights feel more consistent. The notes are explicit that this change is global: it applies to every ballistic weapon in both Modern Warfare 4 multiplayer and Warzone.

What this means when you're actually in a gunfight

In plain terms: close-range duels should feel noticeably snappier again. If you felt like your bullets weren't registering immediately in point-blank fights after Modern Warfare 4 launched, that's the side effect Infinity Ward is describing — and the November 11 patch is meant to undo most of it while keeping the improved long-range bullet drop and velocity accuracy from the earlier change. SMG and shotgun users operating well inside that roughly-35-meter window should notice the biggest difference, since that's exactly the range band where hitscan now kicks in earlier.

4. Rally Point and Other Changes From the Same Week

The November 11 entry also made a pair of smaller adjustments to Rally Point, the free-form 20-player mode introduced this season on the Zodiac map. Raven Software increased the spawn chance of the mode's Special Delivery Drone event while slightly reducing how long the drone stays on the map once it appears — a small push toward more frequent but shorter loot windows. If you want the full rundown of how Rally Point and Resurgence work this season, our guide to Season 1's Massive Resurgence and Rally Point systems covers the mode in depth. The same November 11 notes mention unspecified further "Player and Weapon XP adjustments across multiple modes," without listing individual weapon changes.

5. The Bug Fixes Tucked Into the Same Updates

Alongside the headline changes, the November 12 entry lists seven bug fixes worth knowing about if you've run into them:

• Players who Prestiged using the Classic Prestige track were not receiving a prestige token — now fixed.
• The Resurgence category button in the mode-select menu wasn't showing squad size (1-4) and player count (45) — now fixed.
• Zodiac POI challenge progress wasn't carrying over between matches, which blocked the completion reward from unlocking — now fixed.
• The Schlager Indigo-RF optic was missing its sniper glint effect — now fixed.
• Weapon attachment pips could appear white instead of the correct orange — now fixed.
• The Battle Pass UI still showed "In Progress" after a player reached the maximum tier — now fixed.
• Raven Software says it's still investigating a separate issue where armor pips in the squad HUD look dim unless a teammate's armor is completely full.

The November 11 entry's bug fixes are more multiplayer-focused, including a fix for players being unable to equip pre-order weapon camos in Warzone, a fix for a noticeable delay before newly picked-up Equipment and Killstreaks could be used, and a fix for Weapon Prestige incorrectly relocking ammunition attachments on Blueprints players already owned.

6. How to Adjust Your Playstyle for Season 1's Current State

None of this requires a loadout overhaul, but a few habits are worth updating:

• Stop relying on smoke to hold an angle. Use Smoke Grenades and Smoke Wall to disengage, revive, or reposition — not to push and track targets with controller aim assist through a thinning cloud.
• Re-test your close-range weapons. If an SMG or shotgun felt inconsistent at point-blank range right after Modern Warfare 4 launched, the November 11 hitscan fix is meant to address exactly that; it's worth giving those weapons another look in the Gunfight or Firing Range modes.
• Expect faster-feeling AR duels at range. The 34-millisecond reduction in bullet travel time applies to long-range ballistic simulation, so assault rifle fights beyond the new hitscan window should feel slightly more responsive too.
• Watch Rally Point's Special Delivery Drone more closely. It now shows up more often but won't stick around as long, so rotate toward its marker faster than you might be used to.

Raven Software's notes make clear that both the hitscan rework and the smoke change are live now, not planned for a future update, so they're already affecting the matches you're playing. For background on the broader season these changes landed in, see our breakdown of Modern Warfare 4's release, editions and Warzone integration plans, and for Raven's other recent Operator-facing feature, check out how the new Operator skin toggle works in Modern Warfare 4. Players who want the pre-Modern Warfare 4 picture can also revisit our coverage of the October 7 Warzone update for comparison.

Official Resources

• Call of Duty: Warzone Season 1 Patch Notes (callofduty.com)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Season 1 Multiplayer Patch Notes (callofduty.com)
• Full Call of Duty Patch Notes Index (callofduty.com)
• Raven Software's Official YouTube Channel

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