BO7 Season 4 Reloaded: All Weapon Buffs & Nerfs Guide

Treyarch's stated philosophy for late-season balancing is deliberate restraint: target outliers at the extremes, leave the healthy middle alone. In practice, this means the Black Ops 7 Season 4 Reloaded patch is narrower in scope than previous passes. Three dominant weapons got a tap on the brakes. Two forgotten ones got dug out of the trash. A special weapon with a lock-on mechanic exists, and the developers chose to buff it instead of reconsidering its existence.

The BO7 Season 4 Reloaded update went live on June 25, 2026. Beyond weapon balance, it delivers two new multiplayer maps (Zenith and Launch), the AN-94 AR, dual-axe melee, the Kowakujo Zombies map, and Nick Cage as an Operator because this is what the franchise has become and we all accepted it.

Full Weapon Balance Table

Assault Rifles: The Reshuffling

Voyak KT-3: Nerfed

The Voyak KT-3 nerf has been coming since Season 1. It sat at the top of AR usage for multiple seasons while offering best-in-class handling AND damage range simultaneously, which is the kind of generosity that eventually gets corrected. Max damage range is cut. Gun kick and view kick are both increased. You will now need recoil-controlling attachments where you were previously running extended mags and movement stocks. It will still be meta. The gap between it and everything else just shrank.

The KT-3 is not dead. It is merely less embarrassing to fight against. Adjust your build before complaining.

Maddox RFB: Buffed

The Maddox RFB buff reverses decisions made in Season 1 Reloaded and Season 2 that pushed the gun out of relevance. Medium damage range increases. View kick strength and deviation both decrease. The Echo Fire Barrel also receives medium damage range improvements. This was arguably a better AR than it was given credit for before the Voyak arrived; it now has a legitimate reason to exist in the current BO7 weapon tier list again.

AK-27: Mixed

New max damage profile rewards close-range headshots by default and when using the Damage Barrel. Range reduced slightly in exchange. The AK-27 was ranked number two among ARs and somehow saw minimal usage, which apparently confused everyone including the developers. This change does not fix that problem so much as it repositions the weapon around a more specific playstyle. Expect a range barrel in most meta builds going forward.

X9 Maverick: Buffed

A burst AR that was nerfed into irrelevance is now being nudged back. Range improved across the board; burst cooldown drops from 150ms to 142ms, which is more significant than it sounds for a weapon whose ceiling is one-burst kills. Burst weapons historically have a binary state in CoD: broken or ignored. This patch attempts a middle ground. History suggests it will not stick.

Kogot-7: Nerfed

The Kogot-7 nerf targets its long-range efficiency. Damage values and headshot multipliers are reduced so that kills at distance require more rounds. The gun remains the top SMG in pre-patch tier lists. The question is whether reduced range effectiveness pushes it into second place behind the REV-46 or leaves it exactly where it is. SMG mains who strictly play aggressive will not notice. Anyone who has been using it as a pocket assault rifle will.

REV-46: Buffed

Range improvements and a minimum damage range adjustment make headshots at extended distances more viable. The REV-46 was already a solid option. This is a reasonable upgrade that rewards accuracy. Nothing dramatic. Use it.

VST: Buffed

Gun kick and view kick reduced. The VST was unusable not because it was bad in concept but because the competition at its price point was the Kogot-7 and the REV-46. This buff is unlikely to change that math enough to matter, but it narrows the gap slightly. Run it if the recoil was your only complaint. If your complaint was everything else, move on.

Marksman & Snipers

Warden 308: Nerfed

The Warden 308 was a marksman rifle that one-shotted like a sniper and moved like an AR. That particular combination was always going to get adjusted. Upper torso one-shots are now more limited. Neck shots no longer guarantee a kill at mid range. A new mid-damage range step is introduced specifically to close the neck-shot loophole. Headshot multiplier increases from 1.4 to 1.45: rewarding players who hit the actual head instead of relying on the upper body hitbox. Fair.

XR-3 Ion attachments now improve ADS spread, prepping the platform for the incoming Vulcan minigun conversion. Nothing to build around yet: note it for later.

New Content: What Actually Arrived

New Weapons

• AN-94 AR: Returns from Black Ops 2. First two rounds fire faster. Slower handling and mobility as tradeoff. Unlock via Nick Cage Event Pass.
• Executioner's Duet: Dual axes. High damage, short range, very fast attack speed. Also Event Pass.

New Attachments (Weekly Challenges)

• XR-3 Ion Vulcan Minigun underbarrel
• DS20 Mirage Dual Fire Kit
• VLK 5.7 Carbine Chassis

Note: Both the Vulcan Minigun and Dual Fire Kit are banned from Warzone Ranked Play immediately. Treyarch wants time to evaluate them in standard playlists before letting them anywhere near competitive. Reasonable.

Maps

• Zenith: New 6v6 map; also available in 2v2
• Launch: Classic map return, 6v6

Modes

• Black Ops Classic: Permanent now. No wall jumping, no omnimovement. Old people rejoice.
• Team Blueprint Sharpshooter: 6v6, Blueprint weapons rotate every few seconds
• Knife Fight: Self-explanatory. Do not bring your LMG.

Zombies: Kowakujo

New round-based map set in a feudal Japanese castle near active volcanoes. Introduces the Oni enemy: heavily armored, wields a spiked kanabo, extremely unfriendly. New Wonder Weapon is in the mystery box. The Hellping Hound GobbleGum summons a Hellhound companion for five minutes. The PPSh-41 arrives as a Legacy Weapon with stats rivaling a Wonder Weapon.

Before this patch, BO7 multiplayer meta was dominated by the Voyak KT-3 in ARs and the Kogot-7 in SMGs. Both get touched. The vacuum created is real but limited: the Maddox RFB re-enters contention for AR players who want range and forgiveness, while the REV-46 becomes the cleaner SMG option for anyone playing mid-range aggression.

The LT1 Stentorian Brake change deserves a mention: removing its recoil penalty while increasing fire rate makes double rapid-fire configurations significantly more viable across multiple weapon platforms. Experiment with it before the community does it for you and calls it broken.

What Was Not Fixed

Warzone supply boxes now disable inside the gas: preventing the time-honored strategy of looting zones that should kill you. Gulag now has dynamic wait times, meaning solo players get a free redeploy faster as the match progresses instead of watching a timer and reconsidering their life choices.

Stim health regeneration inside the gas is reduced by 40%. The Point Turret scorestreak is significantly nerfed. The Grappling Hook sees reductions. Warzone is, as always, trying to stop people from exploiting the geometry of dying in creative ways.