Major changes introduced to Blackout with v1.04 update

Treyarch has continuously released updates for Black Ops 4 since the game’s release on October 12 and today’s v1.04 update is no different. 

While all eyes were on the Multiplayer side of things for the massive update released on October 30, Blackout still received some small but meaningful updates. 

As promised during the October 24 update, audio improvements were made to the mode while some surprising nerfs to armor also popped up in the update. 

Even after Level 3 Armor was nerfed between the beta and official release of Black Ops 4, the item still pretty much made the player a walking tank in Blackout.

While Level 3 Armor will continue to provide a 50% damage reduction to the user, shots taken will now hit a lot harder than before.

Armor now allows more damage to pass through to areas of the body that have damage multipliers, such as the head or upper chest. For example, headshots now do more damage against Level 3 Armor.

In addition to the armor changes, Blackout has received some long-awaited audio improvements that fans have been clamoring for almost since launch:

Not only will the steps of teammates now be quieter, but footsteps for all types of armor will now give better “directionality and distance information.”

Both changes might seem small, but when dealing with a battle royale where different audio cues can be the difference between life and death, these are massive improvements.

Keeping in line with improving Quads and Duos gameplay, the v1.04 update has introduced a new feature called “Item Found” that allows players to tag items for their teammate’s to see:

• To tag an item for your teammate, approach the Item and select the bottom center command on your Command Wheel. This will display the Item in text on your team’s HUD and highlight the item in the world for your team.
• Increased the brightness of Items when a teammate tags them as “Item Found” via the Command Wheel.
• Increased duration that Items tagged using “Item Found” are displayed in the world to your team.

All in all, these changes might not be as game-changing as the weapon balance pass, but for hardcore fans of Blackout, these will no doubt be much-welcomed changes.

You can read the full list of Blackout updates and improvements below. The entire v1.04 update can be also be found here.

Blackout

• Playlists
  • 100-Player Solos added to Featured playlist.
  • Maximum player count set to 88 for Duos and Quads.
• Audio
  • Tweaked settings to ensure friendly teammates’ footsteps are now quieter than enemy footsteps.
  • Adjusted footsteps for all Armor types in first-person and third-person to give better directionality and distance information.
  • Resolved an issue that occasionally caused footsteps to be silent.
  • Resolved issues that caused footsteps to become muffled when they shouldn’t be.
• Armor
  • Armor now allows more damage to pass through to areas of the body that have damage multipliers, such as the head or upper chest. For example, headshots now do more damage against Level 3 Armor.
• Character Missions
  • Unlocked remaining Specialist Character Missions (Battery, Firebreak, Nomad, Prophet, Ruin, Seraph)
• “Item Found” Notifications
  • To tag an item for your teammate, approach the Item and select the bottom center command on your Command Wheel. This will display the Item in text on your team’s HUD and highlight the item in the world for your team.
  • Increased the brightness of Items when a teammate tags them as “Item Found” via the Command Wheel.
  • Increased duration that Items tagged using “Item Found” are displayed in the world to your team.
• Calling Cards and Challenges
  • Resolved an issue where completing Dark Ops Challenges would not unlock their associated Calling Card.
  • Resolved an issue where certain Challenges rewarded the same Calling Card.
• UI
  • Resolved an issue where the Altimeter could disappear during Infiltration.
  • Resolved an issue where incorrect Inventory items could be shown while spectating another player.
• Miscellaneous
  • Resolved an issue that allowed players to shoot through certain rocks.
  • Improved visual quality of the grass.
  • Resolved an issue where the After Action Report would show double damage when in Squads.
  • Resolved an issue where Echelon Ranking wasn’t showing properly at Max Rank.