Today, Activision and Treyarch announced that fans will be able to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s popular Battle Royale mode for free in the Blackout Free Trial, which begins Thursday for one week on PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Trailer:

• Debut of Gauntlets and new Elixirs in Zombies on PS4
• A new week of Featured Playlists and the addition of Elevation and Madagascarto map rotation for Black Ops Pass owners in Multiplayer
• New-and-improved console looting interface in Blackout
• plus much more

Kicking off at 10AM PT today on consoles and coming to PC later this week. All three modes get even bigger in this update with the debut of Gauntlets and new Elixirs in Zombies on PS4, a new week of Featured Playlists and the addition of Elevation and Madagascar to map rotation for Black Ops Pass owners in MP, our new-and-improved console looting interface in Blackout, and much more.

We’re also celebrating 115 Day with our Zombies community with Zombies 2XP, Zombies 2X Weapon XP, and 2X Nebulium Plasma today through 10AM PT Jan. 18 on all platforms! Zombies gets plenty of love this week with our new “Unsinkable” Gauntlet and new Elixirs (Perk Up, Refresh Mint, and Conflagration Liquidation), Elixir balance updates, adjustments to PhD Slider and those pesky Crimson Nosferatu, tons of improvements to gameplay and stability, and more.

Today’s new looting interface update on consoles in Blackout is also a big next step in our battle royale experience. This multi-row grid approach makes it much easier for players to loot their enemies and get back into the fight, and we’re eager to hear your feedback on the new system. We’ve also reduced the number of Concussion grenades in an inventory stack to 1 to help reduce the frequency of Concussions in the field, so drop into a match, loot away!

• Multiplayer

  • Chaos Control added as MP Featured Playlist.

  • TDM 100, Team Tactical Moshpit, Mercenary Hardcore Moshpit, and Mercenary Deathmatch Moshpit added to MP Featured category.

  • Elevation and Madagascar added to normal map rotation for Black Ops Pass holders.

  • Updates to various game modes, Specialists, Perks, Scorestreaks, Gear, and Challenges.

  • Fix for Killathon Reactive Camo requirements.

  • Various gameplay and stability improvements.

• Zombies

  • 115 Day Celebration Event: Zombies 2XP, Zombies 2X Weapon XP, and 2X Nebulium Plasma live 10AM PT Jan. 15-18.

  • “Unsinkable” Gauntlet in Voyage of Despair (PS4).

  • Three new Epic Elixirs (PS4).

  • Balance updates for six existing Elixirs.

  • Adjustments to PhD Slider Perk.

  • Reduced Crimson Nosferatu damage and spawn rates in Dead of the Night.

  • Various gameplay and stability improvements.

• Blackout

  • Stash interface updated to grid layout for faster looting on consoles.

  • Reduced Concussion grenade stack count to 1.

The following updates are going live today on PS4, Xbox One, and PC:

Multiplayer

• Featured Playlists

  • Chaos Control added as Featured Playlist.

    • Teams have unlimited lives.

    • Capture time increased to 2 minutes per zone.

    • Round time limit increased to 3.5 minutes.

    • TDM 100, Team Tactical Moshpit, Mercenary Hardcore Moshpit, and Mercenary Deathmatch Moshpit added to Featured category.

Zombies

• 115 Day Celebration Event

  • Zombies 2XP, Zombies 2X Weapon XP, and 2X Nebulium Plasma live 10AM PT Jan. 15-18.

The following updates are going live today first on PS4:

Zombies

• Gauntlets

  • “Unsinkable” Gauntlet live in Voyage of Despair.

  • 30 rounds of challenges with unique rules for each round.

  • Players earn medals and tiered rewards for completing rounds 10, 20, and 30, as well as an additional reward for completing round 30 without failing a round.

  • Players are issued a Strike by failing a round, with the game ending after three Strikes.

  • All matches are timed for competitive speed-run support.

• New Elixirs

  • Perk Up (Epic): Gain 4 additional random Perks that are not in your loadout.

  • Refresh Mint (Epic): Refreshes the cooldowns for Equipment, Perks, and Special Weapons for your entire team.

  • Conflagration Liquidation (Epic): Spawn a Bonfire Sale power-up.

The following updates are going live today on consoles, with PC to follow later this week with additional PC-specific updates:

Multiplayer

• Maps

  • Elevation and Madagascar added to normal map rotation (Core and Hardcore) for all Black Ops Pass holders.

• Game Modes

  • Heist

    • Added SWAT RFT assault rifle, Daemon 3XB SMG, Combat Axe, and EMP Disruptor to Heist.

    • Resolved an issue where the player would not be granted proper Tier progression in some cases.

    • If the last living player disconnects, all downed friendlies will now bleed out, ending the round.

  • Hardpoint

    • Added an overtime win condition for Hardpoint. In the event of a tie at the end of the time limit, the team to score the next point will win the match.

    • This setting has been enabled for CWL Hardpoint in Custom Games.

  • Search & Destroy

    • Resolved an issue that allowed the defenders to defuse and win the game after the bomb detonated.

  • Free For All

    • Assault Pack can now be interacted with after it was hacked in Free For All.

• Specialists

  • Zero

    • Hacking an enemy no longer prevents Specialist Weapon or Equipment usage.

    • A hacked Assault Pack will now no longer be destroyed if the original owner leaves the match.

    • A hacked Barricade will now no longer be destroyed if the original owner leaves the match.

  • Ruin

    • Resolved an issue that allowed Ruin’s Grav Slam to kill players through walls and floors.

  • Firebreak

    • Resolved an issue that prevented Firebreak’s Purifier from damaging friendly players in game modes with friendly fire enabled.

  • Crash

    • TAK-5 will no longer remove the hacked status from players.

• Perks

  • Improved Cold Blooded’s enemy Scorestreak targeting delay from 5 to 7 seconds.

  • Improved Team Link’s circular vision radius by 9%.

  • Updated Tactical Mask description to include increased resistance against EMP Disruptor.

  • Tracker’s detection icon will now clear correctly if the player switches to a class without the Tracker perk.

• Scorestreaks

  • Care Package should now properly kill a player when landing on top of them.

  • Added a notification for when a player calls in a Thresher.

  • Resolved an issue where a Care Package or Mantis smoke marker’s FX would show for all players.

  • Resolved an issue where the sound of the Care Package hitting the ground was delayed.

  • Resolved an issue where the Dart would not be usable again if it failed to be deployed the first time.

  • Resolved an issue where the player’s view angles would change while controlling a vehicle.

  • Resolved an issue with the hacked vehicle effect remaining on a player’s screen if dying to a hacked vehicle.

• Gear

  • Resolved an issue where the Acoustic Sensor would stop functioning when switching classes during the grace period at the start of a round.

• Challenges

  • Clean Sweep

    • Now correctly tracks Hardcore game modes.

  • Conquest

    • Now correctly tracks Hardcore game modes.

• Weapon Customization

  • Killathon Reactive Camo

    • Killathon Reactive Camo now properly unwraps if it was unwrapped before the requirements changed in a recent update.

    • Updated the unwrap requirement text to correctly reference the new requirements of getting 50 kills, instead of 5 kills without dying.

  • Added support for camo and reticle customization in offline Custom Games.

• Custom Games

  • Resolved an issue where CODCaster spectating would disable a player’s Perks and second Equipment charge.

  • Resolved an issue where the second Equipment charge bar would not show in Custom Games.

  • Bots playing as Zero will now use the Ice Pick in Custom Games with bots.

• Stability – Fixed crashes that could occur:

  • When a player owning a Mesh Mine disconnected from the match.

  • When deploying a Strike Team marker.

  • When hacking a Barricade that expired or was destroyed.

• Black Market

  • “Friendly Fire” reticle owners now have access to green and blue versions of the reticle to match the version displayed in the Black Market.

• Miscellaneous

  • Added a notification in the Death Cam for friendly players when a Tac-Deploy is available.

  • Resolved an issue where player names would no longer show in Multiplayer game modes after playing Heist or Blackout.

  • Resolved an issue that caused on-fire effects to remain on a player’s screen for the duration of the wound.

  • Resolved an issue that prevented some alternative voiceover lines from playing to the player.

Zombies

• Gameplay

  • Elixir Updates

    • Join The Party: Now revives downed players in addition to respawning dead party members, but will not restore lost Perks.

    • Sword Flay: Melee attacks now instantly kill Basic and Vermin enemies for the duration, and deal 5X damage to all other enemies.

    • CTRL-Z: Increased the duration of turned zombies from 15 seconds to 30 seconds.

    • Cache Back: Reduced rarity from Epic to Legendary to increase the chance of concocting Cache Back more frequently.

    • Phantom Reload: Doubled the previous percentage chance to get free ammo.

    • Blood Debt: Duration reduced from 3 minutes to 1 minute, and Blood Debt now simply ends when points are reduced to zero, rather than killing the player.

  • Perks

    • PhD Slider now fully prevents self-inflicted explosive damage.

    • PhD Slider damage reduction for enemy explosive attacks has been changed from 80% to 50%.

  • Dead of the Night

    • Reduced the damage dealt by the Crimson Nosferatu bite attack.

    • Reduced the maximum number of Nosferatu and Crimson Nosferatu that spawn during normal round progression.

  • Power-ups

    • Power-ups are now more evenly distributed to appear throughout each round, as opposed to near the start of the round.

• Stability

  • Global – Fixed crashes that could occur:

    • After waiting for a long period of time in the lobby after exiting a match.

    • In certain cases when using Deadshot Dealer.

    • In rare cases when joining a Custom Game in progress.

    • In rare cases when a player spectated a Zombies match.

    • In rare cases when the alternate ammo type from a Pack-a-Punched weapon affected an enemy.

  • Blood of the Dead

    • Fixed a crash that could occur during the ending cinematic.

    • Fixed a rare crash that could occur while using the Hellfire in Eagle Plaza outside of the Warden’s House on Round 73.

  • Voyage of Despair

    • Fixed a crash that could occur after finishing the portals for the Catalysts in the Main Quest.

• Challenges

  • Charmed

    • Now properly requires players to use 50 Talismans.

• Miscellaneous

  • Global

    • Best Time now properly displays when selecting maps at the Zombies mode screen.

    • Resolved an issue where players were still damaged by zombies during the Nuke whiteout screen and shortly afterward.

    • Resolved an issue where players could go past Prestige Master rank 1000 through natural play.

    • Resolved an issue where FX may sometimes disappear, including on Wonder Weapons, Perks, Pack-a-Punched weapons, and Silver Bullets.

    • Resolved an issue where a host went missing after 30 seconds while waiting in the lobby with 3 players in a private match.

    • Resolved an issue where the Cartoon mode effect could still persist for the player if a second player in a splitscreen party turned on Cartoon mode, and the first player left the match and went into a solo match afterward.

    • Resolved a visual issue where the level 3 Chakram Whirlwind FX could be seen spinning around the player along with low-resolution dust FX.

    • Resolved an issue where the Maddox with Dual Zoom attachment could carry far more ammo than usual when Pack-a-Punched.

    • Resolved an issue where the After Action Report tabs could overlap each other.

    • Resolved an issue where players with a Minor or Major Virtuoso’s Charm Talisman still had a chance of the Mystery Box moving to another location on their next box opening.

    • Resolved issues where the Welling Clan Tag was misaligned on the Welling and clipping into the player’s hand, and where the Kill Counter did not appear at all.

    • Resolved an issue on Xbox One when a guest profile attempting to access the Laboratory could encounter multiple issues, including a UI error and lost cursor functionality.

    • Closed an exploit where players could enter a live game with custom rules.

  • Dead of the Night

    • Implemented visual improvements for the Pack-a-Punch camo on multiple weapon attachments.

    • Resolved an issue related to Nosferatu Bile pickups slowly accumulating if it was not collected by the player.

    • Resolved a bug that caused the player’s weapon to switch to the Welling for the duration of a Crimson Nosferatu bite attack.

    • Resolved an issue that could cause Nosferatu to spawn under the map when summoned by the Crimson Nosferatu.

    • Resolved an issue that allowed enemies killed by the Wonder Weapon to sometimes spawn power-ups outside of the playable space.

    • Resolved an issue that caused inconsistent visibility during the Wonder Weapon quest while in splitscreen.

    • Resolved a timing-specific issue that could lead to the incorrect player being sacrificed during the Main Quest.

    • Resolved an issue where Silver Bullet weapons canceled the Deadshot Dealer Perk modifier headshot streak.

    • Resolved a collision issue that allowed the Theater camera from leaving the playable space in the Gardens.

    • Resolved an issue that caused poor visualization of the trees in the Gardens area.

    • Resolved an issue that caused a prompt on the clock for the Pack-a-Punch to remain indefinitely after the sequence completed.

    • Resolved a rare progression issue related to enemies spawning in a non-playable location.

  • IX

    • Addressed a rare progression break that occurred when a special round started as players teleported to the Chaos Tower.

    • Addressed a rare case where players could become immune to fire traps.

  • Blood of the Dead

    • Resolved an issue where no fog would appear during Hellhound rounds.

    • Closed an exploitable area that players could reach in the Citadel Tunnels using the Path of Sorrows.

    • Closed an exploitable area on the catwalk that players could reach using the Ragnarok DG-5.

  • Classified

    • Resolved an issue where the blur effect from killing Nova 6 Crawlers persisted for spectating players.

    • Resolved an issue where a player using Nowhere but There would teleport to the War Room instead of the Laboratories when another player was downed in the elevator while it was on the Laboratories floor.

Blackout

• Looting Interface

  • Looting interface on consoles is now a grid layout with multiple pages for all Stash types.

  • Identical items will now stack inside a Stash instead of being displayed individually.

  • Remaining Armor is now displayed on Armor items in a Stash.

• Gameplay

  • Reduced Concussion grenade stack count to 1.