MW2 Season 2: New Maps, Weapons, Patch Notes, & More

The self-revive of Call of Duty is nearly here as the Modern Warfare 2 Season 2 patch notes are being rolled out. The delayed season comes as a second chance for the developers to right the wrongs of their new generation CoDs, and with it will come some of the biggest patch notes that have ever been released. With that in mind, here's all you need to know about the MW2 Season 2 patch notes, simplified and organised.

• Here are all the changes coming to Warzone 2 in the Season 2 update.

Global Warzone 2 And MW2 Season 2 Patch Notes

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Stability

Across all lanes of Call of Duty (Warzone 2, Modern Warfare 2, and DMZ), there will be a huge effort in dealing with crashes and bugs, as the developers have pledged to improve the overall stability.

Audio

Recent clips surfaced outlining some key audio discrepancies within the entire Call of Duty tree, where certain objects were blocking out sound from other areas of the selected game modes, and Infinity Ward has now revealed that they are investigating the audio occlusion.

Season 2 will address the audio issues highlighted so far to better players' experience.

UI/UX Updates

The Modern Warfare 2 UI and UX have been heavily criticised so far and will be addressed in Season 2.

The Camo selection process will be streamlined and navigation of this menu will be eased. A reticle preview option is being added to the Gunsmith as well.

Player muting and channel swapping will be "polished" in the social tab.

Players will also find a new "My Bundles" tab to keep up to date on in-game purchases.

A "Play Again" option for Warzone 2 is to be added too.

Weapon Balancing

The patch notes for weapon balancing and meta updates have not yet been released.

MW2 Season 2 Patch Notes: Ranked Play

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Ranked Mode has been confirmed to finally be coming to Modern Warfare 2, built in collaboration with Treyarch and Call of Duty league. It's a stand-alone mode that uses the CDL-approved rules, restrictions, maps, and modes. There are also exclusive items you can earn from playing, and ranks that represent your overall skill level. 

Seven skill divisions have been confirmed, ranging from Bronze to Iridescent, and a top 250 leaderboard for the best players in the world, similar to the Apex Predator list in Apex Legends. Many of the unique rewards you can earn are based on what division you end a season in, with sets rewarded for those who finish at Gold or higher. 

There's also a set of ranks specific to the Ranked Mode, which don't reset every season. They go from level 1 to level 50, and you level up by earning Stars from winning matches. Each start equals one rank, and every 5 ranks will reward you with a special icon and award. 

MW2 Season 2 Patch Notes: Maps

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With MW2 Season 2 also comes a bunch of new maps, with one bearing a lot of resemblance to a MW3 classic. Dome (pictured above) will be added to the map rotation, though it's based on Al Mazrah instead of the old COD map. It's small-to-medium-sized, built for fast-paced combat, with three main buildings and an open street area. 

Zaya Observatory is another new map based on a POI from Al Mazrah. It will be available in the Ground War and Invasion modes due to its size. The map covers the entire science facility and the adjacent cliff sides, featuring plenty of flanking routes through the mountain passes. Plenty of choke points are also perfectly sized for vehicles to hold.

Al Malik Internation is another Al Mazrah map, based on the airport, which will be playable in Ground War and Invasion. This map features the open tarmac and main airport building, giving a mix of close-range and long-range combat. 

A returning map from the MW2 beta is Valderas Museum, which will remain as a core map.

MW2 Season 2 Patch Notes: Modes

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Season 2 is also set to introduce a tonne of new modes to the playlists, with many old favourites coming back. Infected is one of the big returning modes, as it's been massively popular since it debuted in Modern Warfare 3. For those who don't know, the mode features infected players and living players, with the goal of the former being to infected everyone, while the living players need to survive. 

Another FPS classic, Gun Game, is coming back in Season 2. In this mode, you have to work through 18 different weapons, with you being awarded a new one every time you get a kill. The winner is the first player to get through all weapons and then earn a kill with the throwing knife. 

Grind is the third returning mode, though others may know it as Kill Confirmed. In this mode, whenever you get a kill, you need to collect a dog tag from the dead body to earn a point, but Grind slightly changes this. Instead, the dog tags are stackable, and you need to bank them at a fixed location to get the points. 

Hardcore Mode is also finally returning, replacing the Tier 1 playlist and giving players that tense experience of having no HUD, limited HP, and now regenerating health. 

The rotating weekly playlist is seeing the debut of Drop Zone. In this mode, every 15 seconds a care package is sent down for players to secure, allowing for the chaos of a lot of kill streaks. All or Nothing is another mode here, where players start with a throwing knife and a pistol with no ammo. After your first kill, you can get ammo pickups, and the winner is the first to 20 kills.

Another mode is returning, but this time from Black Ops. One in the Chamber is a mode where everyone starts with a pistol with just one bullet in a free-for-all variant. Getting kills rewards you with an additional bullet, and you only have three respawns, meaning you need to be careful. 

MW2 Season 2 Patch Notes: Other Changes

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Perk Balances

In a bid to allow players to unlock their ultimate perks quicker, specifically Ghost, the time it takes to unlock Tier 2 perks have been reduced by 50% and Tier 3 perks have been cut by 25%. 

This detail in the patch notes was aimed specifically at Ghost, although they ruled out any chances of having Ghost as a Tier 2 perk.

Valentine's Day Playlists

A weekly poll on Infinity Ward's Twitter profile will determine a dedicated playlist that will be added to a rotating pool, some of which will celebrate Valentine's Day.

Path of the Ronin Event

At the start of the season, seven new Path of the Ronin challenges will be introduced, with each one based on the seven virtues of Bushido: integrity, respect, courage, honour, compassion, sincerity, and loyalty. Each challenge has rewards for completion, like gun screens or weapon charms. Finishing all seven will reward you with a crossbow. 

New Weapons

This season also sees new guns to equip and deal death with. There are five total, with three of them being part of the new battle pass. These are the ISO Hemlock AR, KV Broadside Shotgun, Dual Kodachis melee weapon, Crossbow, and the Tempus Torrent marksman rifle. A Shuriken can also be equipped as part of your equipment. 

New Operator

Daniel "Ronin" Shinoda is a Japanese American Operator being introduced, who is available from the beginning of the season. 

Prestige

New Prestige levels allow players to level to rank 500 now instead of 250. Here is the level breakdown:

• Prestige 6: Unlocked at Level 300
• Prestige 7: Unlocked at Level 350
• Prestige 8: Unlocked at Level 400
• Prestige 9: Unlocked at Level 450
• Prestige 10: Unlocked at Level 500 – this is the maximum level that can be achieved in Season 02.

Each Prestige rank comes with new challenges and rewards, such as animated calling cards. 

DMZ Season 2 Patch Notes

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New Map

So far, players can head to either Al Mazrah or Building 21 (depending on its activity status), and Season 2 will be adding a new map into the mix.

The Warzone 2 Resurgence map is to be added into the mix for DMZ too, although it will result in more PvP action than that in Al Mazrah.

Enemy AI Nerfed

The strength of enemy AI has made heading into DMZ quite a mission if you're a solo player, and Infinity Ward has taken this into consideration.

The enemy AI will be getting nerfed somewhat in certain locations, including which type of AI will appear and how accurate they are at range.

Seasonal Refresh

Whatever you have collected so far in DMZ you will want to use by the time Season 2 comes around, as much like other extraction games, a new season will wipe your progress off the charts.

Season 2 will reset players back to the basic loadouts, where you'll have to go back to your roots to level up again.

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The MW2 Season 2 patch notes will go live on February 15, and more details will be revealed on February 8.

For more Modern Warfare 2 guides, keep reading GGRecon.