MW4 Nov 13 Update: Flinch Cuts, SMG and AR Range Buffs

Infinity Ward ended the first full week of Modern Warfare 4 Season 1 with a pass whose class-wide flinch cuts cover assault rifles, SMGs, LMGs and pistols. Three updates landed on top of the Season 1 notes: November 11 explained a hitscan change that went live the day before, November 12 was a fix list, and November 13 brought a weapon balance pass that cuts flinch across four weapon classes and pushes out damage ranges on most SMGs and ARs. Every number below comes from the official Season 1 patch notes page on callofduty.com, which Infinity Ward last updated on November 13, 2026, and which I read on November 14.

Our Season 1 patch notes breakdown covers the launch tuning, maps, DMZ X01 and the fixes through November 10. This post picks up where that one stops.

The short answer

The November 13, 2026 Modern Warfare 4 update cuts flinch received by 25.4% for assault rifles, 15.6% for SMGs, 19.3% for LMGs and 17.8% for pistols. It changes the damage profiles of 23 weapon entries, mostly by extending ranges, and removes the last damage drop-off on the CSG-35, ISO Nightshade and PPSh-41, so those SMGs now hit their (raised) minimum damage sooner instead of falling another step. The largest percentage range jumps are the Wz.55 Striga (mid range 21.34 to 28.7 m, +34%), the FiNN LMG Adverse Apex (max range 15.98 to 21.34 m, +34%) and the M4 (max damage range 27.94 to 35.31 m, +26%). The Oris 8.6 takes 9.6% more flinch, and launchers now receive flinch at all. Aim assist now switches off when you shoot through Smoke Grenades and the Smoke Wall. Two days earlier, Infinity Ward said the hitscan range of every bullet weapon had been pushed out to about 35 metres on average.

November 11: the hitscan fix

The November 11 block opens with a change that was announced in Infinity Ward's Weekly Update video and went live in the November 10 update, but was written up a day later "for additional visibility".

Infinity Ward's explanation: it raised the refresh rate of its ballistic simulation (the system that handles bullet drop and velocity over distance) to make long-range shots more accurate, and a side effect was that the range at which bullets hit instantly (hitscan) shrank. The fix:

• True hitscan distance is up 288% from launch, which the notes also describe as a 3.91x increase. On average it now reaches about 35 metres for all bullet weapons.
• A new long-range bullet simulation technique cuts the time ballistic bullets take to connect by 34 milliseconds, which Infinity Ward says should make mid- and long-range AR fights feel more consistent.
• It is global and applies to all modes.

If close-range fights felt like your shots were landing late in the first week, this is the change aimed at that. The November 13 notes tie the two together: with the ballistic improvements from earlier in the week, Infinity Ward says the tuned guns "should be more reliable, stable, and lethal at range".

The rest of November 11 is smaller: a bigger end-of-match XP bonus for Infected and Ground War, a fix for garage doors leaving Tripwires active, a Backstab window that blocked grenades, a fix for Prestiging stripping ammunition attachments from Blueprints, and a fix for the Astaroth 57 doing too much damage to Killstreak vehicles. In DMZ, solos and duos now earn Bounties slightly faster, and the Bombing Run Killstreak is disabled in X01, following the UAV and Advanced UAV removal there on November 10.

Flinch by weapon class

Flinch is how much your view gets knocked around when you take hits. Infinity Ward says this pass is about "improving the Attacker's experience", which in practice means the player pushing a held angle gets bumped less. Class-wide numbers apply to every weapon in the class unless a weapon has its own figure.

Attachments were adjusted too: Aim Grips now cut flinch received by an extra 2.0%, Heavy Stocks by 1.1%, and Ammunition Types increase flinch inflicted by 30.8%.

Read the AR line carefully. ARs now take a quarter less flinch, but SMGs, LMGs and pistols also inflict less, so an AR player being shot by an SMG gets both effects. The Hyeon Burst is the exception among ARs: its received-flinch cut is 5.6%, not 25.4%.

Every damage-range change

Ranges are in metres. Only values that changed are listed; damage numbers not shown stayed the same. "Mid 1" and "Mid 2" are the first and second medium damage tiers.

What the numbers mean for your class

The M4 gets the cleanest buff. Its 23-damage tier now reaches 35.31 m instead of 27.94 m, and it keeps the same 19 minimum. That is a 26% longer reach with nothing taken away, and it stacks with the AR flinch cut. If you dropped the M4 in week one because it lost fights past about 28 m, this is the patch to try it again.

Three SMGs lose a damage step. The CSG-35, ISO Nightshade and PPSh-41 each had a second medium tier before falling to minimum damage. That tier is gone and the minimum went up, so at long range they now sit one point higher (two on the Nightshade) instead of dropping another step. This is what Infinity Ward means by "removing the last damage drop-off of SMGs that were being overly punished at range". It does not turn them into AR replacements; a 14 to 16 damage floor is still a floor.

The Wz.55 Striga is the SMG with the most new reach. Its 23-damage tier now runs to 28.7 m, up from 21.34 m. That is the largest percentage range increase on any base weapon in this pass (34%, tied with the FiNN's Apex max range).

The Patriot XMR is simpler now. It goes from three damage tiers to two: 30 damage out to 35.56 m, then 24. Before, it fell to 24 and then to 22 past 50.04 m, so long-range hits are 2 damage stronger.

The Mosin-Nagant is not a straight nerf, even though the top line reads like one. Its maximum damage range fell from 40.13 to 14.99 m, which looks alarming. But the new 95 tier is a bonus on top of the old 93, and 93 damage now carries to 44.96 m instead of 40.13 m. Between 55.63 and 58.42 m the rifle now does 86 instead of 60. I could not find anything in the notes saying whether these values change how many body shots a kill takes, so I am not claiming a one-shot range.

The Oris 8.6 is the one weapon entry that is purely a nerf. It takes 9.6% more flinch and gets no damage change. (Launchers also start receiving flinch, but that is a class-wide rule, not a weapon entry.)

The FiNN Adverse Apex punishes limb hits less. Its limb multipliers were 0.86 across the board. Arms and hands now take 1.0 (full damage) and legs and feet 0.9. Combined with a max damage range that grows by about 5 m, that is a straight buff to the attachment.

Smoke and aim assist

One non-weapon change on November 13 matters for controller players: aim assist is now disabled when shooting through smoke from Smoke Grenades and the Smoke Wall Field Upgrade, including gaps in the smoke made by gunfire or explosions. If you play on controller and relied on aim assist tracking targets through smoke, it no longer does that.

November 13 also fixed CDL Operator heads rendering incorrectly at some distances and Grind token sounds failing to play. In menus, it fixed Operators not saving in Create a Class after Prestiging, and Special camos for the Cronen Osprey and CSG-35 missing from the Shared Camos tab.

DMZ and Wager Match fixes

Wager Match. November 12 fixed trophies dropping in Private Matches, the total earned trophies resetting between rounds in round-based modes, and DMZ trophies not dropping at the intended rate. Infinity Ward says the reset fix works but the UI will still show a reset; your total is still being counted. On November 13, trophy drop rates went up in all Multiplayer modes and in DMZ.

DMZ, November 12. Operator and weapon insurance could stop working after dying in X01 when you had deployed there from Hajin; that is fixed. So are Grizzly vehicles driving on after their driver died, the SAM Site and UAV Tower capture prompt ignoring the Air Superiority Trait's longer duration, and some BlackCell camo challenges not tracking in DMZ. One line is worth flagging: the November 12 notes fix Operators with Thermal Padding or an active Sedative Inhaler still appearing on enemy UAVs that have the UAV Upgrade Trait. The November 6 notes had already listed that interaction as fixed, so it took a second pass.

DMZ, November 13. X01 Legendary Ingredients were being sold for materials instead of money; fixed. Weapon Manuals, Recipes and Dog Tags could fail to convert when deploying to X01 from Hajin; fixed. The Resupply Run event screens got several flow fixes. And there is one statement of intent: Infinity Ward says it is "actively looking at TTK in DMZ" and playtesting updates.

Multiplayer and global, November 12. The Fast Hands perk now speeds up the Tactical Equipment animations it was missing, Kill Block Private Matches allow up to 12 players, the Schlager Indigo-RF optic has its sniper glint back, and the Battle Pass no longer shows "In Progress" after you finish every tier.

What is still open

• DMZ time-to-kill. Infinity Ward says it is playtesting changes and will "share more soon". No date and no numbers yet.
• Next week's weapon pass. The November 13 notes say the team is watching these changes over the weekend and is looking forward to "additional updates next week". Treat the table above as a snapshot, not a final meta.
• Whether the tuning differs in Warzone. The hitscan change is stated as global across all modes. The November 13 weapon tables do not say whether they also apply to Warzone, and this post does not cover Warzone.
• Real time-to-kill. These are the published damage and range values. I have not tested them in game, and attachments and armour rules change the result.