Black Ops 4’s Operation Grand Heist adds prestige and new locations to Blackout

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s latest patch brings with it changes to all the game’s modes. Some of the most significant changes are to the battle royale mode, Blackout.

The Operation Grand Heist patch adds Prestige levels. They’re one of the most requested features for Blackout; players have been asking about them since Black Ops 4’s release last year. Prestige allows players to reset their progress once they reach Blackout’s level cap of 80. This doesn’t do anything to the gameplay, but it does highlight how much they’ve played the mode with a unique icon next to their level, based on how many times they’ve prestiged. Operation Grand Heist adds 10 Prestige levels to Blackout.

Also arriving in this patch are some balance changes for Blackout, as well as a new area on the map. In the southwest corner of the desert, there’s now a newly populated area called Ghost Town. It’s a mix of the Buried and Outlaw multiplayer maps from the Black Ops franchise.

The Operation Grand Heist patch is currently only available on PlayStation 4, but should be headed to PC and Xbox One next week. For a look at everything the Operation Grand Heist patch adds to Blackout, you can see the full patch notes below.

Merit System Update

• Merit scoring has increased x10 from the previous model (for example, kills now award 100 Merits instead of 10), with progression also scaling x10 to match.
• Merits are now awarded for a wider range of situations and final match placements, particularly in Solo and Duo matches.
• This means that while players won’t necessarily rank up faster than before, there are now more opportunities to earn Merits without placing in the top 15 in Solos or top 10 in Duos.

Armor Tuning

• Increased Level 1 Armor damage mitigation to 25%.
• Increased Level 2 Armor damage mitigation to 35%.
• Increased Level 3 Armor melee damage mitigation to 50%.
• Reduced number of Armor Plates to fully repair Level 3 Armor from 10 to 5.

Weapon Tuning

General

• 9mm ammo item amount increased to 50 on pickup.
• 45 cal ammo item amount increased to 50 on pickup.

Assault Rifles

• Maddox RFB

Reduced idle sway.

• VAPR-XKG

Reduced 1st and 2nd shot recoil.

Reduced idle sway.

• SWAT RFT

Increased idle sway.

Reduced damage.

Increased 1st and 2nd shot recoil.

Submachine Guns

• Spitfire

Reduced 6-hit kill range.

• Saug 9mm

Reduced re-center speed.

Increased sprint-out time.

Reduced move speed (now the same as other SMGs).

• Daemon 3XB

Increased idle sway.

Reduced 2-burst kill range.

• Cordite

Reduced hip spread.

• GKS

Reduced idle sway.

• MX9

Reduced ADS in time.

Tactical Rifles

• Auger DMR

Increased re-center speed.

Reduced 1st shot recoil.

Slightly increased ADS move speed.

• ABR 223

Increased time between bursts.

Reduced re-center speed.

Slightly Increased ADS move speed.

• Swordfish

Reduced recoil of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th shots.

Slightly Increased ADS move speed.

• Essex

Increased rate of fire.

Increased re-center speed.

Sniper Rifles

• Koshka

Reduced idle sway.

• SDM

Increased re-center speed.

Reduced re-center radius.

• Outlaw

Increased idle sway.

Reduced ADS in and out times.

Light Machine Gun

• General

All LMGs now deal increased damage against vehicles and Equipment.

• Titan

Increased re-center speed.

Reduced re-center radius.

Increased flinch when being hit.

• Hades

Reduced idle sway.

Reduced hip spread.

Increased re-center speed.

Reduced re-center radius.

• VKM 750

Reduced re-center radius.

• Zweihander

Reduced hip spread.

Reduced re-center radius.

Equipment

• Frag Grenade

Increased damage.

Gameplay

• Players can now swap weapons and attach all compatible weapon attachments on pickup with the “Swap and Attach” option.
• Added the ability to immediately equip health/Equipment upon pickup.
• Added the ability to swap health items and Equipment from the ground if the player’s inventory is full.
• Duplicate items no longer show up in the Quick Equip menu. Instead, the total number of identical items is now displayed. Updated HUD to show total number of items equipped in that slot.
• Added empty Armor Plate and Paint Can item representations to the player’s inventory to function more similarly to ammo.
• Ammo will show up as grayed out in Stashes if the player has max ammo.
• Reworked killed/downed UI elements.

Miscellaneous

• Fixed an issue where a player’s health and Equipment would not be updated when splitting items within inventory slots.
• Fixed an issue where quickly equipping attachments could place attachments in the player’s inventory.
• Fixed an issue where the bleed-out countdown would not stop when a player was being revived.
• Fixed an issue that would prevent a player from being able to pick up an item from a Stash that they selected.
• Armory’s Blackout tab now correctly shows when a player has the maximum number of Paint Cans.
• Fixed an issue where the final stage of a Reactive Camo would be shown on the weapon on the ground, regardless of the stage it was actually on.
• Fixed an issue where weapons with unwrapped Reactive Camos would show as wrapped on the ground.
• Fixed an issue where Mastercrafts would always display the first visual stage, regardless of what stage it was on.
• Fixed an issue where picking up a weapon with an unwrapped Reactive Camo out of a Death Stash would wrap the weapon again.