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Infinity Ward slaps Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone's Bruen with a much-needed nerf

Switching mags.

Infinity Ward has nerfed one of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone's most powerful weapons: the Bruen MK9.

The Bruen, which was added to the game during Season 3 back in April, has seen a reduction in its damage range, which is certainly welcome. This LMG had the accuracy at range, mobility and reload time of an assault rifle - with the right attachments. It had become central to Call of Duty's recent meta, and one of the most popular long-range choices in Warzone.

Infinity Ward has yet to publish exact changes, such as damage numbers, but data miners have already had a look to see what's what. According to COD Tracker, the Bruen's maximum damage range has gone down from 42m to 27m. That's a 36 per cent reduction. Ouch!

Take that, Bruen.

Meanwhile, Infinity Ward has tweaked the FAL. This popular assault rifle has seen an increase in headshot damage (two-hit at range with one headshot), and a reduction in near damage (limbs and lower torso always three shot). So, a nerf at close range and a buff at long range, which feels about right for the FAL.

According to COD Tracker, the FAL's maximum damage to 20m has been nerfed, going from 65 to 49. However, as the website points out, this does not account for changes to body multipliers mentioned in the patch notes. It sounds like the FAL is a headshot beast, but it will be significantly less powerful close up.

Cover image for YouTube videoCall of Duty®: Modern Warfare® & Warzone - Official Season Five Trailer

Meanwhile, the Holger-26 LMG (increased damage range, increased ADS speed), and the M91 LMG (increased near damage) were both buffed. It looks like Infinity Ward felt the game's LMGs weren't competitive - apart from the Bruen, of course.

A second update is on its way to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone. According to Infinity Ward's Ashton Williams, the second patch fixes the graphical corruption issue with weapons players have reported recently, the Play Again option not working, and some more bits.