Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 got a free game update yesterday. One of the biggest new features is the daily tier skip for multiplayer and Blackout, which gives you a free Black Market tier every day for some pretty modest achievements. The latest version of fan-favourite map Nuketown has also been added to PlayStation 4, meaning it’s coming to PC next week.
According to the patch notes, “simply win a match in multiplayer or earn a Merit in Blackout each day to redeem a daily Bonus Tier in the Black Market. This allows players to earn Contraband items even faster, and it’s a permanent addition to the game.” Given that most multiplayer modes are one team versus another, and that Merits are given away in Blackout like cars on Oprah, most players should be able to earn a bonus tier by playing no more than a couple of games each day. (A single Blackout kill will net you ten Merits, and you’ll get at least one for completing any Challenge.)
This is significant, as the intensity of the grind for Black Market tiers in Black Ops 4 – and the fact that, of course, you can skip it by paying real money – has been a subject of intense criticism. And now here we are with a new and relatively easy way to earn a tier a day through gameplay.
Elsewhere, the November 13 update brings stability fixes to Zombies, weapon balancing tweaks across all modes, and the Endurance Chaos Moshpit playlist to multiplayer. The full patch notes are on Reddit here.
As noted above, PlayStation 4 players can now play on the latest iteration of Nuketown. They also get a Bowie Knife and Zombies on Nuketown Island in Blackout, and Blackjack’s Shop added to their Black Market. As ever, though, we don’t have long to wait before these changes come to our platform – PC gets them next week.