The latest Call of Duty Warzone update was a lot larger than everyone expected, introducing an underground transit network to Caldera alongside new weapons and equipment, weapon balancing changes, and a lot more. The main talking point of the bumper Season 3 Reloaded patch notes, though, is the Serpentine perk – particularly how dominant it’s becoming in the battle royale. It’s so powerful at the moment, in fact, that one player has labelled Warzone “Hitmarker City” – and here’s why.
Reddit user ‘Seven0232’ has taken to the social media platform to share a gameplay clip that shows them unloading almost an entire 50-round magazine of STG44 ammunition into a player running the new Serpentine perk and the updated Stims to nearly no avail.
As you’ll be able to see in the gameplay footage below, the player they’re firing on is sprinting and thus gaining the full benefit of reduced incoming damage while sprinting that Serpentine offers. We don’t know if they’re using Stims, but you have to imagine that they played a part in the enemy player sponging an entire 50-round magazine before dropping to the deck.
“Holy Schmoly” is the phrase accompanying the short clip – which you can check out right here – and we’re inclined to agree with that sentiment.
Serpentine Perk + Stims = Hitmarker City. Holy Schmoly lol. from CODWarzone
The Season 3 Reloaded update saw Serpentine, a Call of Duty Vanguard perk, introduced to the battle royale. In the patch notes blog post, Raven Software has defended it’s decision with the following statement:
“ Our internal playtests highlighted the counter to ranged engagements especially in large open spaces while still beneficial in smaller spaces. Serpentine creates a buffer between finding cover and it provides a boon to Players that rotate often in their engagements.”
Interestingly, this perk was introduced alongside an unusual Stim nerf. The changes made have reduced the additional slide speed granted by Stims by 40%, the max slide time to 1.3s, and introduced a disruption effect when taking weapon damage. This means you should find the Stims’ healing effect stops when you’re shot at.
The Serpentine perk has only been in Warzone roughly 48 hours, but it already boasts the highest win rate (4.39) when compared to Double Time (2.43), Quick Fix (3.07), and Cold-Blooded (2.89). This might make you think that it’s the most popular Perk 1 at the moment, but it’s far from that. Only 13.6% of players are currently using the Serpentine perk according to WZRanked, whereas Double Time and Cold-Blooded are picked by over 60% of players between them.
We don’t know if Raven Software is going to tweak the Serpentine perk just yet but, looking at that footage, we hope that it does.