2026-05-04

EVOLUTIONS UPDATE

Update 1.70.0 is now available in BETA for both Android and iOS.

Table of contents:

• GRAPHICS UPDATES
• ITEM PICKUP IMPROVEMENTS
• NEW STANDARD COLLECTION CONTENT
• GAMEPLAY CHANGES
• MOVEMENT IMPROVEMENTS
• INDIVIDUAL PLAYER COLORS
• ASPECT RATIO OPTIONS
• SHOW PLAYER CROSSHAIRS
• SKIN FIXES
• RANKED ELIGIBILITY CHANGES
• MAP UPDATES
• UI UPDATES
• MINIMAP IMPROVEMENTS
• MISC
• BUG FIXES

The Evolutions update brings a major visual overhaul to Critical Ops, along with broad gameplay rebalancing, quality-of-life features, and performance improvements.

This patch focuses on improving the game’s look, feel, and core gameplay. Graphics have been refreshed across maps. Armor and weapon behavior have been reworked to make fights more readable and skill-based, and multiple usability improvements make the overall experience smoother both in and out of matches.

GRAPHICS UPDATES

This update brings visual evolution for Critical Ops.

• Improved environment shaders to be more physically accurate.
• Improved shader consistency across maps.
• Added improved reflection probes for more realistic reflections and smoother blending.
• Added a new tonemapping system to improve saturation and contrast.
• Improved overall lighting response on map surfaces.
• Multiple visual improvements and fixes across maps.

These changes aim to make the game look more vivid and consistent without sacrificing gameplay readability or performance.

ITEM PICKUP IMPROVEMENTS

Picking up items is now more intuitive and more reliable.

• Added a new touch button and input for picking up items.
  • The touch button appears when you can pick up an item.
  • For mouse & keyboard and controller, an on-screen prompt appears when an item can be picked up.
• Item indicator now only shows for the currently targeted pickup item.
• Added a new Automatic weapon pickup option to gameplay settings.
• Added silent pickup.
  • Silent pickup happens while stationary, walking, or crouching.
  • Silent pickup plays a different pickup sound for you and is inaudible to other players.

These additions and improvements are especially important for situations where a wanted item is nearby but awkward to collect, or when being sneaky is a priority.

NEW STANDARD COLLECTION CONTENT

New skins have been added to the Standard Collection.

• A total of 78 skins have been added.
• New skins are available for:
  • SCAR-H
  • KSG
  • Frag
  • Incendiary Grenade
  • Flashbang
  • Smoke Grenade

GAMEPLAY CHANGES

This update reworks several core systems.

The main goals are to increase overall time-to-kill, improve armor behavior, reward accurate headshots, and range-appropriate weapon use.

ARMOR PENETRATION AND BODY PART DAMAGE MULTIPLIERS

Weapons now support more specific armor penetration and damage rules.

• Weapons can now have separate armor penetration values for helmet and kevlar.
  • Exact armor penetration percentages are now used instead of broad penetration categories.
• Weapons can now have unique body part damage multipliers.
  • Different body parts can now receive different weapon-specific damage values.

This gives us more precise control over weapon balance and allows different weapons to behave more distinctly against armored and unarmored opponents.

OBJECT PENETRATION AND OBJECT STRENGTH

• Added a new Medium object strength category.
• Added a new Medium object penetration category.
• For shots that hit multiple players, armored character body parts are now considered Medium instead of Strong objects.
• Most weapons now use Medium object penetration.

These changes are intended to make penetration kills more deliberate and reward better awareness and positioning.

ARMOR CHANGES

• Increased kevlar durability to 100 from 50.
• Increased aim punch reduction for kevlar and helmet to 95% from 75%.
  • Aim punch reduction is only applied when the hit lands on the body part protected by that armor piece.
• Removed movement speed reduction when wearing armor.
• Kevlar now only covers the chest and stomach.
  • Arms are no longer protected by kevlar.

ARMOR VISUALIZATION

• The armor panel now shows helmet and kevlar, and their exact durability separately.
• Removed kevlar and helmet break medals.
  • The sound cues for breaking armor pieces are not affected.

These armor changes are meant to make armor behavior clearer and more consistent in actual fights.

PRICE CHANGES

• Kevlar price increased to $600 from $500.
• Kevlar repair price reduced to $200 from $500.
• Helmet repair price reduced to $100 from $300.
• Flashbang price reduced to $200 from $300.

Repairing armor after surviving a round is now much cheaper, giving players more incentive to preserve equipment and build economy over time.

BODY PART DAMAGE MULTIPLIERS

Each weapon can have different multipliers, but the general body part multipliers are:

• Head remains x4.
• Torso reduced to x1 from x1.35.
• Limbs remain x0.5.

Arms are no longer treated like torso hits. This means arm hits will now behave more naturally and deal less damage than solid torso shots. Hits that pierce both arms and body are still considered torso hits.

AIM PUNCH

• Reduced aim punch received when any body part is hit.

PISTOLS

SUBMACHINE GUNS

SHOTGUNS

ASSAULT RIFLES

SNIPER RIFLES

OTHER

• Frag grenade armor penetration changed to 100% / 80%.
• Fire damage per tick changed to 6 from 8.

The Weapons intel page has been updated to reflect these changes, and more details have been added.

MOVEMENT IMPROVEMENTS

The Evolutions update also brings updated movement:

• Improved character ground detection.
• Improved diagonal movement direction accuracy.
• Improved air strafing.
• Improved landing to be more natural.
• Adjusted character move speed to match that of fully armored characters in the Vault update.

INDIVIDUAL PLAYER COLORS

• Added individual player colors.
  • Player indicators, minimap icons, scoreboard, spectate screen, and score header will now use these colors.

This should make it easier to identify specific players, friends, or party members in a match and see what they’re up to.

ASPECT RATIO OPTIONS

New aspect ratio settings have been added to graphics settings.

Aspect ratios:

• 18:9 (2:1)
• 16:9
• 16:10 (8:5)
• 3:2
• 4:3
• 5:4
• 1:1

Note: The Critical Ops camera field of view is horizontally locked. This means your horizontal view angle does not change, while the vertical view angle will adjust based on the aspect ratio.

SHOW PLAYER CROSSHAIRS

• Added Show player crosshairs to Gameplay settings.
  • When enabled, you will see player crosshairs when spectating them.
• Added a button to copy the player crosshair code to the profile screen.
  • Available when in the same match as the player.

SKIN FIXES

We took time to revisit a large amount of skin content and improve overall quality and consistency.

GLOVE SKIN FIXES

• Schwarzschild
• Chronos
• Full Combo

KNIFE SKIN FIXES

• Kukri - Fulmination
• Remix - Power Surge

WEAPON SKIN FIXES

• HKX - COM Supporter
• HKX - COM Winner
• AK-47 - Sakura
• GSR 1911 - Sakura
• M14 - Sakura
• Super90 - Sakura
• AK-47 - Hyper Dash
• GSR 1911 - Hyper Dash
• M4 - Hyper Dash
• Vector - Hyper Dash
• MTX - Zeus
• SG551 - Zeus
• Arrowhead skin improvements across 7 weapons

WEAPON SKIN REWORKS

• M1887 - Sub Zero
• DEAGLE - Sub Zero
• Slit skin improvements across 24 weapons

RANKED ELIGIBILITY CHANGES

We are tightening Ranked entry requirements to make it harder for cheaters and smurfs to enter Ranked with fresh accounts.

In addition to the existing Ranked requirements:

• You must have a ping lower than 200 ms to at least one game server.
• Your account must be at least 48 hours old.
• You must have at least 500 kills in featured game modes, excluding PvE.

We are actively working to combat smurfing and cheating, so more changes will come in future updates.

MAP UPDATES

ALL MAPS

• Increased visual fidelity by using new shaders, updated textures, and improved color grading.

CANALS

• Added a wall near Coalition spawn towards bomb site A.
• Added some walls along the canal, near Coalition spawn.
• Added a wall near Breach spawn towards bomb site B.
• Added a box at the entrance of elbow.
• Removed a staircase at bomb site B.
• Added walls to the upper catwalk.

CASTELLO

• Added more lights in the garden underpass.

DIVISION

• Changed a few lights on the ceiling.

HANGAR

• Fixed some objects using the wrong material type.
• Fixed a small gap in the bottom side of the jet.

PURIFY

• Added lights in the entrances of ventilation ducts.

VILLAGE

• Removed a few invisible colliders on bomb site A.

WAREHOUSE

• Visual improvements.

UI UPDATES

GAMEPLAY UI

• Changed the style of the respawning timer.
• Improved readability of the defusing and planting bar.
• Added a wallbang killfeed icon when killing through another character.

STORE

• Removed Inventory from Store.
• Store ads now give feedback on receiving rewards.

MENUS

• Removed Critical Pass from progression and match end menus.
• Vault button now shows a notification when vault contents change.
• Target frame rate moved to Graphics settings.

MINIMAP IMPROVEMENTS

• Minimap death icon changed to an “x” from a skull.
• Minimap enemy icon color has been made more saturated for better legibility.

MISC

• Added high frame rate support for Android 15+ and Google Play Games PC.
  • On Android 15+, all supported options allowed by the device will be available.
  • On Google Play Games PC, the highest supported option set in GPG PC settings will be available. May require restarting the game.
• Increased Credits earned from “Case of Credits” in the store to 670 from of 650.
• Milestones now give Vault Chips instead of Tier Cases.
• Friend limit increased to 60 from 50.
• Sign in with Apple and Google no longer prompts for validation every login.
• Reduced the default music volume.
• Adjusted default touch aim sensitivity.
  • X axis changed to 3.0 from 4.2.
  • Y axis changed to 1.2 from 1.7.
  • X and Y aim acceleration changed to 3% from 5%.
  • Existing player settings are not affected.
• Removed the need to shoot all bullets during the gameplay tutorial.
• PvE Team Deathmatch difficulty is now adjusted by player skill.
• PvE Team Deathmatch bots now use agent skins.
• Added outlines to character and weapon indicators.
• Allowed dropping weapons with no ammo in defuse-based game modes and Training Grounds.
  • Previously, trying to drop a weapon with 0 total ammo would destroy it.
• Improved dropped item behavior on player death so dropped items carry more momentum and land less tightly grouped.

BUG FIXES

GAMEPLAY BUG FIXES

• Fixed spotting bots being broken in PvE TDM.
• Fixed headshot sound not playing in PvE TDM.
• Fixed item inspect animations not showing for spectators.
• Fixed not getting kill assists while dead.
• Fixed aim acceleration being dependent on framerate.
  • Your aim acceleration settings will get converted after you update to 1.70, as to preserve the same behavior it had in 1.60 and prior updates.
• Fixed hit markers not showing after hitting a player near smoke.
• Fixed recoil and spread not recovering after deploying a grenade shortly after shooting a weapon.
• Fixed grenades sometimes rendering as fully pink when thrown.

UI BUG FIXES

• Fixed dead players seeing enemies through walls in TDM.
• Fixed ads and offer wall not working after interacting with them once.
• Fixed player indicators being shown when “Show HUD” is disabled.
• Fixed “News” tab notification not disappearing.
• Fixed invisible characters being added when copying text in Google Play Games PC, breaking crosshair codes, user IDs, etc.
• Fixed surrender team being shown as the victors in the match if the opposite team has a lower score.
• Fixed killfeed notification being wrong if the killer is dead.
• Fixed “$” being shown in the wrong place in money change pop-ups.
• Fixed completed mission showing both a checkmark and a mission icon at the same time.
• Fixed update watermark breaking sometimes.