Cod Blopout unearths the Blightfather, buries the 9-Bang

If fighting other humans doesn't challenge you enough in Blackout, or you fancy risking death for loot and funsies, you can now take on the Blightfather in Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4's battle royale mode. This hulking, goo-spewing boss from the game's Zombies mode is back in Blopout for one week, hanging around the graveyard itching for a fight and offering big prizes if you beat him. Last night's patch also removed the mega-powerful 9-Bang flashbang from Blopout, washing away a little damage. Not sure all this will cushion the blow of incoming microtransactions but hey.

The Blightfather appears in the Zombies campaign 'IX' and was in Blopout during beta testing. Now he's back until Tuesday the 13th of November at 6pm UK time. Developers Treyarch say, "Those of you who took him on during the Blackout Beta know he won't go down without a fight – and the victors will be handsomely rewarded this time around."

The Blightfather is a good way to find the rare items needed to unlock the 'Chaos' crew from Zombies as playable Blopout characters, who are a lot more interesting than those stuffy soldier types.

As for the 9-Bang, Treyarch say it's gone "while we evaluate its place in the gameplay loop." So it might return. Or not? The 9-Bang is a mighty weapon, keeping enemies stunned for a long time. Treyarch had previously cut the limit a player could carry to only one, but evidently that was insufficient. At times, one can be all you need to win.

They're shaking player limits up again too. Quads mode returns to its previous maximum of 100 players, which Solo and Duos go down to 88 players.

See the patch notes for more on balance changes and fixes across Blopout and Zombies.

Are you Blopouting, gang? A few of the Plunkbat laaads and I have been curious but not £50 curious.