Call of Duty: Warzone's infinite stim glitch just keeps recurring

cod warzone meta loadouts
(Image credit: Infinity Ward)

The size of its audience means that the extent of cheating and bugs in Warzone can, at times, be overstated. But there's one problem with the game that, no matter how many times it seems to have been squashed, keeps rearing its ugly head again and again, ad infinitum. Yes, come on down, it's the one and only infinite stim glitch.

Properly speaking, the exploit revolves around the game's tactical item, which can be equipped in loadouts or found in crates across Verdansk. Usually this is a one-time-use injection to instantly restore health, the stim. But when this exploit is triggered, players can keep using their tactical item indefinitely, and almost all use it for a never-ending series of stim injections. This is an especially frustrating exploit in a game where it can be used to hide in poison gas until all the other players are dead.

And you guessed it, the internet is once more rife with video footage showing players abusing the exploit. The best videos, of course, show the cheaters getting the justice they deserve.

Tracking and killing a pathetic stim glitcher for the win (from 2 POV) from r/CODWarzone

The problem has been acknowledged and noted on Warzone's official development Trello, and the entry's title suggests that players are not the only ones sick of dealing with this: "Infinite tactical equipment: players abusing stim (again)". One Raven developer took to reddit to write "We're aware, a fix is scheduled."

Players will be forgiven a little scepticism, because this problem is so long-running it could now fairly be described as endemic. Infinity Ward claimed this exploit was fixed in October, then it returned in November, disappeared again, returned in early January, and now it's back once more. I've contacted Activision to ask if there's a more precise ETA for the next fix, and will update with any response.

Activision has been notably more public in its communications around Warzone recently, probably thanks to the gathering frustration around the same old problems repeating, and mounting anger among players about the variety of cheats and exploits in the game. Earlier this week the publisher announced it had banned 60,000 players, and confirmed Warzone does have its own proprietary anti-cheat software (though with no details).

Should the fix arrive, we'll let you know. In the meantime, here's how to tell when someone's cheating or glitching in Warzone, as opposed to just having a good day.

Rich Stanton

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."