Call Of Duty: Vanguard Patch Notes Detail New Game Mode And Sniper Rifle Balancing

A new update has arrived to Call of Duty: Vanguard ahead of Call of Duty's Festive Fervor event, and the December 15 patch notes include a new game mode, as well as fixes for stability issues, weapon bugs, and map spawns and exploits. Vanguard's sniper rifles received a few tweaks as well.

Multiplayer

Call of Duty's Control game mode makes its Vanguard debut. This is an objective mode that gives each team a limited pool of lives. The aim of Control is to capture or defend two zones without running out of respawns.

Players can expect a bit of weapon balancing for sniper rifles. Vanguard's Kar98k & Type 99 snipers both received a slight adjustment. When using a lower caliber magazine, these weapons now retain the ability for one-shot-kills when landing chest shots. For the Gorenko Anti-Tank Rifle, the default scope will no longer heavily obscure player vision when meleeing with the bayonet. For a recommended sniper build, check out our Vanguard loadout guide for some of the best weapons in the game.

In addition to weapon balancing, several weapon bugs were squashed in the update. Sledgehammer Games says weapon animations have been polished and some glitches have been resolved. The Riot Shield now properly blocks front-facing damage and bullets will not penetrate. Also, muzzles no longer jump when reloading the Top Break pistol.

The update brings improvements to several of Vanguard's multiplayer maps. The patch notes detail several out-of-map exploits that were patched for Sub Pens, Castle, Oasis, Das Haus, Radar, and Paradise. The Desert Siege map received fixes for texture issues and some spawn tuning to reduce instances of spawning close to enemies. And bullet penetration issues for certain walls have been fixed on Bocage.

Vanguard's Mortar Barrage killstreak received a buff, adding increased damage dealt by the Mortar Barrage flare. A tweak was also made to make deployment of the Mortar Barrage less difficult for players. Additional bug fixes for multiplayer include the progression issues for Seasonal Challenges, which are now visible, active, and tracking. Since launch, an ongoing operator bug caused Daniel's alternative skin to crash the game, but Sledgehammer Games says this has finally been fixed.

Zombies

Adjustments were made to Der Anfang's latest map objective, Purge. Visibility was improved in low-light areas, making it more visually clear when capturing Control Runes. Professor Krafft will also now acknowledge Purge objective completions. Additionally, the progress bar no longer overlaps various notifications such as Challenge Completions, Rank Ups, Weapon Level Ups, and more.

A few Covenants received changes with this update. The Brimstone Covenant no longer damages zombies when the player is downed. It has also been adjusted to only deal damage to zombies that are in the player’s line-of-sight. Knives now work as intended with the Swift Vengeance Covenant, and rocket launchers now work as intended with the Dead Accurate Covenant.

Zombies mode should be more stable now, as the patch notes mention various stability fixes, and the update addressed an issue that would sometimes kick a player to the main Zombies menu when copying and replacing their loadouts.

The full patch notes for the December 15 update can be found below, as shared by Sledgehammer Games.

Call of Duty updates continue as walkouts continue in protest of surprise contract terminations within Raven Software's QA team. Activision Blizzard faces lawsuits and other investigations related to alleged sexual harassment and discrimination against women.

MULTIPLAYER

Stability

• Using Daniel's alternative skin will no longer crash the game

Seasonal Challenges

• Progression for Seasonal Challenges is now visible, active, and tracking

Weapons

• Bug Fixes
  • Riot Shield now blocks front-facing damage and bullets will not penetrate
  • The Firefight Blueprint has been fixed to remove light coming from the front end of the barrel and parts of the optic
  • Kar98K Hunter incentive skin no longer causes the gun to aim down the iron sights instead of the attached scope
  • Top Break muzzles no longer jump on reload
  • Corrected Loadouts using 7 Round Mags so the total ammo count is divisible by 7
  • Addressed multiple issues with charms in a QOL pass
  • Weapon animations have been polished and some glitches have been resolved
• Balancing
  • Challenges
    • Panzerfaust Challenge has been changed from destroying aerial streaks to longshot kills
  • Weapons
    • Kar98k & Type 99
      • When using a lower caliber magazine, these weapons will now retain the ability for One-Shot-Kills when landing chest shots
    • Top Break
      • No longer reduces damage, but range reduction increased
    • Gorenko Anti-Tank Rifle
      • The default scope will no longer heavily obscure player vision when meleeing with the bayonet
  • Attachments
    • Melee range has been reduced for Bayonet when Reach Kit Perk is applied
• Camos
  • Double Barrel
    • Corrected wording in the Death Artist Challenge to say “16 Gauge Mag” instead of “12 Gauge Mag”
  • Assault Rifle Alpha
    • Camos now show proper progression
  • M1 Garand
    • Camos now show proper progression
• Cross-progression
  • Master Ribbons data from Cold War will now be imported and reflected in Vanguard
  • Getting kills in Warzone now counts toward challenges in Vanguard

Killstreaks

• Mortar Barrage
  • Increased damage dealt by the Mortar Barrage Flare
  • Mortar Barrage has been tweaked to make deployment less difficult

Maps

• Paradise
  • Fixed several out-of-map exploits
  • Fixed instances of unnatural hitching when jumping against ramped walls
• Radar
  • Fixed issue which made some doors indestructible
  • Fixed out-of-map spawns and exploits
• Desert Siege
  • Spawn tuning to reduce instances of spawning close to enemies
  • Fixed a rendering issue that resulted in intense fog for some players
  • Blinking texture issues have been fixed in several locations
• Bocage
  • Bullet penetration issues for certain walls have been fixed
  • MK2 Frag Grenade blast radius no longer affects players who should be protected by walls
• Red Star
  • Fixed a bug that resulted in lighting effects following the player like a spotlight around the map
• Berlin
  • Distracting and graphically incorrect shadows no longer appear under light fixtures
• Numa Numa
  • Removed invisible geo in Numa Numa that blocked bullets midair
• Gavutu
  • Fixed an issue in which an invisible wall remained after it was destroyed
• Demanysk
  • Demolition and Tactician Perks now operate as intended
• Sub Pens, Castle, Oasis, Das Haus
  • Fixed out-of-map exploits

Modes

• Control
  • Control is now live!
• Champion Hill
  • Players will no longer crash out of Champion Hill Duos, resulting in the closure of the entire game
  • Players can now access Scoreboard and Spectate Mode

UI/UX

• Users will no longer get errors saying they don’t have Crossplay permission when attempting to add other consoles to a party
• Flairs now appear with every Prestige level-up, and XP bars should reflect Prestige progression
• Duplicate Prestige icons have been fixed

CAMPAIGN

• Fixed a progression blocker in the Lady Nightingale level caused by an unresponsive character

ZOMBIES

Objectives

• Purge
  • Visibility improved in low light areas, making it more visually clear when capturing Control Runes.
  • The progress bar no longer overlaps various notifications such as Challenge Completions, Rank Ups, Weapon Level Ups, and more.
  • Professor Krafft will now acknowledge Purge objective completions.

Covenants

• Brimstone
  • Brimstone no longer damages zombies when the player is downed.
  • Brimstone has been adjusted to now only deal damage to zombies that are in the player’s line-of-sight.
• Dead Accurate
  • Launchers now work as intended with the Dead Accurate Covenant.
• Swift Vengeance
  • Updated the description of Swift Vengeance to reflect that only weapon damage is increased with the use of this Covenant.
  • Knives now work as intended with the Swift Vengeance Covenant.

Weapons

• Addressed an issue where weapons obtained from crates briefly displayed the wrong model when dropping.
• Addressed an issue where some Mystery Box weapons would appear with their magazine detached from the weapon.
• Addressed an issue that prevented players from loading into a match with their preferred custom reticle.
• Addressed an issue that incorrectly identified some Launcher damages as critical hits.

Gameplay

• Portals will now provide players with an opportunity to visit each destination before giving an option to return to the same location.
• Closed various exploits that prevented players from taking damage from zombies.

Challenges

• Melee Camo Challenges have been adjusted to count kills, not eliminations with the exception of Sturmkrieger Challenges.

UI

• Zone names have been added in places where they were absent from the map.
• The in-game scoreboard now shows the player in the correct ranking.
• Addressed an issue with overlapping scoreboard UI.

Audio

• Addressed an issue in which Operator and Announcer voice communications could compete with each other.

Subtitles / Text

• Multiple fixes for subtitles when players select the English language setting.
• Multiple fixes for voice lines and subtitles when players select the German language setting.
• Multiple fixes for text descriptions when players select the Brazilian Portuguese language setting.
• Multiple fixes for subtitles when players select the Polish language setting.

Stability

• Addressed an issue that would sometimes kick a player to the main Zombies menu when Copying and Replacing loadouts.
• Various stability fixes.