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With just about a week to go until Call of Duty: Vanguard’s launch, Sledgehammer gave players a huge info dump about the upcoming title’s progression systems, launch roadmap, changes from the beta, and more. Additionally, they revealed that Warzone: Pacific will launch on December 2, the same date that Season One officially goes live for Vanguard.
Sledgehammer has already detailed the storage requirements and preload dates for Vanguard, but this roadmap outlines what players can expect during the game’s first month.
- – October 28 (Console) and November 2 (PC): Call of Duty: Vanguard Pre-Loading Begins – Pre-order now to get your game ready to play immediately at launch, in addition to numerous bonuses across Vanguard, Black Ops Cold War, and Warzone.
- – November 5: Call of Duty: Vanguard Launch – Expect epic experiences on all fronts with Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies. Additionally, RICOCHET Anti-Cheat begins its implementation with server-side initiatives.
- – November 5 to December 2: Preseason in Vanguard – Access to Free Vanguard Tiers on the Black Ops Cold War Season Six Battle Pass System continues. Then on November 17, prepare to ship off to a fan-favorite map.
- – November 18: Operation: Flashback Begins in Warzone – An encore limited-time mode for Verdansk, celebrating its past 18 months of hosting over 100 million players strong in Warzone. Ready for your last dance in Verdansk?
- – November 24: Uncover the “Secrets of the Pacific” – Get intel on Caldera and its new points of interest through this event’s Warzone and Vanguard Multiplayer challenges.
- – November 30 and December 1: Last Hours of Verdansk. – Bombs away – see what happens to Verdansk before Warzone goes dark to prepare for Caldera and Season One.
- – December 2: Season One Begins – Vanguard players get new Multiplayer maps, 24 hours of exclusive access to Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific and more to kick off Season One. All players can enjoy a new Battle Pass system and two free functional weapons. Plus: RICOCHET Anti-Cheat’s driver begins its rollout in Warzone.
Call of Duty Vanguard Launch
At launch, players will have access to Call of Duty: Vanguard’s campaign, Zombies, and Multiplayer experiences. Treyarch returns for Zombies to develop Der Anfang, a prequel to Black Ops Cold War’s Dark Aether storyline. Zombies mode also combines lessons learned from round based maps and the more freeform objectives of Outbreak. The campaign will introduce players to the story of Task Force One before they go on to play as these Operators in Multiplayer.
Multiplayer
At launch, Vanguard will have the following modes in both core and hardcore playlists:
- Free for All
- Team Deathmatch
- Kill Confirmed
- Domination
- Search & Destroy
- Hardpoint
- Patrol
Sledgehammer promises additional modes including “two newer ones that recently became a competitive standard and a small-team tactical mainstay respectively,” are coming following launch at some point. Core playlists can be played on 16 maps spanning five continents.
- Battle of Berlin
- Bocage
- Castle
- Das Haus
- Decoy
- Demyansk
- Desert Siege
- Dome
- Eagle’s Nest
- Gavutu
- Hotel Royal
- Numa Numa
- Oasis
- Red Star
- Sub Pens
- Tuscany
Via Quick Play, players can target the exact pacing of gameplay they want through the Combat Pacing feature.
- Tactical: These are the lobbies that franchise veterans know well. This is the experience that you’re used to with familiar Call of Duty combat timing. Tactical Combat Pacing always has a 12-player maximum in matches for traditional 6v6 play.
- Assault: Balanced combat pacing that gives you enough room to breathe and a lot of targets to kill. A middle ground between Tactical and Blitz featuring matches with 14 to 36 players (7v7 to 18v18) depending on the size of the map.
- Blitz: High-action lobbies where the intensity is cranked up to frenetic levels. Prepare for plenty of combat when choosing to join a Blitz, as matches here range from 16 to 48 players (8v8 to 24v24) depending on the size of the map.
Champion Hill rounds out the game modes with the multi-arena Champion Hill, which mixes survival like gameplay with small scale tournament battles on unique maps built just for this mode. Private matches will also be supported at launch.
Call of Duty Vanguard Operators
Vanguard will launch will 12 new Operators, including the four members of Task Force One that make up the campaign. Each member of the team leads another Task Force with two additional members. Bolded members are core Task Force One Operators:
Hellhounds
- Wade Jackson – Italian American Hellhounds Leader
- Daniel Yatsu – Japanese American Infantryman
- Halima Zombardi – Italian Somalian Resistance Fighter
Sentinel
- Arthur Kingsley – British Cameroon Sentinel Leader
- Constanze Trude Muller – German Axis Defector
- Padmavati Balan – Indian National Infantry
Barbarian
- Lucas Riggs – Australian Barbarians Leader
- Roland Zeimet – Luxembourger Axis Defector
- Beatrice Mercier – French Resistance Fighter
Shadow
- Polina Petrova – Russian Shadow Leader
- Shigenori Ota – Japanese Navy Defector
- Solange Hardewijk – Dutch Aruban SOE Agent
Operators will have additional skins and customization options at launch, including the new “quips” system that shows off more of the Operator’s personality in combat.
Further, each Operator will no have progression as well. ” All 12 Operators at launch and others to come — can be leveled up to unlock new Skins, including special Gold attire, Weapon XP for specific weapons, and more. Use their Favorite Weapon to earn bonus Weapon and Operator XP.”
Call of Duty Vanguard Weapons and Loadouts
Launch brings more than three dozen weapons, with a new Gunsmith that allows up to 10 attachments and customization points on most weapons. They’ve previously detailed how weapon attachments will impact DualSense adaptive trigger response as well.
- 7 Assault Rifles
- 6 SMGs
- 4 Shotguns
- 3 Marksman Rifles
- 3 Sniper Rifles
- 5 Handguns
- 4 Launchers
- 2 Melee Tools (Combat Shield and FS Fighting Knife)
There are also three perk slots with six perks each for 18 total perks to choose from, and more than 40 weapon perks vie proficiencies and kits. Finally, more than a dozen Killstreaks round out the package. Yes, Vanguard is returning to Killstreaks rather than continuing Black Ops Cold War’s Scorestreak system.
Progression will follow Black Ops Cold War, with 55 base ranks to unlock weapons and loadout items, followed by the Seasonal Prestige System that will return with Season One when it launches on December 2.
RICOCHET Anti-Cheat
The server side systems of RICOCHET Anti-Cheat will be active in Vanguard multiplayer at launch, with the kernel-level driver to launch with Warzone: Pacific on December 2.
Road to Season One
Even if Season One doesn’t launch until December 2, that doesn’t mean November will be dull. The road to Season One is filled with events.
A Vanguard version of the classic tiny Call of Duty map Shipment will be added to the game in mid-November, while the Secrets of the Pacific limited-time event will bring challenges to both Warzone and Vanguard as they prepare to end Verdansk and bring the new Pacific map to Warzone.
To celebrate and send off Verdansk, beginning November 18th, “Operation: Flashback” will be a limited-time mode “featuring plenty of surprises that cover Verdansk’s action-packed history.” Players can earn a unique emblem for participating and an animated emblem if they claim victory in the event.
Secrets of the Pacific is a limited-time event starting November 24th that grants new information about Warzone: Pacific prior to its launch. More information is coming on this Beenox-developed event in mid-November.
And finally, starting November 30, the destruction of Verdansk begins…
Call of Duty Vanguard and Warzone Season One Intel
We still have November to get through, but here are some teasers for what’s coming in Season One on December 2.
Warzone: Pacific’s new map is called Caldera. “Caldera’s only true comparison to Verdansk is its scale. This brand-new map, built on learnings from the community, is launching with Season One. Lush forests and rocky crags. White sand beaches and mysterious ruins. And a dormant volcano that towers over the 200-plus points of interest.” This isn’t a simple ’80s makeover. This is a whole new map.
Notably, Warzone will also get a name change to Warzone Pacific. They also mention cross-gen support, which seems to indicate Warzone Pacific getting a native PS5/Xbox Series X version, and potentially breaking free of the Modern Warfare application.
While Warzone Pacific will remain free-to-play, Vanguard owners will get 24 hours of exclusive early access to the new map. They’ve also teased dogfighting in planes, AA guns to take them down, as well as confirming that all of your existing cosmetics and earned items from Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War will carry over.
To help rein in some of the weaponry, new Vanguard modes at launch will limit loadouts to Vanguard weaponry, which should streamline the meta in place. However, your older Operators can be used in the Vanguard playlists, so if you want to be Billy the Puppet or Bruce Willis in Warzone Pacific, go for it.
Legacy content (except the Verdansk map, of course) will be available in both the new Caldera map and Rebirth Island via legacy playlists called Standard and Rebirth Island.
And that’s not all! In Vanguard, Season One will herald the arrival of three new Multiplayer maps, three all-new Operators, additional new Zombies content, new weapons, and more. It will also bring the Vanguard Warzone Pacific Battle Pass for Season One.
More intel is available on the Call of Duty blog if you want additional specifics. For now, we have mere days until the launch of Call of Duty Vanguard on November 5th, and then the road to Season One begins.
[Source: Call of Duty]