Vanguard Mid-Season Update Patch Notes: Fixes & new Zombies content

Vanguard's mid-season update has just dropped and there's a lot to unpack. Vanguard Zombies has the most content, but Sledgehammer Games haven't forgotten about Multiplayer. Here's what we know about Season One Reloaded and everything that's been added to Vanguard in the latest title update.

FULL PATCH NOTES - What's arrived?

Multiplayer Updates

Stability Changes

• Several sources of packet burst have been identified and resolved
• Several sources of Multiplayer crash errors have been identified and resolved
• Xbox Series X players will no longer experience game crashing with CDN setting enabled
• Playing with keyboard and mouse will no longer result in a ‘controller needed’ message

Spawn Logic Changes

• Spawn logic has been tuned to improve small maps with higher player counts
• Adjusted spawn logic for Domination on Dome
• Spawns in Control mode have been significantly adjusted to:
  • Prevent out-of-map spawns on Tuscan
  • Prevent spawning in the enemy’s line-of-sight on Bocage
  • Prevent players from spawning directly on teammates

Weapons & Equipment Bug Fixes

• Attack / Guard Dog kills now count towards Panzerfaust Camo Challenges
• STG "Reptilian" Camo Weapon Challenge is now tracking Bloodthirsty kills
• STG "Predatory" Camo Weapon Challenge is now tracking Multikills
• Katana unlock Challenge is now tracking properly
• 3-Line Rifle can now be reloaded with the ZF4 3.5X Rifle Scope equipped
• Addressed an issue that prevented the "Kill an Enemy While They Have a Spy Plane Active 5 Times" challenge from tracking in the Counter Measures career challenges
• Addressed an issue where care packages would land out of reach when playing Armageddon on Tuscan and Daus Haus
• Player selected camos will now appear during the match intro sequence
• Locked Camos and attachments can no longer be swapped onto unlocked weapons
• A bug resulting in missing Post-Match Flow has been fixed
• A bug resulting in Type 100 Blueprint “Thunderhead” being invisibly in the pre-match countdown has been fixed

Weapons & Equipment Balancing Changes

• Weapons
  • M1 Garand
    • Reduced Recoil
  • Type 99
    • Reduced Aim Flinch
    • Reduced ADS Time
    • Retain One Shot Kill potential for chest shots when smaller caliber ammo is used
  • 3-Line Rifle
    • Reduced ADS Time
  • Kar98
    • Retain One Shot Kill potential for chest shots when smaller caliber ammo is used
• Ammo
  • Hollow Points
    • Removed damage range penalties
• Equipment
  • Stun Grenade
    • Reduced Stun Grenade damage in Hardcore modes
    • Reduced how long players are affected by Stun Grenades
  • Incendiary Grenade
    • Damage has been reduced
• Killstreaks
  • Mortar Barrage
    • Duration of Mortar Strike has been reduced
    • Number of Mortar Strikes per streak has been reduced
    • Addressed issue where Mortar Barrage deployment was inconsistent
• Perks
  • High Alert
    • Slight delay added before Perk activates after being seen by an enemy
  • Dauntless
    • Gives immunity to fire and burning effects including Incendiary Rounds, Flamenaut, and lingering fire on the ground
  • Fortified
    • Reduces fire damage taken by 30%
    • Reduces excessive damage of all explosives

Maps Changes

• Polish pass to improve and fix player collision issues with map environments
• Overall polish pass on Destructibles throughout all maps

UI Changes

• "Seasonal Challenge" menu is now present in the Challenges tab
• Players will no longer experience visual rank swapping between players in Private Matches
• The Objective progression bar will no longer clips into reticles
• Unintended distortion of MVP images has been fixed
• The continuous post-game level-up animation when players reach Prestige 3 has been fixed
• Store: menu navigation has improved when viewing and toggling between Bundles

Zombies Updates

Survival Gameplay added

• Void
  • Survival gameplay comes to “Shi No Numa” in the Void, accessed from Von List’s Office in Stalingrad.
  • Rounds are advanced by defeating increasingly difficult endless waves of zombies, rather than by completing Objectives.
  • After completing 3 rounds in the Void, players must choose to Flee or Survive. Choosing Survive continues to spawn waves of zombies until players choose to escape, or if the game ends when all players go down.
  • Players earn 5,000 bonus Essence for every 3 rounds completed in the Void.
  • After surviving 12 rounds in the Void, players earn a reward that prevents Perks from dropping below Tier II upon going down for the rest of the match.
  • The Pack-a-Punch machine is available in “Shi No Numa” when in the Void.
  • Players can return to Stalingrad to upgrade their Perks, Covenants, and Artifacts after surviving 3 rounds in the Void, and can return to the Void at any time.

New Locations

• Von List’s Office
  • Explore this previously closed-off area of Stalingrad to discover new narrative intel and the portal to the Void.

New Features

• Tome of Rituals
  • Invest Sacrificial Hearts at the new Tome of Rituals to upgrade Artifacts up to four tiers in-game.

Tome of Rituals Artifact Upgrades

• Frost Blast
  • Tier I – Freezes normal and Special enemies for 3 seconds once they have been in the Frost Blast zone for 0.5 second.
  • Tier II – Increases the Frost Blast radius by 100%.
  • Tier III – Increases the number of charges from 1 to 3.
  • Tier IV – Frozen normal enemies are insta-killed when damaged.
• Energy Mine
  • Tier I – Stuns normal and Special enemies hit by Energy Mine for 3 seconds.
  • Tier II – Explodes 3 times in a row with a 0.75 second delay between explosions.
  • Tier III – Increases the number of charges from 1 to 3.
  • Tier IV – Increases the explosion radius by 66%.
• Aether Shroud
  • Tier I – Automatically reload weapons when activated.
  • Tier II – Deal 500% bonus melee damage while active.
  • Tier III – Gain 50% move speed while active. Duration extended from 5 seconds to 8 seconds.
  • Tier IV – Increases the number of charges from 1 to 2.
• Ring of Fire
  • Tier I – Normal enemies inside the ring take damage equal to 2% of their max HP every second.
  • Tier II – Players within the ring use ammo from stock.
  • Tier III – Staying within the ring for up to 10 seconds increases the duration from 15 seconds to 20 seconds.
  • Tier IV – Staying within the ring for up to 10 seconds increases your damage bonus from +50% to +75%.

Pack-a-Punch Camos added

• Three unique camos added to the Pack-a-Punch machine.
• Weapon camo will now change in appearance with each Pack-a-Punch upgrade up to Tier III.
• Pre-Packed loot weapons will display Pack-a-Punch camos after being picked up from Sturmkreigers or the Mystery Box.

Weapons Changes

• Combat Shield
  • Now available in Zombies loadouts and the Mystery Box.
  • Mitigates a portion of damage from the direction the player is facing when raised. Cannot break.
  • Protects the player’s back from partial rear damage when stowed.

New Weapon Unlock Challenges

• New weapon unlock challenges added to Zombies for the Katana melee weapon and new Welgun SMG via Create-a-Class:
  • Katana: In Zombies, get 5 rapid kills with a Melee weapon during 50 different Portal Objectives.
  • Welgun: In Zombies, get 5 rapid Critical Kills with an SMG during 50 different Portal Objectives.

Support Weapons added

• Warmachine and Deathmachine now available in the Support tab at the Crafting Table.

When do the Patch Notes drop?

Vanguard's next update is rumoured to be dropping on January 11th due to the wording of the following Treyarch tweet.

However, Call of Duty title updates are often released a little later than this. We know they don't need to follow a schedule, but more often than not, they do. With this in mind, we could see the update released at one of the following times:

• 21:00 PST - January 10th
• 00:00 EST - January 11th
• 05:00 GMT - January 11th
  • OR
• 21:00 PST - January 12th
• 00:00 EST - January 13th
• 05:00 GMT - January 13th

What to expect from Season One Reloaded?

Earlier in the year, Treyarch teased some new features coming to Vanguard Zombies and we're expecting to see a lot of them introduced in the Season One Reloaded update and detailed in the associated Patch Notes.

This means we should see the following added to Vanguard Zombies this week:

• New Der Anfang Location
  • Von List's Office being added to Der Anfang map as portal-accessible area;
• Tome of Rituals Feature
  • This is expected to be introducing a Dark Aether artefact upgrade feature;
• New Weapons
  • This will include craftable Support Killstreaks and a Mystery Box update;
• New Zombies Challenges
  • Weapon Unlock Challenges will include Zombies-based alternative;
• Server Pause Features
  • This should work with both multiplayer and solo Zombies games;

Discussing Vanguard's multiplayer, we're not sure what to expect. We could see a new multiplayer map released, but there's nothing to say we're expecting one. Rumours are circulating that Gun Game is going to be added as a featured playlist, but there's no solid evidence to support this is arriving specifically in the next update.

In addition to all this, we're expecting to see some bug fixes and balancing updates - Sledgehammer Games has already specifically mentioned changes being introduced to the fire mechanics in-game. You can check that out below:

" First and foremost, we're nerfing Incendiary Grenades by reducing the overall damage dealt. That means if you’re running through them in Core Modes, they’ll still be painful, but you’ll recover.

" We’re also going to give players two new ways to fight fire with Fortified and Dauntless.

" Fortified will significantly reduce incoming fire damage, including the initial effects of getting hit with a Molotov. Dauntless will grant immunity when moving through fire. It will not protect against initial impact, like direct damage from the Flamnaut.

" The original goal of the Incendiary Grenade was to close off space, but unfortunately, it wasn’t properly balanced for small maps. We are confident this first wave of changes will have a positive impact on using and dealing with Incendiaries and fire damage.

" At a later time, we will also reduce the area affected by Incendiary Grenades' smoke and flame. This will make them ideal for blocking lines of sight in doors and lanes throughout smaller maps. More to come on this later."