Vanguard dev explains how WWII weapons will be balanced in Warzone Pacific Caldera

Nathan Warby
Vanguard MP40 and Warzone Pacific map

With Warzone Pacific Caldera dropping later this year, Vanguard devs had to think about the battle royale when designing the new WWII weapons. Here’s how they will be balanced when they come to Warzone in December.

Call of Duty: Vanguard has landed, and fans are getting to grips with the fresh batch of World War II weapons that are new to the game.

But the new guns don’t just have to work in Vanguard’s Multiplayer, they also have to fit into Warzone Pacific when they are integrated into Season 1.

A developer working on Vanguard has now explained how the WWII weapons will be balanced before they drop in Caldera.

Warzone Pacific map

Sledgehammer has introduced a whopping 38 new weapons to the series with Vanguard, and Lead Designer Zach Hodson told Dexerto how they took Warzone into account.

He said that every gun was “purpose-built” for Vanguard, but the team has been keeping a “separate balance sheet to track how things might work in Warzone.”

The dev explained that the WWII setting means that the weapons have to function in a certain way to fit the theme, but this may not translate well to Warzone when you consider the number of modern weapons that are already in the game.

Vanguard character aiming Assault Rifle

“One bit of insight is that [Vanguard] guns have more recoil than you’ll have seen in previous CoD games,” he continued.

“So there’s a bit of adaptation that needs to go in on the Warzone side to bring the guns over in a similar way to what’s been done before with Cold War and Modern Warfare.”

Warzone already has over 100 weapons to choose from taken from the last three entries in the CoD series, and Vanguard will only expand the roster.

We’ll have to wait until after Warzone Pacific’s launch how to see how else the team has made the old-fashioned guns competitive against modern equipment.


For more on Warzone Pacific, check out the Caldera map revealed by an Activision executive, and how to play the new chapter of Warzone early.

Image credits: Activision

About The Author

Nathan is a Senior Writer for CharlieIntel and Dexerto, primarily covering FIFA and Call of Duty, as well as general gaming news and guides. After leaving university with a degree in Sports Studies and a master's degree in Magazine Journalism, he took on a role as a local news reporter before moving into games media. You can contact Nathan by email at [email protected].