Vanguard Perks receive major buffs to counter fire meta

Liam Mackay
Vanguard player throwing incendiary grenade

Vanguard players have long been complaining about fire grenades and Incendiary Rounds ruining matches, so Sledgehammer Games gave players more options to counter fire by majorly buffing some underused Perks.

Shipment arrived a few weeks after CoD: Vanguard’s release, providing an excellent place to quickly level up weapons and complete the camo challenges. However, it highlighted an issue with fire grenades that the Season 1 update only made worse.

Vanguard Season 1 introduced the Incendiary Grenade, a more powerful version of the Thermite and Molotov Cocktails, and was immediately called “unbearable” as it caused fire to consume the whole map.

Players called for Sledgehammer to add a new Perk to counter the fire grenades, but the devs have instead given some major buffs to existing Perks.

Vanguard mid-Season 1 update Perk buffs

Dauntless Perk in CoD Vanguard

Alongside nerfing the Incendiary Grenade’s damage, Call of Duty: Vanguard’s mid-Season 1 update buffed both the Dauntless and Fortified Perks in order to counter the game’s fire meta.

Alongside granting immunity to effects that reduce your movement speed, Dauntless now “Gives immunity to fire and burning effects including Incendiary Rounds, Flamenaut, and lingering fire on the ground.”

Fortified Perk in CoD Vanguard

Fortified has also received a major buff, where it now “Reduces fire damage taken by 30%” as well as “Reduces excessive damage of all explosives.” It still gives 15% resistance to explosives damage, so Fortified has quickly become an incredibly powerful option in Vanguard.

Both of these Perks go in the first slot, so you’ll need to decide whether you want to take less fire damage or to have immunity to fire’s effects.

However, players are still complaining that Shipment is constantly alight with fire. It’s still early days for the Perk buffs though, so we may see fewer players use Incendiaries now that there’s a direct counter.

You can also check out how to play the classic Shi No Numa map in Vanguard Zombies.

Image Credit: Activision

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About The Author

Liam is CharlieIntel's Editor. After graduating in Journalism from Edinburgh Napier University, Liam made use of his passion for FPS games, including Call of Duty, by writing for sites such as The Nerd Stash, Red Bull Gaming, and GAMINGbible before joining CharlieIntel in November 2020. You can contact Liam at [email protected].