CoD: Vanguard Season 2: Patch notes, release date, more

Liam Mackay
Vanguard Operators on new season 2 map

Call of Duty: Vanguard’s next major content drop will arrive with Season 2, so here’s everything about it including the patch notes, start date, and expected content.

Vanguard has carried on Call of Duty’s live service approach to content, bringing new maps, weapons, and Operators with seasonal updates. Season 1 has come and gone leaving players looking forward to what’s arriving in Season 2.

Here’s everything we know about Vanguard Season 2, including its start date, expected content, Ranked Mode, and official patch notes

Vanguard Season 2 release date & time

Vanguard Season 2 Operators at war.

Following the announcement of a slight delay, Vanguard Season 2 will arrive on February 14, 2022.

Vanguard’s Season 2 update will be available for download on February 10 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET / 5 PM GMT. However, the new season will only start on February 14.

Three new Operators in Vanguard Season 2

Three new Operators will be joining the fight in Vanguard under Task Force Yeti. Austrian assaulter Anna Drake will make her appearance at the start of Season 2 while Thomas Bolt and Gustavo Dos Santos will arrive during the new season.

All three Operators look like fearsome additions to the current selection. Players should expect some cool new skins to accompany these new faces throughout Season 2.

New weapons coming to Vanguard Season 2

Vanguard Armaguerra 43 SMG

Four new weapons will be making their way to Vanguard during Season 2 “Unlock the KG M40 Assault Rifle and Whitley LMG on day one through the Battle Pass; then prepare to add the Ice Axe and a prototypical SMG as you settle into Season Two.”

The SMG is called the Armaguerra 43 and it boasts an incredibly high rate of fire. New weapons often shake up the existing meta so keep your eyes peeled for these additions.

Vanguard Season 2 new maps

Gondola map Vanguard

Vanguard continues to take players around the world as it provides two new Multiplayer maps. Gondola will take players to frigid European mountains, while Casablanca will transport players to the African desert.

Both maps are being advertised as medium-sized three-lane maps and players are excited to test them out.

New game modes coming to Vanguard Season 2

It seems as though, Vanguard Season 2 will add two new games modes to the Multiplayer experience. The first is the highly-anticipated Ranked Play that players have been waiting for since launch. Ranked Play will launch in Beta at the start of the season and receive any necessary tweaks along the way.

Players will also receive a mysterious “Arms Race” mode later in Season 2. As of now, we don’t know what this new mode will entail but players who were hoping for Ground War may receive a tweaked version instead.

Gameplay adjustments & additions in Vanguard Season 2

Sticky Bomb Vanguard

Season 2 of Vanguard will add two new Perks, a new killstreak, and a new piece of lethal equipment to the Multiplayer experience.

The Armory Perk is “A direct counter-Perk to Engineer, Armory is ideal for Operators who use more than just their weaponry in combat, namely placeable Demolition Charges, concussion mines, and placeable Field Equipment pieces.”

While the Mechanic Perk adds a buff to Field Upgrade recharge time. The Sticky Bomb equipment returns to CoD and veteran players will remember just how devastating it can be.

Lastly, the Ball Turret Gunner is also returning to Vanguard from CoD WWII. This killstreak will allow players to operate a deadly Turret if they manage to land 12 kills in a row.

Vanguard Season 2 update patch notes

Legendary tier 100 skin vanguard season 2

New Maps: 

  • Casablanca
  • Gondola

New Mode: 

  • Ranked Play Beta. 
  • Arms Race (more to come later in the season!)

New Killstreak:

  • Ball Turret Gunner for 12-kill streak 

New Lethal Equipment:

  • Sticky Bomb: A grenade that sticks to surfaces before detonating.

New Perks:

  • Armory – Perk 1: A direct counter-Perk to Engineer, Armory is ideal for Operators who use more than just their weapons in combat, namely placeable Demolition Charges, concussion mines, and placeable Field Equipment pieces.
  • Mechanic – Perk 3: Mechanic provides a reasonable buff to Field Upgrade charge time, making it a must-have for completing challenges related to them or for Operators who love using them.

Upcoming Seasonal Event:

  • Valentine’s Event – Feb. 11-17
Vanguard Operator with Whitley LMG

MULTIPLAYER UPDATES

Stability

  • Made several improvements to player textures and animations that resulted in Packet Burst spikes. 
  • Stability improvements should result in better connectivity and lower crash rates. The time to connect to Online Services should also be reduced.   
  • Fixed a bug that resulted in disconnecting during MVP Highlight Animations.

Maps

  • General
    • A thorough pass on map environments has been completed to fix objects with unintended collision, issues with portaling through the ground, and to remove out-of-map exploits.
  • Champion Hill
    • There will no longer be two consecutive buy rounds at the beginning of every Champion Hill Duos 2v2 private match.
    • A bug has been resolved that resulted in players losing Perk and Field Upgrade functionality in Private Matches if they played a match in Champion Hill previously.
    • Spawn improvements have been made for teams of three.

Modes

  • Control
    • Fixed a bug that resulted in matches ending prematurely after a spectator disconnects.
    • Late match joiners are now able to spawn in when lives are available.
    • Swapping to spectate/different teams now consistently updates the lives left.
    • The last player alive warning now consistently appears.
  • Private Matches
    • Silent Plant Option now works in Search and Destroy Private matches (fixed Feb 3rd).

Progression

  • Seasonal Challenges
    • All players can now unlock Season 1 Mastery Cards after completing all challenges.
    • Field Specialist challenge is now tracking for all players.
    • Counter Measures challenges are now tracking consistently for all players.
  • Operator Challenges
    • The Diamond operator skins will now unlock for Barbarian and Shadow operators.
  • Welgun 
    • Gold and Diamond camos are now unlockable after completing all weapon Challenges.
  • Launchers 
    • Ground based Killlstreaks now count towards the ‘Deadeye’ camo.

Weapon Adjustments

  • Combat Shield
    • Fixed a bug that exposed player’s heads to damage above the shield.
  • Throwing Knife
    • Distortion VFX have been removed.

Equipment

  • Incendiary Grenade
    • Fixed a bug that caused additionally visuals to appear when Incendiary Grenades are used.
    • Number of Incendiary Grenade uses are now tracked in your combat record.

Perks

  • Dauntless
    • Suppression no longer applies to players with the Dauntless perk when the player is hit by shots.
  • Engineer
    • Players are no longer able to see an enemy Goliath’s diamond through walls without the Engineer perk.

Killstreaks

  • Glide Bomb
    • Fixed a bug that resulted in graphical corruption when Attack Dogs were killed by a Glide Bomb.
  • Mortar Barrage
    • Fixed a bug that resulted in the flare and smoke VFX from previously called-in Mortar Barrages temporarily re-appear.
    • Deploying the Mortar Barrage will no longer force-switch the player’s weapon.
  • Flamenaut
    • Activating the killstreak and getting killed at the same time will now grant you the killstreak.

Field Upgrade

  • Fix a bug with Deployable Cover that resulted in constant screen shake.

Bundles & MTX

  • Attack on Titan
    • Fixed a bug that resulted in missing VFX on the Kar98k.
  • Year of the Tiger  
    • Players who purchased this Bundle but did not receive the Tiger Blueprint, should now have the item.
  • Red Reactor Mastercraft 
    • Tracers are now displayed on weapons as intended.
  • Graveyard Shift Mastercraft
    • “Ashed” tracers will now display correctly when applied to the Ore Sniper Rifle.
  • Animalistic
    • Fixed a lighting bug with the Aquatint SMG that cause unintended lighting effect.
  • Santa Slay
    • The Lucas Operator outfit, “Yarn Burner”, is no longer invisible for some players.

UI/UX

  • A bug has been fixed that stopped players being unable to select a weapon when editing Prestige weapon classes.
  • Prestige player progression is now viewable and tracking properly.
  • Watch preview is no longer missing from the Battle Pass menu.

Misc

  • A bug resulting in Play of the Game not playing or ending early has been fixed.
  • Quips no longer play after an Operator is dead.
  • Free Trial players should no longer encounter the error “This content is only available in the full game.

Also, if you prefer battle royale or Vanguard Zombies to classic multiplayer, you can check out everything we know about Warzone’s Season 2 update and Vanguard Season 2 Zombies.

Source: Call of Duty blog / Sledgehammer Games

Image Credit: Activision

About The Author

Liam is CharlieIntel's Editor who focuses on Call of Duty but also plays lots of fantasy RPGs or anything else in his massive gaming backlog. After graduating in Journalism from Edinburgh Napier University, Liam freelanced in games journalism before joining CharlieIntel in November 2020. You can contact Liam at [email protected].