Vanguard Season 2 Reloaded Zombies: New Covenants, pause feature, more

Liam Mackay
players fighting in vanguard zombies terra maledicta

Vanguard’s Season 2 Reloaded brings the new Arms Race mode to the game, but there are also a few updates for Zombies fans to enjoy, including new Covenants and the pause feature’s long-awaited arrival.

Although Vanguard players initially called the Zombies mode “embarrassing” for its lack of content, Treyarch have been building on the mode in each of the seasonal updates. It now has two maps, Wonder Weapons, and a Main Quest.

However, players have been desperate for the ability to pause the game, and the feature finally arrives in the Season 2 Reloaded update alongside new Covenants, a new Sacrifice Objective, and bug fixes.

Vanguard Zombies player shooting Ray Gun

New Vanguard Zombies Covenants

Vanguard Zombies Covenants are abilities players can purchase after completing objectives, and the Season 2 Reloaded update adds two more.

The Season 2 road map revealed that the Critical Expertise and Explosives Expert Covenants will arrive with the Season 2 Reloaded update. Critical Expertise increases the chances of a critical hit, and Explosives Expert does exactly what you’d expect, making your explosives more powerful.

You can check out both of the new Covenants and their abilities below:

Critical Expertise

  • Noncritical hits have a chance to become critical hits. Critical kills with Death Blow equipped will return ammo.
  • Rare: Noncritical hits have a 10% chance to be critical.
  • Epic: Noncritical hits have a 20% chance to be critical.
  • Legendary: Noncritical hits have a 30% chance to crit for 50% bonus damage.

Explosives Expert

  • Your explosions do more damage to the enemy and less damage to you. Splatterfest and Energy Mine explosion damage is increased. Ray Gun splash damage is not affected.
  • Rare: Your explosions do 50% more damage to the enemy and 50% less damage to you.
  • Epic: Your explosions do 75% more damage to the enemy and 75% less damage to you.
  • Legendary: Your explosions do 100% more damage to the enemy and 100% less damage to you.
vanguard zombies players fighting in terra maledicta

Dedicated server pause arrives in Vanguard Zombies

Usually an expected feature, Vanguard players were shocked when Zombies launched without a dedicated pause button, however, it will finally arrive with the Season 2 Reloaded update.

The devs confirmed that “Players in Solo matches and single-player Private matches will be able to pause for up to two hours collectively per match on dedicated servers, and can continue to pause indefinitely in Offline/Local matches.”

Vanguard Zombies Ray Gun and Decimator shield wonder weapons

New Vanguard Zombies Sacrifice Objective & bug fixes

While details are sparse at the moment, the devs confirmed that Vanguard Zombies players will “take on the new Sacrifice Objective in “Der Anfang” for a wider variety of challenges to take on,” and Treyarch will detail additional bug fixes.

We can expect more information when the official patch notes drop ahead of Vanguard’s update on March 22 at 9 AM PT.


If you’re looking for a more competitive way to play Vanguard, you can check out all of the changes coming to Ranked Play in Season 2 Reloaded.

Image Credit: Sledgehammer Games / Activision

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].