CoD Vanguard Season 1.5 update patch notes: Sniper buffs, Incendiary nerfs, more

Call of Duty: Vanguard developers Sledgehammer Games have released a major January 11 update with a number of weapon buffs, fire nerfs, and plenty of bug fixes all crammed into the Season 1.5 patch. We’ve got the full patch notes below to get you up to speed.

The CoD Vanguard Season 1.5 update was rushed out ahead of schedule at 4PM PT on Tuesday, January 11. From bug fixes to sizeable gameplay tweaks, there’s plenty to wrap your head around.

Notably, the update buffed a number of snipers, nerfed incendiary damage, and sought to fix a number of dreaded packet burst issues. After Season 1’s unideal reception, these changes appear to be a step in the right direction.

On January 11, Sledgehammer broke down the full update that arrived as part of Vanguard Season 1.5.

CoD Vanguard incendiary nerfs

Fire ammunition rounds have become a serious cause for concern among Call of Duty players.

While this is particularly prominent in Warzone, the issue also exists in Vanguard. To address the controversy, incendiary damage was nerfed and Dauntless was buffed to counter fire.

CoD Vanguard Sniper buffs and Shotgun nerfs

Music to the ears of many players, a number of weapon balancing changes also arrived in the new update.

• Read More: Major Vanguard visibility bug is making matches completely unplayable

Of note, the M1 Garand, Type 99, 3-Line Rifle, and Kar98 all received buffs. Additionally, Hollow Point also had its damage range buffed – likely in response to the close-quarters shotgun meta.

Activision

Vanguard’s 3-Line Rifle was one of the snipers buffed in the Season 1.5 update.

CoD Vanguard Mortar Barrage & perk changes

The Mortar Barrage has come under fire as a seriously frustrating killstreak, with some players even begging for the streak to be removed entirely. Instead, Vanguard’s devs have opted to reduce the killstreak’s duration and the number of strikes in the latest update.

Further, a number of perks have been tweaked to change the flow of games. High Alert received a nerf while Dauntless and Fortified were both buffed.

Control, bug fixes, spawn changes

Preparing the game for better competitive play, a number of changes were also laid out to fix bugs and issues with the Control mode alongside bug fixes elsewhere.

• Read more: CoD Vanguard devs confirm Zombies pause feature finally coming

Spawn adjustments are sure to please competitive players, while a number of packet burst stability improvements and camo progression bug solutions should be of interest to everyone.

CoD Vanguard January 11, Season 1.5: full patch notes

MULTIPLAYER UPDATES

• 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 ‘controller needed’ message

• 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

• 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
  • 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

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

• “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