Call of Duty: Vanguard has not been on the market for long and slowly it is becoming clear which weapons and equipment are strong. One attachment, however, exaggerates a bit after the release and gives 3 weapons an advantage over the competition.
Which attachment is it? It is the attachment “Vital” from the “Perk” category. In Call of Duty: Vanguard, you can equip up to 10 attachments on your weapons, and with the Perk attachments you receive passive bonuses like faster reloading or increased flinch resistance when hit by enemy bullets.
Vital offers you an exciting property that turns out to be too strong after the release: The hit zone for headshots expands, and you also deal full headshot damage to the chest area.
Vital increases headshot area with all benefits
Which weapons benefit from this? The attachment is only available for a handful of weapons, including some sniper rifles and marksman rifles. However, two assault rifles and a submachine gun also have the attachment in the lineup:
- Assault rifle: StG 44
- Assault rifle: Itra Burst
- Submachine gun: Type 100
And here the problems start. Because while you have only moderate advantages with the long-range rifles, Vital gives you a significant advantage with these three weapons, which is currently “overpowered”.
With the OP attachment, you reduce your required shots for a kill just by hitting the chest, and especially the StG 44 stands out from the competitors in its weapon class. The StG is considered one of the strongest weapons after launch even without “Vital”.
Why is this so strong? On one hand, because the headshot multiplier in Vanguard is comparatively high. Players with a high headshot percentage have an optimal playground in Vanguard.
On the other hand, because chest hits are quite easy to achieve. This is the area most players aim for with their bullets and where they also land hits.
With all 3 weapons, you thus reduce the time-to-kill with just one chest hit and don’t even have to aim for the head. It doesn’t even matter how the other hits land, as long as one hits the chest:
TTK with a chest hit – First damage area
- StG 44 without Vital: 4 shots / 300 milliseconds
- StG 44 with Vital: 3 shots / 200 milliseconds
- Type 100 without Vital: 5 shots / 320 milliseconds
- Type 100 with Vital: 4 shots / 240 milliseconds
With the Type 100, the time-to-kill even drops to 160 milliseconds if you hit 3 bullets in the chest. Overall, this makes the SMG very strong and likely even the best weapon in its class. However, the Type 100 is more specialized for control and thus does not immediately outshine everything else in damage.
With the Itra Burst, you actually need to hit all 4 bullets from the burst for a kill. However, due to the “vital” chest hit, only 3 bullets from the burst are sufficient. While you do not reduce the time-to-kill, you increase the chance to send enemies directly back to spawn with the first burst.
If you want to see a quick analysis of the OP attachment, we embed the English video from CoD expert “TheXclusiveAce” here:
Will this stay the same? Especially the StG 44 stands out from its competition due to the advantages of “Vital” and is therefore too strong. It is very likely that adjustments will be made, and with the first balance patch, the “fun” could be over. Since you only unlock the attachment relatively late, you need to grind the weapon a bit to benefit from “Vital”.
By the way, with Vanguard you can also level your operators for the first time and earn many cosmetics: CoD Vanguard: All Operators at launch – How to unlock them and what can be leveled
