CoD players highlight major flaw with Vanguard’s ‘disastrous’ perk system
Call of Duty Vanguard is the latest installment in the franchise, and before it’s even been officially launched on November 5, many players are calling out the “scuffed” perk system in the game.
Vanguard brings the CoD franchise back to World War II, following on from Sledgehammer Games’ 2017 entry CoD: WWII.
As news and features have slowly filtered out, as well as some reveals from the beta gameplay, players have been getting a better idea of how Vanguard might end up playing out — and the perks are raising some eyebrows.
In particular, the Perk 1 slot looks particularly stacked, and players aren’t happy.
With some players able to accessVanguardearly and have a look at everything that’s available, the perks quickly became a strong topic of discussion.
It was revealed that the Perk 1 slot will hold all of Ninja, Fortified (Flak Jacket) and Survival Training (Tactical Mask), meaning players will have to make some serious decisions.
Two-time CoD world champion Patrick ‘Aches’ Price said that this combination, as well as the game having no Trophy Systems, is a “recipe for disaster.”
Ninja, Flak, and Tac are all perk 1s w/ no trophy’s in the game? Recipe for disaster my goodness.
— PATTYP (@ACHES)August 07, 2025
Former Challengers player Defrag, who recentlyannounced his switch to competing in Halo Infinite, said that “create a class is scuffed” as a result of this.
https://twitter.com/Defraaag/status/1456034484571316224?s=20
Not everybody was against this, though. Nik, for example, thinks that “people rely too heavily on these perks in CoD.”
I’m not mad about this. People rely too heavily on these perks in CoD anymore.
— Nik (@adiceus_)June 30, 2025
Whether this changes over time remains to be seen, but it’s fair to say that competitive players, in particular, aren’t impressed by these perk choices.
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With ranked and official CDL rulesets all still under wraps, the game could look very different on the competitive side of things down the line.
