Call of Duty: Vanguard

To do: There may be more unused maps

Call of Duty: Vanguard is an interesting entry in the Call of Duty franchise and includes all your favorite World War II tropes, including cursed World War II weaponry, a Snoop Dogg tie-in, and Godzilla vs Kong.

Unused Weapons#

WEAPON_TUGOLF/ME_PDELTA

The Combat Record in an older build listed a weapon called "WEAPON_TUGOLF/ME_PDELTA" with the description of WEAPON_TUGOLF/DESC_ME_PDELTA. It uses the same icon as the FS Fighting Knife, so it is presumably a Melee weapon.

CHAUCHAT

Found in the Champion Hill Alpha files and added later in Season 5 but never used is the Chauchat French LMG (used as an assault rifle in the game), it is a very primitive weapon, with a un-textured model and using automaton animations, the description says: This automatic support weapon fires heavy rounds with good control but at a very low rate of fire. Headshots are extra effective. there are still some unfinished exclusive attachments that can be equipped on the weapon (screenshots credits goes to @z_bazz_ on X/Twitter)

Combat Knife#

This page or section has one or more broken YouTube links. Please find an archived version of the video(s) or a suitable replacement.

To do: Compare Combat Knife weapon file with Throwing Knife and mention notable differences.

Equipping the Throwing Knife replaces the player character's melee attack with a Throwing Knife melee attack. Strangely though, equipping the Deathmachine or Warmachine with the Throwing Knife equipped replaces the knife with the Combat Knife, an otherwise unused knife. It appears to be the same as the Throwing Knife except that its killfeed icon is that of the FS Fighting Knife. If the Combat Knife is thrown, the player character cannot melee.

Unused Weapon Functionality#

To do: According to this video, it also functions in Akimbo. Verify and add.

• The Double Barrel supports having 4 shells loaded at once instead of just 2. This can be done in-game via a glitch, explained in this video (2:06 - 2:52) that involves equipping 8mm Kurz 45 Round Drums on the shotgun. Oddly, doing this causes the attachment to show up as "Extended Magazines" in the Gunsmith, which suggests this functionality was part of a cut attachment.
• The single wield and Akimbo 1911s have a hip fire recoil cap that cannot be reached. This can be seen in this video (single wield) and this video (Akimbo).

Unused Attachments#

To do: Test in-game.

• Tactical Knife - Has an icon and a killfeed icon. Has internal files for being compatible with the 1911.

Unseen Content#

To do: Does the red line on Desert Siege circle the whole map?

• On the map Desert Siege a red line is placed far below the edge of the map. This can be seen here at 1:22.
• Underneath Das Haus is a development texture used to measure distance in 3D environments that Sledgehammer forgot to remove. This floor can be walked on. A video of this can be seen here.
• RATT:
  • When hip fired, the slide actually moves back, but this cannot be seen due to the speed of the animation.
  • The normal magazine of the RATT has a bullet at the top of the magazine that cannot be seen due to the speed of the reload animation.

Obscure Multiplayer Content#

Multiplayer contains some game mechanics that, while programmed to occur in-game, cannot be encountered or are so rare they essentially cannot be encountered.

Pre-Match Killcam#

If one is killed at the start of a match within a couple seconds of spawning, which is not normally possible, the killcam will show the crowd of players on the player's team at the start of the match. Everything appears normal except the camera is drawn way back. A video of this can be seen here.

Care Package Physics#

When a Care Package is in the air, missiles from launchers can push it and interrupt its spinning. This functionality ends up going unused due to there never being any reason to do this.

Flamenaut Flamethrower Use#

The Flamenaut's flamethrower can be used as soon as the killstreak is equipped despite the game suggesting that this is not possible.

Flamenaut Explosion#

While Flamenauts normally explode in a fiery explosion that has a large range if they are killed with a melee attack, this also happens if they are killed by a Care Package, which is borderline impossible to normally trigger in-game.

Care Package Overuse Behavior#

The Care Package and Emergency Airdrop killstreaks have killstreak queue amounts that are so high they cannot be normally encountered. Furthermore, the game also tracks if too many Care Packages are being called in, and if too many are, some Care Package killstreaks are presumably stopped and the message "TOO MANY CARE PACKAGES ARE BEING DELIVERED" is displayed, behavior that cannot usually be encountered as the amount of Care Packages required at one time is more than 24.

Additionally, Attack Dogs cannot be called in near a place with many Care Package markers.

V2 Rocket Limit#

V2 Rockets are programmed so that only one can be called in and present at a time, functionality which ends up going unused as it is virtually impossible one would ever be called in after one is active. Interestingly, the line that pops up is "NUKE ALREADY INBOUND!", and does not identify it as a V2 Rocket.

V2 Rocket Impact#

When the V2 Rocket is used on Das Haus, it actually engulfs a large part of the map in flames; however, this cannot normally be seen as the player's screen is obscured by being burned alive. Despite this, it can be seen from a Ball Turret Gunner, and presumably the Glide Bomb, although it appears to have been intended to be seen on the ground. This behavior likely happens on other maps as well. A video of this can be seen here from 0:43 - 0:45.

Dropped Riot Shield Protection#

A Riot Shield dropped on the ground will still block bullets; however, this can never be encountered as there are no situations where one would ever shoot through a Riot Shield on the ground.

Developer Clan Tags#

To do: Are there ones for other studios?

The game contains a unique Sledgehammer Games clan tag that cannot be obtained except through hacking. While supposedly intended for Sledgehammer Games employees, it is not known whether they ever used this clan tag.

Unused Zombies Content#

Early Icon#

An early icon for the Healing Specialist exists in the game.

Cold War announcer leftovers#

Leftover lines from Cold War of the announcer saying "Cranked", "Jingle Hells", "HO HO HO" and "Gun Game". Oddly, these lines are cut off at the end.

Unused Norticus Voiceline#

Norticus has an unused line talking about Wonder Weapons.

Oddities#

• Despite the game differentiating between Sniper Rifles and Marksman Rifles, internally the filenames of these weapons identify them all as Marksman Rifles.
• The Riot Shield will not protect the player from a falling Care Package but will from a Care Package that bounces off the ground. It isn't apparent whether this is a glitch or not. This can be seen in this video from 3:54 - 4:52.

• During the RATT's empty ADS reload animation, the used magazine that is dropped moves unnaturally sideways.
• The ground far outside Desert Siege has collision despite being inaccessible. A video of this can be seen here.

Revisional Differences#

Qur'an Pages#

On the Zombies map Der Anfang, a certain section of the map originally had pages of the Qur'an scattered on the ground. These were later removed after they were pointed out by a user on Twitter as the Qur'an is a sacred book and cannot be depicted placed on the floor or any kind of dirty surface.

Thomas Bolt Birthday Inconsistency#

When the operator Thomas Bolt was introduced to the game as part of Season Two, he was listed as being born on October 21, 1920, despite his bio claiming he was a veteran of WWI. This was changed to December 25, 1900 with Season Two Reloaded.

Weapon Name Changes#

Some of the game's weapons had their names altered between between the Champion Hill Alpha, Multiplayer Beta, and final game.

Arthur Kingsley Birthday Inconsistency#

Kingsley's birthday is claimed to be September 27, 1915 in his bio in Vanguard. His bio in Black Ops Cold War, however, states he was born on February 16, 1916. It's unknown where this discrepancy arose, and the Call of Duty Wiki treats his birth date as given in Vanguard as his canonical one.

Regional Differences#

To do: Does this survey exist in other language versions?

• The STG-44 is called STG.44 in the Russian version.
• The MP-40 is called MP 40 in the German version.
• The Russian version of the beta used the beta name of the Volkssturmgewehr's, Volk (Волк), which ended up changing the name of the weapon to "Wolf" as Волк means "wolf" in Russian. This same translation mishap also happened in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare with the Volk Assault Rifle.

References#