Call Of Duty: Vanguard Season 1 introduced multiple new weapons, such as the Gorenko Anti-Tank Rifle and Cooper Carbine. While none of these guns made it into the Season 1 meta, we are constantly on the lookout for new weapons that need to be in your arsenal. If a future Season brings a new gun to the top of the meta, we’ll update this guide to incorporate it into one of these loadouts. Check back regularly to see how frequent balance patches and fixes affect the Vanguard meta and change this list of the best Vanguard loadouts over time.
Best Call Of Duty: Vanguard loadout
Here are the best Call Of Duty: Vanguard loadout setups that we’ve found, complete with attachments for every gun: You’ll note that each of these loadouts contains two primary weapons, so the Overkill perk is a must-have if you want to take any of these builds into battle. I haven’t detailed our choice of perks or equipment in the below loadouts, because I always tend to use the same ones: Ghost, Radar, and Overkill for the Perks, and Frag Grenade and Stim for my lethal and tactical equipment. For more information check out our Call Of Duty: Vanguard best Perks guide.
Kar98k & MP40
The Kar98k and the MP40 are our picks for the top Sniper Rifle and SMG respectively, and as you might imagine, they go together amazingly well. The Kar98k is kitted out for quick-scoping and ending fights at medium or close range before they begin, so with this loadout we’ve opted to sacrifice some range and bullet velocity in favour of a silencer to keep us off the radar, and superior handling speeds. Learn more about our best Kar98k loadout and class setup here. Kar98k attachments: Of course, even a quick and responsive Kar98k needs a great short-range weapon to use as backup, and the MP40 fits the bill perfectly with great handling and recoil stats, and a very competitive time-to-kill - particularly when kitted out with the 8MM Kurz magazine conversion, which ups its damage to absurd heights. The other attachments focus on returning the MP40’s now dangerously high recoil and ADS times down to more respectable values, and I’ve also opted for a very clean 2.5X scope for landing headshots with ease. MP40 attachments: For a closer look at this top-tier gun, check out our best MP40 loadout guide. Together these two guns make for a fearsome and versatile loadout across any distance and on any map and game mode. You can use the Kar98k for quick sniping at any range you like, and for the more frenetic close-quarters situations you can switch to the MP40 and treat your enemies to one of the best guns in Season 1.
BAR & Combat Shotgun
On the surface, the BAR is formidable. With the right loadout, it is overpowered, plain and simple, and definitely one of the best Assault Rifles in Call Of Duty: Vanguard. This slow-firing but incredibly punchy rifle deals enough damage to kill an enemy in two shots at almost any range, and features practically no horizontal recoil at all, making it incredibly easy to land those two vital shots. The key to unlocking the power of the BAR is to use the .50 BMG magazine conversion, which ups the damage to a horrid degree. BAR attachments: To learn more, check out our Call Of Duty: Vanguard best BAR loadout walkthrough. Of course, the BAR may be unbelievably powerful but it’s also not the best gun for response times, which means you’ll need a close-range backup weapon. The Combat Shotgun is currently the best Shotgun in the game when kitted out for damage, range, and hipfire accuracy. For this loadout we’re using the Sawed-Off barrel for oodles of extra damage. Combat Shotgun attachments: You’ll find with this loadout that the Combat Shotgun can comfortably one-shot enemies at just about the range where the BAR starts to lose some of its responsiveness. The two guns dovetail perfectly, making this one of the very best loadouts in the game right now. But if you’re interested in a longer-ranged Shotgun class, check out our Call Of Duty: Vanguard best Combat Shotgun loadout guide.
3-Line Rifle and Type 100
For a true sharpshooter’s build in Call Of Duty: Vanguard, I’ve found the best partnership by far to be the 3-Line Rifle and Type 100 SMG. The 3-Line Rifle is trounced by the Kar98k when it comes to handling stats (and therefore quick-sniping), but for setting up a sniper nest and punishing enemies who attempt to cross your line of sight, the 3-Line Rifle is the best Sniper Rifle in Vanguard. With this 3-Line Rifle loadout, we’ve maximised damage, range, and bullet velocity so that this rifle is as near to hitscan as you can get. 3-Line Rifle attachments: For the 3-Line Rifle’s counterpart, we’ve gone versatile with the highly accurate Type 100 SMG. I’m a huge fan of this gun. I can’t hold my hand to my heart and call it the best SMG in Call Of Duty: Vanguard, but I can say that I prefer the Type 100 to the MP40 by a country mile thanks to its phenomenally low recoil and great range. With this set of attachments you can up its fire rate and damage to insane levels. Type 100 attachments: If you run our best Type 100 loadout you’ll quickly find, as I did, that the Type 100 is an amazingly versatile SMG, able to go toe to toe even with Assault Rifles at their optimum ranges. This makes it a fantastic backup weapon between periods of one-shot-killing enemies from afar with the 3-Line Rifle.
MG42 & MP40
The MG42 is far and away the best LMG in Call Of Duty: Vanguard right now, thanks to its extremely high fire rate and startlingly low recoil. It’s a very easy gun to pop off with, particularly when you use the best MG42 loadout and class setup. Here we’ve opted for a pretty balanced set of attachments which together give us a nice bit of extra damage and recoil control without any major downsides. MG42 attachments: The MP40 is our go-to pick for dealing with the short-range engagements and for increasing the overall mobility of your kit. While it’s opposite the MG42 I like to focus quite strongly on ADS and sprint-to-fire speeds, to make this the perfect SMG for running-and-gunning. MP40 attachments: You could definitely push the mobility further with this (or any other) SMG, but doing so starts to incur some lofty expenses in the accuracy department, so we’ve opted for a slightly more balanced loadout here. Overall this is another incredibly strong build which allows you to shred enemies at any range with two fast-firing, low time-to-kill weapons. That covers our list of the best loadouts in Vanguard Season 1. Of course, there’s much more to a strong loadout than just guns. If you want to make the best loadout in Vanguard, you’ll also need to know the best killstreaks, best field upgrades and best equipment to annihilate your enemy. If you’re still trying to pick a loadout or gun to use, take a look at our Vanguard weapon stats guide to see how every gun compares in Vanguard Season 1. Once you’ve chosen a gun, check out how to level up fast in Vanguard so that you can quickly unlock all of the attachments you need. If you’ve still not settled on a gun, take a look at our list of the best Marksman Rifles in Vanguard, as you might prefer something snappier over the Snipers used in many of these loadouts.
