Players Voice Concern Over Weapon Bloom in Vanguard

It wouldn't be a Call of Duty release without a controversial design or balance decision, would it? As Call of Duty: Vanguard approaches its Season One content update, many players are becoming restless over a mechanic known as bloom, or aimed down sights spread, that is quietly present in the Multiplayer experience.

Bloom, or spread, is a mechanic that minimally deviates bullet direction from its intended target. Put simply, not every shot fired by a weapon may land exactly where the weapon is aimed. Such a mechanic introduces a factor of randomization into gunfights, leaving players frustrated and concerned with the competitive integrity of the game.

Although Attachments which claim to increase weapon "Accuracy" are proven to mitigate this issue, while those which decrease "Accuracy" amplify it, it's a mechanic that many feel doesn't belong in the game to begin with.

Weapon Bloom (Updated)

On Thursday, November 18th, Sledgehammer Games issued a game update which, alongside many fixes and improvements, made significant adjustments to the weapon bloom mechanic that frustrated players on launch. Following this update, many feel that the mechanic, although undesirable, is much more manageable.

Assault Rifles

With a roughly 60% decrease in bloom across the Assault Rifles (AR) class, the only outliers that remain are the AS44 and Volkssturmgewehr. This allotment of weapons sees the biggest improvement following Sledgehammer Games' change.

Submachine Guns

Submachine Guns (SMG) also see a significant improvement throughout the class, where as most of these close-range options perform very similarly in terms of bloom. In detail, the M1928 and PPSh-41 take the mechanic a step further.

Light Machine Guns

Although the Light Machine Guns (LMG) class managed to escape the dreaded bloom mechanic for the most part even prior to the patch, significant improvements can be seen throughout the class which brings all of the options in line with one another.

Marksman Rifles

Marksman Rifles (MR) see minor improvements on the already negligible bloom amounts present pre-patch.

Weapon Bloom (Outdated)

Thanks to hand-testing conducted by XclusiveAce, we have an accurate visual representation of this mechanic in action across Vanguard's primary weapons in Multiplayer. These tests reveal less than desirable results across the board for the controversial mechanic, likely explaining some of the inconsistencies that players have vocalized.

Assault Rifles

Although the slight variation in bullet impacts may indicate that the Automaton does not suffer from bloom, other Assault Rifles (AR) do in fact have a seemingly randomized spread or bloom mechanic while aimed down sights. In the case of the AS44 and Volkssturmgewehr, however, this is especially true.

Submachine Guns

The Submachine Gun (SMG) category sees excessive amounts of bloom across the majority of weapons found in this class, with the exception of the Owen and Type 100. As previously explained, it is likely that these two weapons do not currently have bloom.

Light Machine Guns

Bloom is consistently minimal across the Light Machine Guns (LMG) class, with the Bren being an outlier that likely does not suffer from this mechanic. The remaining three LMGs appear to roughly maintain the same amount of spread.

Marksman Rifles

Finally, in the case of the Marksman Rifle (MR) class, testing reveals that these semi-automatic rifles feature little to no bloom while aimed down sights. This is likely due to the single-shot nature of the weapons and the futility of such a mechanic.

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