All Call of Duty Vanguard best weapons and guns (2025)

The Call of Duty Vanguard best weapons are the ones ae perfectly suited to their role and can lay down accurate and reliable fire to rapidly bring down enemies, making them almost must-picks for victory in multiplayer. Though weapon balancing is always changing as the developers rein in some weapons and buff others, there are still standout examples and weapons that mark themselves out among the others. It's important to remember that not every weapon suits your playstyle, so you might find a weapon on this list to not quite meet your standards. Either way, we've listed a few of the best weapons in Vanguard across the biggest gun categories, even with some examples of builds and attachments for your to try out. Read on to find COD Vanguard's best weapons laid out clearly.

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Best weapon in Call of Duty Vanguard - Automaton

We'll come right out and say it - right now, for us at least, the best weapon in Call of Duty Vanguard is the second Assault Rifle you'll unlock, the Automaton. It's a potent all-rounder with great control and damage, versatile enough to work at mid-to-long range and drop enemies as effectively as anything Vanguard has to offer.

The big downside is the iron sights, which are almost as bad a war crime as whatever it is you end up using the gun itself for. Fortunately, that's very easy to rectify - swap it out for any attachment you feel comfortable with. The Slate Reflector is good, but most of them will work fine - just don't put a sniper scope on it unless you're specifically making a long-range build.

From that point on you want to play up the Automaton's versatility by focusing on damage, ADS and accuracy in that order. The secret cheat code for any COD weapon has always been to turn it into a laser, and the Automaton is no exception. The Empress barrel and Mark VI Skeletal underbarrel will do a lot to keep it under control, though it's difficult to say whether a bigger magazine is worth the penalty. Try it both with and without an extended mag, see which one speaks to you more.

Best Assault Rifle - STG44

We just talked about the best gun being an Assault Rifle, but for those who don't like the Automaton, the other best in show when it comes to ARs is the starting gun: the STG44. Despite being a little choppy, it's got serious punch and range, and never quite gets out of control. If the Automaton works at the mid-to-long range, the STG44 works at short-to-mid range, a little bit of SMG in its DNA somewhere.

The STG44 has versatility too - it's the Assault Rifles' whole shtick - but it struggles a little when it comes to heavy firepower, enemies occasionally managing to get out of sight with only surface wounds. Boosting damage and damage range stats will make it a force to be reckoned with: try the VDD 760mm 05B barrel, the F8 Stabilizer muzzle, and any of the more aggressive ammunition types to give it some added teeth.

Best SMG - MP40

It feels like the MP40 is a great choice in every game it's in, and it's the same here. Stocky and robust, the MP40 has superb control and a surprisingly good range that doesn't stop it from being deadly up close either.

The MP40 flourishes when you're playing aggressively, and the attachments you stick on it should work with that philosophy. Hip-fire accuracy, fire rate, damage are all important priorities here. The whole point of an SMG is firing first and ensuring you hit whatever's close before dashing on, so try a Mercury Silencer or Strife Compensator on the muzzle, a Krausnick 33mm Folding stock, and put the Quick kit and Unmarked proficiency on it when you have them.

Best Sniper Rifle - 3-Line Rifle

Listen - if you must be one of those awful people who bounce around corners quick-scoping, the Kar98k will serve your needs well enough. But for those who actually want to play as a sniper, that ominous speck in the distant window that bisects any brain in a quarter mile radius, you want the 3-Line Rifle. A sniper should have the maximum chance of killing on the first shot, to prevent the target from panicking and escaping, and the 3-Line has stopping power like nothing else in the game.

For attachments, put an MX Silencer on it, because the penalty to ADS speed shouldn't be a big deal for this kind of play strategy. For optics, we rather like the 1913 Variable 4-8x, but that's much more a matter of personal preference and whether you'd rather have night vision capabilities. Beyond that, the 500mm MN Custom barrel will help you pin down targets accurately, and Lengthened ammunition will make your shots even faster and more deadly.

Best LMG - MG42

This behemoth of a gun is probably as good as LMGs get in Vanguard right now, despite being a starting weapon. The MG42 is the easiest gun of its type to control (though that's by the standards of LMGs, which means it still jumps about like a salmon, only slightly less so), which is surprising considering its high fire rate. It's a gun with punch, but one that's a little easier to wrangle in a confrontation. Combine that with a 125 round starting magazine and it's a real standout in its class, provided you use it right.

LMGs aren't run-and-gun weapons, so build yours for defensive fighting: aka, staying in place and spraying ammo from behind cover, usually while mounted on something. Focus on recoil control to really make it a beam of gunfire, with the Stippled Grip or Krausnick S91 Padded stock, or any number of the various muzzle attachments that help in this regard. Remember, this is a gun that excels in capture objectives, so allow yourself to hunker down somewhere safe and mow down anybody who walks into your sightline.

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