Best Vanguard Maps Tier List: All Multiplayer Maps Ranked

Call of Duty: Vanguard has been out across the world for a few weeks, and the community hasn’t been afraid to express its opinions on Sledgehammer Games’ latest offering into the storied first-person shooter franchise. The multiplayer portion of the game has been met with mixed receptions from players, with many praising the solid gunplay while others grow frustrated with the breakable walls that can be difficult to break.

More often than not, the key to a successful Call of Duty multiplayer revolves around the maps, their design, and how they play. With 17 maps in the current pool, there is plenty of variety for players, but quantity doesn’t necessarily result in quality. Having played matches on every single map in Vanguard’s pool, we’ve ranked them from the best to the worst.

Best Vanguard Maps

S-Tier

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• Das Haus
• Eagle’s Nest

When determining what makes a good Call of Duty map, we took everything from layout to spawn logic into consideration in order to build the definitive ranking. Kicking things off at the very top is Das Haus and Eagle’s Nest, two of the smaller maps in the pool. Both feature a somewhat symmetrical layout with numerous chokepoints that guarantee plenty of action alongside spawns that are easy to read.

Considering the simplistic layout and predictable spawns, it’s surprising to see Eagle’s Nest dismissed from the competitive map pool, but with the Call of Duty League (CDL) expected to begin in 2022, there’s still plenty of time for the map selection to be adjusted to ensure a competitive game.

A-Tier

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• Shipment
• Numa Numa
• Hotel Royal

This particular trio of maps are certainly some of the more popular offerings in Vanguard multiplayer, but compared to those in the S-Tier, these maps do fall short in a couple of areas. The all-out chaos of Shipment is enjoyable in small doses, but if an enemy team has locked in an unbreakable spawn trap, spawning in and dying quickly becomes tedious. Numa Numa is also a solid map with plenty of open areas perfect for assault rifle players, with the small hut and cave network playing host to close-quarters combat.

Based on the layout, Hotel Royal looks like a classic three-lane map but the glass panels that can be broken add an annoying level of verticality to the map, making it very easy for opponents to drop in unannounced and score the easiest kill of their Vanguard career.

B-Tier

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• Tuscan
• Castle
• Berlin

The breakable elements of Tuscan are the biggest flaw in what’s otherwise a rather fun map to play across all of Vanguard’s game modes. It should be incredibly straightforward to break a thin piece of wood to open a sightline but more often than not, it takes more than one attempt that almost guarantees a free elimination for the enemy team. Castle makes its return after first appearing in Call of Duty: World at War and although it is fun to take a trip down memory lane, being picked off by snipers who are impossible to spot is hugely infuriating.

The third and final map of B Tier is Berlin. As one of the larger maps in the pool, the map does suit all of the available Combat Pacing options. However, numerous areas of the map are incredibly dark, making it tricky to spot any enemy players that could be lurking in the shadows.

C-Tier

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• Bocage
• Dome
• Gavutu
• Demyansk

At best, this selection of maps is mediocre. Bocage is the ideal size for a Call of Duty map, but with a ridiculous number of ways to access a building, it’s very difficult to lock down a specific objective or area of the map. Dome, another World at War remake, is far from ideal due to the chaotic spawns that frequently see players spawning in front of each other, giving them a straightforward kill with no way to counter it.

The layout of Gavutu doesn’t look terrible, with three distinct lanes, but with most players gravitating towards the boat, the rest of the map remains uncontested, making it a relatively uneventful battlefield. As for Demyansk, the notorious spawn trap that can be achieved by securing control of the church is immensely tricky to break. If you find yourself spawning near the trees, the game is all but lost if the other team doesn’t make a catastrophic mistake.

D-Tier

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• Desert Siege
• Oasis
• Decoy
• Red Star
• Sub Pens

These maps are far from the best Call of Duty Vanguard maps for multiple reasons. Most of them are far too big, while others have a confusing layout that’s tricky to understand, or far too many breakable elements that transform the map into an entirely different battlefield. Desert Siege is one of the biggest maps in Vanguard’s pool and despite featuring areas that cater for all styles of play, the sticky spawns give one team the chance to score several kills while the other attempts to escape through the open area where a sniper is often situated.

The desert theme continues in Oasis, which is a smaller map, but with many head-glitches that are very difficult to counter, gaining control of certain lanes is almost impossible if you don’t have a scoped weapon equipped. In contrast to Oasis, the layout of Sub Pens is perhaps the worst in the entire game, with several levels crossing each section of the map, making it very easy to lose track of your intended target.

Despite Sledgehammer Games improving the visibility of Red Star, the flawed spawn logic and its size lets it down. Players regularly find themselves stuck in the main office building, and with many windows that can be opened for new sightlines, matches often contain the spawn, die, repeat cycle which is far from ideal. Lastly is Decoy, and despite its medium size and bright colours, the sheer number of wooden panels that congest the map make it look like a battlefield for the developers to showcase their shiny new addition that doesn’t necessarily need to be there. Once the wood has been destroyed, the open areas of the buildings that overlook the middle of the map provide no cover, giving no opportunities for players to navigate the map effectively.