Call of Duty Vanguard Assassin proficiency glitch explained

(Image credit: Activision)

The Call of Duty Vanguard Assassin proficiency glitch has been a real issue, a bug that prevents players from earning the Mind Games camo - and consequently many others - for the Automaton assault rifle. We'll explain the issue with Assassin Proficiency in COD Vanguard and the challenge for the Automaton below, as well as potential fixes, explanations and everything we need to know about how to get around this particular bug.

Call of Duty Vanguard Assassin Proficiency bug explained

The issue with the Assassin Proficiency bug for the Automaton assault rifle in Call of Duty Vanguard is that there's currently no such thing as Assassin Proficiency, despite the game telling you otherwise. See, to unlock the Automaton Mind Games camo, players have to get 10 ADS (aim down sights) kills with the Anastasia sniper barrel, Embrepp Broadsword stock, and Assassin proficiency equipped on the Automaton.

The Anastasia and Embrepp Broadsword are currently weapon attachments in the game, but Assassin Proficiency is not; it hasn't been included yet, which makes the attached challenge impossible to complete. Proficiencies are their own new kind of weapon attachment that essentially make it so that guns can have Perks attached to them, but Assassin hasn't been added to the Automaton's list of Proficiencies yet.

So far we can only assume the obvious: that this is some kind of bug or error. At time of writing the developers haven't made any official comment yet as far as we know, but it seems like too obvious an omission to ignore for long, and likely will be addressed in the near future.

However, it does seem like there's a workaround and/or fix: people are reporting that equipping the Frenzy proficiency instead seems to work, implying that the error may be in the text itself. It's still early, but players seem to be having luck with this trick, so make sure to try it on your own copy if you're pursuing the camo rewards and challenges.

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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.