Call of Duty Vanguard Prestige explained

Having Call of Duty Vanguard Prestige explained is a good idea when Prestige is COD Vanguard's main priority for multiplayer champions. What is prestige, and how does it work? Prestige ranks have been a thing for a while, but the rules have changed before and aren't always completely clear. For that reason, we'll explain Prestige ranks, Season levels, and everything you need to know about the Vanguard Prestige system below.

Call of Duty Vanguard Prestige explained

Call of Duty Vanguard's Prestige system is relatively simple to start off with - once you start doing anything of note in Vanguard - wins, kills, challenges, just general play - you'll start earning experience that's put towards your player rank. These ranks are what unlock new weapons, perks and loadout options for you to tinker with! Ranks go up to 55, numerically speaking, at which point you hit the rank of Commander and achieve Prestige Rank 1.

This is where things get a little complicated. From this point on, you don't earn any military ranks, presumably because you couldn't get promoted above Commander without eventually becoming… who knows, Pharoah or something. Instead, you earn Season Levels, tied specifically to the Season you're in. You don't earn any more loadout rewards - instead, you're simply racking up Season Levels until you hit the next level of Prestige.

At time of writing in this nebulous "Pre-season" era before Season 1 starts in early December, there are three Prestige levels to be achieved:

Prestige 1 (Season Level 1/reach military rank Commander)
Prestige 2 (Season Level 50)
Prestige 3 (Season Level 100)

Each time you reach a new Prestige, players unlock a specific Emblem, as well as a Battle Pass Tier skip they can use. The developers have also stated that those who reach Level 50 (Prestige 2) will be rewarded with a new Weapon Blueprint. Those who reach the highest possible Prestige in a Season will get the title of Prestige Master, which grants a special ribbon that can be displayed on the player's name.

Prestige resets and Season Levels

From that point on, Season levels will be reset whenever a new season begins, but Prestige, oddly, will not. It's a little complicated, but the logic appears to be that if, say, you're at Season Level 84 and the Season resets, you'll get bumped down to Level 50. You're still at Prestige 2, but you have to get through all of Prestige 2 now, starting from scratch. So while COD Vanguard will never take Prestige ranks away from you, it can force you to redo any progress between these implied checkpoints.

So if you're a few days away from a Season change and just a couple of Season Levels away from going up a Prestige, now might be the time to furiously leap in and progress. Alternatively, if you're dozens of levels away, you probably shouldn't worry, because you'll never make it and just have to do it all over again. And for those who just want to play the shooter casually with friends without making a second career out of it… you get back to 2008 where you belong.