Vanguard and Warzone bloom explained and tested

call of duty Vanguard bloom — (Image credit: Activision)

You may have heard about Warzone bloom since Call of Duty Vanguard bullet spread introduced the concept to the game. Bloom or bullet spread is basically how Vanguard handles player accuracy while you're aiming down the sights in ADS mode, effectively adding a layer of inaccuracy that can be tamed with attachments. Coming up we'll explain exactly how it works, how you can minimize it, and how you can gain the advantage in a match. Below we'll explain how Call of Duty Vanguard and Warzone bloom works and what you can do about it, with weapons tests to explain how it can effect your aim and accuracy in-game, and what different attachments can do about it.

What is Call of Duty Vanguard and Warzone bloom or bullet spreadd

Put simply Call of Duty Vanguard or Warzone bloom or bullet spread is an element of randomness that varies where bullets go. It's either a specific function of the gun, much like recoil, where firing for longer pushes your aim in different directions. Or slight element of randomness to each impact. However it's achieved, it means that there's a chance that a bullet might not hit the exact spot you're aiming at. The amount of Warzone bloom or bullet spread can obviously have a huge impact on your ability to hit people in a match, especially as range increases, which is why some people aren't fans. (There's a similar system in Fortnite that's always been controversial).

How to get rid of Vanguard or Warzone bloom

Some Call of Duty Vanguard attachments have an accuracy stat and it looks like this reduces bloom or bullet spread. In our testing below we used attachements that only affected accuracy and found in all cases where bullet spread increased with range, accuracy based attachments reduced that spread. The question is, by how much and can you remove Warzone bloom with the right loadout?

Let's take a look at how we tested this and what we found.

Testing Vanguard and Warzone bloom

To test Vanguard and Warzone bloom we chose a range of weapons - the STG 44, MP 40, M1 Garand, and 3-Line rifle - to represent assault rifles, SMGs, marksman rifles and sniper rifles. We went to the same place on the Castle map (shown above) and fired them at the same wall at two different ranges - by the crates nearest the wall, and on the top step outside the door. For all the weapons, we fired a full clip without adjusting for recoil with and without attachments. We specifically also only added attachments with an accuracy improvement stat so it's the only thing being affected.

Here what we found

Assault rifle bloom / STG 44

This image show two bullet patterns - close then medium range, without attachments on the left and with accuracy only attachments on the right. As you can see, while there's still some wandering with attachments, there's clearly a tighter spread with the extra accuracy based attachments, with none of the wild fluctuations left or right show without using attachments. As we mentioned, this only shows close and medium range, but over over the longer ranges that assault rifles are often used that scattering would obviously increase more.

These are the attachments we used to increase accuracy only and reduce the spread.

SMG bloom / MP-40

Again, this image shows the MP 40 being used at close, then medium range, without attachments left and with accuracy only attachments on the right. As a close to medium range weapon the MP 40 SMG shows a much greater tightening with added accuracy over range, with the bullet spread almost completely removed.

These were the attachments we used to boost accuracy and reduce spread:

Marksman rifle bloom / M1 Garand

As a semi auto rifle we tested the M1 simply by pulling the trigger as fast as we could until the clip pinged. It's not the most scientific method but there's not much else we could do. The good news is that the difference between firing with and without accuracy boosting attachments is more or less non-existent. There's some improvement of vertical spread, likely from increased recoil control even using attachements with no stated recoil stat, but the key thing is there's no left or right spread.

Sniper rifle bloom / 3-Line rifle

The good news here is that there's no variation in bullet spread or bloom with a sniper rife. We fired a full clip, again as fast as we could pull the trigger, both with and without attachments, and each time there was only the single bullet hole you can see above. As you'd hope with a long range, single shot sniper rifle, every shot goes precisely where you were aiming.