Call of Duty: Vanguard brings some exciting new changes to the traditional Zombies formula. One such new addition is the Altar of Covenants which allows players to gain various buffs similar to the old perk machines.
The perks were a great way to improve your gameplay experience, and the Covenant upgrades play the same role as well. These upgrades give you a few buffs which can range from support to defense to offense.
There are many of them available, but figuring out which one of these Covenant upgrades is the best in Vanguard Zombies is of vital importance. With that said, take a look at this guide for the answer before you start your next Zombies run.
How to use Altar of Covenants
Covenants can be earned at the Altar of Covenants by completing certain requirements. Throughout the match, players will be tasked with several different objectives to complete.
Completing each of these objectives rewards players with Sacrificial Hearts, which is the currency used to purchase Covenants. They need to pass through different portals in the Central Hub.
The choice between Covenants purely depends on your progression in the game. The options change continuously with every requirement you meet. Each Covenant in CoD Zombies offers unique bonuses, which are mentioned below.
- Bloodlust: Melee attacks provide extra damage and healing as well.
- Resurrectionist: Heals the allies quickly.
- Brain Rot: You can convert your enemies to your allies.
- Cryofreeze: You can slow the enemies.
- Death Blow: Critical kills return bullets to the clip.
- Ammo Gremlin: Weapons that are stored refill ammo from stock automatically.
- Dead Accurate: Hitting the same enemy repeatedly causes more damage.
- Splatterfest: Enemies killed by explosions may explode.
- Unholy Ground: Deal more damage at rest.
- Cull the Weak: Deal more damage to slowed or stunned enemies.
- Mother Lode: The players can keep the equipment even after using it.
- Brimstone: Deal damage to surrounding enemies
- Deadshot: Negates weapon sway. Provides aim assist directly for a headshot while ADS. Grants bonus damage on your first critical hit.
- Dead Wire: Stuns any enemies nearby
- Scrapper: Grants bonus Salvage from Objectives and pickups
- Swift Vengeance: Improves the damage you deal while you are sprinting.
Best Covenants ranked in Vanguard Zombies
Since the Covenants are randomized each time and you replace one each time you get a new one, you won’t always have the best loadout on your hands. As such, you would have to find viable substitutes or something to have an equally useful effect.
Doing that isn’t very hard either, because there are a lot of other very useful Covenants out there. To make those choices easier for you, we have ranked the best Covenants in Vanguard Zombies below.
1. Dead Accurate
The Dead Accurate Covenant is without a doubt the best upgrade in CoD Vanguard Zombies. This is an absolute must-have in your inventory because even if you don’t use it in combination with the other upgrades in the loadout we mentioned, it can still serve you very well on its own.
This is because the increased damage to enemies with consecutive hits buff has no drawbacks at all. With Dead Accurate, you can pretty much get through a zombie horde of any size with any gun.
This Covenant would work best with a gun that has a very high fire rate. If that gun has a high damage output as well, then you can rest easy for the rest of the game and trust this Covenant to carry you throughout it.
2. Ammo Gremlin
The Ammo Gremlin makes sure that your resting gun never runs out of ammo. For any experienced CoD Vanguard player, this perk would mean a lot because they know how scarce ammo gets, especially in the later stages of the match.
If you’ve got this Covenant refilling your ammunition constantly, you won’t ever have to worry about running out of ammo and surviving completely on melee. This Covenant would work best with high damage output, and slow-reloading guns like Shotguns.
3. Dead Wire
The Dead Wire Covenant’s main purpose is to slow down and stun any zombies you it. This upgrade is decent enough on its own but can be improved with a combination of a few other perks.
If you combine Dead Wire with Ammo Gremlin and Cull the Weak, you make one of the best Covenant loadout combinations in the game because each one complements the other.
Even if Dead Wire isn’t used with these Covenants, it can still serve you well – especially in the later stages of the match – because it can slow down huge numbers of zombies and offer you a chance to escape and/or kill multiple enemies easily.
4. Cull the Weak
On its own, the Cull the Weak Covenant is pretty much useless. This is because this upgrade increases your damage to slowed or stunned enemies, but the base effect isn’t brought about by many weapons in the game.
If you pair this Covenant with some other ones like Dead Wire or Cryofreeze, then Cull the Weak has the potential to become one of the best Covenants in the game.
With the improved damage to already slowed and stunned zombies, you will find yourself annihilating hordes of zombies within seconds – that too with as minimal risk as possible.
5. Mother Lode
There are many different opinions about whether the Mother Lode is a very good Covenant or not. This is because this upgrade provides players with a small chance to keep any equipment after using it.
Since there is only a chance that you may get your equipment back, your efficiency with this Covenant is mostly dependent on luck. It has, however, been noticed that if this Covenant works, it works multiple times in a row, making it a good choice to keep this perk on you.
6. Bloodlust
If you’re a more experienced CoD Zombies player, then the Bloodlust Covenant is the one you’ll enjoy the most. This upgrade is no doubt one of the best Covenants in Vanguard but requires a lot more skill to use than the rest.
This is because Bloodlust mainly works through melee hits, and those can have major consequences if not done properly. If you are experienced with melee, on the other hand, then this Covenant will help greatly by not only increasing your damage but also healing you greatly.
This makes sure that you never get surrounded by hordes – or if you do, then you don’t die from it if you constantly melee them. This Covenant especially becomes useful in the later stages of the map since there are many Zombies to face.
Best Covenants upgrades loadout
Players are allowed to have three Covenants at the same time. You can switch between different Covenants to make a dream combination. To make the perfect loadout, these are the best Covenant upgrade combinations we would recommend.
- Resurrectionist
- Dead Accurate
- Death Blow
This is one of the best combinations for you guys in the game because it focuses on support and offense equally. Firstly, the Resurrectionist allows you to heal your allies more quickly, which is a great way to keep your friends in the game for a long time.
The other two Covenant upgrades focus on offense. The Dead Accurate would be the perfect one to have because it increases your damage progressively as you shoot a particular enemy. Since you won’t be landing all of your shots as headshots, you will still be able to get rid of zombies quickly with the help of this upgrade.
Secondly, since with the other two upgrades you will be able to stay longer in the match, you would probably run out of ammo more often than not. This is where the Death Blow upgrade comes in, making sure that you always have enough ammunition to keep fighting.
