Call of Duty: Vanguard Buy Station and Upgrading Weapons: Champion Hill Guide

This Call of Duty: Vanguard Champion Hill guide is here for those looking to dive into their first look at the next installment of the first-person shooter franchise.

The Call of Duty: Vanguard Alpha has just launched and will last throughout most of the weekend, exclusively to those on PlayStation. Unfortunately, according to leaks, it appears Xbox and PC players will have to wait until the Open Beta for the upcoming title launches on Sept. 16 in order to get their first taste of the new World War II-themed gameplay.

Call of Duty: Vanguard Buy Station and Upgrading Weapons: Champion Hill Guide

Solely included in Call of Duty: Vanguard's three-day alpha testing period is a new multiplayer mode debuting in the series—Champion Hill.

Champion Hill is said to be the next generation of the 2v2 Gunfight mode first introduced in Modern Warfare (2019), and expands the concept to a multi-arena survival tournament. With quick-action, close-quarters, small-squad combat in mind, Champion Hill will pit eight fireteams against each other in a Round-Robin series of head-to-head matchups where the last team standing wins.

For the purposes of the Alpha, Duos (2v2) and Trios (3v3) will available, but a Solos (1v1) playlist will be added to the mix at launch.

With the victory condition being that the last squad standing wins, 12 (Duos) or 18 (Trios) Lives will be shared between squadmates, shown as a blue bar on the bottom left corner of the screen (the opponent’s life count, when applicable, appears below it as a red bar).

The Life count persists between the Combat Rounds, which are 60-second deathmatches all located within one massive map consisting of four combat arenas and a central Buy Station Area. There are no load times in Champion Hill, only action.

All fireteams will have the same starting loadout: Primary Weapon, Secondary Weapon, Lethal Equipment and Tactical Equipment. However, players can upgrade their loadout with Cash.

Cash can be picked up in-game and by earning eliminations. Every player starts with $500 in Cash before the first Combat Round. The available Cash balance is located on the HUD, above the lethal/tactical equipment icons.

Lastly, for health, every player has 100 HP. Up to three Armor Plates can be equipped at a time, which absorb ballistic and explosive damage.

A game of Champion Hill plays out as such:

1. Players are placed at the Buy Station Area and have a minute to use their Cash to upgrade their weapons, or purchase new weapons, equipment, Perks (permanent for the game) and Streaks (only last one round).
2. Squads fight on one of four maps against a random squad in a Combat Round. Winning nets a $1,000 Cash bonus awarded to each member, drawing results in no money awarded, and eliminating a squad from the game awards additional Cash as well as their leftover loot.
3. Squads are re-paired for subsequent Combat Rounds. When there is an odd number of squads, one lucky squad may receive a Bonus Buy Round to rest and restock their Loadouts.
4. After a few Combat Rounds, all squads participate in a Buy Round. Spend Cash and upgrade Loadouts before the next fight begins.
5. Once there are only two squads left in the game, the final two-minute showdown begins. Both squads will get a chance to resupply and spend their remaining cash before the last round starts. If neither squad eliminates the other during a Combat Round, they head back to another Buy Round before facing off again.

The Call of Duty: Vanguard Alpha launched Friday, Aug. 27, at 1 p.m. ET, and will close on Sunday, Aug. 29, at 1 p.m. ET.