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How do clans work in Call of Duty: Vanguard?

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Clans have existed in online FPS games for years. Even when the game didn’t include functionality for it, players found ways to show that they were part of a group. Sometimes that meant going as far as to change their online name or just wearing a unified symbol in the game itself. Eventually, Call of Duty realized how popular clans were and started including functions within the game to make managing it all much easier. While the feature was sorely missed in last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, we’re all glad to see it make a return in Call of Duty: Vanguard.

Clans may sound like a complicated and intense system for those unfamiliar, but Call of Duty: Vanguard makes it easier than ever to use. Not only will clans help you play with friends much easier, but there are also some nice bonuses you get for doing so. For those who enjoy that kind of thing, you can also participate in earning Clan XP for even more rewards. If you want to start representing your own clan with friends or join up with one someone else already made, here’s how clans work in Call of Duty: Vanguard.

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How to start a clan

Clans in Call of Duty: Vanguard.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Starting a clan is by far the easiest way to get involved with this system. To make your very own clan, the first step is to go into the Call of Duty: Vanguard Social menu, which you can access by hitting either Y or Triangle on your controller. Here, tab over to the Clan tab and select the Create option. Here, you will enter what you want to name your clan as well as the clan tag, the latter of which is what will be put in brackets before yours and any clan member’s name. The clan name is limited to 28 characters, and the tag is limited to just 5 characters, so pick your letters and numbers carefully.

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You can also create your clan’s custom emblem, and then decide what settings you want to put on your clan. You can pick between private, invite-only, request invite to join, or public. Private means no one else can join, invite-only means only people you invite can join, request invite to join allows anyone to ask to join, and public means your clan is open for anyone to join.

In the Setup Clan tab, you can customize more details of your clan to make it more clear what type of group you want. You can pick descriptors like Casual or Competitive so anyone searching for clans finds yours when filtering for those types of clans.

How to join a clan

Searching for clans based on labels.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Backing up to the Social menu again, this time you will obviously want to select Join a Clan instead of Create to find a group to join. This will bring up a list of all the created clans in Call of Duty: Vanguard. If someone has invited you to a clan already, this is where you can accept it and join their clan right away. Otherwise, feel free to either browse the entire list or use the filters to cut down the list, again using terms like Casual, Competitive, Friendly, Multiplayer, or Zombies to find one you’d be most interested in. You can also do a manual search for a clan by name.

A cool feature for anyone who used the Regiment system in either Modern Warfare or Warzone is that those groups have all been transferred automatically into Call of Duty: Vanguard. No need to rejoin or restart a clan if you already had one.

Benefits of being in a clan

Looking at the level 20 clan rewards
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Being in a clan has a number of benefits. The most obvious is it makes teaming up with people you know much easier. A big clan means you will easily be able to find people to party up with who are playing Call of Duty: Vanguard, without having to use your system’s friends list. A clan can hold up to 100 members, so you won’t be struggling to get all your friends in.

And you’ll want all those people to join up with, too. Just by playing in a team with other members of your clan, you and your clanmates will earn 10% more Player, Weapon, and Operator XP as long as you’re grouped up. That 10% can add up fast. And speaking of XP, building up your Clan XP will unlock new Calling Card frames. There are 20 clan levels to reach, so play with your fellow members to reach the top ranks and earn those rewards together!

Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox has been a writer at Digital Trends for over five years and has no plans of stopping. He covers all things…

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