Vanguard is a character enhancement card in Back 4 Blood. It is a Defense Type Card with Discipline Affinity. The card can be used in both PvE and PvP game modes.
Card Ability
Melee kills grant 1 Temporary Health to you and nearby teammates.
Vanguard is a great team defensive card because killing enemies with melee kills will give the player and nearby teammates Temporary Health.
Players can also crouch at choke points while swinging at regular Ridden coming through to quickly increase team Temporary Health.
Card Playstyle
Vanguard can be used early in runs in order to help your character and teammates absorb damage.
Players who choose Vanguard typically use it for melee tank builds. These players will be happily swinging the melee weapon of choice in big crowds of enemy Ridden while keeping their Temporary Health up.
Some players will choose to fill out the rest of their deck with defensive and melee damage cards to play a full tank.
Other players will choose to add some weapon damage cards to trade some survivability to help their team with damage output on Mutations and Bosses.
Regardless of what other cards are chosen, players who use Vanguard will want to use their melee weapon as the primary damage source.
Evangelo and Holly will prefer this card since it is a melee and close-ranged card.
Card Synergies
Vanguard synergizes well with other cards that focus on being near enemy Ridden. Increasing melee damage or character cards that require the player to be close to their enemies tends to go well with Vanguard.
Survival cards that heal or reduce damage are also great for owners of this card since it will make the character even tankier.
It also goes well with any card that activates special abilities after melee kills, when the character is close to enemies, or when wielding a melee weapon.
Numb – This card synergizes well since it will give the character an extra 15% damage resistance when they have temporary health.
Blood Lust – While Vanguard increases Temporary Health, Blood Lust heals red health to keep your character topped off.
Face Your Fears – Similar to Vanguard, Face Your Fears increases Temporary Health by 2 for each melee kill, further increasing your tankiness. With these 2 cards, you will gain 3 Temporary Health for each melee kill.
Adrenaline Fueled – It helps keep player stamina up to melee almost indefinately by giving 10 stamina each melee kill with another 10 stamina over 5 seconds.
