A Call of Duty: Vanguard operator coming into the game for the Christmas event has been leaked. Allow us to introduce Krampus, a terrifying figure from German folklore.
Less than a week after CoD: Vanguard's release (November 5) and we're already hearing about the Christmas event. It's to be expected; this is the time of year when supermarkets begin putting out decorations and playing festive music after all (which you're supposed to hate for being "too early", but I self-indulgently love).
In Call of Duty, Christmas usually takes the form of a snow-covered version of the most popular map, and a new operator skin along the same theme. This year we've got an idea of what the operator skin will be ahead of time: Krampus.
The Vanguard Christmas Operator Leak
Known dataminer "Zesty" first shared this information by posting a picture of code in the current Call of Duty build that mentions Krampus several times:
KRAMPUS COMING TO #VanguardLooks like we will be getting 'Krampus' as a new Operator!Also looks like we will be getting a unique execution for him.Like + Retweet #ZestyCODLeaks pic.twitter.com/El0qFGkAoB
— Zesty (@ZestyCODLeaks) November 8, 2021
Lines like these clearly imply that Krampus will be coming into the game as an operator, which makes perfect sense. He's a villain from German folklore who makes an appearance at Christmas.
Who Is Krampus?
In most of the western world good children get presents, and naughty children don't (or so the many idioms and songs suggest, it would be fairly cold in practice). In Germany, naughty children are savagely beaten with a rod by a demon. How typically German.
Krampus is a fascinating figure, you can read more about him here, but the big takeaway for Call of Duty players is that he's going to look probably as scare as the image above, and he will almost certainly come with a rod melee weapon.
Sounds like the perfect operator for Call of Duty's scariest mode, though it's a shame this year's contribution was so poor...
Can We Trust This Information?
@ZestyC0DLeaks has been an important part of the community for a number of years now. Unlike traditional leakers Zesty doesn't claim to have contacts in the industry passing on information. Instead, this "leaker" sources all their information by datamining the code from Call of Duty updates. So unlike other leakers we can trust the code Zesty shares with near-certainty. But whether that code ends up representing what we think it will in game is a different story.
In other words, the word "Krampus" almost certainly does exist in the code but it might be a placeholder name for what appears in game as another operator. Though in previous instances of leaks like these, the names usually have been the same in the code as they appeared later on in-game. That was a long-winded way of saying: you can trust with this information with at least 85% certainty. Krampus is coming - so you better behave!