DMZ is back in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, with major upgrades over the previous installment from Modern Warfare 2. Before you land in Hajin, there’s plenty you’ll need to be equipped for, whether that’s completing side quests or taking down Lieutenants. This DMZ guide covers everything you need to know about this returning mode, from understanding the 3D Printer to uncovering hidden caches and recipes, rescuing your Operator, and extracting when you’re ready.
DMZ Beginner’s Guide: 12 Things You Need to Know
| Looking for something in particular? Click the links below to jump to: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Get to Know the Forward Operating Base | Selecting Your Deployment Type | How Looting Works in DMZ | Keep Your Eyes Peeled for Gas Stations, Fire Stations, Clinics, and More |
| Be Careful of Broken Weapons | Take on Missions and Boss Board Challenges | Rescuing Your Operator | How Extracting Works in DMZ |
| Extraction Summary and Rewards | Operator Traits | Stash Management | Using the 3D Printer in DMZ |
Get to Know the Forward Operating Base
When you first enter DMZ, you’ll begin in the Forward Operating Base, or otherwise known as the FOB. Here, you can hang out with your squad, manage your stash, equip gear, buy new weapons, hunt bosses or other players, view orders, and ultimately prepare for your next deployment.
Before you deploy though, make sure you head over to your stash to equip your loadout. Once you’re in the stash menu, you can equip a Weapon, a Backpack, an Armor Vest, a Medkit, Self-Revive, and other useful items you may need in deployment. What you select is what you’ll be bringing in, so make sure you pack accordingly.
If you don’t have enough gear to fill your pack, or if you’ve had some unfortunate luck in previous deployments, you can always opt for freebies by toggling the Equip Free Loadout option in the Ready Up menu. When toggled on, you will be supplied with random guns, equipment, and meds before your deployment.
When you’re ready to go, head over and interact with the barbed wire near the helicopter to deploy. Next, you’re going to pick your deployment type.
If you’d rather not interact with the different stations around the FOB, you can always use the buttons along the left side of the screen. These will each open their respective FOB station menu.
Selecting Your Deployment Type
When deploying, you’ll be presented with three different options. The first option is Story Missions, which are essentially the DMZ Orders. These story missions are designed to help you learn the ropes of DMZ and complete various activities around the map. Selecting this option not only matches you with other players working on story missions, but also rewards you with equipment recipes, Fire Support, Cash, and other helpful items. Keep in mind that while these missions are more tutorial-based, they gradually get harder as you work through them.
The next game mode option is Dynamic Operations. This will give you an immediate task to work toward when you infill. Each completed Dynamic Op rewards you with a Supply Drop of increasing rarity, plus 10,000 to 20,000Cash. If you’d prefer more freedom to explore, choose Free Roam, which, as the name implies, means you’ll be deployed without any missions and can explore without constraints.
Once you deploy in DMZ, you’ll be able to loot, complete side quests, and fight both AI and other online players. You’ll have 30 minutes to get in and get out before the radiation starts spreading.
How Looting Works in DMZ
As you explore the map of Hajin, you’ll find loot all over, especially in buildings, cabinets, shelves, PCs, and duffle bags. Occasionally, you’ll even find loot on tables.
Items like Synthetics and Chemicals will be sent automaticallyto your stash. Other items, however, will be color-coded by rarity, letting you choose whether to pick them up or leave them behind. You’ll even be able to find hidden caches that are partially buried around the map, which will occasionally contain helpful items like armor plates and more.
Other loot to keep an eye out for includes recipes and manuals. These items are crucial to succeeding in DMZ, since you can’t start crafting with your 3D printer until you exfil with the right recipe, or use guns from the Gunsmith until you have extracted with the related manual.
Keep Your Eyes Peeled for Gas Stations, Fire Stations, Clinics, and More
In a twist of realism, you’ll also want to keep your eyes peeled for certain buildings when exploring Hajin, as some contain unique loot that you’ll need for survival. For example, Gas Stations often have Gas Cans you can use to fill up your vehicle as you traverse the map.
Fire Stations, aptly colored red, often hold radiation-reducing items like Radiation Blockers or Gas Masks, which you’ll need if radiation hits before you can exfil.
Medical Clinics, colored light green, have medical items on hand, such as Med Kits and Bandages, which are highly recommended to have in your loadout before each deployment. These are particularly helpful because if you get knocked down, you can use a Med Kit to pick yourself back up, or temporarily restore some health with Bandages.
You’re not guaranteed to find a Med Kit, but Clinics do offer a higher chance of finding one. Alternatively, you can search individual houses, which occasionally have Medicine Cabinets you can raid.
Another key building type to keep an eye out for is the blue-colored Police Stations. Once you’ve cleared the station of all enemies, it’s time to begin the search for supplies. You’ll often stumble upon locked rooms with regular caches, weapon caches, field upgrades, tacticals, and equipment. The more you loot, the rarer the loot and recipes will become—this is what makes these locations so valuable. In some cases, you may need to solve a hidden puzzle to unlock them, or even find a Key somewhere around the building.
The Casino is another notable location for rare loot and tons of cash, but getting in safely won’t be easy, as the area will be crawling with enemies.
One important thing to note is that each area you visit has a threat level indicated in the middle of the screen, just beneath your compass. This level indicates how dangerous an area is. The higher the level, the more dangerous the enemy response will be in the area. Remember: the higher the threat, the more likely you are to be engaged in combat, which, as a result, means other players will also be alerted to your location.
Be Careful of Broken Weapons
As we’ve explained earlier, Recipes and Weapon Manuals aren’t easy to find and will require a lot of grinding to unlock them all. So, when you kill an AI enemy and find a weapon you’d like to use, you’ll probably want to pick it up. But before you do, be careful, because their gun could be broken, which could land you in risky waters, especially if you’re surrounded.
There are a few ways you can tell if a weapon is broken. The first is a small red square that appears below the weapon icon; the weapon’s magazine capacity might be smaller than normal; or its optic might be smashed.
Take on Missions and Boss Board Challenges
Another big aspect of the DMZ experience is the Dynamic Ops. When you deploy into this game mode, you’ll receive a randomized mission—they’re also available in Free Roam, but you’ll need to actively seek out the Phone/Contact icons around the map in order to start them.
Now, each Dynamic Ops mission will differ in both objectives and difficulty—some will have a ton of objectives to complete, while others will be on the simpler side. For example, one mission we encountered involved tracking down and hunting a high-value target, and another required us to defend and capture a site—all of which were against the AI enemies.
With that said though, if you’re looking for one of the tougher challenges in DMZ, outside other players, you can opt to visit the Boss Board at your Forward Operations Base, which will display a list of Lieutenants and Commanders. Here, you will have the opportunity to purchase intel about them (or complete missions for intel), as well as take on Kill Challenges and Dog Tag Challenges.
Some missions will have you do things like find and hunt a high-value target, plant a bomb to destroy supplies, or even defend and capture the same site. All of these will give you plenty of AI to fight.
If you’d prefer not to purchase intel, you can always look for Lieutenant Hunt towers for more precise intel. The only downside to this is that it will give you the location of a random Lieutenant, so it may not be the one you’re looking for.
Before you start fighting Lieutenants, make sure you’re prepared and geared accordingly. At a minimum, we recommend a strong weapon, a tier two vest, and a self-revive.
As you near a Lieutenant, you will see their hologram pop up. Each will be kitted out with different guns and equipment, and will require a different strategy to take them down. Again, Lieutenants are among the most challenging aspects of DMZ outside regular players, so we don’t recommend taking them lightly, as they will put up a good challenge.
Once you’ve managed to eliminate a Lieutenant, they will drop a Dog Tag. This is where things get tricky: picking up the tag marks this case on the tac map, making you a prime target for nearby players, so make sure you’re ready for surprise attacks.
Rather than just being the hunted though, you can in turn become the hunter and track down other players who are also tracking Lieutenants and have Dog Tags on them that you can loot from their pack, as their general area will be marked on the map. You really only have two options. Either prep for the PvP challenge that may come your way, or quickly exfil.
You’ll face upwards of 60 players in DMZ, all of whom are spread either across teams of up to four people, or even solo players. So, there’s a chance you could face max teams or a solo player—it really just depends on who’s in your lobby.
Rescuing Your Operator
If you played the DMZ beta, one thing you may notice is that when your squad is eliminated, your operator will be missing in action. There is no ability to plead, and you will lose everything in your backpack.
When your operator is missing, you can rescue them, which reinstates the Traits Purchased, any Unspent Trait Points, and your Operator’s Dog Tag Rank, but you’ll lose most of the Operator’s loadout. In terms of cost, this will set you back quite a bit, but the total amount depends on how leveled up they are.
You can also opt to start a new Operator, however, there is one limitation, as you cannot select the same Operator. For example, if Park goes missing in action, you can’t create a new Operator using Park. You can change their skins, though.
How Extracting Works in DMZ
If your squad survives before the radiation timer ends, you will need to get to an exfil location. These locations are conveniently marked on the map with an icon displaying a person leaving a door. The exfil point in-game will also feature green smoke that you’ll be able to spot from a distance. To call in the helicopter, simply interact with the smoke to call them in.
Plan accordingly, as when you view the map, you’ll notice a yellow radiation circle. The exfil closest to this circle will close first as it slowly expands across the map. Exfils can be used multiple times, so if another team happens to use it before you, simply wait for the cooldown period to end.
You can also complete the Dynamic Op, Sky Heist. Essentially, this allows you to pilot a helicopter. One person will need to fly, while the rest of the team fend off enemies. The added bonus to this Op is that it gives you your own private exfil. It’s not all easy flying though, as it can be a little challenging to defend the helicopter from being shot out of the sky by tailing enemy AI.
Extraction Summary and Rewards
Once you successfully extract, you will get an extraction summary that details all the valuable items you’ve collected, printer ingredients you’ve stashed, cash banked, and other handy summaries. You will also receive a combat rating. This rating is based on completed objectives, how well you engaged in combat encounters, and your looting ability. We’ve found that our best ranks came from doing a little bit of everything, so keep that in mind on your next deployment.
The XP you earn from completing Ops, earning kills, and bonuses adds directly to your DMZ level, which caps at level 70—unlike your Multiplayer level, your DMZ level can only be leveled inside DMZ.
Operator Traits
As you level up your operator, you’ll earn Trait Points. You can use these to purchase Operator Traits, which are essentially perks that can provide in-game advantages. There are three dedicated skills: Warfighter, Scout, and Survivalist.
Given DMZ’s nature, we recommend creating different Operators based on your needs. For example, you might have one Operator focused mostly on combat, while another focuses on sleuthing and looting. However, as you pick the first trait, the next set is completely random, so you may get something different every single time.
As you level up your operator and unlock all 18 Trait Points, you can eventually prestige your operator and get three permanent traits. You can keep progressing with your operator, but based on our early experience, the rewards weren’t really worth it, and it will keep costing you more money each time.
Stash Management
As you return to the FOB, you’ll want to manage your Stash. To get started, we recommend emptying everything you have collected from your backpack. As you empty it, keep an eye out for items you can sell. These are indicated by a diamond symbol on the item icon.
These items can be quite valuable, so selling them will put cash in the bank for rescuing your Operator, buying gunsmith attachments, purchasing guns from vendors, or unlocking new upgrades at your FOB. In addition to looking for valuable items, you’ll also want to look for items marked with a small square icon—this indicates a component needed for the 3D printer.
Using the 3D Printer in DMZ
The 3D printer is a crucial machine in DMZ, as it lets you print upgrades, equipment, and other items you’ll use on all your deployments. When it comes to making your first upgrade, we highly recommend going with the first Bank Upgrade, which will set you back just $20,000.
Then, when you can afford it, the second Bank Upgrade is also a very worthy purchase. The reason is that once you hit your bank limit, you can’t earn any more money until you either spend it or buy another upgrade. This can be very limiting, especially if you hit your cap unexpectedly and miss out on thousands of dollars.
The rest of the 3D printer upgrades will mostly depend on which recipes you’ve unlocked and which upgrades you want to do first, whether that’s the Stash Weapon Upgrade, Vendor Upgrade, or something else entirely. The more tasks and Ops you complete, the more cash you’ll have banked to buy better weapons or more space.
If you want a specific upgrade but are missing certain ingredients, you can track the recipes in the 3D Printer menu or even view where to find your missing ingredients.
Looking for even more Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Guides? Why not check out:
- Essential Multiplayer Tips and Tricks
- Best Settings for Modern Warfare 4
- All Code Solutions: Keypads, Safes, Toolboxes, and Shipping Containers
- Best Meta Guns in MW4 (Gun Tier List)
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Top Guide Sections
- Essential Multiplayer Tips and Tricks
- Walkthrough
- All Code Solutions: Keypads, Safes, Toolboxes, and Shipping Containers
- Best Settings for Modern Warfare 4
