8 MW4 DMZ beginner's tips to help you conquer Hajin

From stealth to stash size and story missions

If you want to stand the best chance of getting out alive, you need our DMZ tips for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. The series finally has a proper extraction mode and while it's not quite what was advertised ahead of launch, there's a lot of fun to be had by heading into Hajin, mowing down dozens of PvE enemies, and extracting with the best loot you can find.

This mode has a steep learning curve, though, so here are our top eight DMZ tips so you can deploy into Hajin with confidence in Modern Warfare 4.

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Don't sell your valuables

In other extraction shooters, such as Arc Raiders, items tagged with "valuable" can be sold, since they're not required for any crafting recipes or projects. That isn't the case in Modern Warfare 4's DMZ. Even though these "valuable" items do have a significant value attached to them, they're also often used for various recipes and upgrades at the 3D printer. Help keep track of exactly which valuables you need to keep by tracking specific recipes, as this will put a pin icon next to those ingredients when you come across them.

Always use a suppressor

The more enemies you kill without a silencer in DMZ, the more you'll have coming after you. However, having a silencer equipped means you can stay stealthy for much longer. It isn't completely foolproof because the AI isn't stupid — it will still react if an enemy gets killed right next to them, for example — but going in guns blazing will result in a hit squad hunting you down far quicker than if you at least try to play stealthily.

Use one of your three operators as additional stash space

While you can increase your stash size in DMZ, it takes a while to accumulate all the necessary materials. Not to mention, even when you increase it, chances are you'll still find reasons to hit the limit constantly. It means you can only rotate between two playable operators, but if you use your third as additional inventory space, it means you essentially have an extra 20 or so slots. For example, I use Ghost to store all of my keys, since they don't stack. I'm sure he loves it.

Learn how to insure your operator and weapons before deploying

Going into Hajin with an expensive weapon, or using an operator you've leveled up considerably? Right before you deploy, on the same screen where you can choose to play solo, there are two toggles (pictured above). One insures your operator, the other will insure your weapons. This essentially means that if you die, you won't lose whatever is insured. The number of times you can do this is limited though, based on how many insurance tokens you have.

Completing dynamic operations is the best money-making method

Cash is essential in DMZ because you'll need to spend plenty of it recovering your operator and kitting out your weapons, but if you're only doing free roam deployments, it'll take you a while to make the big bucks. Instead, focus on dynamic operations, either from the deployment screen or by collecting the phones scattered throughout the map. Completing a few of these on each run can net you some serious cash.

The Warfighter trait tree is the best

We explain how traits work in detail in our best DMZ traits guide, but a general rule of thumb is that you should prioritize the Warfighter tree. This is because the Possum trait is by far the most powerful trait in the game, and it's found at the end of Warfighter. Possum allows you to revive yourself, even if you're dead, once per match. If another player kills you, bide your time until they're not looking, then bring yourself back to life and shoot them in the back. You'd be foolish not to.

Use story missions to choose your spawn location

If you infil via either dynamic operations or free roam, you're most likely going to spawn on the outskirts of the map. If you have a specific central location you want to hit, or a key you want to use, this can be a pain in the butt as you spend valuable minutes traversing the map. Instead, the various story missions spawn you next to those objectives, but you don't actually have to do them. For example, you can use Operation Silent Ledger to spawn near the casino, or Operation Shopping Hacks to spawn near the NuriGO mall.

Use lieutenant towers instead of paying for intel at the boss board

At your FOB, you'll find the boss board, where you can pay 25,000 cash for intel on lieutenants. Do not do this. If you use one of the lieutenant towers found on the map instead, you can find a boss location that way. The only difference is you can't choose which lieutenant you get the intel on. In the early game, that doesn't matter, because you'll have all of them to pick off anyway.