Modern Warfare 2 has released a new game mode called DMZ, along with the release of Warzone 2.0. The DMZ is an extraction royale, much like Hunt: Showdown and Escape from Tarkov, and players are daunted by it. The DMZ is a fresh coat of paint on Call Of Duty as a series, as the game mode is PvP and PvE. In this guide, we will be looking at the ultimate guide to DMZ.
The DMZ is a game mode that requires a lot of pre-planning and new tactics, as it involves heavy AI-based enemies that can take you out instantly. And fellow competing humans trying to accomplish the same goals as you, only faster. So make sure to bring your A-game. Otherwise, you are in for a ride that you will undoubtedly remember.
Complete Loadout Guide
In order to be the best in the lobby, you have to start from the basics, which we will cover in this complete loadout guide. From what weapons to select, the best tactical grenades to the best field upgrade.
Primary Weapon
For your primary weapon, you have two choices.
- Contraband
- Insured
Insured Weapons
Insured weapons are the weapons you can select from Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer loadout and customize in the gunsmith to your liking.
These weapons can help you in the DMZ as you will be against well-prepared people who are definitely ready for a gunfight.
If you manage to die with a contraband weapon, fear not. You can not lose it. Unlike the contraband variant, you will get a cooldown period instead. The cooldown period can range from 2 hours to up to 10 hours.
This duration can be decreased by depositing cash into the dustbins scattered around the map called Dead Drops. Because cash in this game mode is abundant, and saving it for XP is useless, you should spend it on upgrades or reducing the cooldown period.
Contraband Weapons
You can pick contraband weapons inside the DMZ and successfully extract yourself with them. You have some of these by default.
But be vary, as you can lose them permanently if you manage to die in the game. These weapons are already customized and can not be customized further. Their rarity depends on how you obtain the weapon. A supply drop will have above-average quality weapons. However, a juggernaut or a stronghold boss will have the highest quality weapons available for you to pick up and extract.
Equipment:
Much like contraband weapons, all the equipment you carry into the game will be lost when you die. This equipment includes stronghold keys, gas masks, backpacks, killstreaks, field upgrades, armor plate vests, etc.
So you should avoid taking unnecessary equipment when dropping into the DMZ as you can quickly lose them.
You can take a tactical and lethal grenade with you into the game free of cost and take a field upgrade of your choice. We suggest taking the recon drone as it can be beneficial in the early game if you feel like enemy AI has surrounded you.
Objective
The primary focus of the DMZ game mode is to complete missions, kill bosses and unlock new rewards for you to use in other game modes. Such as unlocking the M13B.
There are multiple missions for you to complete, and you can select up to three missions at once. These straightforward missions can become harder, such as using a UAV tower or infiltrating a stronghold. These missions award you with new contraband weapons and XP, etc. In this ultimate guide, we will dive deep into the objectives of DMZ.
The Beginners Guide to DMZ
We have split this guide into multiple parts so that if you are either a beginner or a veteran, you can always jump in and learn new tips and tricks.
Building a Loadout
When you finally jump into the DMZ with your custom loadout, you will immediately notice that you only have a single slot for armour plates. This limit has to be increased manually by replacing it with a two or three-plate vest. You will have all the equipment and weapons you selected in the loadout menu with you at the start.
First, you must look for a bigger backpack and get a two-plate armour vest. To do that, immediately start looting the area around you, as you won’t be interrupted by enemy AIs.
After you are done looting the buildings around you, you’re going to want to grab a vehicle, open the map, and see where the closest ammo depot is. If you are lucky, you can also find a three-plate armour vest there.
Ammo Depots
The ammo depots are a great beginner-friendly area, as you can immediately refill your ammo and even get a gun if you are out of contraband weapons. Even self-revive kits are commonly scattered around the depots.
After looting multiple ammo depots, you will have a lot of cash and valuable items in your inventory. The best practice is to straight away head to a buy station and sell all the valuable items you had picked up from the ammo depots.
These valuable items will give you a hefty amount of cash. You should now be able to buy a medium backpack.
A backpack upgrade is necessary as it allows you to pick up extra keys and exfil out with an additional contraband weapon. We’ll dive into this deeply later.
After buying the backpack upgrade, try to pick up more loot on your way out and immediately sell them whenever you get the chance.
Because buying and selling valuable items is the easiest way to make money in DMZ, which can be helpful. Especially in the late game, as it can help you buy stronghold keys.
If you still have extra cash to spare, grab a 2-plate armour vest or a self-revive kit if you did not find one in the ammo depots. Instead of saving Cash for XP, spend it on upgrades, as they will eventually come in handy in the game’s later stages.
At this point, armoured enemies will start to spawn. Try to kill them, and hopefully, they will drop a stronghold key which can be useful. We will dive deep into strongholds later.
SAM Sites
Now you are geared up and ready to explore with an increased backpack limit and more armour slots, head to a nearby SAM site. These are excellent objectives to secure some cool loot, be warned that enemy AI will heavily reinforce this area.
After taking care of all the enemies, interact with the SAM site. After interacting with the SAM site, an alarm will be triggered, and more enemies will spawn. Kill those enemies, and the SAM site will become active.
These SAM site help take down the cargo planes that carry care packages. After it has located an aircraft, it will shoot the package down, and you must chase the debris down, as enemy players can also pick up your package and steal its content.
After chasing the package down, you must open it up, and you will find many goodies, such as a new contraband weapon, a stronghold key, a killstreak, etc.
Go back to the SAM site. Hopefully, it will shoot down another jet, and you can repeat the process and have another care package ready for looting.
How to Exfill in DMZ
After repeating these steps, you probably have already accumulated a lot of stronghold keys, an upgraded backpack, an increased armour capacity etc. It is favourable now that you have an exfill.
Exfill or extraction is very easy. If you open the map, you will see many points on the map that you can use to make an extraction successfully.
It is best practice to go to the exfill location on the outskirts as many players are often camping around the exfil areas in the busy areas of the map, waiting to kill people who are geared up, waiting to leave. Being on the outskirts reduces your overall chances of getting ambushed by enemies.
After you start the exfil process, a helicopter will arrive at your location. Before that, some enemy AI will ambush you. These are going to be armoured enemies, so try not to die.
After killing the enemy AI, safely climb onto the helicopter and wait for the 10-second cooldown. You will be successfully extracted and out of danger when the timer ends. After extracting, head over to your loadout and check out all the spoils of war you have managed to secure.
Strongholds
Strongholds are sort of like mini boss areas you can infiltrate to get more cash and loot. as enemies heavily guard them, often with riot shields that can one-shot kill you.
To open a stronghold, you’ll need a key, heavy enemies drop keys or cargo drops, or you could purchase it in a buy station for $5000. Buying the keycard is the most viable option, as you can keep repeating the strongholds.
Infiltrating a stronghold is also one of the faction missions in the beginning. After grinding and repeating multiple strongholds, you will be powerful and geared enough to tackle the two main objectives in the DMZ.
The Two Main Objectives
The two main objectives of the DMZ are as follows.
The Chemist
Eliminating the chemist can be easy if you manage to do it right. All you have to do is get into a vehicle and run the chemist over with the car.
The chemist will spawn in a yellow radiation zone on the map and is guarded by heavily armoured enemies. These enemies can easily mow you down by 2 or 3 bullets at max, so make sure to have a lot of armour on you because it can get overwhelming.
The chemist will be in a yellow hazmat suit and, when killed, will drop an M13B. The M13B is currently the best assault rifle in the game. Having this unlocked means you will be mowing down enemies in Warzone 2.0
There is a high chance heavily geared-up players will surround the area, so be sure to keep a lookout and alert your squadmates early if you have spotted enemies coming, as they can easily steal your blueprint and make an exfill with the M13B.
M13B Blueprint
Pick up the M13B, and whoever exfils with the blueprint in hand will have access to the weapon in Multiplayer. If you want to share the weapon with your squad, the easiest way is to start a DMZ match again, drop the blueprint to your friend and make an early exfill.
Now the player with the blueprint in his inventory when making the exfill will also unlock the M13B. Keep repeating this process as often as you want to give the M13B to all your friends.
Weapons Cache
The second most high-risk, high-reward objective you can complete is the Weapons cache. It will spawn somewhere on the map and will be marked on the map with a yellow briefcase.
It will be swarming by tons of enemies, and you will eventually see a prompt telling you that a juggernaut has spawned.
This juggernaut will be carrying the weapons case. Killing the juggernaut is not as easy as it sounds. It can get pretty challenging immediately, as the juggernaut can instantly one-shot kill you with a minigun.
Because other players will also be doing this simultaneously, you will probably find this objective much harder than the chemist. So, if someone manages to kill the juggernaut, the weapons briefcase will be dropped, and whoever picks the briefcase up will have their location broadcasted to the whole game, so all the players still alive in that match will start to hunt that person down.
So, as soon as you or your friend manages to pick this up. Try not to waste time and reach an exfill point as quickly as possible. We advise that you and your friends split up, and they call in the exfill early so that whenever you get there, you can immediately extract and get out of the DMZ instead of waiting for the helicopter to come in.
Getaway Vehicle
Because enemy players can also kill you and steal your weapons cache, ensure a vehicle is ready, as running on foot won’t keep you alive for long.
We suggest using a helicopter, as many people do not equip any launchers in their loadout, so you won’t have a hard time running away. Being in a vehicle will double your chances of survival.
And unlike the M13B, if anyone of your teammate manages to exfill, all the squad gets the reward. If your friend manages to exfill earlier, and you decide to wait for the heat to drop down, you can safely exfill some time later and get the rewards.
You can earn seven rewards by completing these objectives, the first being the RPK Caution Tape blueprint, and then you get emblems, calling cards etc. But if you get all seven rewards, then a custom operator skin is unlocked.
Contracts
If you feel uncomfortable doing these high-risk, high-reward objectives, you can do many side missions that involve little to no risk at all. We will be covering some of these contracts in our ultimate DMZ guide.
Nuclear Material
This mission has you secure nuclear material from locations. In these locations, you have to pick up some Geiger Counters, which will lead you to two nuclear fuels, which you can sell on the buy stations for 10k each, and instantly get 20k cash, which will help you boost your overall loadout instantly.
Ship Cargo
A ship cargo mission has you ride a boat to a location while being chased by an attack helicopter. After getting rid of the attack helicopter, you will be asked to ride to an area where a helicopter will come and drop off the package. Picking up that package will grant you 10k cash instantly.
Destroy Supplies
Destroy Supplies mission will have you go to two bomb sites and plant some charges, which will also get you some hefty cash. While the bomb is planted, you will have to defend it against waves of enemy AIs as they try and defuse the bomb. Once both bombs have successfully detonated, you will get the cash.
Other Players
The most fun part of DMZ is gearing up and meeting other players. You can kill them and steal their loot, of course.
Or use the proximity chat to make alliances, and create a temporary new squad as well. You will never know what the other person has in mind.
Keep a lookout at the timer below the minimap, as that is the game time. Going above the timer will release radiation. The radiation will start to spread, and you will have one last chance to exfill by a random helicopter at an unexpected place. If you miss that helicopter, you will instantly die from the radiation, so be sure to exfill before this happens.
Conclusion
This was our in-depth coverage of the ultimate guide to DMZ, focusing primarily on what weapons to use, what loadout to select, how to level up your loadout and how to extract yourself successfully. If this guide helped you in any way, please comment down below.
Please check out our Warzone 2.0 loadout guide, and gain the edge you need over your opponents. If you have any more tips and tricks and would like to share them, please do. We would love to hear your feedback.
