MW4 Camos Guide: Every Camo and Mastery Camo and How to Unlock Them

Modern Warfare 4 launches on October 23, and the camo grind is already the most confusing part of it. You get Military, Special and Completionist camos, then mode Mastery, plus a separate Weapon Prestige track, all tied together.

This guide lays out every tier in the order you'll hit it, what each one asks for, and how to grind it without wasting matches. Numbers below are from Activision's launch breakdown; Warzone details arrive in Season 1.

How the MW4 camo system works

Camos start with weapon level. Level a gun in Multiplayer or DMZ and you unlock its first camos automatically. Warzone joins the same track in Season 1.

Once you finish a challenge in any mode, the camo is unlocked everywhere. DMZ challenges usually ask for more kills, because AI enemies count there.

• Military camos: 8 per weapon, unlocked just by leveling it.
• Special camos: 3 per weapon, earned through combat challenges.
• Completionist camos: Gold, Platinum, Harmonic Break and Divergence.
• Mastery camos: 3 per mode, for players who've finished everything else.
• Weapon Prestige camos: the four-stage Pyroclast camo, earned on a separate track.

Military and Special camos

The 8 Military camos unlock as the weapon levels up. The exact levels depend on each gun's max level. Here's the Han 86 assault rifle as an example:

• Military 1–2: levels 10 and 18
• Military 3–4: levels 25 and 34
• Military 5–6: levels 42 and 50
• Military 7–8: levels 57 and 65

Each weapon also has 3 Special camos. Their challenges open at set weapon levels. Once you've earned one, it goes into a shared pool you can put on any gun. Here are two of three Special camos per gun for two weapons:

• Han 86 Smoke: kills while mounted, unlocked at level 25. 20 in Multiplayer or 75 in DMZ.
• Han 86 Stormwave: kills with a silencer, unlocked at level 46. 50 in Multiplayer or 125 in DMZ.
• Sang 9mm Autumn: kills while aiming down sights, unlocked at level 13. 25 in Multiplayer or 75 in DMZ.
• Sang 9mm Space Time: Akimbo kills, unlocked at level 38. 50 in Multiplayer or 125 in DMZ.

Completionist camos: Gold to Divergence

Completionist camos open once a weapon has all 8 Military and 3 Special camos. From this point on, each tier depends on how much of your armory you've finished.

Gold

Get 15 eliminations in a single Multiplayer match, or 100 in a single DMZ match.

Platinum

Platinum needs Gold on every weapon in that class. For assault rifles, that's 8 Golds. The challenge changes by class:

• Assault rifles: headshots. The Han 86 needs 50 in Multiplayer or 100 in DMZ.
• SMGs and pistols: kills from behind.
• Shotguns: hipfire kills.
• Marksman and sniper rifles: kills while prone.
• Launchers: kills without taking damage.
• LMGs: kills without dying.
• Melee: kills without dying.

Harmonic Break

Harmonic Break opens once you've finished every Platinum challenge. That's Platinum on 33 weapons. The Han 86 asks for 25 double kills in Multiplayer or 50 in DMZ. In other classes, the task is hipfire kills (SMGs, pistols), one-shot kills (marksman and sniper rifles), kills without reloading (shotguns), kills without releasing the trigger (LMGs), player kills (launchers) or kills from behind (melee).

Divergence

Divergence is awarded for finishing 33 Harmonic Break challenges. It unlocks the Mastery 1 challenges in Multiplayer and DMZ (Warzone from Season 1).

Mastery camos by mode

In Multiplayer and DMZ, mastery camos go in order inside each mode: finish one to open the next.

Multiplayer

1. Mercurial Drift: get 10 kills in a match 250 times.
2. Polyatomic Reforged: get 3 kills without taking damage 300 times.
3. Orion Reforged: get 5 kills without dying 500 times.

DMZ

1. Chiral: get 2,500 kills on Tier 3+ enemies.
2. Ripple Tide: exfil with 2 LT dog tags in a single deployment, 50 times.
3. Helio: get 25,000 kills with Legendary weapons on a max-level Operator.

Warzone

The three Warzone mastery camos are Parallax, Damascus Reforged and Empyros. Their challenges stay classified until Season 1.

Weapon Prestige: the Pyroclast camos

Pyroclast is a separate track that opens once a weapon hits max level. Prestiging resets the weapon's level but keeps your camos and blueprints.

• Pyroclast: reach Weapon Prestige 1, level 1.
• Pyroclast Terminus: reach max level in Weapon Prestige 1.
• Pyroclast Scatter: reach Prestige Master level 150.
• Pyroclast Cascade: reach Prestige Master level 250.

The best grind order and tips

Level every weapon to max first, then work through each challenge tier class by class.

1. Start in DMZ Early Access: weapon levels and camos you earn there carry over to Multiplayer at launch.
2. Read Special challenges early: they unlock at set weapon levels, so build your loadout around the next one while you level up.
3. Use Multiplayer for kill counts: the numbers are lower there than in DMZ.
4. Finish one class at a time: Platinum only opens once the whole class has Gold.
5. Use Double Weapon XP tokens: activate them to level weapons faster.
6. Mix your mastery modes: Divergence opens Mastery 1 in Multiplayer and DMZ (Warzone from Season 1), so you can work on both Mercurial Drift and Chiral.

Not sure you want to grind 500 five-kill streaks by yourself? CarrySquad can help with MW4 mastery camos.

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