MW3 Prestige Leveling Guide – How to rank up quickly in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (Version 2.0)

“Our deepest fear is NOT that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

This guide is meant to help you level up faster while playing Modern Warfare 3. I started making leveling guides for call of duty back in MW2 because I needed a way to level up quickly. I have a wife, 2 kids and a full time job so I don’t have as much time as I did in college to play video games. Yet, I still wanted access to all of the bonuses that come with prestiging in Call of Duty so I began researching leveling strategies and techniques to help me level up fast. After dozens of hours of testing and implementing different leveling strategies, I feel I have created the most comprehensive and most beneficial leveling guide available.

If you want updates on when I make revisions to my guides or post new guides, subscribe to my youtube channel at youtube.com/oTradeMark

Why should you listen to me?

I have been playing video games all my life. I consider myself a gamer through and through. I have won over $40,000 worth of prizes playing in Call of Duty competitions. By using the techniques in this guide I was able to max out at 8th prestige Level 80 with around 4 days of in game time played. That means on average I was going through an entire prestige every 11 hours. Talk about overdrive. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Dozens of well known call of duty players within the community have praised my guide as being one of the best guides they have ever seen, including Woodysgamertag & WickedShrapnel.

Why should I prestige?

Other than increasing the size of your e-peen, prestiging in MW3 gives you a unique in-game prestige icon or emblem that shows up next to your player name. You also unlock prestige tokens that can be used to purchase in game rewards through the prestige shop.

In the prestige shop, you can spend prestige tokens on the following rewards:

Extra custom class slots

Double XP (2 hours in game time)

Double Weapon XP

Regular Package (unlocks an extra callsign title & emblem)

Hardened Package (Requires prestige 5: unlocks an extra callsign title & emblem)

Veteran Package (Requires prestige 10: unlocks an extra callsign title & emblem)

Unlock Gear (choose one weapon, equipment or perk to unlock permanently on every prestige from that point forward)

Reset All Stats (resets everything, including your prestige level)

NOTE: If you prestiged in any of the previous call of duty games (xbox 360 and PS3 only) you will automatically receive one bonus token for each COD game you have already prestiged in. You can only receive one token per game, regardless of your prestige level in that game, for a total of 4 potential prestige tokens (COD 4, COD WaW, COD MW2, COD Black Ops)

The prestige emblems or in-game icons that you unlock for each prestige are shown below.



Update: Five Prestige Levels and Icons were added during a recent update. Another five are supposed to be released at a later date. There emblems are shown below (There is so much diversity, I know…)

Before deciding to prestige, ask yourself if it is worth it. Do you enjoy leveling up? Is there a prestige icon that you really want? Do you want extra custom classes or other prestige bonuses? Every time you prestige you will lose all your unlocked guns, perks and equipment so make sure that you want to do it. Some people like to prestige just because they enjoy leveling up and unlocking things. Other people despise leveling up and just want to stay at level 80 forever. I am somewhere in the middle. I enjoy leveling up, and I really like the 8th prestige icon. So I decided to level up to 8th prestige and then I stopped leveling there. That allowed me to unlock all my custom classes and display my favorite prestige icon next to my name.

How much experience is required to prestige?

The maximum amount of experience you can earn per prestige in MW3 is 1,746,200 XP. This is spread out over 80 levels. That is quite a bit different from Modern Warfare 2, which had 70 levels and a maximum experience of 2,516,000. So while MW3 has 10 more levels to go through than MW2, the total amount of experience necessary to prestige is more than 30% less.

Leveling scales up as you level up, which means that the later levels will take much longer to get through than the early levels. Experience wise, half way through a prestige is around level 60.

Here is a breakdown of each level in MW3, and how much experience is required to reach it:

Level XP Required % Complete XP to Next Level 1 0 0.00% 800 2 800 0.05% 1100 3 1,900 0.11% 1200 4 3,100 0.18% 1800 5 4,900 0.28% 2200 6 7,100 0.41% 2500 7 9,600 0.55% 2800 8 12,400 0.71% 3200 9 15,600 0.89% 3600 10 19,200 1.10% 3900 11 23,100 1.32% 4400 12 27,500 1.57% 4900 13 32,400 1.86% 5400 14 37,800 2.16% 5900 15 43,700 2.50% 6400 16 50,100 2.87% 6900 17 57,000 3.26% 7400 18 64,400 3.69% 7900 19 72,300 4.14% 8400 20 80,700 4.62% 8900 21 89,600 5.13% 9400 22 99,000 5.67% 9900 23 108,900 6.24% 10400 24 119,300 6.83% 10900 25 130,200 7.46% 11400 26 141,600 8.11% 11900 27 153,500 8.79% 12400 28 165,900 9.50% 12900 29 178,800 10.24% 13400 30 192,200 11.01% 14000 31 206,200 11.81% 14600 32 220,800 12.64% 15200 33 236,000 13.52% 15800 34 251,800 14.42% 16400 35 268,200 15.36% 17000 36 285,200 16.33% 17600 37 302,800 17.34% 18200 38 321,000 18.38% 18800 39 339,800 19.46% 19400 40 359,200 20.57% 20000 41 379,200 21.72% 20600 42 399,800 22.90% 21200 43 421,000 24.11% 21800 44 442,800 25.36% 22400 45 465,200 26.64% 23000 46 488,200 27.96% 23600 47 511,800 29.31% 24200 48 536,000 30.70% 24800 49 560,800 32.12% 25400 50 586,200 33.57% 26150 51 612,350 35.07% 26900 52 639,250 36.61% 27650 53 666,900 38.19% 28400 54 695,300 39.82% 29150 55 724,450 41.49% 29900 56 754,350 43.20% 30650 57 785,000 44.95% 31400 58 816,400 46.75% 32150 59 848,550 48.59% 32900 60 881,450 50.48% 33650 61 915,100 52.41% 34400 62 949,500 54.38% 35100 63 984,600 56.39% 35950 64 1,020,550 58.44% 36670 65 1,057,220 60.54% 37380 66 1,094,600 62.68% 38150 67 1,132,750 64.87% 38900 68 1,171,650 67.10% 39650 69 1,211,300 69.37% 40400 70 1,251,700 71.68% 41150 71 1,292,850 74.04% 41650 72 1,334,500 76.42% 42650 73 1,377,150 78.87% 43150 74 1,420,300 81.34% 44150 75 1,464,450 83.86% 44650 76 1,509,100 86.42% 45650 77 1,554,750 89.04% 46150 78 1,600,900 91.68% 47150 79 1,648,050 94.38% 47650 80 1,695,700 97.11% 50500 MAX 1,746,200 100.00%

How long is this going to take?

Leveling up in Call of Duty even when using the tips in this guide is still a lengthy process. Depending on the skill of you and your team it could take anywhere from 12-24 hours of in game time played to prestige.

If you can complete 80 levels in under 12 hours of game time played you are leveling at a great pace. I maxed out at 8th prestige Level 80 with around 101 hours (4.21 Days) of in game time played. That means I leveled at a pace of about 7.12 levels an hour and on average I went through 1 prestige every 11.2 hours of in game time played. While this is not the fastest I have seen, it is up there.

Leveling basics

As I mentioned earlier, leveling is based upon experience earned while doing in game tasks such as kills, assists, captures, calling in pointstreaks or destroying enemy poinstreaks. So the number one way to level up quicker is to get better at the game. That being said, this guide is not focused on helping you get better at the game. If you would like some tips on getting better at Call of Duty, subscribe to my youtube channel at youtube.com/oTradeMark

Aside from active in game tasks that earn you experience, the 2 other main ways you earn experience is through your match bonus and your challenges.

Match Bonus

Match bonus is experience earned at the end of each game as a bonus for staying until the game ends (rather than quitting out or dashboarding). The multiplier for your match bonus is twice as big if you win than if you lose. So that brings me to my first leveling tip of the guide:

Leveling Tip #1: Win

And what’s the easiest way to win consistently? Play with a competent group of players that communicate and go for the objectives. If you usually play solo, try getting a group together of people you can play with. If you don’t have any friends that you play with already, checkout hupitgaming.com to find some players you can play with.

If you would like to know exactly how the match bonus is calculated read below (thanks to Pozzuh & BlakCrow @ reddit)

Match Bonus = S x T x ((R + 6) / 12) … Where:

S = Scaler (1 if Win, 0.5 otherwise)

T = The length of time the game lasted (in seconds)

R = Rank (1-80)

So let’s say my rank is 65. I’m playing FFA which has a max game length of 10min and I won the match after 7 min and 46 seconds (=471 sec)

Match Bonus = 1 x 471 x ((65 + 6) / 12) = 2787

And let’s say my rank is 80. I’m playing Kill confirmed which has a max game length of 10min and I lose the match after 10 min. (=600sec)

Match Bonus = 0.5 x 600 x ((80 + 6) / 12) = 2150

Leveling Tip #2: Play the game types which cater to you and your teams play style while still being able to enjoy the game.

Gametypes

In previous COD games there have been stand out gametypes that offer leveling advantages. In MW3, I feel that the best gametype for leveling depends on your strengths and preferences. Overall, I think the 4 gametypes with the best leveling potential are Search and Destroy, Team Defender, Domination and Kill Confirmed.

Search and Destroy is a 1-life per round, bomb plant based game. The winner is the team that wins the best of 7 rounds, or first to 4 round wins. SnD has always been a strong way to level up for players who can get a lot of kills each game. SnD offers a whopping 500 XP per kill and bomb plant, which turns into a huge 1000 XP per kill when used in conjunction with double XP. For players that can consistently get a lot of kills and plants/defuses in SnD, this is a great way to level up. But if you are impatient like me and find yourself running straight into the nearest enemy claymore at the start of each round,then you are just going to spend most of the game dead, watching your teammates play and earning absolutely zero experience.

Team Defender is a new game type to MW3. It is similar to Halo’s oddball. The game is TDM based, first team to 7500 score wins, but the catch is that there is 1 flag on the map at all times. Whichever team possess’ the flag also earns a bonus score towards the team whenever they earn kills. Most people dislike Team Defender, as the spawns are very tightly bunched, sporadic, and lead to a lot of hectic deaths and score changes. But a solid group of players will learn how to camp one area and rack up kills very quickly on the enemy team. The reason these games are so quick to level up is because it is basically a TDM game where the enemy team is constantly running towards the flag (rather than camping like usual TDM games). Just make sure that you play this game type with a team of competent players, because if you play against another team that is well organized you will figure out that it is very difficult to break a 6 man defense all camping a couple of choke points on the map.

Domination is my next recommendation for game types and by far my most played game type. Domination earns you +50XP for a kill as well as +150XP for a flag capture and +50XP for a flag defend. If you play aggressively in a game like this you can easily rack up a lot of points and kills. Because it is my favorite game type I am partially biased towards it, but statistically it offers a lot of advantages too. If you strictly compare Score Per Minute on gametypes you will see that SnD offers a huge advantage versus other traditional gametypes, as it takes 10 domination kills to equal 1 SnD kill. But what most players don’t take into consideration is that when you are playing SnD, you are going to have a very difficult time earning in game challenges, as most of them are based around kills or other actions that do not happen nearly as much in SnD. Through one prestige I will earn hundreds of thousands of experience points on challenges alone, which I believe trumps the leveling potential of SnD.

NOTE: Challenge XP is not doubled. So if playing on a double XP weekend or while utilizing double XP hours, S&D becomes even more effective for leveling.

Kill confirmed is my final game type recommendation. Kill Confirmed is another TDM based gametype which rewards you for kills and collecting dog tags (confirming or denying a kill). The reason why kill confirmed is a great game type to level up quickly is because it’s faster paced than TDM and at the same type offers more leveling potential. When you kill a player you get +50 XP. When you deny a kill you get +50 XP. When you kill a player and collect their dog tag, you earn +100 XP. When you kill a player AND A TEAMMATE collects that dog tag, YOU STILL EARN +100 XP. Then last but certainly not least, when you die and recover your own dog tag you get +250 XP, the equivalent of 5 objective kills! Kill confirmed is a great way to level up for these reasons. Even if you aren’t the best slayer, you can collect and deny dog tags all game and earn more XP than the highest killing person on your team!

To sum it all up, the best game type for leveling depends on what type of a player you are as well as who you play with and what type of players they are. And remember that you should be playing this game to have fun, so if there are certain gametypes that you dislike, simply don’t play them.

Challenges

Aside from being rewarded XP for your match bonus and in game actions, the other major way you level up is through completing in game challenges. MW3 challenges are specific tasks that you need to complete in order to earn a set amount of experience and they are either static (complete once and you are done) or progressive (multiple tiers or levels of the challenge are consecutively completed)

No matter who you are, as you play the game you will complete challenges. But if you want to maximize your leveling efficiency, you want to plan out your challenges in a way that maximizes your experience gain during the time you spend playing. The next few sections are dedicated to all the different challenges in the game,

Leveling Tip #3: Complete your primary and secondary weapon challenges as efficiently as possible. Get 500 kills with a primary before moving on, and earn the mastery challenges for your best secondaries.

Primary Weapon Challenges

Let’s take a look at a typical set of challenges related to a primary weapon:

Challenge Description Value XP XP Per Tier Marksman 1 10 kills 10 250 25.00 Marksman 2 25 kills 25 1,000 66.67 Marksman 3 75 kills 75 2,000 40.00 Marksman 4 150 kills 150 5,000 66.67 Marksman 5 300 kills 300 10,000 66.67 Marksman 6 500 kills 500 10,000 50.00 Marksman 7 750 kills 750 10,000 40.00 Marksman 8 1000 kills 1000 10,000 40.00 Expert 1 5 headshots 5 500 100.00 Expert 2 15 headshots 15 1,000 100.00 Expert 3 30 headshots 30 2,500 166.67 Expert 4 75 headshots 75 5,000 111.11 Expert 5 150 headshots 150 10,000 133.33 Veteran Gun 1 500 Kills 500 10,000 28.57 Veteran Gun 2 1000 Kills 1000 10,000 20.00 Veteran Gun 3 2500 kills 2500 10,000 6.67 Master 1 250 headshots 250 10,000 40.00 Master 2 500 headshots 500 10000 40.00 Master 3 1000 headshots 1000 10000 20.00

As you can see, you get more XP per kill for different tiers within the same challenge. Because of this, you want to try and complete the most efficient challenges of a gun at the same time before moving onto a different weapon. The easiest way to do this is to use the same primary weapon for 500 kills before moving onto a new gun. The first 500 kills for a weapon each prestige will earn over 8,000 more XP than kills 501-1000, so those kills have a distinct leveling advantage. You will also be working on your Veteran prestige challenges, which are unlocked after you prestige your first time (and do not reset upon consequent prestige levels). So getting 500 kills with a weapon your first time after you prestige will earn you an additional 10,000 experience. Finally, you should also complete the Mastery challenge (unlock all attachments) during your first 500 kills, which earns you another 10,000 experience. As you can see, using a primary weapon for 500 kills per prestige before moving onto another gun maximizes the experience you will earn.

NOTE: Technically, the marksman 5 challenge (300 kills) gives you more XP per kill than the marksman 6 challenge. But in order to maximize your XP earned you would need to get the mastery challenge completed within those 300 kills and keep track of the veteran challenges on your own as the first 2 veteran challenges do not match up with 300 kills per prestige. So to make it easier to remember, I just tell people to get 500 kills per primary per prestige.

DISCLAIMER: now, that being said… don’t use a weapon if you suck with it. If you are getting frustrated and not getting any kills with a gun just because you are trying to get the veteran challenge, you are just going to end up missing out on more experience than you would have if you just stuck with a gun you are good with. It’s better to play well with guns that aren’t helping you level up than it is to play poorly with guns that are “supposed” to be helping you level up but aren’t.

Secondary Weapon Challenges

Secondary weapons for the most part are harder to get kills with and therefore slower to level up with. But where they lack in killing power, they make up for in challenge XP. All secondary weapons have a mastery challenge that you can complete for 10,000 experience and they require less work to complete.

Completing the mastery challenge for a machine pistol only requires 75 kills and completing it for some pistols only requires 50 kills. This is some really great experience you can earn for very little work. I usually get the mastery challenge for every machine pistol and revolver in the game, a total of 60,000 XP for 400 total kills.

Also another secondary weapon with huge leveling potential is the stinger. The stinger is a secondary launcher that is vehicle lock only, meaning it is worthless to get kills with. But stingers are a great secondary to use for 2 reasons: The first reason is that shooting down enemy air support will immediately earn you XP and pointstreaks in game. The second reason the stinger is so great is because you complete marksman challenges for destroying enemy air support. You only have to shoot 40 enemy streaks out of the air to get your first 10,000 XP bonus.

I run a stinger on almost all of my classes as soon as I finish the machine pistol challenges. Use a stinger as your secondary weapon and be conscious of shooting down all enemy pointstreaks when you have a chance.

Leveling Tip #4: Complete the attachment and proficiency challenges for your weapons without decreasing your combat efficiency.

Weapon Attachment & Proficiency Challenges

The next set of challenges that can help you level up quickly are the weapon attachment challenges and the proficiency challenges. The weapon attachment challenges are static 750-1000XP challenges that are earned for getting kills while using specific attachments on a weapon. The proficiency challenges are progressive challenges with 6 tiers earned by completing specific tasks related to a proficiency while using that proficiency on a weapon.

Both of these challenges offer a lot of potential experience to be earned during a prestige, but you need to use caution when completing these challenges, as not all of them offer good XP and/or are easy to complete.

When it comes to attachment challenges, some players do really bad with certain attachments (ie thermal or acog sights). The amount of experience you earn for these challenges is between 750-1000XP, the equivalent of 15-20 kills on domination/kill confirmed. So if you end up struggling with a weapon attachment and could have earned more than 15-20 additional kills during the time you were using it, it ends up being slower leveling than if you had just used your favorite attachment. Let’s take a look at some standard attachment challenges:

Challenge Description Value XP XP/kill AR Red Dot Sight Get 60 kills while aiming down sights with an attached red dot sight 60 1,000 16.67 AR Silencer Get 15 kills with an attached silencer 15 750 50.00 AR Grenade Launcher Get 20 kills with the attached grenade launcher 20 750 37.50 AR ACOG Get 20 kills while aiming down sights with an attached ACOG sight 20 750 37.50 AR Rapid Fire Get 40 kills while using rapid fire 40 1,000 25.00 AR Heartbeat Get 40 kills while using an attached heartbeat sensor 40 1,000 25.00 AR Shotgun Get 40 kills with an attached shotgun 40 1,000 25.00 AR Holographic Get 40 kills while aiming down sights with an attached holographic sight 40 1,000 25.00 AR Extended Mags Get 40 kills while using extended mags 40 1,000 25.00

As you can see most challenges will earn you 25 XP per kill. This is a nice bonus (50% increase for dom/kc) as long as you are decent with the attachment. But if you struggle with an attachment then it’s not worth the effort. I personally get the RDS, Silencer, ACOG, RapidFire, Heartbeat, Holographic and Extended Mags challenges out of the above attachments.

One thing to note is that you can actually stack attachment challenges by using the attachment proficiency, allowing you to attach 2 attachments to your weapon. And while we are talking about proficiencies let’s take a look at a standard proficiency challenge list:

Challenge Description Value XP XP Per Kill Proficiency 1 15 Proficiency Kills/tasks 15 500 33.33 Proficiency 2 30 Proficiency Kills/tasks 30 1,000 66.67 Proficiency 3 60 Proficiency Kills/tasks 60 2,500 83.33 Proficiency 4 120 Proficiency Kills/tasks 120 5,000 83.33 Proficiency 5 300 Proficiency Kills/tasks 300 10,000 55.56 Proficiency 6 750 Proficiency Kills/tasks 750 10,000 22.22

As you can see, proficiency challenges take 2 giant dives in XP per kill during the proficiency V & VI challenges. Also some proficiencies are earned for straight kills while other proficiencies require you getting kills in certain ways (for example Impact requires you to get kills through objects). For this reason I only level up the following proficiencies and only work on the first 5 challenges of a tier: Kick, Attachments, Stability, Range (smgs), Damage (shotguns). Depending on your play style and preferred weapons, you might never use a proficiency at all during a prestige (ie speed which is only available on snipers and lmgs)

So what do all these challenges mean in terms of leveling? Basically, you are trying to maximize your XP per action/kill without hurting your overall combat effectiveness. If you equip an attachment/proficiency and consequently do really poorly for 10 games in a row, you will probably earn less XP completing the challenges than you would have just using your best class setup. So it all boils down to how diverse you are as a player and how well you do with different attachments/proficiencies.

Leveling Tip #5: Complete the perk and pro-perk challenges for all perks that offer a high XP per task reward. If the tasks are easy, complete all 6 challenges. If the tasks are hard, avoid all challenges together.

Perk Challenges

The next set of challenges that can help you level up quickly is the perk challenges. Each perk challenge has 6 tiers to complete and when you unlock the pro version of that perk you also unlock 6 tiers of a new challenge related to that pro perk. Completing these challenges can earn you up to 58,000 XP per perk, a great boost to your leveling.

In order to help you understand how perk challenge XP works let’s take a look at the challenges associated with the Scavenger Perk:

Challenge Description Value XP XP Per Task Scavenger Pro I Resupply X times while using Scavenger 10 500 50 Scavenger Pro II Resupply X times while using Scavenger 25 1,000 66.67 Scavenger Pro III Resupply X times while using Scavenger 50 2,500 100.00 Scavenger Pro IV Resupply X times while using Scavenger 100 5,000 100.00 Scavenger Pro V Resupply X times while using Scavenger 250 10,000 66.67 Scavenger Pro VI Resupply X times while using Scavenger 500 10,000 40.00 Hoarding Ammo I Get X kills while using Scavenger Pro 15 500 33.33 Hoarding Ammo II Get X kills while using Scavenger Pro 30 1,000 66.67 Hoarding Ammo III Get X kills while using Scavenger Pro 60 2,500 83.33 Hoarding Ammo IV Get X kills while using Scavenger Pro 120 5,000 83.33 Hoarding Ammo V Get X kills while using Scavenger Pro 300 10,000 55.56 Hoarding Ammo VI Get X kills while using Scavenger Pro 750 10,000 22.22

As you can see, after you resupply 10 times while using scavenger you earn 500 XP, then you earn 1000 XP for your next 15 resupplies. Following your next 25 resupplies, you earn 2500 XP. As you can see up until Scavenger Pro V, every challenge results in a higher XP yield per task. Then at Scavenger Pro V and VI you see large XP drop offs. Your final challenge requires 250 resupplies to net you 10,000 XP, that’s only 40 XP per resupply, less than you get per resupply for your first 10. The same thing happens with the hoarding ammo challenge. In fact if you look at every perk challenge in the game, the XP per task always drops off at the 5th and 6th challenge.

From this information, we can conclude that in order to get the best per task experience gains from these challenges we would complete only the first 4 levels of each challenge before moving on. But certain perk challenges are so easy that it’s worth it to complete all 6 challenges, and other perk challenges are so hard that it’s not worth completing any of the challenges.

Every player has different strengths and weaknesses, so exactly what perk challenges you go for is up to you. If you struggle to get kills, don’t go for the really big 750 kill 10k challenges. Instead work towards the support challenges like blind eye and sit rep.

That being said, I am going to list the challenges for all of the perks below as well as my tips on how to complete them in the least amount of time possible.

Title Description Tips Tier 1 Perks & Challenges

(Blue Perk) Recon Pro Paint 3/10/20/40/100/250 enemies with explosive damage while using Recon Flash grenades, noob tubes, and xm-25 launchers all count as explosive damage so spam those explosives Paintball Gun Paint 15/30/60/120/300/750 enemies with bullet damage while using Recon Pro Use an LMG with Deep Impact and hold down the trigger while aiming in the enemies general direction Sleight Of Hand Pro Get 15/30/60/120/300/750 kills while using Sleight of Hand. I always finish all these challenges, SoH is one of the best perks in the game High Noon Get 15/30/60/120/300/750 kills shortly after swapping weapons while using Sleight of Hand Pro I don’t specifically go for this but when you run out of ammo, instead of reloading swap weapons for a quick kill Blind Eye Pro Destroy 3/10/20/40/100/250 enemy killstreak rewards while using Blind Eye Carry a stinger as your secondary Restricted Airspace Destroy 3/10/20/40/100/250 enemy killstreak rewards by locking on while using Blind Eye Pro Carry a stinger as your secondary Extreme Conditioning Pro Sprint x miles while using Extreme Conditioning Run around Parkour Mantle 3/10/20/40/100/250 objects while using Extreme Conditioning Pro Try to complete this challenge & featherweight at the same time by vaulting a rail and falling a long distance Scavenger Pro Resupply 10/25/50/100/250/500 times while using Scavenger Use a weapon that reloads fast and needs a lot of ammo, like machine pistols Hoarding Ammo Get 15/30/60/120/300/750 kills while using Scavenger Pro Great pro perk challenge for easy XP Tier 2 Perks & Challenges

(Red Perk) Quickdraw Pro Get x kills within a few seconds of aiming down your sights while using Quickdraw Use in conjunction with stalker to maximize XP gain Bringing The Boom Get x kills with your secondary weapon while using Quick Draw Pro Use in conjunction with stalker to maximize XP gain. MP9 is a great secondary for ADS kills, it’s like a bumpy MP7 Blast Shield Pro Survive x explosions while using Blast Shield Dropzone or objective game types where a lot of explosives are thrown at one area are great for completing this Can’t Phase Me Get x kills shortly after being flashed or stunned while using Blast Shield Pro Dropzone or objective game types where a lot of explosives are thrown at one area are great for completing this Hardline Pro Get x pointstreaks while using Hardline Specialist streaks count towards hardline pro, easy challenge And One! Get x assists to count as kills while using Hardline Pro Use hardline pro in conjunction with recon to maximize assists Assassin Pro Get x kills while enemy UAV is active and using Assassin Assassin + Silenced Weapon + Dead Silence = Ninja Mayhem Surprise! Get x kills while enemy Counter UAV or EMP is active and using Assassin Pro Assassin + Silenced Weapon + Dead Silence = Ninja Mayhem Overkill Pro Get x kills with your second primary weapon while using Overkill I don’t ever use overkill, it’s a waste of a perk slot. There are plenty of strong secondaries Overkiller Get x kills with your secondary primary with an attachment while using Overkill pro I don’t ever use overkill, it’s a waste of a perk slot. There are plenty of strong secondaries Tier 3 Perks & Challenges

(Yellow Perk) Marksman Pro Get x kills while holding breath and using Marksman I don’t unlock marksman pro since I never snipe CQC Not For Me Get x long distance kills while using Marksman Pro I don’t unlock marksman pro since I never snipe Stalker Pro Get x kills while aiming down the sights and using Stalker Use in conjunction with quickdraw to maximize XP gain Trip Delayed Trip x enemy explosives and survive while using Stalker Pro This one just happens as you play, don’t be scared of running into enemy equipment Sitrep Pro Destroy x enemy devices while using SitRep Just play while using sitrep and if you see enemy equipment, destroy it I Heard That Get x kills while using Sitrep Pro Although sitrep pro is a pain to unlock, this challenge is easy XP once it’s unlocked Steady Aim Pro Get x hipfire kills using Steady Aim PP90m1 + Rapid Fire or Akimbo FNG9’s… Spray and Pray, enjoy the hatemail Runner’s High Get x kills shortly after sprinting while using Steady Aim Pro PP90m1 + Rapid Fire or Akimbo FNG9’s… Spray and Pray, enjoy the hatemail Dead Silence Pro Get x close range kills using Dead Silence Silenced SMG will work nicely here Featherweight Fall x times that would have normally caused you damage while using Dead Silence Pro Try to complete this challenge & parkour at the same time by vaulting a rail and falling a long distance

Leveling Tip #6: Use the specialist or support strike package to quickly gain additional XP bonuses each game.

Strike Packages

The 2 best strike packages for leveling up quickly are the Specialist & Support strike packages. The specialist strike package earns you specialist bonus XP for every perk reward you earn and also allows you to work towards all of your perk challenges at the same time. The support strike package on the other hand allows you to rack up a lot of XP through taking down enemy kill streaks and getting assists. If you have a Kill/Death ratio under 1.5 or like to play the objective then you will probably want to use the support strike package.

Specialist strike package

The specialist strike package offers a huge amount of leveling potential. Not only do you earn bonus XP for every perk you unlock, you also earn bonus XP for every other kill you get when you unlock one man army (earned by getting 8 points, 7 with hardline).

The best part about getting an 8 pointstreak (7 with hardline) while running specialist is that you can work on every single perk challenge in the game at the same time. The best thing about unlocking one man army (earned by getting 8 points) is that you can work towards completing challenges for every perk in the game at the same time. This leads to hundreds of thousands of potential experience earned from just completing challenges while using this strike package.

When using the specialist strike package I always recommend that you equip Hardline Pro as your custom class red perk. The reason that you should use hardline as your red perk is that the first point you get of each life results in your first perk reward being unlocked. If you were running Assassin or Quick draw as your red perk it would require 2 kills for you to unlock your first perk reward and you miss out on potential specialist bonuses. Another advantage of running hardline pro is that every other assist you get counts as a kill and a point towards your specialist streak. Let’s say that you have 1 assist and you throw a flash bang at an enemy before you die. If that enemy is killed by your teammate while still flashed and you earn your second assist, you will respawn with your first perk reward automatically unlocked, since your second assist counts as a point. If you were running another red perk you would not get credit for that assist, even if you unlocked hardline as a perk reward because you would lose hardline upon death.

Support strike package

The support strike package is the best way to level up if you find yourself dying a lot while playing call of duty. It is also the most beneficial strike package to your entire team so if you find your team is struggling to win try to run support.

The reason the support strike package has so much leveling potential is because your point streak does not reset upon death. So even if you are dying just as much as you are getting points, your streak remains intact.

The secret to earning a lot of experience while using the support package is to combine hardline pro with perks and pointstreaks that get a lot of assists. I recommend using this class:

Perk 1: Recon

Perk 2: Hardline Pro

Perk 3: Marksman / Sitrep

Primary: Anything (Grenade Launcher attachment is nice if using Recon)

Secondary: Stinger

Lethal & Tactical: Semtex & Flashbangs if using Recon, tac inserts if playing kill confirmed, otherwise anything is fine.

Support Streaks: UAV, Ballistic Vests, Recon Drone -OR- Recon Drone / Stealth Bomber / EMP

Ballistic vests are good because you earn XP for your teammates picking them up. Not only do they help you, your teammates are able to absorb additional damage for picking them up. The vests are timed and are not affected by how many teammates pick one up. You can earn hundreds of XP for a well placed ballistic vest (try to place it out in the open near where your teammates spawn)

Stealth bombers are the only offensive pointstreak in the support package. Personally, I think it was retarded of the developers to put stealth bombers in the support strike package, but that’s another story. This is one of the best pointstreaks available. Not only can it clear an entire section of the map, you can easily get hundreds of XP in kills by placing a bomber in the correct location.

Also, EMP’s are a great pointstreak. A lot of players opt to use the escort airdrop but I feel that is a mistake. Escort airdrops will earn you kills or XP depending on if you pick them up or your teammates do, but they take forever to drop and a good team will shoot it down before it gets a chance to drop the care packages. EMP is a pointstreak that instantly kills all enemy air support AND prevents the enemy from calling in any pointstreaks for an entire minute. I can’t tell you how annoying it is to run into a team that is using multiple EMP’s… 60 seconds feels like forever in one round of MW3. EMP’s won’t help you earn that much XP (aside from whatever you destroy when calling it in), however they are game changers and they will help your team win games.

And last but certainly not least, the majority of your XP will be earned using the Recon Drone. The recon drone is a remote controlled helicopter that allows you to “spot” enemy players that will show up constantly on your teammates radar UNTIL THEY DIE! That’s right, until they die. In other words, when you tag an enemy player you basically give them a death sentence. Tagging a player earns you +50XP and when that player dies you earn an additional +20XP. Since all players are likely to die after being tagged you are basically earning +70XP per tag. I have seen people get over 30 assists in a single game running this support streak layout. That is over 2000 XP per game from your assists alone. Not to mention that every other assist of yours counts as another point towards your point streak.

That is why I recommend setting up your support streak in one of 2 ways. The first way is to put recon drone as your last earned pointstreak… With hardline, that is only 9 points. If you are constantly helping your team with objectives you can get over 3 recon drones in a single match. The other method of setting up your support streak is to use the recon drone as the first unlocked streak, followed by higher reward streaks like the EMP or Stealth Bomber. This makes it so your assists while flying the drone will count towards your higher pointstreaks. Either way you should be earning a lot of assists and XP using one of these support strike package setups.

Leveling Tip #7: Be aware of unique static challenges that can be completed with as little effort as possible.

Static Challenges:

There are some static challenges in this game that are not typically completed that offer great leveling potential for relatively little work.

WARNING: One thing to note about static challenges is that a lot of them are odd challenges that could directly affect your statistics, so if you are a K/D or W/L stat whore completing these challenges can affect your stats.

NOTE: Not all static challenges are available when you first prestige. Each set of challenges requires a certain level to unlock.

Anyways here are is a break down of all the static challenges I have deemed worth “considering”. They aren’t challenges I completed in every prestige but are ones that I feel reward enough XP to consider doing them. Keep in mind that a challenge that rewards even 500 XP is equivalent of getting 10 kills in an objective game type or 5 kills in TDM.

Basic Training (Lvl 4) Flyswatter (1000 XP) – shoot down an enemy helicopter. Grab a launcher and earn the easiest 1000 XP you will ever get. Goodbye (500 XP) – fall 30 feet or more to your death. A good place to do this is on the map “Seatown” by the “A” domination spawn there is a big well you can jump down to complete the challenge Base Jump (750 XP) – fall 15 feet or more and survive. Just find a ledge and jump off it… most people get this unintentionally. The rest of the basic training challenges are just ones you will earn as you play… don’t worry too much about them.

Operations (Lvl 15) Bomb down (1000 XP) – Kill a bomb carrier in Sabotage or S&D. Pretty much just play Sabotage for a minute and camp a bomb and you will get this. Last man standing (1000 XP) – This is the easiest to do playing S&D solo. Join a game then just wait in your spawn while on the attacking team… If your team is bad you will guaranteed be the last man standing. Saboteur / Defuser / Bomb Defender (2 tiers on all 3 challenges for 1500 XP a piece) – I don’t enjoy sabotage and have only played it a couple of times in MW3, so this is mostly hypothetical. But in Blops there used to be a great way to earn defuses and plants and that’s by playing Sabotage with a team. Basically you plant then bomb then everyone hides near the point and lets the enemy team defuse the bomb. Then you kill the enemies and replant the bomb. Rinse, Repeat. You would be surprised how many enemy players will continually run to the bomb and defuse it, like lambs to the slaughter. The defuser is exactly opposite in that you let the enemy plant the bomb then kill them and defuse. Rinse, repeat. Then bomb defender is basically the same as above except you kill the enemies while they are defusing instead of letting them defuse. If you completed both tiers of all 3 of these challenges you would earn 4500 XP and these can all be completed in one match of sabotage (although bomb defender is the hardest) FFA Victor (3 tiers for 4000 XP total) – Place 1st, 2nd or 3rd at least 10 times in FFA . If you are decent at playing free for all. Quickly play 10 matches for a total of 4000 bonus XP from this challenge. While you are playing FFA, try to complete the finishing move challenges at the same time.

Proficiencies (Lvl 20) Talked about earlier in this guide next to weapon attachment challenges

Precision (Lvl 30) The Surgical / Mach 5 / Dictator / Perfectionist (2000 XP per challenge) – fire an entire magazine into your enemies without missing using an AR, SMG, LMG, Sniper. These 4 challenges are pretty difficult to complete. The sniper one is probably the easiest and the LMG challenge is very difficult. I don’t ever go for these but if you are a good aim you can probably do it. The best way to get this done would be to come up behind an enemy juggernaught and unload a full clip of your gun before he turns around.

Finishing Moves (Lvl 40) Finishing moves are all challenges to get a game willing killcam in a certain way. These are great ways to earn quick experience if you are good at free for all. What you want to do is rush to 29 kills and save the killstreak or item you need to get the game winning killcam with until the very last kill. So let’s say I rush to 29 kills and I saved a predator missile until the end. I could kill 1 enemy for the final killcam and earn the “Drone Killer” challenge. You can also have a class ready to switch to with a riot shield, throwing knife, or other finishing move challenge so that when you reach 29 kills you can die and switch to that class.

Humiliation (Lvl 50) Car Bomb 1 & 2 (3000 XP & 5000 XP) – Kill 5/10 enemies by destroying cars. You can do this by setting a bouncing betty near a group of vehicles or just by throwing explosives at vehicles when an enemy is taking cover nearby. Usually completed just by playing. Backstabber (3000 XP) – stab an enemy in the back with your knife. I take back what I said about flyswatter… this is the easiest 3000 XP you will earn. Misery Loves Company (3000 XP) – Kill yourself and 1 enemy by cooking a grenade without throwing it. This is the Durka Durka Jihad challenge. It’s pretty easy to do for a quick 3k xp. Just prime a grenade near an unaware enemy and blow yourself up right next to them. Think Fast Stun / Flash / Frag – Finish an enemy off by direct impact. These challenges are easy to complete if you find a final stand noob on the ground. Final stand players only have 1 health and are pretty much immobile. Throw a flash/stun/frag at them and earn a quick 3k XP, but watch out for their final stand douchebaggery trying to kill you.

Payback (Lvl 60) I don’t ever go for any of these specifically, it’s hard to specifically go for revenge kills. Just ignore these and be happy if you complete some of them.

First Class (Lvl 65) Fast Swap (4500 XP) – Hurt an enemy with a primary weapon, then finish them off with a pistol. This is easier to do with sleight of hand pro. It’s a pretty easy challenge if you try to do it. Star Player (4500 XP) – Play an entire match of any game type with a 5:1 kill / death ratio. This usually just happens but if you struggle to get a 5 K/D just try and run predator/airstrike(or chopper)/reaper as your assault streaks and just camp for 1 round. If you do this you should be able to get a 5 K/D. How the ? (4500 XP) – Kill an enemy by using bullet penetration to shoot an explosive device through a wall. Equip sitrep and shoot an enemies C4 or explosive through an object or wall. With a bit of luck they will be nearby and you will get the kill. Survivalist (4500 XP) – Survive for 5 consecutive minutes. Be a beast and run and gun for 5 minutes without dying or be a bitch for 5 minutes and hide with blind eye / assassin The Survivor (4500 XP) – Get a knife kill when all of your ammo is empty. Equip an AA-12 as your primary & SMAW secondary. Shoot all your bullets and rockets then go get a knife kill.

Intimidation (Lvl 70) No Secrets (2500 XP) – Call in a UAV 3 times in a single match. You can use UAV with hardline pro and not have a 2nd and 3rd streak. Should make it super simple to call in 3 UAV’s in one match. Sunblock (2500 XP) – Counter the enemy’s UAV 3 times in a single match. Same as above except run UAV/CUAV on support. Wait until the enemy puts up radar then call in a counter. Groundwar gametype usually has a lot of UAV’s. Afterburner / Air superiority (2500 XP per challenge) – Call in an Airstrike / Attack Heli 2 times in 1 match. Use hardline pro with Predator/Airstrike/Attack Heli as your streaks. Your streaks stack so you should be able to earn both challenges in 1 game.

Prestige (unlocked after you enter your 1st prestige. These challenges do not reset unlike all other regular challenges) These are all just career challenges that you shouldn’t specifically go for, but will contribute XP for you over time as you go through the prestige ranks.



Daily & Weekly XP Challenges:

Daily & Weekly challenges are IW/Sledgehammers failed attempt at Treyarchs contracts. In concept, they are a good idea, but they are poorly implemented. The issue with challenges is that all daily challenges earn you 1000 XP, and all weekly challenges earn you 5000 XP (at least they do right now). Some challenges are super easy (call in Assault UAV 2 times) while others are pretty difficult (get direct impact kills with a launcher, etc). These challenges do not reward you with more XP for completing more difficult tasks. In some ways this is good because you can get 5000 XP for some really simple weekly challenges. But in other ways it’s bad, because there are some difficult challenges that just aren’t worth the effort to complete. Feel free to check these challenges for some easy XP but don’t go out of your way to get them done.