Zombies is back with Modern Warfare 3, and players can experience the all-new take on the mode. This time, players are tasked with going to Al-Mazrah, and dealing with the zombie outbreak in the area. Expect DMZ-style content with a new Zombie’s Twist. With it being an all-new experience, we offer you some MW3 Zombies tips and tricks to help you on your road.

MW3 Zombie Tips and Tricks to Help You Through It¶

Below we have our most helpful MW3 Zombie Tips and Tricks. The tips range from planning strats, communication, events, and budgeting to think about. Expect important tips on the following features and gameplay aspects:

• Understanding the map
• Threat Areas and planning
• Squad communication
• Extraction Rewards
• Zombies and Merc enemies
• Contract Rewards are good value for money
• Zombie Camo Challenges

Zombie Tip 1: Understanding the Map¶

The Map in Zombies is broken into three distinct locations: low threat, medium threat, and high threat. These areas are indicated by colors on your Tac Map. The outer edges are low threat, the middle orange color is medium, and the center red is high threat. Low threats will contain the squishiest zombies. That also comes with some of the cheaper perks, Wall Buys, and other content to look for. When you move into another area, you face harder threats with stronger HP zombies, more armored enemies, and better chances at getting higher-tier items for money, or weapon pickups and other facets of loadouts.

Playing properly around the threat levels, based on your group’s aims, tasks and starting equipment will award you with a better run and better chances of survival.

MW3 Zombies Tip 2: Proceeding through Threat Areas¶

When you enter a Zombies game, it is better to begin taking on challenges and contracts around the low-threat areas. This allows you to build up a cash reserve. You should build up around 7k in money, so you can Wall Buy one or two weapons in the low-tier area and Pack-A-Punch a weapon. Pack-A-Punch typically costs around 4k, so, make sure you have one ready to go to kill the enemies in the next threat area more efficiently. Entering with poorer-quality weapons will rinse you through your ammo, making it much harder to manage that content.

In addition, if you can find some Wall Buys in the earlier area of medium threat, run over, get a blue quality gun, and Pack-A-Punch. That way, it is easier to steamroll earlier-tier enemies and have a really good gun ready for medium-threat areas when you pack a punch for even better options.

MW3 Zombies Tip 3: Squading Up¶

Another Solid MW3 Zombie Tip is to play with a squad. If you queue solo, you will be matched into a squad. So, playing with a pre-made squad you can communicate with is much better. This allows you to coordinate better with allies and determine what objectives and tasks people are completing. With the advent of player tasks in lobby and Camo grinds, it is very easy to begin to lose track of players in Zombies, and thus easy for you to lose those precious insured weapons, extraction rewards, and other goodies.

MW3 Zombie Tip 4: Extraction Rewards¶

DMZ in MW2 made it a big incentive to extract new gun unlocks from when a new season arrived or when you play catch up. The same system is in place in MW3. We managed to extract one of the Meta MW3 guns, the MCW, from the Zombies mode and unlock it around 20 levels earlier than we would have done in MW3’s Multiplayer.

In addition, with the new Armory Unlock, gating a lot of weapons, equipment, and other loadout features, Zombies offer a more directed grind. It is very easy to get a weapon you actually want to use from a Wall Buy or enemy mercenary pick up and escape with it for use in multiplayer. Moreso, escaping with a weapon allows you to run a weapon again as a pre-built loadout for future zombie sessions, saving you some progress on having to get another Wall Buy gun or preserve a gun with really good attachments for future use. Note that Pack-A-Punched weapons are not saved for future runs, and instead, they return to their state before they became Pack-A-Punched.

MW3 Zombie Tip 5: Zombies are not your only threat¶

As you play through the Zombies map, you’ll find Mercenary bases. These are akin to your Strongholds in DMZ, with AI guards with guns. These areas contain loot you can get, typically offering decent guns with solid attachments or loot boxes you can only open once the area is cleared.

These guns are very strong, albeit random in what they give you. In addition, you can get lots of high-value currency from the boxes that only open at the end of events. Send these to the buy and sell stations for a huge boost to your economy and get those Pack a Punch weapons, mystery box rewards, or other key purchases to push into higher threat levels.

MW3 Zombie Tip 6: Complete Contracts¶

Contracts are a copy and paste from DMZ, with some reskinned events for the Zombie theme. These Contracts offer players heavy cash rewards for completion, alongside, other benefits and awards. One of the takeaway rewards we got at the end of the spore contract was the PHD Flopper reward from the loot. A free perk and a few thousand essences to spend later is certainly a good deal, especially in low-threat areas where zombies die in a few hits. It’s one way for you and the squad to prepare to advance through more dangerous territory and get good value for money from them.

To find a contract, simply open the Tac Map and look for the light blueish markers on the map. Feel free to ping them for your allies to know what they will get themselves into and go from there.

MW3 Zombie Tip 7: Camo Challenges¶

You may have heard that Camo Challenges are in Zombies, and both MW2 and MW3 weapons have Camo grinds. For the most part, these challenges are simple to get going, yet some require proper planning to do. Essentially, build up a portfolio of decent equipment, make sure to extract to make the grind easier and not lose your insured weapons, and properly communicate with the squad to get them. In addition, there’s new challenges such as critical kills, which are killing enemies in their weakpoints. There are also new terms like Elite, which are a type of Merc enemy, so if you need to do them, go and look for Merc bases in higher threat areas and kill them. Warning they are bullet sponges.

Slowly but surely, you’ll start getting familiar with the new terms and understanding the premise of the new XP multipliers, reward and Camo grinds to come. You can read up on some of the Camo Challenges here if you are interested.