How to level up fast in Modern Warfare 4: the best XP methods

Before anything else, I’d love to give you a table of XP per kill and per capture. I can’t, because the game never shows you one and Activision hasn’t published the curve, so any number you see for it is somebody’s guess (and I’m not going to invent one). What I can do is tell you where the XP comes from and how to line it all up, and that turns out to be most of the battle.

How leveling works

There are three separate bars and it helps to know which one you are filling. Soldier Rank runs from 1 to 55, and at 55 you can prestige. Every weapon has its own level on top of that. DMZ has a third track that goes up to 70 and unlocks its own stuff.

The useful part is how they connect. XP you earn in DMZ feeds your Soldier Rank too, but multiplayer XP does nothing for your DMZ level. So DMZ is paying you twice, and it is the reason most people say it is the quicker route. Whether it is the more fun route depends on how you feel about being shot in the back by a stranger while carrying a bag of loot.

DMZ

Every deployment pays XP even if you never make it to the extraction point, which is a bloody nice change from extraction games where dying normally costs you the lot. These are the things that actually pay:

• Dynamic Operations. The green markers on the map. They give XP, cash and a supply drop, so pick the ones your squad can finish rather than the ones that look cool.
• Orders and Story Missions. Orders are steady XP. Story Missions can be replayed, and Operation Critical Extraction is the one to farm, since it throws a lot of enemies at you without being hard.
• Side Ops. Switching on UAV towers, taking SAM sites and climbing the Lieutenant Hunt towers.
• Lieutenants and Commanders. They pay properly. They also fight back properly.
• Loot and kills. Opening caches and lockers and shooting AI is small money that adds up. Killing a player pays more than killing AI, if you fancy your odds.
• Extracting. It gives you an extraction and deployment bonus, levels your Operator’s dog tags and gives you Trait Points.

At the end of a run you get an After Action Report that grades you from F up to S++ for objectives, combat and looting. I wouldn’t chase the letter, but it does tell you that doing a bit of everything is worth more than doing one thing all night.

Multiplayer

Team Deathmatch is the worst way to level. Objective modes are the better way, because holding a point or confirming a kill pays on top of the kills themselves. So Hardpoint, Domination and Kill Confirmed it is, and if you’re on a point, stay on it. That one habit does more than anything else on this list.

After that it’s a matter of picking up the small payouts that most people ignore:

• Take a launcher and shoot down enemy killstreaks. It is XP that has nothing to do with kills.
• Keep a UAV, Counter UAV or Advanced UAV in the air. They pay out when your team kills the people they have marked.
• Run Resupply and Hardline. The first keeps your grenades and field upgrades coming back, the second brings those UAVs around sooner.
• Use the DDOS Field Upgrade. It EMPs players and shuts down their gear, and both of those pay.
• Throw Decoy Grenades and Snapshot Grenades. Affecting enemies with them earns XP.

Double XP tokens

Tokens are the one multiplier you can control, and they’re simple once you know three rules. The timer only runs during matches, so the lobby, the loadout screen and the DMZ base do not burn it. Whatever you do not use carries over to the next match. And you can run one of each kind at a time, but not two of the same.

They come in 15, 30, 45 and 60 minute versions. In the main lobby you open the token box in the bottom right corner, and in a match you find the same menu in the pause screen. In DMZ you can also use the one in the base. They are switched off during official Double XP weekends, because the event already doubles everything.

You get them from the campaign, from events like Boot Camp, from promo codes, from old Black Ops 7 and Warzone stock that carried over, and from some store bundles. So finishing the campaign is not only a story thing. Use a rank token when you are climbing Soldier Rank and a weapon token when you are working on a gun, and then play a few matches in a row so you do not waste it.

Challenges and bonuses

• Daily challenges reset at 9 AM Pacific. Finishing all of them pays a bonus.
• Camo and calling card challenges give XP as well as the cosmetic, so you may as well work on them while you are playing anyway.
• Classic Prestige gives a 20% XP boost for the next lap. I went through whether it is worth the reset in the Classic vs Regular guide, and what you get for each prestige is in the Prestige rewards guide.
• BlackCell will add an XP boost for owners once Season 1 starts.

Weapon levels

Weapon XP comes from kills and objective points while that gun is in your hands. There isn’t a secret trick for it, which is why the boring advice is the right advice: pick one weapon, use it for a string of matches and don’t swap it halfway through a token. DMZ pays weapon XP as well, so take the gun you are levelling in with you. Weapon levels unlock attachments, and the Apex ones arrive once you reach the maximum level. All 28 are covered in the Apex Attachments guide.

The fastest route

If you only have one evening, I’d put a token on, queue DMZ and farm Operation Critical Extraction, then switch to Hardpoint when I got bored of being hunted. It isn’t glamorous but it covers both bars.