Modern Warfare 3: Armory Unlock Guide (How They Work & Rewards)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 may be a remaster, but its new Armory Unlocks progression system aims to keep things fresh. Modern Warfare 3 has a huge selection of weapons thanks to the carryover from MW2. As a result, rather than the regular method of grinding levels to unlock weapons and gear, the new Armory Unlock system lets you prioritize what you want to unlock first.The new progression system is much better but undeniably more confusing.

If you previously owned and played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, you will keep your progression on weapons that are being carried over to MW3. If you didn’t play MW2, these guns, as well as the new ones in MW3, are still available to you; you just need to reach a certain military level or complete their unlock challenge. Regardless of whether you played MW2 or not, everyone has to obtain new gear via the Armory Challenge.

Level 25 Armory Challenge Explained

While you can unlock weapons and gear in Modern Warfare 3 through regular military ranks, and gun attachments through weapon ranks, some of it can only be acquired through Armory Unlocks, which everyone gets access to at level 25. There are a total of 58 items/challenges tied to Armory Unlocks, and they’re divided into six categories: Weapons, Aftermarket Parts, Perks, Equipment, Field Upgrades, and KillStreaks. You can choose anyone to go after first, but each individual item will require a certain number of points in order for it to be unlocked.

Points for the Level 25 Armory Unlocks are awarded by completing Daily Challenges in Multiplayer. These will appear on the left-hand side of your screen in the Multiplayer lobby, and three new ones are refreshed each day (There are also three daily challenges in Zombies that count towards armory unlocks). Completing just one daily challenge will reward your active Armory Unlock with just one point.

Once you’ve completed your three daily challenges, you’ll receive a fourth bonus challenge, which is always “Win a Multiplayer match”. Winning a match will earn you one point towards your current Armory Unlock challenge, and there is no limit to how many wins/points you can earn in a day. At least until the next day’s challenges are reset. Once you’ve completed your three daily challenges, you can just earn more points by winning matches.

How to Cheat The System

Players discovered an exploit to Armory Unlocks while playing Modern Warfare 3 Zombies. Basically, some items can be extracted in Zombies, and they will be unlocked in Multiplayer. For example, the Semtex is unlocked through the Armory Unlocks system. If you extract from MWZ with it in your inventory, it will be unlocked and usable in Multiplayer. This also works for weapons, such as the MCW 6.8.

This does not apply to things like Perks and Killstreaks. Nonetheless, it is extremely helpful for unlocking weapons and items that you don’t want to grind for via the Daily Challenges. This also applies to unlocks obtained outside the Armory Unlock challenges, such as the Thermite Grenade, which is not available until you reach Military Rank 33.

Level 25 Armory Challenge Rewards

There are 58 challenges linked to the Level 25 Armory Unlocks, with a total of 235 points required to unlock everything.

Weapons

All the weapons tied with the Armory Unlocks are new to MW3. It simply doesn’t just consist of the best assault rifles or SMGs in Modern Warfare 3.

Aftermarket Parts

Aftermarket Parts are a new addition to the weapon customization in Modern Warfare 3. This adds a new layer to gun customization by completely altering the appearance and performance of specific weapons. In total, five aftermarket parts are unlocked from the Armory Challenges.

Perks

Unfortunately, Perks can’t be unlocked from the Modern Warfare Zombies exploit.

Equipment

There are 12 pieces of Equipment you need to earn from the Level 25 Armory Unlocks. Fortunately, much of it can be obtained by extracting it in MWZ.

Field Upgrades

Best to get the Loadout Drop for Field Upgrades done first. That way you’ll have it ready for when Warzone 3 comes out.

Killstreaks

The last of the Level 25 Armory Unlocks are Killstreaks, which also can’t be cheated by extracting them from MWZ.

The Level 25 Armory Unlocks system is new and will most likely take some time to get used to. One aspect it shares with prior games is the fact that you have to grind if you want to unlock everything in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.