Modern Warfare 2‘s mid-season “Reloaded” update for Season 1 should arrive around the middle of December, and the update is bringing Call of Duty’s first-ever Destiny-style Raid. There are few details revealed about this new cooperative experience, but there is some preparation you can do to make sure you’re better equipped for whatever this new Raid has to offer. Here we’ll guide you through everything you need to do to prepare for Modern Warfare 2’s Raids.

What are Raids in Modern Warfare 2?

Raids will continue the story of Modern Warfare 2’s campaign, and Activision describes them as a trios mode with a mix of stealth, action, and puzzle-solving objectives. Episode One is announced to launch with the Reloaded update, with more episodes following in future seasons. The specifics of this mode are scarce, but Activision says more details on Raids will be revealed closer to the mid-season update.

Raids are known to be a challenging co-op experience in other games that have them, such as Bungie’s Destiny series. We don’t know how much Call of Duty’s Raids will differ, but Activision says these will take place within the Modern Warfare 2’s Spec Ops and utilize the mode’s Kits feature. The publisher also suggests players should level up the Spec Ops Kits before the launch of Raids, with at least one Kit leveled up to Rank 5.

What are Kits?

Spec Ops has three class-based Kits, which are similar to having a set of perks, field upgrades, and killstreaks in multiplayer.

• Assault: A Kit focused on increased armor with an armor box field upgrade. The later levels include faster loadout item usage, increased armor capacity, and free stims are included in the backpack.
• Medic: A Kit focused on quicker revives with Warzone’s stim pistol field upgrade for ranged instant revives. The later levels gives the medic a free bomb drone, longer Tactical Sprint times, and free claymores and anti-tank mines are also included in the backpack.
• Recon: This Kit is focused on getting intel for your team. It offers a Snapshot Pulse field upgrade to see nearby enemies. The later levels include the ability to automatically restock lethals and tacticals over time, the ability to carry extra equipment, and a free heartbeat sensor and spotter scope included in the backpack.

How to level up Spec Ops Kits

There are 10 tiers for each Kit, and these are leveled up by earning stars through Spec Ops missions and completing mission-related challenges. Just load up a mission and select the Kit you want to level up, and all the Stars earned during this time will progress through those tiers.

Each week, you can earn up to three Stars for every Spec Ops mission, with the higher Star ratings being awarded for completing the missions within a set timeframe or other specific criteria. Again, there is a cap on the Stars earned for missions, but this will reset each week.

Just like in multiplayer and Warzone 2, there are three daily challenges available, and completing them will unlock a fourth bonus challenge. The dailies are only worth XP, but the bonus challenge will award you with Stars.

Finally, Stars can be earned by collecting intel fragments in each mission. You can earn two Stars for every five pieces you collect. Here we have a guide for getting all the intel in the Low Profile mission. There are 20 pieces total, so collecting them all will give you an additional four Stars (and a related Achievement or Trophy). This is one of the easiest missions to complete for a three-star rating, and it’s the most painless mission for collecting the intel as well.

Since we don’t know the specifics of Season 1’s Raid, it would probably be beneficial to try leveling up the first few tiers of each Kit, getting at least one Kit to tier five before attempting a Raid.

Additionally, Season 1 added new guns to Modern Warfare 2’s weapon pool, but one needs to be unlocked by completing a challenge in Warzone’s DMZ mode. Here’s our full guide to unlocking the M13B assault rifle. Modern Warfare 2 is a huge weapon grind, but here are some tips for getting your guns leveled up faster.