Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 arrives on October 28, and Activision has detailed all the challenges and level progression available on day one. This gives players 20 days of preseason leveling to unlock weapons, attachments, and some additional operators to use across multiplayer, Spec Ops, and the upcoming Warzone 2.0.

Weapon progression

In addition to leveling up in the military ranks, players will also want to rank up across Modern Warfare 2’s weapon Platforms. The game features 33 Platforms and a total of 51 weapons to unlock, most of which have attachments to unlock as well.

With this new weapon Platform system, each Platform has a unique progression tree, which details every unlock within that platform. For example, once a specific barrel is unlocked for one gun, it’s then made available to all weapons in that same shared Platform. Some attachments will be Platform specific, while other attachments will be universally shared with other compatible weapons. This sounds more complicated than it needs to be, but basically, this allows players to unlock attachments faster, since they don’t have to unlock the same attachment over and over for different guns.

Activision also teased that it’s worth leveling up all the gun Platforms, as “intel suggests” that those platform-specific and universal-category attachments could be also equipped to weapons that arrive in post-launch seasons.

Reaching max level with a weapon is also beneficial for Modern Warfare 2’s new weapon tuning feature, as max level will unlock the weapon tuning option to further customize and fine tune attachments. Each attachment will have sliders to adjust towards one attribute or another. Tuning weapons is basically a game of cause and effect. For example, adjusting a barrel for better recoil will have a tradeoff to affect another attribute like movement speed.

Operators

By default, players will have access to a Mil-Sim operator for both the KorTac and SpecGru factions in Modern Warfare 2. Additionally, there are 18 additional operators who can be unlocked by playing the campaign, multiplayer, and Spec Ops.

However, it’s worth noting that four of the operators can only be unlocked through completing the campaign in early access. Here are all the rewards and details for completing these challenges prior to the launch of Modern Warfare 2.

Challenges

Daily and career challenges will also be available to grind for additional XP. Multiplayer and Spec Ops mode will each have three daily challenges and one bonus challenge.

Multiplayer challenge types:

• A general challenge that may not require much change in playstyle
• A weapon challenge that focuses on a specific weapon category
• A special challenge that encourages exploration with specific Loadout features, such as a using a specific field upgrade or perk
• After completing all three dailies, a bonus challenge unlocks. It is a “split” objective that allows you to make progress toward one of two objectives. Once one of the two objectives is completed, an XP reward is given.

Spec Ops challenges:

• The first daily is generic, which means it can be completed in any mission.
• The second and third daily challenges can be generic or mission-specific or co-operative specific.
• The Bonus Challenge is a “split” objective with the choice of one of two mission challenges.

Multiplayer dailies only reward XP, but two of the Spec Ops dailies award Spec Ops Stars on top of XP. (More on Stars below)

Modern Warfare 2 also includes the typical career challenges at launch, which allow players to earn XP and calling cards. These are general milestone challenges, such as getting a specific amount of kills, longshots, and specific equipment use.

Spec Ops

In addition to the multiplayer leveling grind, players can also progress through Spec Ops in different ways. Spec Ops is a co-op mission mode, where players choose Kits that act as in-game roles built around a Star system.

Stars can be earned each week through completing Spec Ops missions.

Players earn one Star for simply finishing the mission. Three more Stars are earned by completing missions under certain conditions, such as within a time limit. After earning the maximum number of Stars (three) on a mission, players can no longer earn additional Stars for the week solely through mission completion. Additional Stars can then only be earned by the daily Spec Ops challenges mentioned above.

Career Stars and Kits

In Spec Ops, every Star earned counts towards two systems: Career Stars and Kit Stars, the latter of which is tied to progression in Kit Tiers.

Career Stars are used to unlock rewards such as additional Kits. For example, the Medic Kit unlocks at 1 Star and the Recon Kit unlocks at 3. While earning Career Stars, players will also earn Stars specifically used for Kit they play with during missions.

Earning Kit Stars allows a player to advance through a Kit Tiers, which provides more active and passive abilities while playing with that Kit. For example, tiering up the Assault Kit unlocks faster Loadout item usage, increased armor capacity, and free Stim equipment.

This same Kit system is being used for Modern Warfare 2’s Raids in post-launch, so it’s suggested to start leveling these Kits in Spec Ops to be better equipped for completing the first Raid, as well as using them in Spec Ops missions that will arrive with seasonal updates.

Camo completionist challenges

Grinding camo challenges is a Call of Duty tradition for many players, and Activision revealed what players can expect to unlock with base and mastery camo challenges. There will be over 180 unique base camos available at launch. There are also four mastery camos to unlock.

Gallery

Mastery camos must be unlocked individually for each specific weapon, and they have four unique designs: Gold, Platinum, Polyatomic, and Orion.

• The Gold camo challenge for each weapon is available once all of its base camo challenges are completed.
• The Platinum camo challenge for each weapon is available once the Gold camo is unlocked across a minimum number of weapons in each category.
• The Polyatomic camo challenge for each weapon is available once the Platinum camo is unlocked across a minimum of 51 weapons.
• The Orion camo is a reward for unlocking Polyatomic camo across a minimum of 51 weapons. It is also automatically granted on every weapon that earns the Orion camo past its minimum requirement.

While all of this progression is available on day one, there will likely be more seasonal challenges to grind once Season 1 begins with the launch of Warzone 2.0 on November 16.

Here is a list of all the maps, perks, killstreaks available in Modern Warfare 2 at launch. Make sure to check out everything we know about Warzone 2.0, including the map reveal, revamped Gulag, and circle mechanic changes.