MW4 DMZ Story Missions: All 6 Missions, Order and Rewards

DMZ early access in Modern Warfare 4 opened on 20 October, and Story Missions are the closest thing the mode has to a story mode: six named operations in a three-tier tree, each built around one landmark in Hajin. Below are all six in order, how they unlock, the Orders that feed them, and what the cards promise versus what players were paid.

Our sources are Activision's own DMZ posts and early-access walkthroughs from 20 and 21 October. Where only one guide documents a detail, or sources disagree, we say so.

What DMZ story missions actually are

The Deploy menu offers three choices: Story Missions, Dynamic Operations and Free Roam. Activision's pitch for the first is "There is a power vacuum in Hajin. Follow orders, unmask the new threat, and destroy their operations across the DMZ." Each story mission is a scripted, multi-step operation inside one point of interest - pull a high-value general out of a hospital, rob a casino vault, sabotage an air base - continuing the campaign's story with you as an off-the-books CIA asset.

Unlike Dynamic Operations, whose steps are randomized every run, story missions are fixed set pieces, one per deployment, and their key items ride in a dedicated Mission Item slot instead of your backpack. Lobbies stay PvPvE: Activision says the missions unfold "within a live DMZ server populated by other operators pursuing their own missions", so another squad can walk into your heist. Our DMZ explainer covers the basics of a run.

How to unlock and start story missions

New players first play a scripted intro deployment, Breaking New Ground, then recruit an Operator and reach the Forward Operating Base. At the helicopter pad, press Deploy, choose Story Missions and pick a mission card, which shows the briefing, objectives, recommended gear and rewards. That leads straight to Ready Up and the Squad Fill toggle; paid infil options only apply to Dynamic Operations and Free Roam. Our FOB guide covers each station.

DMZ Orders steer you toward the story. After the tutorial page, the first Orders come in three chapters of two pages each, and each chapter ends with a story mission: Counterfeit with Silent Ledger, Underground with Shopping Hacks, Human Intel with Critical Extraction. Several searched-for "mission steps" are really these Orders. Triangulation, placing transmitters on two radio towers and on top of La Grande Vie in Songdo Wharf, is an Underground Order; the police station tasks are Hostile Force in Counterfeit; the clinic run is Triage Protocol in Human Intel.

No guide we checked found a level requirement for tier one. The tree's layout implies each tier opens the next, but as of 21 October we could not confirm the exact condition. Despite some video titles, Operation Ghost Shipment is documented as a Dynamic Op, not a story mission.

All six MW4 DMZ story missions, in order

Tier one runs left to right in the early-access menu, the order most walkthroughs follow.

Tier	Mission	Where	Card threat	Rewards listed on the card	Also completes
1	Operation Critical Extraction	Mirae General Hospital	Medium	25,000 DMZ Cash, Defibrillator, Mirae Electrical Room key	Human Intel chapter (part 2)
1	Operation Silent Ledger	Heavenly Luck Casino, Cheongun Village	Medium	25,000 DMZ Cash, Gold Bar, Polaris Dagor A1, Counting Room Vault key	Counterfeit chapter (part 2)
1	Operation Shopping Hacks	NuriGO Mall	Medium	25,000 DMZ Cash, Night Vision Goggles, Coin Mining Den key	Underground chapter (part 2)
2	Operation Iron Citadel	Chang-san Air Base and bunker	Critical	25,000 DMZ Cash, LTV infil unlock, Supreme Leader access card	-
2	Operation Grid Assault	The Grid (DBN Headquarters, Hanex Bank)	Critical	25,000 DMZ Cash, Helicopter infil unlock, Roze's High-Rise key	-
3	Operation Fallen Ember	Haneul Nuclear Reactor	Extreme	25,000 DMZ Cash, Cargo Plane, a reactor key	-

Rewards are as the cards listed them across three early-access guides; the keys are community-reported, and the Critical ratings on the tier-two cards come from one guide. Read card threat as the mission's rating, not the area's: Activision's map guide rates the casino High and the hospital Low before any shooting starts, yet both cards say Medium.

Tier one: Critical Extraction, Silent Ledger and Shopping Hacks

Operation Critical Extraction

Find General Kang in Mirae General Hospital, wheel his bed to the lobby elevators and hold the lobby until they arrive, then push the bed up the rooftop helicopter ramp. Loading Kang completes the objective, but board the chopper yourself or your loot stays behind. One player pushes while the others clear ahead; clearing rooms does not move the escort, and the radiation timer keeps running.

Operation Silent Ledger

The casino heist has the most moving parts. Start the parking-level generator with its timed prompt, open the vault fence from the CCTV desk in penthouse security, take the lobby elevator to B1/B2, then drill the round vault door and defend it. It completes only when the printing plates leave on the chopper. An optional Cash Bags Secured 0/12 counter rewards trucking bags to the helicopter. Bring NVGs, because much of the casino has no power.

Operation Shopping Hacks

At NuriGO Mall, hack the encampment laptop for the security office code, which changes every match. Power up the Security Annex and decrypt the workbench note. The lab door needs four working K9 Battery Cores, pulled from robot dogs before they explode; cores looted after the blast are useless. Hack all five lab computers, restart any showing ERROR DETECTED, loot the vault and leave from the roof by balloon.

Tier two: Iron Citadel and Grid Assault

Operation Iron Citadel

Activision rates Chang-san Air Base Critical outside and Extreme in its bunker, and this mission uses both. Find the access card in the marked buildings, upgrade it in the server room while holding off the response, then enter the bunker. The six-digit armory code comes in three fragments and changes every match. Take the manifest, plant charges on the munitions and three strike aircraft, capture the SAM site and extract with the manifest. One walkthrough ran into a Colossus in the armory corridor, so bring the Ammo Box the card suggests.

Operation Grid Assault

Grid Assault targets the enemy's drone control at DBN Headquarters. Recover one code segment at Hanex Bank and the second back at DBN Headquarters, reportedly from a Lieutenant named Roze, then compile and upload the code and broadcast the kill code. Wait for the Mission Complete banner before leaving. It unlocks the Helicopter infil, as Iron Citadel unlocks the LTV, though each use still costs 50,000 and 25,000 DMZ Cash respectively.

Tier three: Fallen Ember, the final mission

Fallen Ember is set in the Haneul Nuclear Reactor, where Activision says radiation protection and a gas mask are mandatory. It is the only Extreme card, recommending a 3-plate vest, a Medkit, a gas mask and radiation blockers. Its steps are the least documented, mostly by one detailed guide plus gameplay videos: unlock Reactor 1, withdraw three fuel rods from the flooded reactor, decontaminate them at Reactor 2, secure a warhead past a Colossus, then escape on an armored patrol boat.

The card lists 25,000 DMZ Cash and a Cargo Plane; whether that permanently unlocks the Cargo Plane infil, at 100,000 DMZ Cash per drop the priciest option, was unconfirmed on 21 October.

Rewards, payouts and replaying missions

Every card lists 25,000 DMZ Cash, yet three separate guides recorded a 5,000 Story Mission Payout in their after-action reports. Nobody has explained the gap, so check your Bank before planning around the bigger figure.

A worked example: Counterfeit's two Order pages pay 20,000 DMZ Cash each, so finishing that chapter with Silent Ledger nets 45,000 to 65,000 depending on which payout holds, plus a Recon Drone recipe, an Operator Rescue Beacon, a Weapon Insurance Contract and the Gold Bar - roughly two LTV drops.

The card vehicles climb the paid infil ladder: Polaris Dagor A1, LTV, Helicopter, Cargo Plane. Only the LTV and Helicopter unlocks are well documented so far.

Completed missions can be replayed, and a Random Story Mission card draws from them at Medium to Extreme threat, requires Squad Fill and carries a weekly task of three completions. Activision also promises extra rewards for completion milestones. DMZ XP counts even if you fail to exfil; one documented Shopping Hacks clear earned an A rating and 12,500 XP. We found no announcement of new story missions for Season 1 on 6 November.

Tips that save failed runs

Gear up to the card. Tier one wants a 2-plate vest and a Medkit, exactly what the tutorial Orders page pays out, plus NVGs for Shopping Hacks; tier two moves to a 3-plate vest. Keep valuables in the Medium Backpack's Secure Slots, since everything else is lost on a failed exfil.

Stack your Orders, as Activision suggests: Counterfeit's Eyes Everywhere asks you to mark ten enemies in the Heavenly Luck Casino with a Recon Drone, so do it during Silent Ledger. We have not seen confirmation that a mission cleared before its Order appears counts retroactively, so reach the Order first.

Tier one has been cleared solo many times, and our DMZ solo guide covers lone-player matchmaking; for tier two and Fallen Ember, Squad Fill is the sensible default.

Weapon progression is shared with multiplayer, so long story runs level guns quickly. The DMZ camo challenges page explains the route to Helio, and the store's Helio camo service covers it if you would rather skip that grind.

Frequently Asked Questions