Beginner’s guide to DMZ in Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 – What to do in DMZ

The new DMZ mode in Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is a different beast from both the Battle Royale and standard multiplayer modes. Like the BR, you still need to survive, but your goal isn’t to defeat every other player or get the most kills. Instead, the core of the game is looting Al Mazrah of resources and weapons and completing PvE missions for in-game rewards. You’ll want to master some basics to get the most out of your time in DMZ, the most important of which we’ll cover here.

Five Essential Tips for Playing DMZ in Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0

DMZ is usually a more casual experience than either Warzone or Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer and is great for grinding experience, unlocking weapon blueprints, or just taking it easy after some harder-fought matches. Here are five things to remember the first time you jump into this new mode.

DMZ Tip 1: Gear runs vs. Mission runs

If you die during a round of DMZ, you’ll lose all of your weapons, gear, and upgrades, save for whatever you insured in the weapon menu. Your backpack, armor upgrades, gas masks, keys, and other extractable equipment go too. That’s why, early on, you’ll want to build up a vault of contraband weapons, as your Insured Slots go on a two-hour cooldown when used, and contraband weapons are much more easily replaced.

A gear run is when you go into the DMZ with next to nothing in your inventory, gathering as much gear as you can and exfiltrating with time to spare. Your spawn point is random in DMZ, so once you’re in, find your closest Exfil point, clear the rooms on your way there, and then exit with what you managed to scavenge.

You can do a mission run whenever, but you’re better off doing so when you have some gear to back you up. Missions in DMZ usually involve collecting specific loot or completing certain tasks, but all of them come with a higher risk of failure, so you’ll want to be prepared.

DMZ Tip 2: Use UAV Towers

The UAV Towers scattered across Al Mazrah are a powerful resource for two reasons. One, they let you know where everyone around you is like any UAV, and thus allow you to better plan your movements around the NPCs, but they also show where other players are. If you don’t want to deal with other people in DMZ, you’ll want to activate every UAV Tower on your path to an Exfil point. On the flip side, if you’re going to ally with the other randoms in your lobby, the Towers will show them to you as well.

DMZ Tip 3: Let Contracts guide your exploration

Once you’ve geared up and want to get more out of DMZ, Contracts are a great way to earn the extra cash you’ll need to buy higher-rarity contraband items, improved exploration gear, and other niceties. However, Contracts also tend to drive you toward higher-difficulty content or to areas you wouldn’t otherwise go, and there’s a good chance the loot there will supplement what you already have.

DMZ Tip 4: Complete Strongholds, but beware the Weapon Chest

Strongholds are heavily guarded, AI-controlled structures teeming with high-quality loot and story-specific drops, so there’s no avoiding them if you want to unlock additional missions or Insured Slots. Learning which ones are easiest to take on with lower-tier gear and which you’ll need to prepare for will help in future looting. Some Strongholds will also contain a Weapon Chest, which contains the best loot in all of DMZ, but picking it up immediately puts you on everyone else’s map and HUD. Unless you know you can extract with it, leave it be.

DMZ Tip 5: Loot everything, sell only what’s valuable

Early on, as you get to know the Al Mazrah map and where the best loot is, you’ll want to start by progressing from the outskirts into the big cities, taking everything not nailed down. Even the ramshackle, rundown buildings in the sticks can occasionally have something worthwhile. Also, because every bit of sellable loot takes up a single backpack spot, you should collect all the valuables you can find, replacing them with higher-value gear as you come across it.