How to reach the barge without being seen in Wetwork in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – Nessie achievement

Wetwork is the third mission in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 campaign, and the first stealth mission. You, playing as Sergeant Kyle “Gaz” Garrick, must accompany Captain John Price to a barge at the far end of a heavily guarded harbor in Amsterdam. You won’t fail the mission if you break stealth, but to complete it properly (and to get the Nessie achievement/trophy), you need to kill every single guard without any of them seeing you.

Related: How to get the Little Caesars in-game rewards in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

How to reach the barge without being seen

The description of the Nessie trophy/achievement is actually a little inaccurate, as it’s not enough to merely reach the barge without being seen. That would be too easy. What you actually have to do is take down every single guard on the harbor without being seen, including those on two patrol boats.

The important things to remember are:

• Stay in the water as much as possible, diving underneath for cover where appropriate
• Use boats and piers for cover
• Kill enemies using throwing knives or silenced pistol headshots. Knives are generally better because they don’t need to be as accurate and can be retrieved, but their range is shorter.
• An in-game message tells you that you’ll see a diamond on your compass when you’ve been seen, but this is not strictly true. If you kill an alerted enemy very quickly, you might not count as seen. Basically, you haven’t been seen unless Captain Price tells you that you have. If that happens, restart from your last checkpoint.

Nessie achievement/trophy solution

There are various ways to get this trophy, but here’s just one that definitely works. As Price says, start by knifing the lone guard on the first pier, then take his pistol. Next, swim over to the far right (north) side of the harbor, then head along the harbor wall and under the first pier. Wait for the patrol boat to be well away from here, then knife the guard smoking on the end of the pier.

Go back under the pier and position yourself so that you’re between the two boats on the east side of it, so that the enemies on the far (south) side of the harbor can’t see you. Wait for the patrol boat to slow down and turn then quickly take out the guards on the boat with a headshot each. This is not easy to do without being seen and may take several retries. Remember, you’ve only been seen if Captain Price says so.

Swim over to the pier on the opposite (south) side. If there is only one enemy at the end of it, knife him. If there are two, wait for one of them to walk away, then knife the one that stays. By now there should be a second patrol boat going up and down the harbor, so swim underwater back out towards the harbor mouth (east) and find somewhere to hide (under the water is best if you time it right). Wait for the boat to turn, then pop up and take out the guards on the boat with a headshot each. Again, this is hard to do without being seen, so just be patient with yourself and restart from your checkpoint as many times as you need.

Next, swim back over to the right (north) side, then swim under the second pier, and past the boat. There should be an enemy walking up and down a short pier that branches off a longer one, so knife him when his back is turned. Then there’s another enemy standing at the end of the long pier, and you can also knife him from here if you aim a little over his head.

There are two more enemies on the pier on the left (south) side, so swim over there and knife them (they’re usually both facing east out of the harbor, so approach from the west). Then make your way up the left (south) side all the way to the main quay at the west end of the harbor. There are two enemies patrolling together here, so wait until they turn north then get up close behind them and knife the one at the back, then the one in front. The last two guards are at the north end of the main quay, and neither of them moves much. Take the first down with a headshot (the dumpster in front of him makes using a knife a little tricky), and either knife or headshot the second one. You should now have got all the guards. If so, Captain Price will appear, and you’ll get the Nessie achievement/trophy.