MW3 10th Prestige Leveling Guide – How to rank up quickly in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 – Version 1.5
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney
Welcome to the MW3 10th prestige leveling guide. I started making leveling guides for call of duty back in MW2 because I needed a way to level quickly. I have a wife, 2 kids and a full time job so I don’t have as much time as I used to have back in college to devote to video games, but I still wanted access to all the extra bonuses that come with prestige in call of duty so I began researching and applying techniques to help me level quickly. This guide is a collection of information and tips to help you level quickly in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Modern warfare 3 has been out for 8 weeks now and I am currently half way through my 8th prestige with 98 hours (4.08 Days) of in game time played. That means I am leveling at a pace of about 7.05 levels an hour, or 169 levels for an entire day of in game time played. Now while that is not the fastest that I have seen someone level (a friend of mine is 10th prestige with just over 4 days played), I feel that I move through the prestige levels at a faster than average pace, so here it is.
Why should I prestige?
Let’s start things off with asking ourselves why we should prestige. Other than increasing your e-peen size, prestiging in MW3 gives you prestige tokens that you can use to purchase in game rewards through the prestige shop.
In the prestige shop, you can spend your tokens on the following rewards:
- Extra custom class slots
- Double XP (2 hours in game time)
- Double Weapon XP
- Regular Package (unlocks an extra callsign title & emblem)
- Hardened Package (Requires prestige 5: unlocks an extra callsign title & emblem)
- Veteran Package (Requires prestige 10: unlocks an extra callsign title & emblem)
- Unlock Gear (choose one weapon, equipment or perk to unlock permanently on every prestige from that point forward)
- Reset All Stats (resets everything, including your prestige level)
Now, the only one in this list that I don’t really consider a “reward” is the reset all stats option. But if you are dedicated enough to do that then more power to you.
NOTE: If you prestiged in any of the previous call of duty games (xbox 360 and PS3 only) you will automatically receive one bonus token for each COD game you have already prestiged in. You can only receive one token per game, regardless of your prestige level in that game, for a total of 4 potential prestige tokens (COD 4, COD WaW, COD MW2, COD Black Ops)
You will also unlock a special emblem that appears next to your gamer tag after each prestige that are shown below. My recommendations for you is to look at the emblems and in game rewards that you can purchase with the prestige tokens and decide if it is worth it to you to prestige. I personally like entering prestige mode because I enjoy the satisfaction of leveling up and unlocking things as I play, but a lot of people don’t care about extra class slots, titles and emblems, in which case I would recommend just staying at level 80 or staying at whichever prestige icon you like the most. (I am staying at 8th prestige because I like it’s icon the most and I have already unlocked all my custom classes)
How much experience is required to prestige?
The maximum amount of experience you can earn in MW3 is 1,746,200 per prestige. The maximum player level in MW3 is level 80. This is quite a bit different from Modern Warfare 2, which had 70 levels and a maximum experience of 2,516,000. So while MW3 has 10 more levels to go through than MW2, the total amount of experience necessary to prestige is over 30% less.
Leveling scales up as you level up, which means that the later levels will take much longer to get through than the early levels. Experience wise, half way through a prestige is around level 60.
Here is a breakdown of each level in MW3, and how much experience is required to reach it:
| Level | XP Required | % Complete | XP to Next Level |
| 1 | 0 | 0.00% | 800 |
| 2 | 800 | 0.05% | 1100 |
| 3 | 1,900 | 0.11% | 1200 |
| 4 | 3,100 | 0.18% | 1800 |
| 5 | 4,900 | 0.28% | 2200 |
| 6 | 7,100 | 0.41% | 2500 |
| 7 | 9,600 | 0.55% | 2800 |
| 8 | 12,400 | 0.71% | 3200 |
| 9 | 15,600 | 0.89% | 3600 |
| 10 | 19,200 | 1.10% | 3900 |
| 11 | 23,100 | 1.32% | 4400 |
| 12 | 27,500 | 1.57% | 4900 |
| 13 | 32,400 | 1.86% | 5400 |
| 14 | 37,800 | 2.16% | 5900 |
| 15 | 43,700 | 2.50% | 6400 |
| 16 | 50,100 | 2.87% | 6900 |
| 17 | 57,000 | 3.26% | 7400 |
| 18 | 64,400 | 3.69% | 7900 |
| 19 | 72,300 | 4.14% | 8400 |
| 20 | 80,700 | 4.62% | 8900 |
| 21 | 89,600 | 5.13% | 9400 |
| 22 | 99,000 | 5.67% | 9900 |
| 23 | 108,900 | 6.24% | 10400 |
| 24 | 119,300 | 6.83% | 10900 |
| 25 | 130,200 | 7.46% | 11400 |
| 26 | 141,600 | 8.11% | 11900 |
| 27 | 153,500 | 8.79% | 12400 |
| 28 | 165,900 | 9.50% | 12900 |
| 29 | 178,800 | 10.24% | 13400 |
| 30 | 192,200 | 11.01% | 14000 |
| 31 | 206,200 | 11.81% | 14600 |
| 32 | 220,800 | 12.64% | 15200 |
| 33 | 236,000 | 13.52% | 15800 |
| 34 | 251,800 | 14.42% | 16400 |
| 35 | 268,200 | 15.36% | 17000 |
| 36 | 285,200 | 16.33% | 17600 |
| 37 | 302,800 | 17.34% | 18200 |
| 38 | 321,000 | 18.38% | 18800 |
| 39 | 339,800 | 19.46% | 19400 |
| 40 | 359,200 | 20.57% | 20000 |
| 41 | 379,200 | 21.72% | 20600 |
| 42 | 399,800 | 22.90% | 21200 |
| 43 | 421,000 | 24.11% | 21800 |
| 44 | 442,800 | 25.36% | 22400 |
| 45 | 465,200 | 26.64% | 23000 |
| 46 | 488,200 | 27.96% | 23600 |
| 47 | 511,800 | 29.31% | 24200 |
| 48 | 536,000 | 30.70% | 24800 |
| 49 | 560,800 | 32.12% | 25400 |
| 50 | 586,200 | 33.57% | 26150 |
| 51 | 612,350 | 35.07% | 26900 |
| 52 | 639,250 | 36.61% | 27650 |
| 53 | 666,900 | 38.19% | 28400 |
| 54 | 695,300 | 39.82% | 29150 |
| 55 | 724,450 | 41.49% | 29900 |
| 56 | 754,350 | 43.20% | 30650 |
| 57 | 785,000 | 44.95% | 31400 |
| 58 | 816,400 | 46.75% | 32150 |
| 59 | 848,550 | 48.59% | 32900 |
| 60 | 881,450 | 50.48% | 33650 |
| 61 | 915,100 | 52.41% | 34400 |
| 62 | 949,500 | 54.38% | 35100 |
| 63 | 984,600 | 56.39% | 35950 |
| 64 | 1,020,550 | 58.44% | 36670 |
| 65 | 1,057,220 | 60.54% | 37380 |
| 66 | 1,094,600 | 62.68% | 38150 |
| 67 | 1,132,750 | 64.87% | 38900 |
| 68 | 1,171,650 | 67.10% | 39650 |
| 69 | 1,211,300 | 69.37% | 40400 |
| 70 | 1,251,700 | 71.68% | 41150 |
| 71 | 1,292,850 | 74.04% | 41650 |
| 72 | 1,334,500 | 76.42% | 42650 |
| 73 | 1,377,150 | 78.87% | 43150 |
| 74 | 1,420,300 | 81.34% | 44150 |
| 75 | 1,464,450 | 83.86% | 44650 |
| 76 | 1,509,100 | 86.42% | 45650 |
| 77 | 1,554,750 | 89.04% | 46150 |
| 78 | 1,600,900 | 91.68% | 47150 |
| 79 | 1,648,050 | 94.38% | 47650 |
| 80 | 1,695,700 | 97.11% | 50500 |
| MAX | 1,746,200 | 100.00% |
How long is this going to take?
If you have weighed the pros and cons of entering prestige mode and want to get through your prestige levels as fast as possible let me outline the time it is going to take to reach max prestige.
Leveling is based off of experience earned while playing the game. Every time you do something that helps your team you are rewarded with experience. For example getting a kill, capturing a point, or defusing a bomb will all earn you experience.
Aside from the things you do in game you are also rewarded for completing specific in game challenges and gives you a bonus for finishing each match you start.
Leveling up in Call of Duty even when using the tips in this guide is still a lengthy process. Depending on the skill of you and your team it could take anywhere from 12-24 hours of in game time played to prestige.
If you can complete 80 levels within 12 hours of game time played you are leveling at a pretty fast pace. I am currently half way through my 8th prestige with 98 hours (4.08 Days) of in game time played. That means I am leveling at a pace of about 7.05 levels an hour, or 169 levels for an entire day of in game time played. While this is not the fastest I have seen, it is up there.
Leveling basics
As I mentioned earlier, leveling is based upon experience earned while doing in game tasks such as kills, assists, captures, calling in pointstreaks or destroying enemy poinstreaks. So the number one way to level up quicker is to get better at the game. This guide isn’t really meant to help you get better at COD, but if you would like some tips on getting better at MW3 click here.
Aside from active in game tasks that earn you experience, the 2 other main ways you earn experience is through your match bonus and your challenges.
Match Bonus
Match bonus is experience earned at the end of each game as a bonus for staying until the game ends (rather than quitting out or twatboarding). The scaler for your match bonus is twice as big if you win than if you lose. So that brings me to my first leveling tip of the guide:
Leveling Tip #1: Win
And what’s the easiest way to win consistently? Play with a competent group of players that communicate and go for the objectives. If you usually play solo, try getting a group together of people you can play with. If you don’t have any friends that you play with already, checkout hupitgaming.com to find some players you can play with.
If you would like to see exactly how match bonus is calculated read below (thanks to Pozzuh @ reddit)
Scaler = 1 if you win the match, 0.5 if you lose
spm = (3 + ( YOUR_RANK * 0.5 ) ) * 10
//maxmatchLength in seconds, YOUR_MATCHTIME in seconds:
matchBonus = Scaler * ( ( maxmatchLength/60 ) * spm ) * (YOUR_MATCHTIME / maxmatchLength)
So let’s say my rank is 65. I’m playing FFA which has a max game length of 10min and I won the match after 7 min and 46 seconds (=471 sec)
spm = (3 + ( 65 * 0.5 ) ) * 10 = 355
matchBonus = 1* ( ( 600/60 ) * 355) * (471 / 600) = 2788
And let’s say my rank is 80. I’m playing Kill confirmed which has a max game length of 10min and I lose the match after 10 min. (=600sec)
spm = (3 + ( 80 * 0.5 ) ) * 10 = 430
matchBonus = 0.5* ( ( 600/60 ) * 430) * (600 / 600) = 2150
Leveling Tip #2: Play the game types which cater to you and your teams play style while still being able to enjoy the game.
Gametypes
Now in previous Call of Duty games there has always been a few gametypes that offered a strategic advantage to leveling (SnD/HQ in COD4, Demolition in MW2, HQ in Black Ops). However I think that in MW3, there isn’t one universal game type that offers the best leveling potential, but that the best game type to level up is going to vary greatly depending on what kind of player you are.
Headquarters has gotten a big nerf in MW3, so I don’t recommend playing it to level up quickly. Demolition is also not as strong as it was in MW2, so that one went out the window for me. As it stands now I think the 4 best game types for leveling in MW3 are Search and Destroy, Team Defender, Domination and Kill Confirmed.
Search and Destroy is a 1-life per round, bomb plant based game. The winner is the team that wins the best of 7 rounds, or first to 4 round wins. SnD has always been a strong way to level up for players who can get kills. SnD offers a whopping 500 XP per kill and bomb plant, which turns into a huge 1000 XP per kill when used in conjunction with double XP. For players that are strategically sound and can get a lot of kills in SnD, this is a great way to level up. But if you are impatient like me and find yourself running straight into the nearest enemy claymore at the start of each round, you are instead just going to spend most of the games watching your teammates, earning absolutely no experience.
Team Defender is a new game type to MW3. It is similar to Halo’s oddball. The game is TDM based, first team to 7500 score wins, but the catch is that there is 1 flag on the map at all times. Whichever team possess’ the flag also earns a bonus score towards the team whenever they earn kills. Most people dislike Team Defender, as the spawns are very tightly bunched, sporadic, and lead to a lot of hectic deaths and score changes. But a solid group of players will learn how to camp one area and rack up kills very quickly on the enemy team. The reason these games are so quick to level up is because it is basically a TDM game where the enemy team is constantly running towards the flag (rather than camping like usual TDM games). Just make sure that you play this game type with a team of competent players, because if you play against another team that is well organized you will figure out that it is very difficult to break a 6 man defense all camping a couple of choke points on the map.
Domination is my next recommendation for game types and by far my most played game type. Domination earns you +50XP for a kill as well as +150XP for a flag capture and +50XP for a flag defend. If you play aggressively in a game like this you can easily rack up a lot of points and kills. Out of the 80 hours I have spent playing MW3, 63 of those hours have been spent playing Domination. Because it is my favorite game type I am partially biased towards it, but statistically it offers a lot of advantages too. If you strictly compare Score Per Minute on gametypes you will see that SnD offers a huge advantage versus other traditional gametypes, as it takes 10 domination kills to equal 1 SnD kill. But what most players don’t take into consideration is that when you are playing SnD, you are going to have a very difficult time earning in game challenges, as most of them are based around kills or other actions that do not happen nearly as much in SnD. Through one prestige I will earn hundreds of thousands of experience points on challenges alone, which I believe trumps the leveling potential of SnD. Although I will say that challenge XP is not doubled when you are using double XP, so technically a good player playing SnD while on double XP will be getting massive amounts of experience should he be good enough to get a lot of kills and bomb plants/defuses while playing SnD.
Kill confirmed is my final game type recommendation. Kill Confirmed is another TDM based gametype which rewards you for kills and collecting dog tags (confirming or denying a kill). The reason why kill confirmed is a great game type to level up quickly is because it’s faster paced than TDM and at the same type offers more leveling potential. When you kill a player you get +50 XP. When you deny a kill you get +50 XP. When you kill a player and collect their dog tag, you earn +100 XP. When you kill a player AND A TEAMMATE collects that dog tag, YOU STILL EARN +100 XP. Then last but certainly not least, when you die and recover your own dog tag you get +250 XP, the equivalent of 5 objective kills! Kill confirmed is a great way to level up for these reasons. Even if you aren’t the best slayer, you can collect and deny dog tags all game and earn more XP than the highest killing person on your team!
To sum it all up, the best game type for leveling depends on what type of a player you are as well as who you play with and what type of players they are. And remember that you should be playing this game to have fun, so if there are certain gametypes that you dislike, simply don’t play them.
Challenges
The next major way of earning experience is through completing in game challenges. MW3 challenges are specific tasks that you need to complete in order to earn a set amount of experience. There are two basic types of challenges in MW3: Static challenges and progressive challenges.
Static challenges are challenges that you only need to complete once and you will earn the experience for that entire prestige. For example you get 1000 XP the first time you shoot down an enemy helicopter for completing the Flyswatter challenge. You also get 500 XP the first time you jump off something tall enough that you die upon impact (the seatown well works good for this)
Progressive challenges on the other hand are challenges that you complete in tiers over time, such as the marksman gun challenge. The marksman gun challenge is a challenge for every gun in the game that earns you experience as you get kills with a particular weapon. There are different tiers levels of this challenge which earn you more XP for every level completed. For example you get 250 XP for getting 10 kills with a primary weapon, and then another 1,000 XP when you reach 25 kills with that same primary, and then another 2,000 XP when you reach 75 kills with that same primary weapon.
MW3 challenges are almost identical to MW2 challenges, so don’t expect to be doing anything like contracts from black ops.
No matter who you are, as you play the game you will complete challenges. But if you want to maximize your leveling efficiency, you want to plan out your challenges in a way that maximizes your experience gain during the time you spend playing. The next few sections are dedicated to all the different challenges in the game,
Leveling Tip #3: Complete your primary and secondary weapon challenges as efficiently as possible. Get 500 kills with a primary before moving on, and earn the mastery challenges for your best secondaries.
Primary Weapon Challenges
Let’s take a look at a typical set of challenges related to a primary weapon:
|
Challenge |
Description |
Value |
XP |
XP Per Tier |
|
Marksman 1 |
10 kills |
10 |
250 |
25.00 |
|
Marksman 2 |
25 kills |
25 |
1,000 |
66.67 |
|
Marksman 3 |
75 kills |
75 |
2,000 |
40.00 |
|
Marksman 4 |
150 kills |
150 |
5,000 |
66.67 |
|
Marksman 5 |
300 kills |
300 |
10,000 |
66.67 |
|
Marksman 6 |
500 kills |
500 |
10,000 |
50.00 |
|
Marksman 7 |
750 kills |
750 |
10,000 |
40.00 |
|
Marksman 8 |
1000 kills |
1000 |
10,000 |
40.00 |
|
Expert 1 |
5 headshots |
5 |
500 |
100.00 |
|
Expert 2 |
15 headshots |
15 |
1,000 |
100.00 |
|
Expert 3 |
30 headshots |
30 |
2,500 |
166.67 |
|
Expert 4 |
75 headshots |
75 |
5,000 |
111.11 |
|
Expert 5 |
150 headshots |
150 |
10,000 |
133.33 |
|
Veteran Gun 1 |
500 Kills |
500 |
10,000 |
28.57 |
|
Veteran Gun 2 |
1000 Kills |
1000 |
10,000 |
20.00 |
|
Veteran Gun 3 |
2500 kills |
2500 |
10,000 |
6.67 |
|
Master 1 |
250 headshots |
250 |
10,000 |
40.00 |
|
Master 2 |
500 headshots |
500 |
10000 |
40.00 |
|
Master 3 |
1000 headshots |
1000 |
10000 |
20.00 |
As you can see, in order to maximize your XP per tier, you want to try and work towards 500 kills for a primary weapon before moving onto another gun. There are a few reasons you want to use the same gun until you get 500 kills. First off, you earn around 8,000 XP more for your first 500 kills than you do for your next 500 kills. Secondly, there are prestige challenges for each weapon that do not reset when you prestige. They are listed above as “Veteran Gun Challenge 1-3”. As you can see the first 2 veteran challenges are at 500 and 1000 kills, but then jump dramatically to 2500 kills for level 3. So getting 500 kills and then moving onto another weapon allows you to take advantage of as many of those veteran gun challenges 1 & 2 as possible. Last of all, getting 500 kills should earn you the mastery achievement for the weapon that nets you another 10,000 experience.
Keep in mind that the veteran gun challenges are only rewarded at 500, 1000 and 2500 kills… so I only get the veteran gun challenges for 2 prestiges before moving onto a new weapon. That might be a little difficult to understand so let me explain.
Let’s say that during your first prestige you get 500 kills with the M4. You will get just over 28,000XP from the marksman challenges alone, along with an additional 10,000XP from your first veteran challenge for a total of 38,000XP for 500 kills. Then if you got 500 kills with the M4 again on your second prestige, you would also earn 38,000XP (28,000XP for marksman challenges + 10,000XP for the second veteran challenge). But if you got another 500 kills with the M4 on your 3rd prestige, you would only get 28,000XP from the marksman challenges and miss out on the extra 10,000 veteran XP, as the next veteran challenge requires 2500 kills and you will only have a total of 1500 kills from the 3 prestiges. For this reason, I suggest using a primary weapon until you reach 500 kills for a maximum of 2 prestiges.
DISCLAIMER: now, that being said… don’t use a weapon if you suck with it. If you are getting frustrated and not getting any kills with a gun just because you are trying to get the veteran challenge, you are just going to end up missing out on more experience than you would have if you just stuck with a gun you are good with. It’s better to play well with guns that aren’t helping you level up than it is to play poorly with guns that are “supposed” to be helping you level up but aren’t.
Secondary Weapon Challenges
The next set of challenges you need to be aware of are the secondary weapon challenges. Now secondary weapons for the most part are slower to level with because you usually don’t get as many kills, but what they lack in killing ability they make up for in mastery. The mastery challenge for all secondary weapons gives 10,000 experience, just like a primary weapon. The difference is that the mastery challenge is completed at level 10 for secondary weapons rather than level 30 for most primaries.
Getting a secondary weapon to level 10 only requires 75 kills for a machine pistol and 50 kills for certain pistols, at which point you will earn 10,000 XP for the gun. Earn the mastery challenge for all of your favorite/best secondary weapons. I usually get the mastery challenge for every machine pistol and revolver in the game, a total of 60,000 XP for 400 total kills.
Also within the secondary challenges is a little hidden gem that a lot of people don’t take advantage of: the stinger. The stinger is a secondary launcher that is vehicle lock only, meaning it is worthless to get kills with. But stingers are a great secondary to use for 2 reasons: The first reason is that shooting down enemy air support will earn you a lot of XP and earn you points towards your pointstreak. The second reason the stinger is so great is because the marksman challenges are so low for the stinger. You only have to shoot 40 enemy streaks out of the air for your first 10,000 XP bonus.
I run a stinger on almost all of my classes as soon as I finish the machine pistol challenges (at least mastery and sometimes the 300 kill marksman challenge). Use a stinger as your secondary weapon and be conscious of shooting down all enemy pointstreaks when you have a chance.
Leveling Tip #4: Complete the attachment and proficiency challenges for your weapons without decreasing your combat efficiency.
Weapon Attachment & Proficiency Challenges
The next set of challenges that can help you level up quickly are the weapon attachment challenges and the proficiency challenges. The weapon attachment challenges are static 750-1000XP challenges that are earned for getting kills while using specific attachments on a weapon. The proficiency challenges are 6 level progressive challenges earned by completing specific tasks related to a proficiency while using that proficiency on a weapon.
Both of these challenges offer a lot of potential experience to be earned during a prestige, but you need to use caution when completing these challenges.
When it comes to attachment challenges, some players do really bad with certain attachments (ie thermal or acog sights). The amount of experience you earn for these challenges is between 750-1000XP, the equivalent of 15-20 kills on domination/kill confirmed. So if you end up struggling with a weapon attachment and could have earned more than 15-20 additional kills during the time you were using it, it ends up being slower leveling than if you had just used your favorite attachment. Let’s take a look at some standard attachment challenges:
|
Challenge |
Description |
Value |
XP |
XP/kill |
| AR Red Dot Sight | Get 60 kills while aiming down sights with an attached red dot sight | 60 | 1,000 | 16.67 |
| AR Silencer | Get 15 kills with an attached silencer | 15 | 750 | 50.00 |
| AR Grenade Launcher | Get 20 kills with the attached grenade launcher | 20 | 750 | 37.50 |
| AR ACOG | Get 20 kills while aiming down sights with an attached ACOG sight | 20 | 750 | 37.50 |
| AR Rapid Fire | Get 40 kills while using rapid fire | 40 | 1,000 | 25.00 |
| AR Heartbeat | Get 40 kills while using an attached heartbeat sensor | 40 | 1,000 | 25.00 |
| AR Shotgun | Get 40 kills with an attached shotgun | 40 | 1,000 | 25.00 |
| AR Holographic | Get 40 kills while aiming down sights with an attached holographic sight | 40 | 1,000 | 25.00 |
| AR Extended Mags | Get 40 kills while using extended mags | 40 | 1,000 | 25.00 |
As you can see most challenges will earn you 25 XP per kill. This is a nice bonus (50% increase for dom/kc) as long as you are decent with the attachment. But if you struggle with an attachment then it’s not worth the effort. I personally get the RDS, Silencer, ACOG, RapidFire, Heartbeat, Holographic and Extended Mags challenges out of the above attachments.
One thing to note is that you can actually stack attachment challenges by using the attachment proficiency, allowing you to attach 2 attachments to your weapon. And while we are talking about proficiencies let’s take a look at a standard proficiency challenge list:
|
Challenge |
Description |
Value |
XP |
XP Per Kill |
| Proficiency 1 | 15 Proficiency Kills/tasks | 15 | 500 | 33.33 |
| Proficiency 2 | 30 Proficiency Kills/tasks | 30 | 1,000 | 66.67 |
| Proficiency 3 | 60 Proficiency Kills/tasks | 60 | 2,500 | 83.33 |
| Proficiency 4 | 120 Proficiency Kills/tasks | 120 | 5,000 | 83.33 |
| Proficiency 5 | 300 Proficiency Kills/tasks | 300 | 10,000 | 55.56 |
| Proficiency 6 | 750 Proficiency Kills/tasks | 750 | 10,000 | 22.22 |
As you can see, proficiency challenges take 2 giant dives in XP per kill during the proficiency V & VI challenges. Also some proficiencies are earned for straight kills while other proficiencies require you getting kills in certain ways (for example Impact requires you to get kills through objects). For this reason I only level up the following proficiencies and only work on the first 5 challenges of a tier: Kick, Attachments, Stability, Range (smgs), Damage (shotguns). Depending on your play style and preferred weapons, you might never use a proficiency at all during a prestige (ie speed which is only available on snipers and lmgs)
So what do all these challenges mean in terms of leveling? Basically, you are trying to maximize your XP per action/kill without hurting your overall combat effectiveness. If you equip an attachment/proficience and consequently do really poorly for 10 games in a row, you will probably earn less XP earning the challenges than you would have just using your best class setup. So it all boils down to how diverse you are as a player and how well you do with different attachments/proficiencies.
Leveling Tip #5: Complete the perk and pro-perk challenges for all perks that offer a high XP per task reward. If the tasks are easy, complete all 6 challenges. If the tasks are hard, avoid all challenges together.
Perk Challenges
The next set of challenges that can help you level up quickly is the perk challenges. Each perk challenge has 6 tiers or levels to complete and when you unlock the pro version of that perk you also unlock 6 tiers or levels of a new challenge related to that pro perk. The amount of XP you earn for each of the 6 tiers in the perk challenges is as follows: 500 XP -> 1,000 XP -> 2,500 XP -> 5,000 XP -> 10,000 XP -> 10,000 XP. So as you can see, each perk has the ability to earn you 29,000 XP for the default challenge and another 29,000 XP for the pro perk challenge.
In order to help you understand how perk challenge XP works let’s take a look at the challenges associated with the Scavenger Perk:
|
Challenge |
Description |
Value |
XP |
XP Per Task |
| Scavenger Pro I | Resupply X times while using Scavenger | 10 | 500 | 50 |
| Scavenger Pro II | Resupply X times while using Scavenger | 25 | 1,000 | 66.67 |
| Scavenger Pro III | Resupply X times while using Scavenger | 50 | 2,500 | 100.00 |
| Scavenger Pro IV | Resupply X times while using Scavenger | 100 | 5,000 | 100.00 |
| Scavenger Pro V | Resupply X times while using Scavenger | 250 | 10,000 | 66.67 |
| Scavenger Pro VI | Resupply X times while using Scavenger | 500 | 10,000 | 40.00 |
| Hoarding Ammo I | Get X kills while using Scavenger Pro | 15 | 500 | 33.33 |
| Hoarding Ammo II | Get X kills while using Scavenger Pro | 30 | 1,000 | 66.67 |
| Hoarding Ammo III | Get X kills while using Scavenger Pro | 60 | 2,500 | 83.33 |
| Hoarding Ammo IV | Get X kills while using Scavenger Pro | 120 | 5,000 | 83.33 |
| Hoarding Ammo V | Get X kills while using Scavenger Pro | 300 | 10,000 | 55.56 |
| Hoarding Ammo VI | Get X kills while using Scavenger Pro | 750 | 10,000 | 22.22 |
As you can see, after you resupply 10 times while using scavenger you earn 500 XP, then you earn 1000 XP for your next 15 resupplies. Following your next 25 resupplies, you earn 2500 XP. As you can see up until Scavenger Pro V, every challenge results in a higher XP yield per task. Then at Scavenger Pro V and VI you see large XP drop offs. Your final challenge requires 250 resupplies to net you 10,000 XP, that’s only 40 XP per resupply, less than you get per resupply for your first 10. The same thing happens with the hoarding ammo challenge. In fact if you look at every perk challenge in the game, the XP per task always drops off at the 5th and 6th challenge.
From this information, we can conclude that in order to get the best per task experience gains from these challenges we would complete only the first 4 levels of each challenge before moving on. But certain perk challenges are so easy that it’s worth it to complete all 6 challenges, and other perk challenges are so hard that it’s not worth completing any of the challenges.
Every player has different strengths and weaknesses, so exactly what perk challenges you go for is up to you. If you struggle to get kills, don’t go for the really big 750 kill 10k challenges. Instead work towards the support challenges like blind eye and sit rep.
That being said, I am going to list the challenges for all of the perks below as well as my tips on how to complete them in the least amount of time possible.
Leveling Tip #6: Use the specialist or support strike package to quickly gain additional XP bonuses each game.
Strike Packages
The 2 best strike packages to utilize when trying to level quickly is the Specialist and Support strike packages. The specialist strike package earns you specialist bonus XP for every perk reward you earn and also allows you to work towards all of your perk challenges at the same time. The support strike package on the other hand allows you to rack up a lot of XP through taking down enemy kill streaks and getting assists. If you tend to get more kills than deaths each game I recommend running specialist, otherwise support is for you.
Specialist strike package
When you reach level 20, you unlock the specialist strike package. Unlike the other 2 strike packages, the specialist strike package rewards you with extra perks for chaining points together instead of killstreaks. When you run the specialist strike package you unlock an extra perk every 2 points you score in a game and when you hit 8 points you unlock every perk in the game and you become a one man army.
The best thing about unlocking one man army (earned by getting 8 points) is that you can work towards completing challenges for every perk in the game at the same time. OMA resets upon death, so running the specialist strike package is not recommended for people who struggle to stay alive. But if you consistently post high scores in the game and play smart you can really rack up XP fast through completing a large amount of perk challenges at the same time.
The best part about the specialist strike package when it comes to leveling is that it also gives you extra bonus XP for every perk that you unlock. I have received varying reports as to how much XP you earn for your specialist bonus, but after reviewing a lot of my own game footage this is what I think happens. Your first 3 perk rewards earn you an additional 150 bonus XP as a specialist bonus, followed by a 200 XP bonus for earning all the perks in the game (one man army @ 8 kills). Once you have unlocked one man army you will also earn an additional 50 bonus XP for every other kill that you get past 8.
When using the specialist strike package I always recommend that you equip Hardline Pro as your custom class red perk. The reason that you should use hardline as your red perk is that the first point you get of each life results in your first perk reward being unlocked. If you were running Assassin or Quick draw as your red perk it would require 2 kills for you to unlock your first perk reward and you miss out on potential specialist bonuses. Another advantage of running hardline pro is that every other assist you get counts as a kill and a point towards your specialist streak. Let’s say that you have 1 assist and you throw a flash bang at an enemy before you die. If that enemy is killed by your teammate while still flashed and you earn your second assist, you will respawn with your first perk reward automatically unlocked, since your second assist counts as a point. If you were running another red perk you would not get credit for that assist, even if you unlocked hardline as a perk reward because you would lose hardline upon death.
Support strike package
The support strike package is the best way to level up if you find yourself dying a lot while playing call of duty. It is also the most beneficial strike package to your entire team and will help your team win which equals a bigger match bonus.
The reason the support strike package has so much leveling potential is because your point streak does not reset upon death. So even if you are dying just as much as you are getting points, your streak remains intact.
The secret to earning a lot of experience while using the support package is to combine hardline pro with perks and pointstreaks that get a lot of assists. I recommend using this class:
Perk 1: Recon
Perk 2: Hardline Pro
Perk 3: Marksman / Sitrep
Primary: Anything (Grenade Launcher attachment is nice if using Recon)
Secondary: Stinger
Lethal & Tactical: Semtex & Flashbangs if using Recon, tac inserts if playing kill confirmed, otherwise anything is fine.
Support Streaks: Ballistic Vests, Sam Turret, Recon Drone -OR- Recon Drone / Stealth Bomber / EMP
Ballistic vests are good because you earn XP for your teammates picking them up. Not only do they help you, your teammates get 150% health for picking them up. The vests are timed and are not affected by how many teammates pick one up. You can earn hundreds of XP for a well placed ballistic vest (try to place it out in the open near where your teammates spawn)
Sam turrets are nice because they are basically an automated launcher. If the enemy team is earning a lot of air support or UAV/CUAV’s then a sam turret can get you a lot of XP. But be careful to not just throw a sam turret down anywhere. The enemy team earns a point for killing your sam turret, so they will kill it if it is just sitting out in the open.
Stealth bombers are the only offensive pointstreak in the support package. Personally, I think it was retarded of the developers to put stealth bombers in the support strike package, but that’s another story. This is one of the best pointstreaks available. Not only can it clear an entire section of the map, you can easily get hundreds of XP in kills by placing a bomber in the correct location.
Also, EMP’s are a great pointstreak. A lot of players opt to use the escort airdrop but I feel that is a mistake. Escort airdrops will earn you kills or XP depending on if you pick them up or your teammates do, but they take forever to drop and a good team will shoot it down before it gets a chance to drop the care packages. EMP is a pointstreak that instantly kills all enemy air support AND prevents the enemy from calling in any pointstreaks for an entire minute. I can’t tell you how annoying it is to run into a team that is using multiple EMP’s… 60 seconds feels like forever in one round of MW3. EMP’s won’t help you earn that much XP (aside from whatever you destroy when calling it in), however they are game changers and they will help your team win games.
And last but certainly not least, the majority of your XP will be earned using the Recon Drone. The recon drone is a remote controlled helicopter that allows you to “spot” enemy players that will show up constantly on your teammates radar UNTIL THEY DIE! That’s right, until they die. In other words, when you tag an enemy player you basically give them a death sentence. Tagging a player earns you +50XP and when that player dies you earn an additional +20XP. Since all players are likely to die after being tagged you are basically earning +70XP per tag. I have seen people get over 30 assists in a single game running this support streak layout. That is over 2000 XP per game from your assists alone. Not to mention that every other assist of yours counts as another point towards your point streak.
That is why I recommend setting up your support streak in one of 2 ways. The first way is to put recon drone as your last earned pointstreak… With hardline, that is only 9 points. If you are constantly helping your team with objectives you can get over 3 recon drones in a single match. The other method of setting up your support streak is to use the recon drone as the first unlocked streak, followed by higher reward streaks like the EMP or Stealth Bomber. This makes it so your assists while flying the drone will count towards your higher pointstreaks. Either way you should be earning a lot of assists and XP using one of these support strike package setups.
Leveling Tip #7: Be aware of unique static challenges that can be completed with as little effort as possible.
Static Challenges:
There are a few static challenges that should be specifically mentioned in this guide. They are challenges that can be completed within 1-2 games and the XP that is rewarded for completing them is worth taking the time to do them.
WARNING: One thing to note about static challenges is that a lot of them are odd challenges that could directly affect your statistics, so if you are a K/D or W/L stat whore completing these challenges can affect your stats.
NOTE: Not all static challenges are available when you first prestige. Each set of challenges requires a certain level to unlock.
Anyways here are is a break down of all the static challenges I have deemed worth “considering”. They aren’t challenges I completed in every prestige but are ones that I feel reward enough XP to consider doing them. Keep in mind that a challenge that rewards even 500 XP is equivalent of getting 10 kills in an objective game type or 5 kills in TDM.
- Basic Training (Lvl 4)
- Flyswatter (1000 XP) – shoot down an enemy helicopter. Grab a launcher and earn the easiest 1000 XP you will ever get.
- Goodbye (500 XP) – fall 30 feet or more to your death. A good place to do this is on the map “Sea Town” by the “C” domination spawn there is a big well you can jump down to complete the challenge
- Base Jump (750 XP) – fall 15 feet or more and survive. Just find a ledge and jump off it… most people get this unintentionally
- The rest of the basic training challenges are just ones you will earn as you play… don’t worry too much about them.
- Operations (Lvl 15)
- Bomb down (1000 XP) – Kill a bomb carrier in Sabotage or S&D. Pretty much just play Sabotage for a minute and camp a bomb and you will get this.
- Last man standing (1000 XP) – This is the easiest to do playing S&D solo. Join a game then just wait in your spawn while on the attacking team… If your team is bad you will guaranteed be the last man standing.
- Saboteur / Defuser / Bomb Defender (2 tiers on all 3 challenges for 1500 XP a piece) - I don’t enjoy sabotage and have only played it a couple of times in MW3, so this is mostly hypothetical. But in Blops there used to be a great way to earn defuses and plants and that’s by playing Sabotage with a team. Basically you plant then bomb then everyone hides near the point and lets the enemy team defuse the bomb. Then you kill the enemies and replant the bomb. Rinse, Repeat. You would be surprised how many enemy players will continually run to the bomb and defuse it, like lambs to the slaughter. The defuser is exactly opposite in that you let the enemy plant the bomb then kill them and defuse. Rinse, repeat. Then bomb defender is basically the same as above except you kill the enemies while they are defusing instead of letting them defuse. If you completed both tiers of all 3 of these challenges you would earn 4500 XP and these can all be completed in one match of sabotage (although bomb defender is the hardest)
- FFA Victor (3 tiers for 4000 XP total) – Place 1st, 2nd or 3rd at least 10 times in FFA. If you are decent at playing free for all. Quickly play 10 matches for a total of 4000 bonus XP from this challenge. While you are playing FFA, try to complete the finishing move challenges at the same time.
- Proficiencies (Lvl 20)
- Talked about earlier in this guide next to weapon attachment challenges
- Precision (Lvl 30)
- Finishing Moves (Lvl 40)
- Humiliation (Lvl 50)
- Payback (Lvl 60)
- First Class (Lvl 65)
- Intimidation (Lvl 70)
Daily & Weekly XP Challenges:
Daily & Weekly challenges are IW/Sledgehammers failed attempt at Treyarchs contracts. In concept, they are a good idea, but they are poorly implemented. The issue with challenges is that all daily challenges earn you 1000 XP, and all weekly challenges earn you 5000 XP (at least they do right now). Some challenges are super easy (call in Assault UAV 2 times) while others are pretty difficult (get direct impact kills with a launcher, etc). These challenges do not reward you with more XP for completing more difficult tasks. In some ways this is good because you can get 5000 XP for some really simple weekly challenges. But in other ways it’s bad, because there are some difficult challenges that just aren’t worth the effort to complete.
Leveling Tip #8: Complete all challenges as efficiently as possible by using class setups that compliment each other.
Class Setups:
Creating class setups that compliment each other in order to maximize your experience gains is probably the most important tip to leveling quickly, but it can be a little confusing. The idea here is that you want to setup your classes in a manner that will allow you to work towards multiple challenges at the same time.
Consider the following scenario:
Completing the first 5 marksman challenges for an Assault Rifle by getting 300 kills earns you 28,250 XP. That is over 94 bonus XP per kill.
Completing the first 5 kick proficiency challenges by getting 300 kills aimed down sights earns you 19,000 XP. That is over 63 bonus XP per kill.
Completing the first 5 SoH challenges for getting 300 kills with SoH earns you 19,000 XP. That’s another 63 bonus XP per kill.
Completing the first 5 Quickdraw challenges for getting 200 kills within a few seconds of aiming down sights earns you 19,000 XP. That’s a bonus 95 XP per kill.
Completing the first 5 Stalker challenges for getting 300 kills while aiming down sights earns you 19,000 XP. Again that’s over 63 bonus XP per kill.
Completing the red dot and holographic sight attachment challenges for getting a total of 100 kills while aiming down sights earns you 2,000 XP. That’s a bonus 20 XP per kill.
All of these challenges are great bonus XP when looked at individually. But now consider this. You can complete every single challenge I listed above at the same time with 1 custom class. If you were to get 300 kills while aiming down sights with a custom class that had an Assault Rifle + Kick proficiency + Red dot sight (and holographic at some point), plus Sleight of Hand, Quickdraw, Stalker… you would earn an astounding 106,250 experience through your challenges alone. That means that for those 300 kills, you would be earning an incredible 354 bonus XP per kill! The leveling potential is outstanding! Keep this in mind when creating your custom classes.
DISCLAIMER: Certain challenges are not unlocked until certain levels. For example proficiency challenges are not unlocked until level 20, so the above class would lose out on some potential until you reached level 20. In order to maximize your leveling efficiency keep this in mind when working towards each challenge.
I am going to list out all of the custom classes I have personally used to efficiently help me earn experience. If I did not mention a weapon class or perk that means you can use anything you want. For example the class above focuses on your primary, so it doesn’t matter what secondary weapon you use. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any good ideas to add to this section.
Aim Down Sight Custom Class
Primary: Assault Rifle + Kick proficiency + Red dot, Silencer, Acog, Heartbeat, Holographic (as the attachments become available)
Perks: Sleight of Hand, Quickdraw, Stalker
Tips: Remember that most of your challenges are earned by getting kills while aimed down sights, so always be prepared to ADS before a kill.
Hip-fire Custom Class
Primary: Any sub-machine gun
Secondary: Any machine pistol (use akimbo once unlocked)
Perks: Extreme Conditioning, Hardline (if using specialist) or Blast Shield, Steady Aim
Streaks: Specialist
Leveling Tip #9: Utilize as many double XP sources as possible within MW3.
Double XP:
Double XP has always been a good way to level up quickly in the COD series. Up until MW3, the only way to earn double XP was to play during double XP weekends or events, that usually happened after a map pack release. But MW3 has really gone above and beyond with double XP, adding numerous ways to earn double XP as well as basing XP time on in game hours rather than actual time.
There are 5 methods that I know of that you can use to earn Double XP in MW3:
- Double XP Weekends
- Prestige Token Double XP
- DewXP.com Mtn Dew / Doritos Double XP
- Elite Clan Double XP
- MOAB Double XP
First off, double XP weekends haven’t started yet. I imagine the first double XP event will be after the first DLC map pack is released. Double XP weekends are a great way to level up. Not only are they available to anyone that plays the game during the specified time frame, they are also one of the only methods that stacks onto your barracks double XP. They are real time based, which means that you want to pack in as many games during the event as possible.
Prestige token double XP is a waste of a token in my opinion. I used one of my 4x bonus tokens on 2 hours double XP and I have regret that decision ever since. 2 hours of double XP is just not enough to justify spending a token on. I would recommend unlocking gear or a custom class instead.
Dewxp.com is a great way to earn double XP. The promotion ends on December 31, so you will want to act fast. But basically you can buy specially marked mountain dew or doritos bags and redeem the double XP codes on the dewxp.com website then push double XP to your gamertag.
Elite clans are probably the best way to earn double XP. Elite clans earn double XP hours for all members when you reach a certain level. Your clan earns 2/4/6/8/24 hours of double XP for reaching level 10/20/30/40/50 respectively. My elite clan just hit level 30, and I was able to claim our first 12 hours of double XP all at the same time. Elite clans level up by completing clan challenges and clan competitions, or through the 500 bonus XP given to elite founders.
Finally, one method of double XP which is not very well known is M.O.A.B. double XP. If you don’t already know, a M.O.A.B. (Massive Ordinance Airblast Bomb, Mother Of All Bombs) is an easter egg killstreak which you earn when you get 25 consecutive gun/knife/grenade kills, or 24 consecutive kills while using hardline. (pointstreak kills don’t count toward this total). When you or someone on your team calls in a MOAB, your ENTIRE TEAM will earn double XP for the rest of the round. The great thing about MOAB double XP is that it actually stacks with barracks double XP. So if you have mountain dew or elite clan double XP in your barracks and you get a MOAB in game, you will earn 4x experience for the rest of the game. I’m not sure how double XP weekends will work with MOAB XP, but it is possible that it will also stack onto MOAB XP, giving you 8x experience for getting a MOAB during double XP weekend while also using barracks double XP.
Leveling Tip #10: Get better at the game, visit youtube.com/oTradeMark and GamingUpgrade.com for help!
Getting better at MW3
As I mentioned right at the start of the guide, the number one way to level up faster in MW3 is to get better at the game. But getting better at the game takes knowledge and practice. I think one of the best ways to get better is to watch or play with some players that are noticeably better than you. If you would like you can check out some of my games, I post videos at youtube.com/oTradeMark and occasionally stream my games on twitch.tv/oTradeMark. I have won quite a few competitions playing Call of Duty and won all sorts of cool prizes including t-shirts, hoodies, a water bottle, an iPad, a USB flash drive and even a Brand New 2011 Black Ops Jeep Wrangler, so hopefully I can help you get a little better at the game.
Summary of the Top 10 Tips to help you level up faster in MW3:
- Win as many games as possible by playing with a team that communicates and goes for the objective.
- Play game types which cater to your play style while still being able to enjoy the game.
- Complete your primary and secondary weapon challenges as efficiently as possible. Get 500 kills with a primary before moving on, and earn the mastery challenges for your best secondaries.
- Complete the attachment and proficiency challenges for your weapons without decreasing your combat efficiency.
- Complete the perk and pro-perk challenges for all perks that offer a high XP per task reward. If the tasks are easy, complete all 6 challenges. If the tasks are hard, avoid all challenges together.
- Use the specialist or support strike package to quickly gain additional XP bonuses each game.
- Be aware of unique static challenges that can be completed with as little effort as possible.
- Complete all challenges as efficiently as possible by using class setups that compliment each other.
- Utilize as many double XP sources as possible within MW3.
- Get better at the game, visit youtube.com/oTradeMark and GamingUpgrade.com for help!
To Be Added after version 1.4:
- Perk challenge suggestions
- Support strike package leveling
- Static challenge suggestions
- Custom Class loadouts
