The DMZ progression trailer, which went live overnight, is mainly centered around the out-of-match metagame. Between rounds, players can spend time at the Forward Operating Base (FOB) to upgrade and customise weapons, unlock new skills for their operators, create useful items using the 3D printer, and prepare for their next deployment. Much of this was revealed earlier in the week.
But one new thing that stood out was how players will load into the match – and what they can load in with. As seen in the video, there are five ways for players to ‘infil’ into a match, varied by cost. These range from being free to costing a whopping $100,000 in DMZ Cash per deployment.
The free option spawns your character on foot at a random point, which has long been the default option in all other extraction shooters, as it ensures players start each match equally. But Modern Warfare 4 DMZ takes that several steps further.
The next infil option costs $5,000 and spawns the squad in a Polaris Dagor A1, a tactical off-road vehicle, offering a significant speed advantage. If you’re willing to spend $25,000 to deploy, meanwhile, you’ll do so in a Light Tactical Vehicle (LTV), which has considerably more armour. The Call of Duty Blog says the version found across DMZ’s map has an optional .50 Cal turret, but it’s not clear whether the LTV you can spawn in has one.
Then there’s the $50,000 option, which spawns the squad in a helicopter, which represents an enormous advantage over people spawning on foot. But by far the most ludicrous option is the $100,000 tier, an air vehicle, which looks like the cargo plane you jump out of at the start of battle royale matches in games like Warzone. This, presumably, allows the squad to pick the specific point on the map they want to start at – a luxury other players won’t have as spawn points in DMZ are randomised.
Now, it’s worth pointing out that unlocking the ability to spawn in the LTV and helicopter is locked behind completing a separate story mission for each option, meaning they won’t immediately be available to players even if they can afford it.
That said, all of the non on-foot options offer clear advantages. A player in a buggy can zoom around the map quickly, clearing objectives one after another. A squad in a helicopter can do that even faster, potentially flying directly to a boss’ spawn location to kill it and extract early. And as those vehicles persist throughout the match, it’s possible – assuming they’re not destroyed or abandoned – for a squad to efficiently jump between points of interest before heading to the extraction point, making for a far less risky deployment.
Incidentally, Reality, one of Call of Duty’s longtime leakers, revealed these options last year, alongside DMZ’s different weather conditions. In their post on X, they said the last paid spawn option – the aircraft – is an AC-130 gunship, the devastating multiplayer Killstreak with multiple heavy guns mounted on it. The AC-130 is often confused with its cargo and transport sibling the C-130, which is probably what’s happened here, because starting the match with such a high-power attack vehicle would ruin the experience for all other players.
I can imagine weeks or months into DMZ’s life, as players’ cash reserves grow and they become more familiar with the map and where everything is, free spawns will turn into the poor, new player option, inevitably putting them at an immediate disadvantage.
How Infinity Ward balances all that remains to be seen, but seeing the confusion about the existence of a PvE-only mode within DMZ doesn’t fill me with a lot of hope. DMZ launches with Modern Warfare 4 on 23rd October for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch 2.
