- Early Access opens
- Tue 20 Oct 2026, 10 AM PT (17:00 UTC), at the same moment worldwide
- Who gets in
- Digital pre-orders or pre-purchases of the Standard or Vault Edition. Disc copies do not qualify
- Vault Edition
- A third Active Duty slot, a Deployment Kit (2 each of Weapon Insurance Contracts, Operator Rescue Beacons, Fulton Drop Markers, Medium Backpacks and 2-Plate Carriers) and one-time Signature Weapon Blueprints. A Blueprint lost in a deployment can be rebought at a discount in the Gunsmith
- PC
- TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot must be turned on to play
- 2022 DMZ Beta players
- From 20 Oct, on the same Activision account: the Beta On Record Emblem and Beta Squad Calling Card. 50+ Beta hours adds the DMZ Beta 50 Hours Emblem and Card; the Serpentine Camo adds the animated Beta Serpent Emblem and DMZ Slither Card
- Required update
- Due on all platforms by 9 AM PT on 19 Oct
- What's included
- All of DMZ: Hajin, the FOB, Story Missions, Dynamic Ops and Free Roam. Multiplayer stays locked until 23 Oct
- 3D Printer
- Opens at DMZ level 2, which the tutorial Dynamic Op gets you to even if you fail to exfil. Recipes sit in ten categories: Upgrades, Consumables, Plate Carriers, Backpacks, Tacticals, Lethals, Field Upgrades, Fire Support, Gear and Ingredients. Track an ingredient from a recipe to pin it to the top of the list
- Weapons
- You carry two weapons plus a melee in and out; a Weapon Backpack lets you bring more. Any gun you extract can be upgraded at the Gunsmith, which fits up to five attachments (guns found in Hajin can have up to eight). Buying a base gun needs its Weapon Manual, though the 19 Oct launch post says guns unlocked in Multiplayer count too
- Free Loadout
- A basic free kit for when your Stash is empty. Extract and you keep it
- Blueprints
- Any Weapon Blueprint you own can be used once for free in DMZ. Lose it and that copy is gone, but you can rebuy it at the Gunsmith for less than building the same gun
- Carries over
- DMZ XP, Weapon XP and camo progress. XP still counts after a failed exfil
- Campaign rewards
- Campaign completion rewards, starting with the 'Park' Base Operator, work in Multiplayer and DMZ from full launch
- Online only
- DMZ needs a constant internet connection and is sold only as part of MW4; there is no free standalone version
- Squads
- No in-game LFG. Your deploy choice (Story Mission, Dynamic Op or Free Roam) is part of matchmaking; IW points players to the official CoD Discord LFG channels
- Lobbies
- Up to 20 squads (60 players) per match, all spawning at once. Squads hold up to 3 and lobbies mix sizes. There is no solo queue: turn off Squad Fill to go alone, with no guarantee of a solo lobby. Squads can truce or assimilate (also from the Ping Wheel), up to 4 players
- Stealth Meter
- Helps you stay unseen and control fights with AI enemies. Infinity Ward says it helps solo players most
- Proximity Chat
- Reworked for MW4: hear rival Operators near you or your squad, or mute them. Talk your way out of a fight, or into one
- Weather
- Activision calls DMZ a living world with unpredictable weather, and press at launch saw it change during a match
- PvE
- No PvE-only mode. The 'Single Squad Mission' playlist seen in a trailer is an internal developer playlist
- Disconnects
- Infinity Ward says you should be able to rejoin as long as the server is still running. It hasn't said what happens to your gear if you can't
- MIA
- A killed Operator goes MIA until you buy them back with DMZ Cash; the price rises with their Trait Points. They keep their Traits and Dog Tag but come back with no gear. MIA Operators never expire; dismiss one to start fresh
- Operator unlocks
- Four of the 33 launch Operators unlock through your DMZ level: Reece (Lv 4), Coffey (Lv 9), Simone (Lv 15) and Hector (Lv 19)
- Next
- Season 1, with the first Battle Pass and Warzone integration, starts Fri 6 Nov 2026 and adds a new DMZ location, Exo-1 (X01). Season 2 opens the Russian north of Hajin, which is fogged and out of bounds for now. Press reports say Hajin itself becomes a Warzone Battle Royale map with Season 1
- Patch notes
- None for DMZ yet. Re-checked 20 Oct, about 21:10 UTC (some 4 hours after go-live): the DMZ Known Issues column on the official Trello board is still empty, as are the Multiplayer and Campaign columns. There is no DMZ hotfix or patch note, and no DMZ outage has been reported
- Deployment length
- About 30 minutes before the radiation storm forces you out (press from the review event). Early exfil can end a run in about 15 minutes; staying to the end can run past 40. No official figure or storm phase count yet
- Online subscription
- Online play needs PlayStation Plus on PS5, Game Pass Essential on Xbox or Nintendo Switch Online on Switch 2, and a mobile number linked to your Activision account may be required. DMZ is online only, so this applies. Activision recommends a wired connection and checking the MW4 server status page