Average nature enjoyer Ralph Waldo Emerson said that “The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.” The man has clearly never played CoD: Modern Warfare 2, as the desire for gold (camo) is very much that, and is in fact incentivized with accompanying challenges that require you mostly to shoot your foes from certain angles or in certain body parts. 

It’s not quite business as usual though in the latest Call of Duty, as there’s some differences to how the grind works, and mostly for the better. And while unlocking camos has been streamlined this time around, the core gameplay loop is the same; unlock gun, level up gun to unlock challenge, beat challenge to unlock camo. 

One key change is that each weapon with attachments (assault rifles, SMGs, etc.) in Modern Warfare 2 only has four base camos to unlock, and weapons without attachments (launchers, melee stuff) just have the one. Now though, once you’ve unlocked a base camo on one weapon, it can be used on any other weapon you’ve unlocked. The same cannot be said for the completionist camos though, which we’ll get into below, along with more details on base camos.  

How to Unlock Camos in Modern Warfare 2 

Once you’ve settled on your weapon of choice, you’ll have to get stuck into some multiplayer matches and get it up to level 2 before you’ll see your first base camo challenge. The three others will pop at intervals between level 2 and max weapon level, which differs between guns since they don’t all have the same level cap. 

The four base challenges also vary between weapons, but will often involve getting a set amount of kills, headshots, longshots, kills while crouching, kills without reloading – all the sort of stuff that you’ll be doing anyway. None are particularly difficult, but you may find yourself having to adjust your playstyle a little for a match or two while you tick them off. 

To take the M4 as an example of how it all works, its base camo challenges unlock at levels 2, 8, 13, and 19. You don’t need to have completed a prior challenge to work on the next one, though it is worth being mindful of them as you grind your weapon level up, if only to save your own time in the process. 

Unlock all four of these, and you’ll have the gold camo challenge to beat…

Completionist Camos: CoD Modern Warfare 2

These are a mainstay of CoD’s competitive multiplayer, and to absolutely no one’s surprise, they’re back again. This time, there’s four tiers, each requiring more sweat than the last; gold, platinum, polyatomic, and orion. 

Unlike the base camos, the completionist camos still need you to put the hours in, and can only be equipped on the weapon for which they’ve been earned. 

The unlock criteria for each tier is based around the 51 weapons in the game at launch, so when new weapons get added down the line in updates and DLC, you’ll only have to grind out the original number of each type of weapon to move up a tier. As there are eight assault rifles in the game now, if they add any more, you’ll still only have to get eight gold camos for assault rifles to start unlocking platinum challenges and beyond. 

How to unlock gold camos

Once you’ve earned a weapon’s four base camos, you’ll unlock another challenge (again, varying by weapon) to beat before you can take a stroll with your gilded gun of choice. Going goldly is far better than going boldly. 

Be warned, there is a known bug at launch on PC in that once you’ve unlocked all of a weapon’s base camos, the gold challenge won’t show if you hover your mouse over the icon. It is, however, still counting your progress, and can be seen by either using a controller or the directional keys having selected a base camo first. 

How to unlock platinum camos

Earn gold for every weapon of the same type (for example, all assault rifles) and you’ll be awarded with a challenge to complete to unlock a platinum camo for each of ‘em for your efforts. The grind doesn’t stop there though…

How to unlock polyatomic camos

For these purple-hued jagged looking skins, you’ve got to get yourself a platinum camo for each of the game’s 51 weapons, and then beat a new challenge for each to unlock its respective polyatomic camo. 

How to unlock orion camos

Now these do look the part, and you’d bloody well hope so for the time it’ll take you to unlock. Once you’ve amassed 51 polyatomic camos, these will be gifted to you, no new challenge or anything. The challenge was the journey itself. You must be knackered by now if you make it this far. 

All Camo Challenges in CoD: Modern Warfare 2

According to data miners who fiddled about with code from the pre-release beta, the following is the sum of each type of camo challenge. Bear in mind that the numbers are the total across all weapons in each category, so the 800 kills for assault rifles is across all weapons, not a requirement for each. 

As of writing, this is yet to be confirmed, but it feels about right in a ballpark sense from what I’ve seen of the game so far, and gives a good overview of the time this grind is going to take.  

Assault rifle camo challenges

• 800 kills
• 180 kills with full weapon attachments
• 160 crouch kills 
• 125 headshots
• 110 kills with no weapon attachments
• 100 longshots
• 100 mounted kills
• 75 hip fire kills
• 50 get X kills without reloading
• 35 killstreaks – get X kills without dying

SMG camo challenges

• 500 kills
• 250 kills with full weapon attachments
• 110 crouch kills 
• 100 headshots
• 100 hip fire kills
• 75 kills with no weapon attachments
• 50 longshots
• 50 mounted kills
• 40 get X kills without reloading
• 25 killstreaks – get X kills without dying

LMG camo challenges

• 525 kills
• 180 kills with full weapon attachments
• 75 kills with no weapon attachments
• 75 headshots
• 65 crouch kills
• 45 hip fire kills
• 45 longshots
• 45 mounted kills
• 30 double kills
• 25 killstreaks – get X kills without dying

Shotgun camo challenges

• 400 kills
• 110 kills with no weapon attachments
• 100 kills with full weapon attachments
• 75 hip fire kills
• 65 crouch kills 
• 50 point blank kills
• 50 headshots
• 30 get X kills without reloading
• 30 killstreaks – get X kills without dying

Sniper camo challenges

• 450 kills
• 150 kills with full weapon attachments
• 75 kills with no weapon attachments
• 60 headshots
• 50 crouch kills 
• 50 one shot kills
• 50 longshots
• 45 kills while holding your breath
• 25 double kills
• 25 killstreaks – get X kills without dying

Pistol camo challenges

• 250 kills
• 110 kills with full weapon attachments
• 75 kills with no weapon attachments
• 50 headshots
• 40 crouch kills 
• 30 hip fire kills
• 30 longshots
• 25 reload kills
• 25 double kills
• 25 killstreaks – get X kills without dying

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