The grindfest continues in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, with a leveling system for every individual weapon. While MW3 Multiplayer has its own best method for fast weapon XP leveling, MW3 Zombies has a very effective strategy all its own, as detailed in this Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 guide.

Best Loadout For Fast Weapon XP In MW3

Before you can jump into a session, you’re going to need the best Field Upgrade for this method: the Energy Mine. It is available to use right off the bat and does exceptional area of effect damage. The rest of your loadout is entirely your choice, but more area of effect explosives are always a good call.

Ideally you will take the weapon you intend on leveling up with you, using the Insured Slot. Hoping to get it in-game, or RNG it with the Mystery Box is an exercise in futility, and also a waste of both your in-game time, and your Double XP Token if you have one activated. It’s also okay to use a Contraband weapon.

Map Locations To Farm Weapon XP In Modern Warfare 3

Once in-game, gather your plates, maybe do a contract or two, and then make your way to an Exfil location as indicated on the map. One of the better Exfil locations is the one in the east of Urzikstan, south-east of Hadiqa Farms, or grid I-5 pictured above. Another is in the south-east of Urzikstan, south of Shahin Manor, or grid H-8 pictured below. These two locations are wide open enough that you won’t get cornered, but you can also use other Exfil locations to your liking.

How To Farm Weapon XP Fast In MW3 Zombies

Once you arrive at the location, call the Exfil Helicopter, but never board and evacuate with it. Instead, focus on farming the zombie horde that will constantly spawn around the landing zone, using your chosen weapon as well as the Energy Mine. Use of Field Upgrades and Tactical/Lethal do count towards the XP gain for the weapon in hand, and are especially a blessing when trying to level low rate-of-fire weapons.

Initially you should switch to third person in Zombies, which is recommended while you kite and corral the zombie horde so that you don’t get jumped from behind. Bunching them up together will net you the maximum blast radius potential from your deployed Energy Mine or explosives. A zombie annihilation on that scale will also trigger a lot of simultaneous drops, including plentiful ammo for your weapon, but more importantly: full power to instantly recharge your Energy Mine.

The Cymbal Monkey Bomb is another valuable item in this strategy, since it can serve to aggro and tightly pack a zombie horde prior to detonation with little effort on your part, and allow you to leisurely pick off stragglers with your weapon itself.

Eventually the Exfil Helicopter will leave–-let it, and leave the landing zone yourself. Doing so forces the Exfil flare to reset faster than it would if you linger nearby. When you approach it again, a fresh zombie horde will arise. Trigger the Exfil again to start another farming run.

The zombie numbers appear to increase as the timer counts down, with as many as 50 spawning at a time, perfect for large killstreaks. You might be tempted to enhance that further by going to a high threat area but this can actually be counterproductive with the degree of effort required to take down those zombies.

With 45 minutes to start, and an additional 15 after that timer runs down, you have plenty of time and opportunity to max out your weapon, and another if you’ve brought it with you, though this is greatly dependent on the use of XP tokens and your own ability to efficiently maximize kills.

Check out our other Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 guides on recommended settings for aim assist, as well as PC settings to get the best performance, which might suffer with so many zombies on screen at once.