In Modern Warfare 4 DMZ, being a high level doesn't let you buy a single gun. The Gunsmith sells a weapon only after you have found its Weapon Manual in Hajin and carried it out on the exfil helicopter. Since Early Access opened on October 20, manuals have become the item every squad wants and few find: some players pulled six in an hour at Chang-san Air Base, while others report 20 hours of looting without one. Below, we explain what a manual unlocks and what it doesn't, which containers and rooms they spawn in, the farm routes that still work after the first patches, how to get a manual home, and how manuals differ from blueprints and recipes.
A Weapon Manual is a loot item named after one gun, such as Manual: Type 73 or Manual: APOC-338. Every launch gun has its own, launchers included. Its tooltip says it plainly: it unlocks the ability to purchase this weapon in the Gunsmith. Find it, extract with it, and you can build that gun at the Gunsmith as often as you can pay for it.
The manual is used up the moment you exfil. In return, the weapon unlocks for good and you get 5,000 DMZ Cash, the same payout as a recipe. You still pay for every copy you build: a base rifle such as the Han 86 or the M4 costs around 5,000 to 6,000 DMZ Cash, and each attachment slot costs more than the last. The Gunsmith itself opens at DMZ Level 10.
Only partly. Weapon levels, attachment unlocks and camo progress are shared between multiplayer and DMZ, so a gun you leveled in multiplayer comes into the DMZ Gunsmith with its attachments ready. The right to buy the gun is not shared. In Buy New Weapon, every gun without a manual shows a lock icon, even if you maxed it in multiplayer.
It works the other way too: a manual adds nothing to multiplayer, where guns unlock with your player level. Our all MW4 weapons guide lists every gun with its unlock level and Apex attachment.
A manual is the only permanent unlock, but it isn't the only way to have a gun in your stash. The other sources give you a single copy that is gone when you die with it.
| Source | What you get | Permanent unlock |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon Manual | The right to build that gun at the Gunsmith again and again | Yes |
| Looted gun you extract with | One copy you can modify at the Gunsmith | No, lost when you die with it |
| FOB Vendor | One copy from the daily stock | No, lost when you die with it |
| Blueprint you own | The first build free, later builds at a discount | Only that blueprint, not the base gun |
Until a manual turns up, stash the looted guns you have no manual for instead of selling them. A spare copy lets you keep leveling a weapon and working on its camos, and the Vendor is worth a daily check for the same reason.
Manuals are also a camo challenge. The DMZ camo War Spoils asks you to extract three Weapon Manuals for the weapon you have equipped, so a manual for a gun you already unlocked still has a use. A few players report that some extracted manuals didn't count toward the challenge, so check your progress after each run. Every camo in the game, from Military to Divergence, is covered in our MW4 camo guide.
There are no fixed manual spawns. Infinity Ward's own guidance points to two kinds of loot: military containers, meaning green military crates and Weapons Lockers, and safes. Players have also pulled manuals from duffel bags, footlockers, toolboxes and bathroom mirrors, which open as medicine cabinets, so it pays to open everything on your route. The table lists the containers that have produced manuals so far.
| Container | Where to find it | Chance of a manual |
|---|---|---|
| Irradiated Container | Chemical Storage containers in clinics, compounds, fire and police stations and bunkers | Players report a manual almost every time once it is processed at Reactor 02 |
| Weapons Locker and weapon cases | Compounds, police stations, military tents, locked loot rooms | The best odds of any open container, higher in Critical and Extreme zones |
| Green military crates | Compounds, Chang-san Air Base, the 14th Political Prison, the train | Good, and they also hold weapons |
| Safes | Compounds, Cheonwang Peak Array, Gangbyeon Apartment B, Dynamic Operations | Good, plus valuables such as Gold Bars |
| Duffels, footlockers, medicine cabinets, toolboxes | Barracks, apartments and houses all over Hajin | Low, but every one can roll a manual |
Threat level matters more than the container. The higher the threat under your compass, the better the loot tables, which is why the air base, The Grid and the 14th Political Prison come up in every manual route. When a container opens with a red item highlight, it usually holds a recipe, a manual or other top-rarity loot.
Timing matters too. Loot the compound closest to your spawn first: squads in Free Roam head for compounds straight away, and by mid-match many are already emptied. Deploying into a Dynamic Operation helps, because the other squads are busy with their own contracts in the first minutes.
Keys give the most consistent manual chances, because the rooms behind them are packed with Weapons Lockers and safes. Every key card names the grid square and the building of its door, and most locked rooms sit on the bottom floor or underground. These are the ones worth saving for:
We list every key and the room it opens in our MW4 DMZ keys guide.
None of these routes guarantees a manual, but each one puts you in front of many military containers in a few minutes. All of them work solo: turn Squad Fill off on the Ready Up screen.
This is the route most players started with. Operation Iron Citadel unlocks after the first three Story Missions (Critical Extraction, Silent Ledger and Shopping Hacks), and it always spawns you next to Chang-san Air Base, a Critical zone. You don't have to play the mission's objectives; you only use its spawn.
Results vary a lot. One creator's six test runs each gave a recipe, a manual or a secure backpack, but others report 30 to 40 runs without a single manual. Since the first weekend, a number of players say the buildings drop fewer manuals than before. No patch note mentions it, so treat it as a good recipe and resource run that may give a manual.
If you want better odds from the same spawn, play Iron Citadel further. The mission sends you to upgrade an access card and collect notes with the digits of a keypad code. The code changes every run, but the notes sit in set spots. Behind that keypad is an armory full of Weapons Lockers and rifle cases in an Extreme zone, guarded by a Colossus.
Clear the soldiers around the door first, then fight the Colossus from cover outside. Don't step through the armory door before he is dead: it closes behind you and traps you inside with him and the rest of the guards. When the room is looted, you can leave without finishing the mission.
Once you have finished Iron Citadel, its Supreme Leader's Bunker Access Card opens a bunker deep under the air base. Find the door with a staircase icon in a back corner of Admin Complex No. 2, follow the corridor down and use the card on the double doors. The bunker holds two Weapons Lockers and a lieutenant's crate, and on the way out the same rule applies: go back the way you came, because a Commander may be nearby.
An Irradiated Container is a red, Ultra-rarity item that you can't open in the field. It turns up in Chemical Storage containers in clinics, compounds, fire stations, police stations and bunkers. Put it in your backpack and take it to the Haneul Nuclear Reactor, where a machine in Reactor 02 decontaminates it. Players who processed one got a Weapon Manual almost every time, together with a legendary weapon or Ultra gear.
The Reactor DRC Locker is worth a stop on the same trip. Its key comes from Operation Fallen Ember, and the Elite Weapons Locker it opens sits in the irradiated pool under Reactor 02. For general loot, Reactor 01 has more containers than Reactor 02.
The Gangbyeon apartments stand in Compound Echo, near Wolves Stadium. Deploy with Operation Shopping Hacks for the closest spawn. Enter Apartment A through the underground parking lot, where a safe sits in the corner, and search the building for the Gangbyeon Apartment B key; it can spawn anywhere inside. Then go up to the roof, cross over to the roof of Apartment B, open its door and loot the Weapons Locker and the rooftop safe. Other players know this route, so loot fast and leave.
Around six small bunkers, marked by round silo shapes on the minimap, sit in the wilderness west of the air base. Each has the same layout: enter through the door at the back, loot the caches, Weapons Lockers and weapon cases, then press the button at the end of the corridor to open the silo hatch and climb out. The same layout makes them quick to clear, few players visit them, and one route through all six takes just over ten minutes. Players have found Irradiated Containers in them as well.
A few smaller spots are worth a detour whenever you pass them:
A manual counts only if it reaches the FOB, so the end of the run matters as much as the search. These habits keep a lucky find from turning into a loss.
Since launch, a number of players report manuals that vanished after the exfil or didn't unlock their gun. The patch notes up to October 25 don't mention it, so open Buy New Weapon after every run and check that the gun is no longer locked. Ignore videos that promise manual or item duplication: Infinity Ward closed several DMZ exploits in its first patches, and accounts that use them risk a ban.
More ways to survive the end of a match are in our MW4 DMZ tips and tricks guide. If you'd rather skip the leveling part of the camo grind, our MW4 weapons leveling service can max the guns you unlock.
Three items in DMZ unlock something, and they are easy to mix up. Manuals and recipes are both loot you have to extract, and both pay 5,000 DMZ Cash when you do. Blueprints are cosmetic rewards from the Vault Edition, pre-orders, the beta, Prestige and bundles, and they never drop in Hajin.
| Item | Where it comes from | What it unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon Manual | Loot in Hajin | The base gun at the Gunsmith, for good |
| Recipe | Loot in Hajin | An item you can craft at the 3D Printer, for good |
| Blueprint | Editions, pre-orders, rewards and bundles | One free build with its attachments, then builds at a discount |
A blueprint doesn't unlock the base gun. If you own a blueprint for the M4 but no M4 manual, you can build only that blueprint, which still costs far more than a base gun after the free first build. Gunsmith prices, the 3D Printer and every FOB upgrade are covered in our MW4 DMZ FOB guide.
These guides cover the rest of DMZ, from the basics of a deployment to the keys and bosses on a manual run.
These are the questions players ask most about Weapon Manuals.
Find the gun's Weapon Manual in Hajin and extract with it. The gun then stays buyable at the Gunsmith, which opens at DMZ Level 10.
It is used up automatically. The weapon unlocks at the Gunsmith and you get 5,000 DMZ Cash.
No. Only the player who extracts with the manual gets the unlock, so hand it to the squadmate who needs it before the exfil.
Weapon levels and attachments are shared between modes, but buying a gun in the DMZ Gunsmith always needs its Weapon Manual.
No container always holds one. The closest thing is an Irradiated Container processed at Reactor 02, which players report gives a manual almost every time.
Yes. It still pays 5,000 DMZ Cash and counts toward the War Spoils camo, which needs three manuals for the equipped weapon.
Infinity Ward hasn't said yet how DLC weapons will unlock in DMZ.
