Call of Duty – MWZ Zombies How to Thrive in Tier 3

Lots of players are afraid to venture into the Red Zone. Here are some tips and tricks to help make it more manageable.

Gameplay Basics

Basic rules for managing Tier 3:

1: Hands out! You should only have one weapon equipped. When you’re not shooting, switch to your hands to run faster. You can outrun everything but the dogs.

2: Only shoot the dogs! If you try to kill every zombie that’s chasing you, you will either go down or waste a bunch of time. Dogs are the only thing that can catch up to you, so dispatch them quickly.

3: Parkour! Zombies have to go around walls and they wait to jump until after you climb ladders. Some high spots they can’t even follow you too, so roof jumping is usually pretty safe, and sometimes there is nice loot too. Parachuting is a good way to distance (and sometimes lose) a horde that’s following you.

4: Path intelligently. If you have to run on the ground. Run AROUND the zombies. They can usually hit you as you run by, so don’t try to squeeze between them unless you’re sure you can take the hits.

5: Decoys! If you get trapped, or if there are a bunch of zombies around your objective, decoys will make them ignore you and pool them in one spot, allowing you to escape or do your thing. Kazmirs are even better if you can find/buy them. Don’t use monkey bombs: they take too long to throw and you may go down before it activates.

6: Keep multiple self revives. There is a high chance that you will go down at some point if you’re grinding Tier 3. It’s just going to happen, and you’re going to need to be able to get up. Use your death timer to crawl away from the horde and try to get to a ladder you can climb or a ledge and then parachute to safety.

7: Keep your turret circuits. These are great for killing bounties AND creating safe zones. The Weapon stash and spore contracts are easy if there is a turret in the courtyard.

8: Use perks. There are 2 wonderfizz machines in the red zone that you can use to get any perk. Most helpful ones (in order) are…

• Juggernog (so you don’t go down in 2 hits)
• Stamin up (so you can avoid getting hit)
• Quick revive (so you can heal faster after getting hit)
• Speed cola (so you can reload and plate up faster on the move)

Just stay focused on your objective: don’t go into loot goblin mode. Run, don’t fight. The zombies are fast, there’s a lot of them, and they hit really hard. Use the environment to your advantage and jump obstacles or parachute whenever possible. Use decoys or Kasmirs or turrets when you need a little breathing space.

Best Weapons

Here are some of the best weapons you can bring into Tier 3:

Crossbow:

Right now the Crossbow is ridiculously overpowered if you use it with Thermite bolts. It will melt through anything, even Mega Abominations. You do need to have the PHD Flopper Perk equipped though, otherwise you will take damage from your own thermite bolts.

Here’s the full attachment list:

• Laser: VLK LZR 7MW
• Underbarrel: XTEN PHANTOM-5 HANDSTOP
• Bolts: BRIGHTBLAZE 20″ BOLTS
• Wire: 16-STRAND CABLE
• Stock: SPEEDTRACK ECHO

Lockwood 680:

Most shotguns in MWZ are pretty lackluster. Thankfully there is a certain set of attachments on the Lockwood 680 that make it a beast. The neat thing about the Lockwood 680 is that if you use slug rounds, when you PaP the gun, it shoots a shell full of slugs. When you use the right barrel, your rounds per shell can go up to 10. So with the right combo, you end up shooting 10 slug rounds in one shot, which is pretty insane.

One thing to note is that while this gun does more damage/shot than the Crossbow, its range is much more limited. So while it tears through zombies, Mimics, and Manglers (even the buffed bounty ones), it’s not great against the Mega Abominations since you don’t really want to get too close to those without backup.

Another thing to note is that you will have to unlock the 12 Gauge Slug ammunition with Daily Challenges since it’s an MW2 attachment. Do not try to use the explosive slugs, they don’t deal as much damage.

Here’s the full attachment list:

• Laser: VLK LZR 7MW
• Barrel: LOCKWOOD DEFENDER HEAVY LONG BARREL
• Ammunition: 12 GAUGE SLUG
• Guard: DEMO X40 TACTICAL PUMP
• Bolt: EXPRESS LIGHT BOLT

RGL-80:

The RGL grenade launcher is so fun to use in Zombies. While it can’t always 1-shot zombies in Tier 3, it DOES knock down everything in its blast radius. So if you’re on the run and have a horde on your tail, it can buy you some time to get away. You can also blast the ground at your feet if you are getting swarmed in a corner (as long as you have PHD flopper to avoid the self damage).

Gutter Knife:

The Gutter Knife is a great option for a secondary weapon. Normally you only want 1 gun so that you can run with your hands out, but running with a knife is almost as fast. An epic or legendary triple packed knife will 1 shot normal tier 3 zombies, and it will make short work of pretty much everything else.

Scorcher:

This may be a controversial pick, but hear me out. I know that the Scorcher’s main attack is terrible. It’s slow to charge and fire, which makes it pretty bad in the fast paced Tier 3 environment. But its secondary ability (which launches you high into the air, allowing you to parachute long distances) is AMAZING for running Tier 3 contracts.

I was able to complete about 30% more contracts using the Scorcher than I was without it. You can get to and from contracts quickly, you don’t have to worry about getting swarmed while you run, and if you do find yourself in trouble, you can just blast off and leave it behind! Use the scorcher as your secondary weapon; you’ll still need a primary to deal out damage.