Week 8 of Season 2 in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has unlocked, introducing the brand-new Vortex: Decay’s Realm Event, as well as the final set of Weekly Challenges for Season 2! Here you'll find an overview of the challenges and the most efficient way to complete both sets of challenges at the same time to claim two new animated weapon camos and a blueprint!
Rook Blueprint & Rotten Inferno Animated Weapon Camo
The Week 8 challenge reward is the Rook blueprint for the HRM-9. It’s designed for Hipfire, so if you aren’t a fan of that you won’t find much value in the Blueprint, but it does pave the way for you to unlock the super cool Rotten Inferno animated weapon camo by completing all eight weekly challenges! This is definitely a camo you’ll want to earn and keep in your collection before the week is over and it’s gone forever, so don’t forget!
Vortex: Decay's Realm Event
The Vortex: Decay’s Realm event is also live to cap off the season, and the entire event can be completed in just one Zombies deployment! Your reward is the squeamish-sounding Wriggler animated weapon camo!
To complete the event in one deployment, you will need:
- 150 Zombies kills with the Crossbow or JAK Purifier
- 50 Zombie kills with Throwing Knives while Speed Cola is active
- 25 Zombie kills with Sentry Guns
- 15 Special Zombie kills with SMGs
- 200 Zombie kills with the Haymaker
Now, if you’re a real overachiever, you’ll align the Weekly Challenges with the Vortex: Decay’s Realm event challenges and do both at the same time to score both the Wriggler and Rotten Inferno animated weapon camos (assuming you have all seven previous weeks complete). The Zombies challenges for Week 8 are as follows:
- Get 300 Toxic Damage kills with a Recommended Weapon
- Get 350 kills while moving with a Recommended SMG
- Get 250 Critical Kills with the Longbow
- Get 50 kills without dying 10 times with a Recommended Weapon
- Get 250 Fire Damage kills with the Haymaker
- Get 500 kills with a Pack-a-Punched Holger-556
- Get 5 Rapid Kills 15 times with a Recommended Handgun
Your Perfect Loadout
If you are only interested in the Vortex: Decay’s Realm event, load out with the following:
- Haymaker
- Any AR/BR equipped with the JAK Purifier (Underbarrel)
- Throwing Knives
- Speed Cola Can
- Sentry Gun Killstreak (if you’re lucky enough to have one)
If you’re an overachiever and want to complete both the event and the weekly challenges, load out with the following:
- Haymaker
- Holger 556 equipped with the JAK Purifier (Underbarrel)
- Throwing Knives
- Speed Cola Can
- Brain Rot Ammo Mod
- Napalm Burst Ammo Mod
- Sentry Gun Killstreak (if you’re lucky enough to have one)
- Aetherium Crystal of any rarity
By affixing Brain Rot and an Aetherium Crystal to the Holger 556 (which is a currently recommended weapon), you’ll be able to knock out 150 JAK Purifier kills (Vortex: Decay’s Realm), 300 Toxic Damage kills with a Recommended Weapon, 50 kills without dying 10 times with a Recommended Weapon (500 kills total), and 500 kills with a Pack-a-Punched Holger-556 (Weekly Challenges). By affixing Napalm Burst to the Haymaker, you’ll be completing 200 kills with the Haymaker (Vortex: Decay’s Realm) and 250 Fire Damage kills with… the Haymaker (Weekly Challenge).
Fastest Way to Complete the Event + Weekly Challenges
The following strategies are written from the perspective of those trying to complete both the Vortex: Decay’s Realm event and Week 8 Challenges at the same time, so adjust your personal strategy as needed based on what you are trying to complete.
As soon as you spawn in, find a Tier 1 Outlast Contract (or Tier 2 if you have adequate Crystals and Perks). If possible, try to select an Outlast Contract near an Ammo Cache, as the Ammo Cache is the only way to refill the JAK Purifier outside of the Max Ammo random drop. However, it should be possible to get all 150 with high efficiency and a lucky Max Ammo drop.
Start the contract and begin farming. You’re looking for 250 kills with the Haymaker and 150 with the JAK Purifier, then 350 with the “regular” Holger 556 - kills with the JAK Purifier should count as Holger 556 kills.
If you aren’t able to load out with a Speed Cola or Sentry Gun, you’ll need to forecast saving up at least 2000/4000 Essence in order to buy one or both – keep in mind you’ll be earning 2000 Essence from completing the contract. It’s entirely possible to get both off lucky drops from Special Zombies or containers in the world, so keep your eyes peeled. Make sure you don’t try to start getting Throwing Knife kills until Speed Cola is active. In addition, you’ll need to portion out 3000 Essence for a Wall Buy to get the SMG needed for 15 Special Zombie kills.
Once you’ve farmed out the requisite amount of Haymaker, Holger, and JAK Purifier kills (and Throwing Knives, if you already have Speed Cola), examine the world map for a Wall Buy and go from Wall Buy to Wall Buy until you find any SMG – although you will want to hope for the RAM-9, HRM-9, Striker 9, or WSP-9 if you’re trying to complete the Weekly Challenges at the same time! If you’re feeling lucky, you can try hitting the Mystery Box, but it’s a risk. Whether you do or do not get a Recommended SMG (or a regular old SMG for the event only), head to a regular Buy Station and purchase a Sentry Gun on your way to Exfil!
Call in the Exfil bird, and if no players are around competing for your kills, avoid killing any Zombies (except Specials) and place the Sentry when it seems you have 15 or so Zombies. From there, keep dodging and training the Zombies to stay in front of the Sentry Gun, and as long as you’re in a Tier One zone, it should eventually cut enough down within a single use as it’s quite overpowered against T1 Zombies. Allow the Sentry Gun to get its 25 kills first, then pull out the SMG and start blasting! If you have a Recommended SMG, remember to keep moving as you will need 350 kills while moving and using a Recommended SMG.
Special Zombies have a higher chance of spawning as normal Zombies die, so make sure to kill as many as you can in order to get more Special Zombie spawns. Rinse and repeat – keep calling that Exfil bird over and over until you get all 15 Special Zombie kills, and remember that you will eventually be forced to a Final Exfil which will have more Special Zombies than you could ever want. Keep in mind that the Final Exfil’s position will be somewhat “opposite” of where the Radiation Storm is starting, so be sure to check the map and plan ahead if you don’t think you’ll be bagging 15 Special Zombie heads in time.
With all 5 challenges complete, you’ll claim the Wriggler Animated Weapon camo!
Regarding the Weekly Challenges done, you’re guaranteed to complete four out of five. The fifth falls on luck. Whether by Wall Buy, Mystery Box, or random find, if you encounter a RAM-9, HRM-9, Striker 9, or WSP-9, you’re golden – that can give you 350 kills while moving with a Recommended SMG as you exfil farm your way to 15 Special Zombie kills with SMGs. If you find a Renetti, WSP Stinger, or Basilisk, you can get 5 Rapid Kills 15 times with a Recommended Handgun. If you find a Longbow, you can try to quickly farm out 250 Critical Kills with the Longbow.
Finally, keep in mind that you can “Exfil” to a story mission to keep the session going – preferably protecting Dr. Jansen, which has infinite Zombie spawns and can allow you to borrow extra time to complete challenges in your current play session.
If luck is not on your side, you can definitely complete any remaining challenges needed on the next deployment.
Thank you for reading, and enjoy your rewards!
By the way...
Did you know that we publish Mathematically Optimized builds of weapons for Multiplayer, extensively tested for peak performance? These are not your average gamer's weapon builds. Check them out in our Call of Duty guides section!
