Insured weapons in Call of Duty’s DMZ mode, explained

In DMZ, insured weapons are your lifeline

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II‘s new Warzone-adjacent mode, DMZ (short for “demilitarized zone”), has been a huge hit with fans only for the past few weeks since its release. In the open world, narrative-focused extraction mode, players are tasked with infiltrating Al Mazrah, completing tasks, fighting off AI enemies, and of course, staying alive long enough to get to the exfil point and make it out of there in one piece. There’s a bit of a learning curve given some of DMZ’s unique features, but don’t worry — we’re all in this together.

One of those features is the introduction of insured weapons, a new mechanic specifically for the DMZ mode. Essentially, you can select one weapon to take into the match as their insured gun (or a blueprint of that gun), meaning that even if they fail to exfil, you won’t permanently lose that insured weapon you went in with.

This feature come especially handy in your early hours of DMZ, because there’s a good chance you’ll be dying or failing to exfil at the beginning while you’re still learning the ropes. On the flip side, you can pick up guns, throwables, and other resources while in the match, but unless you successfully reach the extraction point, you’ll lose everything you acquired on your adventure in Al Mazrah.

Any guns you pick up during the match are called contraband, which will be available to take into subsequent matches if you can manage to make it out alive with them. While you can customize your insured weapon with the attachments of your choosing, contraband guns cannot be customized (although some of them come with certain attachments locked on as part of their build, which is randomly rolled based on how strong they want the gun to be).

There is a downside to insured weapons, though — if you don’t manage to exfiltrate successfully, the insured weapon you used will become inaccessible for a certain amount of time, so be careful. At least you can speed up those cooldowns using any cash or valuables you were able to lift on a completed exfil. While I’ve certainly lost out on some of the insured weapons on my thwarted attempts at escape, the game is at least good at dropping you somewhere that it’s easy enough to pick up a firearm before things start getting too hairy.

You can also earn additional insured weapon slots by completing Faction Missions. There are three factions for players to choose from in DMZ: Legion (which players will automatically start as before unlocking the others), White Lotus, and Black Mous. Checking off in-game missions, like turning on UAV towers or picking up documents that contain sensitive information, will allow players to rise through the Faction ranks. Just like the base game, the higher level you are, the more rewards you’re able to unlock — including extra insured weapons slots.