Modern Warfare 4 All Maps: Core, Ground War, Gunfight, Kill Block

Modern Warfare 4 maps overview

Activision's launch patch notes put the launch roster at 20 multiplayer maps. The Ready for Launch maps and modes post (October 21) gives the setting of each one and confirms Shipment for October 27. The Season 1 patch notes add four more, and Activision's Season 1 preview on the PlayStation Blog names more maps for the middle of the season.

Map type	Team size	Maps	When added
Core	6v6	Cachette, Coal, Lithium, Lotus, Mumbai, Munition, Nautical, Reactor U92, Rooftops, Sentry, Silkworm, Transit 213	Launch, October 23
Core (post-launch)	6v6	Shipment	October 27
Season 1	6v6	Backstab, Canyon, Shoot House, Kill Block: Crash	November 5
Ground War	32v32	Imjin Farmland, Wolves Stadium, Forest	Launch
Gunfight	2v2	Cafe, Library, NYC, Smuggler	Launch
Kill Block	3v3 and 10v10 Gunfight at launch, 6v6 added after launch	West Bridge Training Facility	Launch

So how many maps are in MW4? Counting each entry in the table once, there are 25: 16 maps for 6v6 play, three for Ground War, four for Gunfight, Kill Block itself and its Crash combo. Activision's own launch count of 20 leaves out Shipment and the Season 1 maps, so expect other sites to quote different totals depending on the date they were written.

Which maps were in the MW4 beta?

The beta ran over two weekends: Early Access for pre-orders from August 21 to 25, then the Open Beta for everyone from August 28 to September 1, which also included Nintendo Switch 2 (Activision's dates, as reported by Shacknews). Over both weekends it offered:

• Six Core maps: Cachette, Lithium, Lotus, Rooftops, Silkworm and Transit 213.
• Kill Block in 3v3 and 10v10 Gunfight.
• Two Ground War maps, Imjin Farmlands and Wolves Stadium. In the full game, Activision lists Ground War as 32v32.

Coal, Mumbai, Munition, Nautical, Reactor U92 and Sentry were first played at launch. For those six, the notes below stick to Activision's descriptions rather than guessing how they play.

Core Modern Warfare 4 maps (6v6)

These are the standard maps for Team Deathmatch, Domination, Hardpoint, Search & Destroy and the other 6v6 modes. They are listed in alphabetical order, with Shipment last.

Cachette

Activision sets Cachette next to a French rail terminal, where an old wine warehouse and a run-down mechanic's garage have become a hidden armory. The beta guide calls it a tightly connected map: cobblestone streets, shipping containers, rooftops and small rooms, with a lot of flank routes and upper floors.

What the beta tips point to:

• Containers and rooftops in the middle give you height and short routes into the Armory and Lounge.
• The Backlot, Central Containers and Front Gate are the main lanes, so they are good targets for area Killstreaks such as the Bomb Glider and Artillery Beacon.
• Garage, Armory and Server Room are cramped, which is where a close-range sidearm or the single-use Zip Gun lethal helps if your main weapon is long-range.

Coal

The official Coal Tac Map page places Coal in a decaying Soviet coal processing plant high in the mountains. Coal was not in the beta, and Activision has not published layout tips for it the way it did for the beta maps, so nobody outside the studio had a full read on its routes before launch.

How to learn it quickly:

• Walk it in a private match first. An industrial plant usually means stacked floors, catwalks and covered passages, so look for every staircase and upper walkway before you pick a class.
• Find the chokepoints. Note the doorways and narrow passages that both teams must cross to reach the middle. Those are the spots to hold with a shotgun or SMG, or to cover with a Claymore or a Killstreak.
• Check height before range. If most of your deaths come from above, a class with a faster aim-down-sight speed beats one built for distance.

Lithium

Lithium is a lithium refinery owned by Corporación Mexicana de Litio, deep in rural Mexico below the Sierra Mountains, that has been turned into a battlefield. Activision's beta tips describe it as a mid-range map. Assault rifles, LMGs and marksman rifles fit it best, and you will spend more time choosing optics than chasing flanks.

Two details are worth learning early. The garage doors have buttons that open them or lower them partway, and a lowered door leaves just enough room to slide under it. A camouflaged truck parked on the eastern road also gives cover with a view toward the Runoff Area and the Refinery.

Lotus

Lotus is a South Korean fishing village after an amphibious assault. Its market, hostel, boathouse, gardens and housing blocks are all damaged, and abandoned tanks and burning buildings break up the main road through the middle. That mix of narrow interiors and one long street is why the beta tips suggest the Overkill perk, which lets you carry two primary weapons, for example a marksman rifle with an SMG.

• Boathouse pipe: climb it to reach the lower roof and the second floor, then watch the Docks or fight inside. You can jump into the water if you need to escape.
• Shotgun rooms: the Restaurant, Hostel, Fish Market and Boathouse are tight enough for a shotgun to clear.

Mumbai

Mumbai is a fugitive's hideout in a crowded residential district built around a Victorian market, with a rail line running between the closely packed blocks. Like the other maps added at launch, it was not in the beta. Its closely packed blocks point to short sightlines, and the rail line is the one long lane to keep an eye on.

Munition

Munition is an active North Korean command base. Activision's description lists its landmarks: a large munitions depot, monitoring rooms, a skybridge that links buildings, a crane, a water tower and several hangars. With that many raised structures, check the Tac Map for where the high ground is before your first match.

Nautical

Nautical takes place on a South Korean ferry leaving a war zone at dawn. Debris is scattered across the decks, and fires are burning along the starboard side and the bow. Activision has published little beyond that description and the Tac Map. Before you settle on a loadout, walk the decks in a private match to see how long the sightlines are.

Reactor U92

Reactor U92 is a South Korean nuclear plant in meltdown. Electrical damage is sparking across a large, curved command room, and the boiling containment pool appears to be where the meltdown started. Learn the main command room and the routes around it first, since Activision's description centers on those two areas.

Rooftops

Rooftops sits on the snow-covered roof of the Hotel Times West in New York. Activision lists a rooftop greenhouse, HVAC platforms, a boiler room, a patio, skylights, a pigeon coop and a laundry room. Raised platforms, outside walkways and small interiors give you several ways around the block, and the beta guide says the map rewards precise movement.

From the beta tips:

• The Catwalk on the east side of Construction is out of sight, which makes it a good place to ambush players and try Finishing Moves.
• The Patio counter covers the large Construction area. When it gets busy, you can fall back into the Laundry or Electrical Room or jump onto the Scaffolding.
• The open sky is easy to shoot into, so a launcher can take out enemy UAVs and other air Killstreaks.

Sentry

Activision's description, as quoted on Dexerto's MW4 wiki, frames Sentry as an attack on a Russian military base in a whiteout. Fights happen around a maintenance garage, a generator room and a substation, which surround a central command center and some partly destroyed barracks. Expect the snow to cut visibility. Mobalytics' Sentry guide also says the map has some of the longest sightlines at launch and that crossing the open snow is risky, so it is one of the few launch 6v6 maps where a marksman or sniper class has room to work.

Silkworm

Silkworm is a crowded South Korean shopping district. Alleys run around the apartments on its edges, and the action centers on a convenience store, a gaming den and the subway entrance in the middle. Activision calls it a street-level map with few vantage points, so most fights happen at close to mid range.

• Handling over range: attachments that improve aim-down-sight speed and handling help more here than extra range.
• Main Street cars: shoot a car's engine and it catches fire, then explodes. Frag grenades, launchers and LMGs work well for this, and a well-timed blast can catch a whole group.
• Game Room: good for close-range loadouts. You can watch the Convenience Store from behind its counter and use the pillars behind it on the way to the Warehouse and Basketball Court.

Transit 213

Transit 213 is an overgrown parking lot in western India, full of brightly painted buses in various states of disrepair. A repair shop and a small gas station sit along its sides, with construction sites and high-rise tenements around it. The buses split the lot into narrow lanes and hidden routes, but there are still long sightlines across the Center Lot.

Activision's beta tips treat it as a small map and are built around that. Throw your equipment early and often, try Fast Hands for quicker reloads and weapon swaps, and do not stay long in the buses in the Center Lot. They give cover, but grenades and rushes land on them first.

Shipment

Shipment arrived on October 27 and has its own Shipment 24/7 playlist (launch patch notes). Activision places it in a Russian harbor, squeezed between the water and concrete apartment blocks. It keeps the classic tiny layout, updated with MW4's visuals and movement. Infinity Ward adjusted its spawns in the November 2 update (VICE's patch coverage). PlayNews reports that the separate Shipment 24/7 playlist left the featured list when Season 1 began, so check the in-game playlists before you queue for it.

Season 1 MW4 maps

Season 1 went live on November 5 at 9 p.m. PT, which is midnight ET on November 6. The Season 1 patch notes, as summarized by dlcompare, give each new map one line, so this section is short until Activision publishes more:

• Backstab (new, 6v6): a town covered in snow.
• Canyon (new, 6v6): open ground mixed with natural terrain and changes in height.
• Shoot House (returning, 6v6): the familiar three-lane layout in a new setting, which Activision's PlayStation Blog preview describes as snowy North Korean terrain. The original map is from Modern Warfare (2019).
• Kill Block: Crash (featured combo, 6v6): a fixed Kill Block layout for 6v6 modes. See the Kill Block section below.

PlayNews reports that a Shransit playlist with Shipment, Shoot House and Transit 213 arrived with the Season 1 update. It is the easiest way to queue three compact maps back to back. For later in the season, the same PlayStation Blog preview names two more maps: Ministry, set around an embassy hosting a diplomatic summit, and Overflow, a factory with the farmland around it.

Modern Warfare 4 Ground War maps

Ground War is 32v32 with vehicles. At launch its mode was the new Combat Outpost, which plays like classic Ground War with one addition: teams capture and hold Outposts, and holding them earns resources for the team. All three maps are in the Hajin region, which is also where the DMZ map is set.

Imjin Farmland

Imjin Farmland is on the rural edge of Hajin: open fields, waterways, scattered farms and a large mill, with roads and rail lines linking them. Activision built it for long sightlines and vehicle play. The beta tips call the mill the best perch for snipers, and they suggest breaching its inner buildings from several directions at once and switching to a close-range weapon once you are inside. Because the ground is mostly flat, a launcher has clear shots at vehicles on the narrow roads.

Activision's posts spell the name both ways: "Imjin Farmland" in the launch post and "Imjin Farmlands" in the beta guide. They are the same map.

Wolves Stadium

Wolves Stadium is in the center of Hajin, a dense urban map built around the stadium itself. Multi-story buildings, transit lines, tunnels, rooftops and the hills around the city give each route several ways forward. It has much more vertical play than Imjin Farmland.

• Amphitheater stage: the terrain around it makes it hard for vehicles to reach, so it is a strong spot to hold.
• Ascenders, ladders and pipes get you onto rooftops fast, which matters downtown.
• Outposts let you refill supplies, so staying near one keeps your Killstreaks coming.

Forest

Forest was not in the beta. Activision places it between Imjin Farmland and Wolves Stadium, on a wooded hill. Streets, off-road paths and the southern train tracks give vehicles room to move. The main objectives are a guard tower at the top of the hill, a gas station and a set of barracks, and the tree line gives cover to attackers you cannot see.

Modern Warfare 4 Gunfight maps

Gunfight is a 2v2 mode with one life per round, and every player gets the same loadout. Activision's launch post gives a short description of each map:

Map	Setting	What to know
Cafe	Paris courtyard with a theater and a magazine kiosk	A fountain blocks the view down the middle. Its statue is a climbable vantage point, and the outer edge has longer sightlines with little cover.
Library	Wood-paneled state library	Enemies can hide behind the bookshelves, and stairs lead to a center walkway that overlooks both sides.
NYC	Downtown on a winter night	A large stage in the center, with stands, equipment and vendor stalls for flanking and several high points.
Smuggler	Rail yard with parked train cars	Ladders lead onto the car roofs. There are warehouses on both sides for close fights and more open ground at each end.

For a 2v2 map, the useful questions are where the high point is and where the cover is thin. The table answers those for each map, though it only covers what Activision has described.

How Kill Block works

Kill Block is set in the West Bridge Training Facility, a training site whose layout changes. Activision's July Kill Block first look, also posted on the PlayStation Blog, explains how it is built. Each layout, called a Combo, is made of three Slabs: two End Slabs where the teams enter, and a Central Slab between them. With all three joined, the play space is roughly the size of Shoot House from Modern Warfare (2019). Some Slabs run weather effects, such as rain or snow, that change visibility, and water or ice builds up on your weapon until you reload or swap.

• Over 500 combinations were possible at launch (Activision).
• In Gunfight, the beta guide says Kill Block switches to a new Combo and a new random loadout every two rounds, and teams swap spawn sides each round.
• Classic inspirations: the July post says some Slabs draw on Crash, Storage Town and Shoot House, among others.
• Finding your way: letter and number markers along the outer wall, and Slab names painted on walls and shown during the intro, tell you where you are.

At launch, Kill Block supported 3v3 and 10v10 Gunfight. 6v6 play came after launch, and Season 1 added Crash as a featured 6v6 combo. Activision says more Slabs and layouts will come after launch. You cannot memorize every Combo, so learn the individual Slabs instead. Once you recognize a Slab by its name, you know its sightlines whatever sits next to it.

Which MW4 map suits your playstyle?

This table sorts maps by what Activision's descriptions and beta tips say they reward, plus Mobalytics' notes on Sentry. It is not a ranking or a list of the best maps, and the maps first played at launch are placed from their descriptions only. Snipers have the fewest choices: most launch 6v6 maps are built for close and mid range, so long-range players will get more from Ground War.

If you like	Start with	Why
Nonstop close fights	Shipment, Transit 213, Silkworm	Small or street-level layouts, with equipment and fast handling rewarded
Mid-range gunfights	Lithium, Lotus	Long lines of sight down the main road and across the refinery
Long-range and sniper play	Imjin Farmland (the mill), Sentry, Lithium	The mill is the beta tips' sniper perch, Sentry has open snow, and Lithium suits marksman rifles
Flanks and height	Cachette, Rooftops	Containers, scaffolding, catwalks and upper floors
Learning new layouts	Kill Block	The layout changes, but the Slabs repeat
Vehicles and large-scale fights	Imjin Farmland, Wolves Stadium, Forest	32v32 Combat Outpost across Hajin
Short 2v2 rounds	Cafe, Library, NYC, Smuggler	One life, the same loadout for everyone

Example: you play SMGs, but Lithium keeps coming up in your lobbies. Instead of leaving, carry a second primary with Overkill or a marksman rifle class, and use the garage-door slide to get close. If a map keeps beating the same class, change the class for that map rather than blaming your aim.

To check your progress, pick one map and write down where you died most in your last three matches. If it is the same lane every time, change your route before you change your weapon.

Want a hand with this?

If you would rather not grind camo challenges or weapon levels across these maps yourself, Call of Duty camo services and MW4 weapon leveling are listed on FullBoosts, with everything else on the Call of Duty page. Read the publisher's rules before you buy any service from anyone, FullBoosts included — a marketplace listing isn't publisher permission.

FAQ

How many multiplayer maps are there in Modern Warfare 4? Activision counted 20 at launch: 12 Core 6v6, three Ground War, four Gunfight and Kill Block. Shipment arrived on October 27, and Season 1 added Backstab, Canyon, Shoot House and Kill Block: Crash on November 5.

What are the 6v6 maps in Modern Warfare 4? The launch Core maps are Cachette, Coal, Lithium, Lotus, Mumbai, Munition, Nautical, Reactor U92, Rooftops, Sentry, Silkworm and Transit 213. Shipment, Backstab, Canyon, Shoot House and the Kill Block: Crash combo have been added to 6v6 since then.

What are the Ground War maps in MW4? Imjin Farmland, Wolves Stadium and Forest, all in the Hajin region and played 32v32. The first two were in the beta, and Forest was first played at launch.

What are the Gunfight maps in MW4? Cafe, Library, NYC and Smuggler are the four 2v2 Gunfight maps. Kill Block also runs Gunfight in 3v3 and 10v10.

Is Shipment in Modern Warfare 4? Yes. It arrived on October 27 with a Shipment 24/7 playlist and is set in a Russian harbor (Activision). Since Season 1 it has also been in the Shransit playlist with Shoot House and Transit 213, according to PlayNews.

What is Kill Block in MW4? A map that rebuilds itself from three Slabs, with more than 500 possible layouts at launch. Some Slabs draw on classic maps such as Crash, Storage Town and Shoot House (Activision).

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