Campaign Difficulty Differences and How to Change

This is a guide on the campaign difficulty differences in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (MW3). Learn about the different difficulty levels, how to change difficulty, and the rewards of Veteran difficulty, and if there's Realism difficulty.

Campaign Difficulty Differences

All Campaign Difficulties

The Modern Warfare 3 campaign has 4 confirmed difficulty settings: Recruit, Regular, Hardened, and Veteran. Stay tuned as we confirm whether the Realism difficulty is included in MW3 like it was in MW2.

Recruit

Recruit is the easiest difficulty in the game and is recommended for players new to Call of Duty. If you just want to enjoy the story or breeze through the campaign for the unlockable rewards, then choose this difficulty.

Enemies should drop fairly quickly, and you won't have to worry about dying and restarting in this difficulty.

Regular

Regular can be considered the standard difficulty, the intended mode for the campaign to be played in.

This mode should offer just enough challenges but nothing too hard, even for players with little experience in first-person shooters.

Hardened

Hardened starts taking the difficulty up a notch. If Regular difficulty doesn't provide much of a challenge, give Hardened a try.

Enemies are a bit tougher and your skills will be tested. This difficulty should be manageable especially for players who have experience in other FPS games.

Veteran

Veteran ramps up the difficulty considerably and is recommended for seasoned Call of Duty players and long-time FPS players.

Enemies become more accurate and can deal more damage, while you have lower health in general. You'll have to be careful when engaging in gunfights as rushing head first into danger is likely to send you back to the previous checkpoint.

Note: While there are no extra item rewards for beating the Campaign on Veteran difficulty, you will still be rewarded with the 141 Ready achievement.

Campaign Rewards and Length

Is There Realism Difficulty Mode?

No Realism Difficulty for MW3

Modern Warfare 3 does not have a Realism difficulty mode. In previous installments, Realism was the hardest difficulty mode unlocked after beating the Campaign on any difficulty.

Realism difficulty was the same as Veteran but the difference is players will have limited HUD. You had to be mindful of your ammo, guns, and other equipped items.

How to Change Difficulty

Change at Any Time in the Menu

The difficulty can be changed at any time during gameplay. Just bring up the menu and select Change Difficulty and you're good to go.

Take note changing to a higher difficulty in the middle of a campaign mission won't get you any achievements or trophies associated with the difficulty!

Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) Related Guides

Campaign Missions List

All MW3 Mission Walkthroughs

Other Campaign Guides