Call of Duty: Black Ops 4

If you're like me, then you are primarily playing blackout for the achievements, and if that is the case then you're looking to get these and all the other characters unlocked as quickly as possible. So I'm writing this guide to try and help you get all these characters, using whatever means necessary.

Right off the bat, I'll just come out and say this crap is no walk in the park. Unlocking characters in blackout is ridiculous and is more based on luck instead of skill. Thankfully, all the specialist characters are given for free to everybody (which hasn't reached Xbox just yet as of me writing this), because they were disgustingly random, so that leaves the zombies characters, and the blackout characters. The zombies characters are decently easy for the most part, they will take some time, but won't require insane skill like these guys.

There are only 4 blackout characters, each with their own challenges. If you're familiar with the way unlocking characters works in blackout, then this is nothing new. Find the characters respective item, complete said challenges with item in your inventory, and finish the game with said item. I'll go over every challenge and explain the best way to do it. Be warned, these challenges inevitably require you to get somewhat lucky. While being skillfull at blackout is certainly helpful, if luck is not on your side, there's not a whole lot you can do.

Raul Menendez

Item: Locket (available only in supply drops)

Challenge 1: Kill 2 enemies with a shotgun

Challenge 2: Finish match with locket in your inventory

This is possibly the easiest of the blackout characters but is certainly not a simple task. To start, you must have obtained the locket item from a supply drop. Understand the difference between a supply drop and a supply stash. Supply drops are only dropped by a plane and fall to the map with a parachute. A supply stash is a box you can find hidden in various area of the map, they are there from the start and do not come from a plane.

Your announcer guy will always tell you when a supply drop is incoming, when he says that, look around the sky for the large plane. Keep your eye on this and wait for the supply drop to fall out. It takes some time for it to land, but try and get underneath it, ideally using a vehicle to make travelling faster.

Understandably, there may be others going for the same supply drop, so be cautious as you approach it.

The annoying thing is, there is no guarantee the locket item spawns, any number of other items for specialist characters, or nothing at all for that matter, could be in its place. So, as is common with these characters, you kind of just have to get lucky. Keep hunting supply drops until you stumble upon it.

When you finally find his locket, just as the challenge reads, you must kill 2 enemies with a shotgun. There are 2 shotguns in the game, the MOG12 and the SG12. The SG12 is vastly superior to the MOG12, since it is semi automatic, has a larger magazine and doesn't do much less damage. The MOG will still work of course, but if you have the option between the 2, the SG12 is the way to go.

Obviously you need to find a shotgun first, which thankfully are fairly common. If you drop somewhere reasonably loot heavy you're pretty much guaranteed a shotgun.

When you finally have the shotgun, you need to get 2 whole kills with it. I recommend you try this solo because in CO- OP you need to both down and clean up 2 enemies, you will also never encounter more than one enemy at a time, and your team mates can't take your kills. That being said, if you have a coordinated team of friends, that may be useful to you as they can help you get the kills on the enemies.

In solo, the best strategy is honestly to camp your ass off and hope. Try and find an area with a reasonable amount of traffic, and hide in a closet or bathroom. If you get lucky and somebody opens the door, spray the crap out of them, you should obliterate them with the shotgun before they can even react. Of course, you need 2 kills with the shotgun, so you do need to get pretty lucky.

This is of course not the only strategy, it just requires the least amount of skill. If you know what you're doing, it can be useful to drive around and hunt people down with the shotgun, but this forces you to be very exposed, and of course, dying means you have to reacquire the locket.

Of course, as with all characters, you must make sure you do not drop the locket. Once you have the 2 kills you're golden, you can die whenever and still get Menendez, but the locket must be in your inventory when you do die.

Alex Mason

Item: Stained white T- shirt: Only found in supply stashes

Challenge 1: Wake the sleeper agent

Challenge 2: Place top 4 in quads, top 8 in duos, or top 15 in solo

Challenge 3: Finish match with Stained white T- shirt in your inventory.

This one is fairly simple, and is almost entirely based on luck. To start, you must find Mason's item in a supply stash. These things are fairly difficult to find, and do not spawn very often. The best way to do this is while going for woods (who I'll explain next). There is a potential supply stash location in the same area as Wood's bandanna, so just check it if you drop there and do that instead of doing Woods (since woods thing is there quite often). Otherwise, this map


Lists out all the supply stash potential locations (the purple sack looking item), all credit to rankedboost.com for that image.

I'd suggest you do this one with friends if you have them, otherwise do it solo. When you do manage to find the item in a supply stash (it is not guaranteed to spawn), you need to quickly make your way to array on the map. Be careful getting here as there is a good chance that it might have people there. You need to head to the top floor of the largest central building, and find a green button on one of the consoles up there. Hitting this "activates the sleeper agent or whatever" and, as long as you have the T shirt in your inventory, starts to flash incredibly annoying numbers in your face the rest of the game, so have fun with that.

Now, you simply need to not die for a while. I've gotten pretty good at not dying in blackout and there are some strategies you can employ to make getting to the desired rank you need easier.

-Water is your friend! This is incredibly cheesy and might piss your enemies off, but when you are submerged in water you are incredibly difficult to see from the surface. If nobody knows you're there, it is very unlikely they spot you. Obviously you need oxygen, so you need to pop your head up for as brief as you can about every 5 seconds. You want to basically pray the circle is in some water for as long as possible. Considering a rive runs right through the center of the map, you can get surprisingly far just hiding in water.

-The armored truck is great protection. This is only really relevant solo, but if the water strat is no longer an option. Finding an armored truck can be a good idea. You are every loud and big in this thing, but heavily protected. So just try driving around the perimeter of the circle. If your truck takes too much damage and starts to smoke, get the hell out.

-Hide. Hiding is a great strategy in blackout. Just stay as far from the center of the circle, hide in a bathroom, hide in some bushes, just move slow, and don't engage anybody unless they see you.

Now of course, if you're just simply good at blackout, top 15 is a joke to you, but if you struggle to not get killed immediately, just try your best to cheese your way to the top. Mason's rank placements are generous compared to some other characters, so he isn't too bad, but still be extremely cautious.

Frank Woods

Item: Bandanna which has a specific spawn north of firing range

Challenge 1: Ride in a helicopter for at least 60 seconds

Challenge 2: Win the game with the bandanna in your inventory

Seems easy right? Woods is possibly the hardest character in the whole game to unlock (I personally think Reznov is harder, but we'll get to that). Plain and simple, you need to win the game in order to unlock him. To some of you, that's easy as pie, to others that might sound borderline impossible. Unfortunately, winning is not the only challenge here.

To start, you need to acquire his bandanna, that means dropping in a fairly well hidden area just north of firing range.



Woods Bandanna may just straight up not spawn here, and this is the only spot it can spawn. Luckily, it seems to spawn here relatively frequently. Expect company when you land here, as a lot of people really want woods. There is also a helicopter that will always spawn in this location assuming the item is there. So the task is simple. Land here, kill everyone else, grab the bandanna, fly in the helicopter for 60 seconds, and win the game.

I personally found doing this easier solo, but if you have a group of talented coordinated and communicated players, I'd suggest you do it co- op.

In co- op, you will want to secure this area before flying in the helicopter, and I'd also suggest you just hover a few feet above the ground for 60 seconds before you try and go somewhere else, because if your helicopter gets rocket launchered before you've been in there a minute, it will be very difficult to find a second helicopter.

In solo, I actually suggest you, as quick as you possibly can, grab the bandanna and get out of there in the helicopter when you land. There tends to be a lot of people landing here in solos, and coming out of the cluster F is difficult. So your best bet is to just be flying away before anyone even has a gun. With practice I as able to get the item and be in the air within 5 seconds of landing. It wasn't uncommon for somebody to quickly gun me down as I was taking off, but I was more often than not getting out of there in the helicopter with the bandanna.

From here, your journey has only begun. Make sure you have the challenge complete before exiting the helicopter. I'd suggest you fly somewhere far away, preferably somewhere outside the first circle, and loot there until the collapse forces you to head into the circle.

Unfortunately, you've got to get some mighty fine luck to pull a victory here. Tier 3 armor is super helpful (almost required), as well as a ton of healing, a powerful assault rifle (I find the rampart to be the best), armor repair packs, attachments, grenades, and perks. Obviously none of this is required to pull through, but, if you're not skilled yourself, there's a good chance the few remaining enemies are skilled, and you need every advantage you can get on them.

Remember my tips for not dying for Mason? Those are especially useful here, but, be warned that you can't hide the entire game, you need to at the very least kill the final enemy, so if you have nothing for weapons, this is going to be tough. So my suggestion is to get geared up as best you can, loot somewhat aggressively, until you feel decently equipped, and then just hide for as long as possible (the water once again being your best friend). When I finally did this, I had awful loot, tier 1 armor, barely any ammo, but I was able to cheese my way to the top 2 by just hiding in the water and getting a really lucky circle. When the final circle forced me out the guy wasn't looking at me, so despite his tier 3 armor I won.

The best tip I can give is to keep at it. This is basically like winning the lottery, if you give it enough goes, inevitably everything will go right.

In Co- OP, your team mates need to protect you at all costs. If you die, even if they go on to win, you won't get woods, you need to be alive when you win.

And that's really it, I tried for woods constantly for about a week by myself and sometimes with friends before finally just getting lucky.

Viktor Reznov

Item: Ushanka hat, only spawns on fountains (3 locations)

Challenge 1: Get a 200 m longshot

Challenge 2: Place top 2 in quads, top 3 in duos, or top 5 in solo

Challenge 3: Finish match with the Ushanka hat in your inventory

Now, some may disagree, but this I honestly find harder than woods. On paper its a fairly simple idea, but in practice it is excessively difficult.

To start, the ushanka hat has 3 total potential spawns, it may spawn nowhere it may spawn in multiple spots.

1. The fountain just outside of the asylum building
2. The large statue on the left of the estates area (part of the raid side of the area)
3. The decorative fountain in the very center of the estates area, connecting the two halves.

Now since two of the spots are right next to each other, it's best for you to drop estates instead of asylum. Unfortunately, estates is a mighty popular place for people to drop. Because of this, it is incredibly difficult to drop there, garb the item, and escape with your life.

The best strategy I found is to drop right on to the center fountain, try and quickly get a gun and kill anyone nearby. Check for the hat (be advised it can spawn in different spots on the fountain, so check all sides). If it's not there, try and make your way to the big statue in Raid, be careful there may be others. Once again, climb on to it and look for it, if it'snot there, try and hunt everyone in Raid as they may have taken it.

The ideal situation is to find it right away at the middle fountain and getting out of there, either by an ATV or just running.

I find just getting our of estates with the item happens rarely, and that's the easiest part of the whole thing.

From here, you need to get a 200 meter (656 feet) longshot, which is a considerable distance. Unfortunately, there no real way to gauge distances in this game, so there's quite a bit of guesswork in finding 200 m. The best way to reference this distance is it is a little bit under the length of 2 NFL football fields.

There are multiple ways to go about doing this. Any gun can technically be used for this, but not using a sniper it is basically impossible. Unfortunately, because the game hates you, snipers are pretty rare, and do not come with scopes automatically, you need to attach a scope on them yourself. So you have to basically pray to RNjesus that you find a sniper and you find a scope for it (either sniper scope or 4x, 3x might work but it'll be tricky). So you've got your scope, and you've got your sniper, now what?

Now is when the fun begins. 200 meters is a long distance, so you need to get somewhere high with a sight on a lot of the map. I did it on top of construction sight, but there are tons of good spots. When you have good sights on what is hopefully a somewhat high traffic area, just scan your surroundings and hope. When you see an enemy, your best bet is to hope they stand still to loot something, because hitting a moving target from that distance with bullet drop is crazy difficult. What's more, you can't one hit in the body if they're at full health with any of the snipers. You need to get the headshot to insta kill them. If you do hit them in the body, they'll react in one of two ways, running around in a circle jumping, or diving to the pavement. Hope they do the latter, because they are ripe for a follow up shot. If they start running, try your best to anticipate their movements and hit them moving, but if not, keep your sights on them and see where they go. They may be stupid and run to cover and try to peak you, don't let them figure out where you are, they can't see you but you can see them, so be ready to take them out as soon as you have a sight on them.

So you did it, hit the shot of your life and are celebrating, but unfortunately, you aren't even done yet. You now need to get top 5 in solo, you thought Mason's was hard? Not much to say here, follow what I said above, hide in water, don't engage unless absolutely necessarily and pray. There's a good chance you're fairly late game by the time you get your sniper shot, so hopefully there's not many more people left. You are also hopefully at an advantageous position, so you'll have eyes on a lot of the map. Scan your surroundings and check your six. Failing here would be pretty devastating, so be extremely cautious.

Truth be told, I think Reznov's challenge is too difficult and needs to be changed. The difficulty in obtaining his item and a suitable weapon for the long shot means it is very rare you actually get a chance to go for the long shot. What's more, once you do get the long shot, you're not even done yet. At least with woods, you get attempts at the win frequently. I think at the very least they should remove the rank requirement, and preferably lessen the range of the long shot to make it doable with an assault rifle. I'm extremely lucky I got Reznov unlocked as quickly as I did, the game I got him everything went right.

Conclusion

So hopefully this guide makes things easier for you. I know I may have over explained a lot of things, but I wanted to make it as comprehensive as I could. Like I said, the unavoidable truth to these guys is they are heavily reliant on luck, so there's not much more yo can on top of just brute forcing your way through it. I also understand that a lot of you will have no problem getting some of these guys, as you're just good at the game and can get wins like its nothing. In going for these I definitely improved massively, now I seem to get solo wins somewhat often, despite Woods taking me weeks. So the more you play, the better you'll get, and the more chances for the luck to favor you.

Good luck, and feel free to shoot any questions my way.

To get this achievement you need to find special items located in random areas on the map.
When you have these items you can look at them in your inventory to see what challenges you must complete during that match to unlock the character. You need all 4 for the achievement.

Note: Placements may vary depending on if you're playing Solo, Duo, Quads so make sure you check what exact placement you have.
And of course challenges must all be done in the same game that you find the item.

Woods:
Find "Bandanna" from BO1 Campaign Helicopter Spawn location North of Firing Range on Top of the Brown Box


-Ride in a Helicopter for at least 30 Seconds to a minute
-Win the match with "Bandanna" in inventory

(You must be ALIVE. Your teammates can get the final kill but you need to be alive for it to count as the challenge states “You Can’t Kill Me!”)

Note: with the new limited time game-mode “Ground War” being a 50 vs 50 mode it makes it much easier to be able to win. So keep an eye out for when this mode is running if you’re struggling.

Menendez:
Find a "Locket" item from a Supply Drop
-Kill 2 enememies with a Shotgun
-Finish the match with Locket item in your inventory

A Shotgun kill on a downed enemy DOES count.

Reznov:
Find "Ushanka Hat" in Estates around the Fountain Statue, around the Red Art Statue, or at Asylum in the empty corner fountain.



-Kill an enemy at “Long Range” (200meters or more)
-Place Top 2 in Quads, Top 3 in Duos, Top 5 in Solo
-Finish the match with "Ushanka Hat" in your inventory

(A Mesh Mine kill from a long distance won’t count and it seems that a Rocket Launcher kill on a vehicle from 200+ meters also won’t count anymore)

Mason:
Find "Stained White T-Shirt" from a Supply Stash
-Wake the Sleeper Agent (Start the Emergency Alert at Array by pressing the lit up machine in the main building)
-Place Top 4 in Quads, Top 8 in Duos, Top 15 in Solo
-Finish the match with T-Shirt in your inventory

This fortunately can be activated again for this challenge even if someone already did it.
Video of the how to activate the Emergency Alert credit to randomChievos

Thanks for help from Was I That Bad, Ex GHOSTface, DANIELJJ14, WizZy PL, Luuc, SSSteinMan and Itzz Sh0wt1m3

Hi,
I found this Interactive Map, where you can see where can be found the stashes or other things.
I hope it will be useful for you.
CREDIT to Was I That Bad for Info.
SOME INFO
● The requests for the challenge must be performed AFTER having found the Item;
● The Supply Drops are the supply crates that are released from the Supply Plane, where you can find the Characters' Missions;
● The Supply Stashes are the supply crates that are on the Map, where you can find the Characters' Missions.

All of these Characters are now live, as of patch notes 13/11/2018

• MASON

● Find the "Stained White T-Shirt" item and finish the match with it in your Inventory;
● Play the match as Reznov;
● Wake the Sleeper Agent;*
RANK: Top 3 [Solo] - Top 2 [Duos] - Top 1 [Quads];
ITEM: Stained White T-Shirt;
ITEM LOCATION: Stained White T-Shirt item can be found in Supply Stashes.
* For the 'Waking the sleeper agent" you have to activate the emergency broadcast in Array. (Dark Ops challenge radio)
CREDIT to Zeitooine for Info.

• MENENDEZ

● Find the "Locket" item and finish the match with it in your Inventory;
● Kill 1 Enemy with a Shotgun;
● Kill 1 Enemy with a Melee Attack;
RANK:
ITEM: Locket;
ITEM LOCATION: Locket item can be found in Supply Drop.

• REZNOV

● Find the "Ushanka Hat" item and finish the match with it in your Inventory;
● Get 1 "Long Range" kill (200+ meters);
RANK: Top 5 [Solo] - Top 3 [Duos] - Top 2 [Quads];
ITEM: Ushanka Hat;
ITEM LOCATION: Ushanka Hat item can be found in Estates [on the big circle statue with the stone blocks around it in the western house] - in Asylum [in the blood fountain at the centre of aslyum] - in Estates [at the fountain in between the two houses].

• WOODS

● Find the "Woods' Bandana" item and finish the match with it in your Inventory;
● Ride in a Helicopter for at least 30 Seconds to a minute; Helicopter Spawn Locations.
● Win the match;
RANK: Top 1 [in Solo-Duos-Quads];
ITEM: Woods' Bandana;
ITEM LOCATION: Woods' Bandana item can be found in North of Firing Range.