Counter Attack is where Modern Warfare 4’s South Korea storyline turns from holding ground to taking it back. US and South Korean Marines land on the eastern coast of an occupied city and fight west through restaurants, apartment blocks and a construction yard. Their target is Hotel Lucera, where North Korean forces run a command relay from the roof. It is one of the longest set-piece missions in the campaign. A full run takes about half an hour, and it closes with an extended sniper and missile overwatch sequence.
Quick answer: Counter Attack is mission 12, set in Hajin City, South Korea. You play as Private Park, and the mission is complete once City Hall is protected from the Hotel Lucera roof.
Counter Attack mission details in Modern Warfare 4
| Detail | Counter Attack |
|---|---|
| Campaign position | Mission 12 |
| Previous mission | Defection |
| Following mission | Escape |
| Location | Hajin City, South Korea |
| Playable character | Private Park (South Korean Marine) |
| Squadmates | Sgt. Jae, Cpl. Dunn |
| Your unit’s call sign | Mayhem (Bravo Company) |
| Co-op | No, single-player only |
The campaign offers six settings: Recruit, Regular, Hardened, Veteran, Realism, and YOLO. Complete the campaign at any setting to gain access to Realism; finishing it on Realism then opens YOLO. Early access to Modern Warfare 4’s campaign began on October 16, 2026, with the full game arriving on October 23, 2026.
Colonel Shaw’s three-phase plan for Hotel Lucera
The mission opens aboard a US helicopter crossing into South Korean airspace. Kai, Moon and Ko Jin-hyuk are coming off the previous operation. Park has a short, loaded exchange with Ko about the “hard choice” he made, which carries over from Defection. On the ground, Colonel Shaw welcomes back Mayhem-1 and lays out the operation in a command tent. The Battalion Landing Team from the 1st Marine Regiment hits the eastern coastline at 0900.
- Phase One: Fox Company secures the beachhead and clears every structure around it.
- Phase Two: Bravo Company, call sign Mayhem, pushes west toward the hotel as the main effort.
- Phase Three: Mayhem assaults and secures Hotel Lucera, cutting the enemy’s command and control.
You spend almost the whole mission in Phase Two. Fox Company’s beach fight is the opening act you land into, and the hotel assault is the payoff.
Counter Attack route: From the beach to Hotel Lucera
Amphibious landing on the eastern coast
Amphibious Combat Vehicles roll off an assault ship in waves. Park rides inside one with Jae and Dunn until an impact cripples it short of the shore.
Water floods the cabin, the hatches get blown, and the squad wades out under artillery, mortars and airstrikes. The “COUNTER ATTACK” title card appears as Park reaches the sand.
Friendly armor works as moving cover up the beach. The squad eventually pins down behind sand berms and a shell crater while machine guns fire from the seawall buildings.
Han-Go Korean B.B.Q. building and rooftop
After clearing the beachhead, the squad advances along a snowy avenue, passing wrecked cars on the way to the Han-Go Korean B.B.Q. building.
The fight starts in the dining room and kitchen, where an armored soldier waits, and then climbs through stairwells and corridors. The upper floors are residential apartments with civilian casualties. One reinforced bedroom wall comes down with a Corvus Defense breaching charge.
Dunn forces an emergency exit open and the team clears the last defenders on the roof. Jae marks it with green smoke before everyone climbs down the scaffolding to regroup with the APC Mayhem 1-3.
Underpass ambush and the construction site
The convoy pushes under a highway overpass until a missile strike disables the lead vehicle, and sniper fire scatters the infantry. The squad cuts left through a gutted storefront into a snowy construction yard. Machine-gun nests sit in the rooftops and windows there. Once those fall, it’s a long-range gunfight through excavators, shipping containers and the concrete frames of unfinished towers, with RPG gunners mixed in.
Apartment high-rise and the street to Hotel Lucera
A pastel-painted residential tower comes next, cleared floor by floor at shotgun range. A blown-out wall opens onto a balcony with a clear view of Hotel Lucera across the plaza. Missile teams sit in its upper windows. Down on the boulevard, the squad fights past abandoned cars, bus stops and delivery trucks with armor support. Mayhem 1-3 then rams the barricaded hotel entrance.
Inside the hotel: Elevator, suites and hostages
The lobby is a multi-level firefight around the marble reception desk and the second-floor balconies. The main stairwell is blocked, so the objective switches to “Regroup at the elevator.” An observation elevator carries the team to the upper suites, which are cleared room by room. Behind the double doors marked CONFERENCE ROOM, North Korean guards are holding South Korean civilians. Supporting Marines stay behind with the freed hostages while Park, Jae and Dunn take the last stairwell to the roof.
Target scope strikes in Counter Attack
Counter Attack’s recurring tool is the target scope. The “EQUIP TARGET SCOPE” prompt first shows up in the beach trench under the objective “Call for support on enemy locations.” Painting a target sends cannon fire, artillery or air support onto it. You can’t simply shoot your way past hardened positions. Instead, you mark them.
- Beach: seawall infantry positions and an enemy BMP.
- Construction site: MG nests in rooftops and windows, hit by armored vehicle cannons.
- Apartment balcony: missile teams in Hotel Lucera’s upper windows.
- Hotel roof: targets around City Hall, marked for helicopter gun runs.
The scope shows distance markers. Yellow objective markers and HUD diamonds flag each rally point, elevator and breach along the way.
Hotel Lucera rooftop overwatch and the Long Shot trophy
On the snow-covered roof, the squad kills the guards around the satellite and antenna dishes and destroys the North Korean comms relay. That is Phase Three’s goal. The objective then reads “Regroup on the Heli-Pad,” followed by “Protect City Hall.”
Park picks up a KS-7 Vulcan sniper rifle at the roof’s edge to cover Warpig-6 as it pushes into City Hall below. The threats arrive in layers: infantry squads, RPG teams, mortar crews and tanks. A tripod-mounted guided missile launcher handles the armor. Through the sniper scope, you can also mark targets for helicopter gun runs.
The mortar attack is linked to a mission trophy: Long Shot (Silver) requires you to snipe the 4 mortar operators in Counter Attack. The trophy was found in a PlayStation database list uncovered by datamining. Activision has not verified it.
Long Shot asks you to snipe the mortar crews specifically. Taking them out with the missile launcher or a gun run may not count toward the four.
Weapons and gear used in Counter Attack
| Weapon or gear | Where it shows up |
|---|---|
| M4-pattern rifle | Beach and early streets |
| Kastov 762 | Urban sections |
| FINN LMG | Urban sections |
| Type 73, Mosin-Nagant | Enemy weapons on the route |
| Shotgun | Apartment high-rise |
| Corvus Defense breaching charge | Apartment wall breach |
| Target scope | Beach through hotel roof |
| KS-7 Vulcan | Hotel Lucera roof |
| Guided missile launcher | Hotel Lucera roof |
Counter Attack ends with Chinooks and troop transports flying in over the secured city. There’s no time to celebrate, though. The squad is immediately redirected toward the power plant, so the counterattack opens a new emergency as soon as the city is back in allied hands.
