MW4 Trench Broom Achievement/Trophy Guide (15 Shotgun Kills in Entrenched)
Fifteen shotgun kills in the opening trench push of mission 14 unlock Trench Broom, worth 50 Gamerscore or a Silver trophy.
Fifteen shotgun kills in the opening trench push of mission 14 unlock Trench Broom, worth 50 Gamerscore or a Silver trophy.
by AllThingsHow Staff
Image: Infinity Ward
Trench Broom is one of the easier combat achievements in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s campaign. You can earn it entirely in the first few minutes of “Entrenched,” the 14th of the game’s 16 missions. The mission gives you a shotgun from the first second, and the trench network is full of enemies at close range. Most players earn it without having to try very hard.
Quick answer: In “Entrenched,” switch to your secondary shotgun right away and get 15 shotgun kills in the trenches before you secure the Target Building at the end of the first objective.
Trench Broom requirements and reward
The in-game description reads: “In ‘Entrenched’, kill 15 enemies with a shotgun before securing the Target Building.” Some walkthroughs list the count as 50. The achievement text and the unlock both confirm that the threshold is 15 kills.
Detail
Value
Mission
Entrenched (mission 14)
Kill requirement
15 enemies with a shotgun
Deadline
Before securing the Target Building
Difficulty
Any (Recruit recommended)
Xbox reward
50 Gamerscore
PlayStation reward
Silver trophy
Mode
Single-player campaign
The Target Building is the relay station that the trenches lead to. You can recognize it by the radio tower on top. Every kill you need happens in the trench network on the way there. The later parts of the mission, including the vehicle section and the power plant, don’t count toward the achievement.
Start “Entrenched” on Recruit difficulty. You can play it as part of the campaign or pick it from Chapter Select. Recruit isn’t required, but it reduces how much damage you take while you fight at close range.
Swap from your assault rifle to your secondary weapon as soon as you can move. Your secondary is the Revi 12 shotgun. The game doesn’t equip it for you, so any kills you get with the rifle are wasted.
Sprint up the snowy hill behind your squad and drop into the enemy trench line. North Korean soldiers start firing almost immediately. Clear the machine-gun bunker directly ahead with the shotgun.
Reload every time there is a pause in the fighting. The shotgun loads shells one at a time, and running dry next to a soldier is the fastest way to lose a kill or die. The bunker has a checkpoint, ammo, and armor plates, so restock there before you move on.
Follow the trench mostly along its left side and shoot enemies as they come around corners. Use your armor plates whenever your health drops. Some soldiers fire from ground level above the trench, so check the edges as well as the path ahead.
Go under the burning fallen log and survive the scripted knife attack. Mash the prompted button until Dunn shoots the attacker off you. This event is part of the mission and happens no matter what you do.
Keep pushing through the next trench bends, the sandbagged junction, and the final wooden bunker. Use the shotgun on every soldier until you reach 15 kills. There are far more than 15 enemies in this stretch, so you have room for a few misses.
Leave a buffer. Don’t run to the relay station once you think you’ve reached 15. Keep using the shotgun until you see the unlock notification.
Confirming the Trench Broom unlock
The achievement unlocks during the mission, as soon as you get your 15th shotgun kill. You don’t have to finish “Entrenched” first. On Xbox, a system banner shows “MW4 · Trench broom” with the 50 Gamerscore value. On PlayStation, you get a standard “Trophy earned!” notification for Trench Broom. It usually appears somewhere in the later trench bends or the final bunker before the Target Building.
If you secure the Target Building without seeing the banner, the attempt is over for that run. Open Chapter Select, load “Entrenched” again, and repeat the trench push with the shotgun equipped. Your other campaign progress isn’t affected, and the whole attempt takes only a few minutes from the start of the mission.
