Gaming Guide

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 DMZ: How to Beat the Deathstalker Commander

A captured SAM site downs the Deathstalker with one missile; the wreck holds a Drone Motherboard, and the kill claims a $50,000 Boss Board bounty.

A captured SAM site downs the Deathstalker with one missile; the wreck holds a Drone Motherboard, and the kill claims a $50,000 Boss Board bounty.

Image: Infinity Ward

The Deathstalker is one of three DMZ Commanders in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s DMZ mode. It’s an attack helicopter that roams across Hajin instead of guarding a single building. You can fight it with rifles, but there’s an easier option. Pull it over a SAM site, capture the site, and the launcher shoots it down.


Deathstalker SAM site trick, step by step

This is the quickest way to kill the Deathstalker. You don’t have to hit the helicopter much at all. Your job is to hold the launcher while the helicopter stays close.

Open the tac map and find the DEATHSTALKER icon. Ping it so you can track where it’s heading.
On the same map, locate the closest SAM site and ping it as well. Capture SAM Site then appears as a side op under SIDE-OPS.
Locations of interest panel showing Compound, Bounty Station, SAM Site and Lieutenant Hunt icons
The SAM Site appears with the Compound, Bounty Station and Lieutenant Hunt on the locations of interest panel. Image: Activision
Head to the SAM site and stay in cover so the Deathstalker follows you. The SAM site at NuriGO West (MEDIUM threat) works for this.
Clear out any soldiers around the launcher. If they’re left alive, they can push you out of the capture area.
Occupy the launcher’s capture zone; while you remain there, the CAPTURE TIME bar advances. Filling it takes a little over 30 seconds.
Keep the helicopter within range as the bar fills. If it moves out of range, hit it with a few shots to draw it back above the site.
Wait for the capture meter to finish. The notice “SIDE OP COMPLETE / CAPTURE SAM SITE” appears, prompting the launcher to fire at once and bring down the Deathstalker with one missile.
Head to the wreck where it came down in the street, then search it for loot.

The Deathstalker makes high circles over streets and rooftops. Between passes, take shelter beneath roofs, in doorways, or under railings; avoid reloading or applying plates out in the open.


Shooting the Deathstalker down with guns

If no SAM site is nearby, steady gunfire will still finish the job. Aim at the cockpit and hull.

  • Assault rifle: Track its movement through the open sky, maintaining continuous bursts until it comes apart. By NuriGO Mall on Expressway No. 1, taking it down takes far less than a minute, and the wreck lands in the grass beside the road.
  • Scoped sniper rifle: This approach is quicker. From the DBN Headquarters helipad, sustained shots into the cockpit and hull bring it down in about 25 seconds.
  • LMG from a rooftop: Get on a flat roof with a waist-high ledge, aim up over the ledge until “BIPOD MOUNT” shows, mount the LMG and fire long bursts into the helicopter as it circles. A Type 73 with armor-piercing ammunition and a 100-round box mag brings it down over a few passes. Between passes, duck into the roof’s stairwell door to reload, then step back out and mount again. The kill shows DESTROYED DEATHSTALKER COMMANDER / VEHICLE DESTROYED with 605 XP.

When the helicopter goes down, the banner DESTROYED DEATHSTALKER COMMANDER appears.


Where the Deathstalker flies in Hajin

The Deathstalker doesn’t stay in one place. As you get close, a COMMANDER / DEATHSTALKER banner appears with the current area name below it. It has been found over these areas:

AreaThreat levelDetail
The GridCRITICALOpen airspace over the area
NuriGO WestMEDIUMHas a usable SAM site
Compound Delta / NuriGO Mall—Along Expressway No. 1
DBN HeadquartersEXTREMERooftop helipad and broadcast tower
Cheongun VillageLOWOver the village rooftops and streets

During Operation Grid Assault, the Deathstalker attacks the helipad at DBN Headquarters. Outside that mission, find it by its DEATHSTALKER icon on the tac map instead of searching a fixed location.


Deathstalker loot and the $50,000 Boss Board bounty

The wreck leaves several containers behind, all labeled HELICOPTER PIECE. Search each one for printer ingredients; a Printed Circuit Board is among the possible finds. The wreck can also hold a PROTOTYPE RF MODULE (LEGENDARY, 3D PRINTER, $3,500), listed for the Fulton Drop Marker and the Large Secure Backpack, and Volatile Explosives.

The wreck also holds the DRONE MOTHERBOARD, a mission item. Picking it up completes “Loot a Drone Motherboard from a Destroyed Drone” in the DMZ Order DEATH FROM ABOVE. That order also asks you to “Trick a Drone with a Decoy Grenade” and “Destroy 3 Drones”.

Destroying the helicopter also awards its bounty. At the FOB, open the BOSS BOARD and select the COMMANDERS tab: COLOSSUS, DEATH STALKER, and TANK each have a REWARD $50,000. After the kill, the DEATH STALKER card reads REWARD CLAIMED, confirming you received the bounty. Colossus and Tank are the board’s two other Commanders.

Boss Board infographic covering Lieutenants and Commanders, knowing your targets and heavy resistance
The Boss Board at the FOB tracks Lieutenants and Commanders as targets. Image: Activision