Call of Duty MW4: Safety’s On Achievement & Trophy Guide (Out in the Cold)

Safety’s On is earned in Out in the Cold, the second campaign mission in Modern Warfare 4, by completing its kitchen fight without using a gun. Playing as John Price in New York, you’ll reach a commercial kitchen occupied by five armed men in suits. Take down all five without firing a round on Hardened or above to unlock it. On Xbox, it’s a rare 50 Gamerscore achievement earned by about 0.01 percent of players; on PlayStation, it’s a Gold trophy.

Quick answer: Before you enter the kitchen, change the difficulty to Hardened. Disarm each of the five guards by hitting them with a glass bottle, then use melee to finish them off. Don’t fire your weapon.

Safety’s On unlock conditions

Mission: Out in the Cold, mission 2 of the campaign, set in New York, USA.
Difficulty: Hardened or higher for the kitchen encounter. Veteran, Realism, and YOLO qualify too.
Targets: the kitchen’s five enemies, all of them.
Restriction: fire no shots. You may use bottles, punches, and takedowns.
Reward: 50 Gamerscore on Xbox, a Gold trophy on PlayStation.

Only the kitchen fight has a difficulty requirement. Play the earlier mission sections on Recruit if you want, then raise the setting in the pause menu just before the fight. There’s no need to carry bottles over from earlier: the kitchen shelves and counters have plenty.

Set up Hardened and a kitchen checkpoint

Get set before you enter the kitchen. Choose the required difficulty and reach the checkpoint just outside the room; if an attempt goes wrong, you can reload quickly rather than replaying the entire level.

Open the campaign’s mission select and pick mission 2, Out in the Cold. Start the mission from there if you’ve already finished it once.

Continue beyond the forest until you come to a hallway containing a vending machine. Deal with the guard who jumps out near it before moving on.

Pause the game, select CHANGE DIFFICULTY, and choose HARDENED or a higher setting. Beneath the mission name, the pause screen should display “DIFFICULTY: HARDENED” (or the higher difficulty you selected).

Approach the kitchen’s double doors, but leave them closed. Reaching them sets an automatic checkpoint, letting you restart each attempt outside the room with the required difficulty active.

Firing your weapon even once invalidates the attempt, including an accidental shot. If you do fire, use LAST CHECKPOINT in the pause menu to restart the room. You have unlimited reloads.

How bottles, punches, and takedowns work here

The guards open fire as soon as the doors swing wide. On Hardened, charging them bare-handed through the gunfire is usually fatal. Toss a BOTTLE to disarm a guard; he’ll rush you for a hand-to-hand fight. Use that chance to land a few punches or activate the TAKEDOWN prompt.

Bottles are picked up with the on-screen PICK UP prompt (X on an Xbox controller). The takedown sits on RS with the default Xbox layout and on B with the Tactical preset. Whichever layout you use, the button appears on screen when a disarmed guard is close enough.

Get to your feet before a disarmed guard reaches you. Staying crouched or going prone lets him stomp you, killing you instantly.
Crouch behind the stainless steel counters and shelving between throws to break line of sight and let your health fully regenerate.
Wait for the nearest guard to finish his burst of fire before stepping out to throw.
When two guards stand close together, you can punch them instead of fetching another bottle.

Bottles aren’t strictly required, and some players brawl through the room with fists alone. Disarming each guard first just makes the fight far more predictable, which is why the route below leans on them.

Kitchen route for all five guards

Two bottles sit just inside the entrance, and more are spread along the counters on the right side and toward the back. Each guard has a nearby bottle to match.

Guard	Position	Bottle source
1	Right side, closest	Wire shelf by the entrance
2	Right side, further in	Wire shelf by the entrance
3	Left, behind a refrigerator door	Counter by the appliances
4	Pushes toward your cover	Right-side stove counter
5	Rear prep area	Prep counter at the back

Go through the double doors and collect the two glass bottles on the wire shelf immediately in front of you. Pick them up before taking any other action.

Stay crouched behind the metal shelving unit as bullets fly. Lean out and lob a bottle at the nearest guard on your right, knocking his weapon away.

Stand up before he reaches you, hit him a few times, and finish with the takedown. Then drop back into cover and let your health recover.

Entering the Kitchen & First Takedown — The first guard goes down to a takedown once the bottle knocks his gun loose. Shown at 00:26 in Perfect Score’s video. Image: Infinity Ward

Send your second bottle toward the next guard on the right. When he closes in, use punches to knock him down.

Second Takedown — A disarmed guard charges in for a fistfight, so be on your feet when he arrives. Shown at 00:49 in Perfect Score’s video. Image: Infinity Ward

Pick up a third bottle from the counter beside the kitchen appliances. Stay behind cover as you work toward the left side of the room.

On the left, locate the guard sheltering behind a stainless steel refrigerator door. Disarm him with the bottle, then defeat him in melee.

Grab another bottle from the stove counter on the right. Hold your position behind cover while the fourth guard advances toward you.

Once he’s within throwing range, hit him with the bottle and take him down when he’s unarmed. If he and another guard end up bunched together near the back prep counter, punching both is a valid shortcut.

Third & Fourth Takedowns — Guards standing close together near the prep counter can be handled with straight punches. Shown at 01:19 in Perfect Score’s video. Image: Infinity Ward

Go to the rear prep area and collect the final bottle from the prep counter. Throw it at the fifth guard, then finish him with another melee takedown.

On Hardened, the last guard near the refrigerators and exit door is fairly passive. You can approach and punch him down with little risk.

Confirming the Safety’s On unlock

The achievement unlocks when the fifth guard falls, with you still in the kitchen. Xbox shows a “Rare Achievement unlocked” notice that reads “MW4 – Safety’s On” and displays the 50 Gamerscore value. At that same moment, PlayStation shows a “Safety’s On” trophy notification.

Final Takedown & Achievement Unlock — Safety's On unlocks as soon as the last kitchen guard drops. Shown at 01:33 in Perfect Score’s video. Image: Infinity Ward

If no notification appears after the final takedown, remain in the room. Return to the latest checkpoint and clear the kitchen again, verifying that the pause menu says Hardened or higher and that you never fire your gun. After it unlocks, you can lower the difficulty to any setting for the remainder of Out in the Cold.