The second campaign mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Out in the Cold, closes with Captain John Price pursuing Makarov across New York rooftops before trapping him in a snow-covered alley and fighting him hand to hand. On Normal, you can simply fight through the encounter. Can’t Touch This sets a tougher condition: finish the whole alley fight on Veteran or above without taking even one hit from Makarov. The PlayStation Gold trophy is worth 50 Gamerscore on Xbox, and its unlock rate was listed at 0.01 percent.
Quick answer: Set the difficulty to Veteran before the alley checkpoint, parry every Makarov strike, counter with one or two hits, and reload the last checkpoint the instant the screen flashes red.
Can’t Touch This unlock conditions
The in-game description reads “Defeat Makarov on Veteran difficulty or higher without getting hit in the alley.” Here is what that covers in practice.
- Mission: Out in the Cold (mission 2, New York, USA), final alley segment only.
- Difficulty: Veteran or higher. Realism also qualifies.
- Damage: zero hits across the opening knife sequence and the full fist fight.
- Blocked strikes are safe and do not count as hits.
- Hits taken during cutscenes do not count against you.
- You can reload the checkpoint as many times as you need without invalidating the attempt.
You’ll know if you’ve been struck: the display flashes red with a hit marker when Makarov lands a blow, and Realism shows that same red indicator. Treat any red flash as a failed attempt and reload right away.
Switching to Veteran before the alley checkpoint
You don’t need to suffer through the whole mission on Veteran. The nightclub section and the rooftop chase can be played on Recruit. Before Price drops into the alley, open the pause menu, pick Change Difficulty and select Veteran. As long as the switch happens before the checkpoint where Price enters the alley, the run counts.
If you’re replaying from the campaign menu instead, choose mission 2 Out in the Cold from Mission Select and set Difficulty to Veteran there. The game allows difficulty changes at any time.
Makarov fight controls on PlayStation and Xbox
The alley fight follows the melee rules used in Out in the Cold’s earlier bouncer encounters. The mechanics stay the same, though you have less time to react.
| Action | PlayStation | Xbox | When to press |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block / parry | L2 | LT | Just before a strike lands |
| Attack / counter | R2 | RT | Right after a parry |
| Takedown | Melee button | Melee button | When the prompt appears |
Your dedicated melee input performs the takedown, and its button varies with your controller layout. For instance, Tactical maps it to B. The on-screen TAKEDOWN prompt identifies the right input. One common slip is using the wrong button to counter; after a parry, press your attack trigger.
Clearing the knife sequence without a hit
The encounter opens with Makarov swinging a knife at Price against the metal shutters. This part is a quick-time event, and a hit here fails the achievement just like one in the fist fight. Time slows for the first two strikes; after that you’re on your own.
With his weapon gone, Makarov knocks Price back into the alley’s open section, where the unstructured fistfight begins.
Winning the alley fist fight with zero damage
Parry first, then counter briefly
The whole fight runs on one rhythm. Let Makarov throw first, tap block just before the strike lands, then punish with a short counter. Plan on roughly 10 clean parry-and-counter exchanges over the full encounter.
Getting greedy ends most attempts. String too many punches together and Makarov raises his guard, blocks the combo and leaves you open to a strike you can’t parry in time. Keep each counter to one or two hits. If he blocks a punch, stop swinging and return to defense.
Don’t just hold block through his faster combos. A held block keeps the run alive, but only a timed parry opens the counter window that moves the fight forward.
Takedowns and the midpoint checkpoint
After enough counters, roughly three solid hits, the TAKEDOWN prompt appears over Makarov. Press your melee button to slam him. If the prompt doesn’t show up, go back to blocking and repeat the parry-counter cycle until it does.
During the fight, one takedown starts a brief cutscene: Price holds Makarov down in the snow, and an automatic checkpoint is recorded. It’s a useful save point, since taking a hit afterward returns you to the fight’s midpoint instead of the alley’s beginning.
Final phase and beatdown
As the cutscene ends, Makarov charges almost at once. Be ready to parry as soon as Price stands. Continue with the same sequence—parry, land one or two counters, then retreat to make room. Keep doing this until the last takedown prompt shows up. Price forces Makarov to the ground; during the cinematic beating, press the attack prompt repeatedly.
Reloading the last checkpoint after a hit
Don’t keep fighting once you’ve been hit. The attempt can’t recover, and pressing on only wastes time.
You may make as many attempts as necessary. The requirement is a hit-free run starting at the loaded checkpoint, with the difficulty set to Veteran or higher.
How to confirm Can’t Touch This unlocked
There’s no need to reach the mission results screen: the unlock appears during the alley fight’s ending cutscene, just after the final beating. A regular PlayStation trophy or Xbox achievement alert shows in a screen corner. The Xbox alert says “MW4 – Can’t touch this” and awards 50 Gamerscore.
No alert after the cutscene? Open the pause menu to verify the difficulty, then reload the alley checkpoint and try again on Veteran. Completing Out in the Cold grants the No More Rules calling card regardless of whether the achievement appeared.
