Modern Warfare 4 Following Orders Mission Walkthrough (Lockbox Code 214)

Following Orders is the third mission in the Modern Warfare 4 campaign. Set in a misty North Korean village, it is brief and involves little combat. You control a North Korean soldier serving under Commander Ri Ju-Young. Your squad is searching for a defector who must be stopped before reaching the border. Most of your time goes to checking homes, reading notes, and choosing dialogue options; those decisions determine which villagers survive your visit.

Quick answer: Open the bedroom lockbox with code 214, ask the husband about the South Korean medicine, then hide the woman under the kitchen floor of the final house.

Following Orders objectives and reward

The mission runs through four objectives in a fixed order. None of them has a timer, so you can search each house at your own pace.

Order	Objective	Where it happens
1	Find information about the defector	First house
2	Regroup with Ko and Ri	Outside, then the house next door
3	Make sure all civilians are accounted for	Final village house
4	Assist with defector	Village courtyard

Finishing the mission earns a Double XP Token. The campaign is single-player only, with no co-op. You can play on Recruit, Regular, Hardened, or Veteran, and Realism and YOLO stay locked at the start.

First house: find information about the defector

After the opening scene of Ri’s soldiers marching into the village, you take control inside a civilian home. A married couple lives here, and the husband knows where the defector went. Your job is to find proof that gets him to talk.

Walk to the back room, where a frightened woman is hiding. Pick the dialogue option Run while you can to let her go.

Following Orders start — The mission opens inside the first house, where the wife is hiding in the back room. Shown at 00:45 in Syrekx’s video. Image: Infinity Ward

Join the soldiers in the living room, where they corner the husband near the television. Once they demand answers, the objective changes to Find information about the defector.

Search objective — This objective starts the search of the house for contraband and notes. Shown at 01:49 in Syrekx’s video. Image: Infinity Ward

Go to the kitchen and open the left cupboard. Check the ration stores and pick up the BAEKSEOLGI-TTEOK RECIPE note, which holds the lockbox code.

Go to the bedroom and open the wardrobe to find a red lockbox. Enter 214 on the three-digit lock.

Inspecting lockbox — The red lockbox in the bedroom wardrobe opens with the code 214. Shown at 02:39 in Syrekx’s video. Image: Infinity Ward

Take the South Korean heart medication and read NOTE FROM YOUR FRIEND from inside the box. That medication is the leverage you need for the next step.

Go back to the husband and choose Ask about South Korean medicine. He admits the defector is hiding in the house next door, which ends the first objective.

If you don’t want to look for the code, you can shoot the lockbox latch instead. You get the same medication and note either way.

Regroup with Ko and Ri: the house next door

Outside, Sergeant Ko tells Commander Ri where the defector is hiding. She orders the squad to bring him out alive, and the soldiers break into the neighboring house.

Entering abandoned house — The abandoned house next door is where the defector is hiding. Shown at 05:13 in Syrekx’s video. Image: Infinity Ward

Search the rooms until you reach the bathroom. Blood in the sink shows the defector came through recently. Keep moving after that. The defector drops from the ceiling with a knife and attacks you, then Sergeant Ko tackles him. This is a scripted moment, so you don’t need to fight back to survive it.

Defector ambush — The defector ambushes you from the ceiling just before Sergeant Ko pins him. Shown at 05:43 in Syrekx’s video. Image: Infinity Ward

The squad drags the defector out to the village courtyard. Ri then sends you to search the last house, which starts the third objective.

Defector captured — With the defector captured, Commander Ri orders a search of the final house. Shown at 06:46 in Syrekx’s video. Image: Infinity Ward

Make sure all civilians are accounted for: the kitchen floor hatch

The last civilian in the village is hidden under the kitchen floor of the final house. You need a key to reach her.

Break into the final house and clear the hallway and bedrooms, checking closets and furniture as you go.

In the back bedroom, open the shelf cabinet and pick up the spare key.

Go to the tiled kitchen and use the key on the locked hatch in the floor. A woman is hiding in the cellar below.

Press [R] HIDE WOMAN to shut the hatch and keep her hidden. Then leave the house and rejoin the squad in the courtyard, where the villagers are being held.

Assist with defector: refuse or execute

The last objective takes place at a makeshift gallows. Soldiers stand the defector on a wooden stool with a noose around his neck and hand you the rope. You can carry out the execution or press [Q] TO REFUSE.

If you refuse and speak up, Commander Ri pulls her pistol and kills your character. She then commands her troops to kill all the villagers and set the village on fire, while Sergeant Ko orders his squad to start shooting. The mission ends at that point.

Following Orders trophies and achievements

Two Silver trophies are associated with this mission. Both appear in a trophy-list leak from the PlayStation database dated October 2026, but Activision has not confirmed either trophy.

No Stone Unturned: In Following Orders, seize every piece of contraband and read every note.
No Harm Done: Locate the defector in Following Orders while leaving civilians unharmed.

For No Stone Unturned, search every cupboard, wardrobe, and cabinet before you move to the next objective. The kitchen ration stores, the BAEKSEOLGI-TTEOK RECIPE note, and NOTE FROM YOUR FRIEND in the lockbox are all in the first house. For No Harm Done, keep your gun down around the villagers, let the wife run, and use the medicine question to get the husband talking. You’ll know the defector’s trail is cleared when the objective switches to Regroup with Ko and Ri, and you’ll know the mission is complete when the Double XP Token reward appears.