In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Bullet Train awards a Silver trophy and 50 gamerscore. It becomes available in the fourth campaign mission, Hired Gun, which unfolds almost entirely around rail yards. Finding train cars is straightforward; staying aboard for every fight is the challenge, especially with your AI squad racing to get the kills first. Only about 0.01 to 0.02 percent of players have unlocked it so far.
Quick answer: Set Hired Gun to Recruit, fight only from atop or within train cars, and reload the latest checkpoint if a group dies without increasing your tally.
Bullet Train requirement: Which kills count
The in-game description reads “Kill 50 enemies while standing on train cars in ‘Hired Gun’.” The game only checks where you are standing when an enemy dies. The enemy can be on the ground, on a catwalk, or anywhere else. If your feet are on a train car, the kill counts.
- Flatbed cars, roofless boxcars, and hopper cars loaded with coal or aggregate all qualify.
- Moving and stationary cars both work. Anything sitting on the rails qualifies.
- Kills made from the ground, crates, concrete walkways, or shipping containers do not count.
- Kills credited to Price, Valeria, or any of your other squadmates are excluded.
- Only kills inside Hired Gun count. Other missions add nothing.
There is no on-screen counter for this one, so keep a rough tally yourself as you play. The total number of enemies in the mission is limited, which is why speed and positioning matter more than accuracy.
Best difficulty for Bullet Train
Set the campaign to Recruit before starting Hired Gun. Train cars offer almost no cover, and you’ll spend most of the mission standing in the open. Recruit keeps you alive up there, and it also lets you drop enemies faster than your teammates can. Squad kill-stealing is the main reason runs come up short.
Playing on Regular is unpredictable. Some players unlock Bullet Train in one run, while others shoot at every enemy and still reach the final area short of 50. No other campaign achievement requires a difficulty above Recruit for this mission, so there’s no need to take that chance.
Hired Gun train car route and kill targets
Hired Gun offers four combat stretches where you can fight from train cars. Use the targets below to see whether your run is on pace.
| Area | Objective on screen | Where to stand | Target kills |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening trainyard | Find a way out of the trainyard | Flatbeds and boxcars | 20–30 total by the warehouse |
| Tracks outside the depot | Head towards the maintenance building | Multi-level train car | A handful |
| Maintenance warehouse | Get through the maintenance building | Raised coal hopper cars | 10–20 |
| Final turntable yard | Take down Graves’ helicopter | Open boxcars on the right | Whatever remains |
Opening trainyard
Move immediately when the mission begins. Get onto the flatbeds and cars straight ahead, then shoot across the tracks from there. Stay off the gravel instead of pursuing enemies on foot. Make your way through the yard by leaping between cars, eliminating foes on the perimeter and cross-platforms before your squad advances and takes them out.
Near the end of the first yard, a helicopter drops troops and more enemies appear on a high metal catwalk. Stand in a boxcar doorway and shoot them from there. The doorway keeps you on a train car with a clear line to the catwalk. After that, you cross rooftop shipping containers toward the maintenance depot. Kills on the containers don’t count, so just keep moving.
If you’re well under 20 kills by the containers, reload the last checkpoint before the next autosave and replay the yard.
Tracks outside the maintenance building
Just before the depot entrance, a multi-level train car sits on the tracks. Climb aboard and clear the high catwalk to your left, as well as the ground troops, including RPG gunners. An attack helicopter appears nearby, so don’t stay exposed for long. If you die, the checkpoint puts you back on the train car, letting you continue the fight from there. The game also notes that pipes marked with a pipe icon can be climbed.
Inside the maintenance warehouse
The warehouse is a major source of kills. Pick up grenades and armor plates before going in, then get onto the raised coal hopper cars as soon as you enter. Guards occupy the factory floor, side platforms, and upper catwalks, while the hoppers let you fire down on every area. You can expect roughly 10 to 20 kills here.
Final turntable yard
The mission ends in a circular rail yard where the goal is to bring down Graves’ helicopter with a launcher (the PILA). Leaving the warehouse, get into the open boxcar on your right. Waves of ground troops, riflemen, and snipers come at that spot, and rifle fire or a grenade launcher handles them. When the helicopter moves and its fire starts reaching you, switch to the next open boxcar and keep shooting.
Hold off on destroying the helicopter. Reinforcements keep arriving while it’s in the air, but they stop eventually, so this fight isn’t an endless farm.
The final yard probably won’t close a major gap in your tally. If you reach it with far fewer than 50 kills, return to an earlier checkpoint and add kills in the trainyard or warehouse.
Recover lost kills with Load Last Checkpoint
When teammates wipe out a group or you end up fighting from the ground, you can redo that encounter. You just have to act before the game saves over it.
If the autosave lands first, those enemies are gone for that run.
How to confirm Bullet Train unlocked
Your 50th qualifying train-car kill triggers Bullet Train immediately, before the mission is over. You don’t have to complete Hired Gun. A “Bullet Train” achievement or trophy alert appears onscreen, and the achievement shows as unlocked in your platform’s Modern Warfare 4 list. If the mission ends without an alert, you didn’t reach 50. Replay Hired Gun and spend more of each fight aboard the trains.
