MW4 DMZ: Breaking New Ground Walkthrough (First Mission)

Breaking New Ground is the scripted onboarding mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 DMZ. It plays the first time you launch DMZ and is separate from the six DMZ story missions in the Story Missions menu. You drop into Hajin with Rex, a military working dog, and follow a trail that runs from a crashed drone, through the village of Deadtown, and into a Re-education facility. The mission ends in a way that can look like a failure, but it is supposed to end like that.

Quick answer: Clear the 14 HUD objectives in order, upload the black box with [F] BEGIN THE UPLOAD, then head for exfil. A scripted ambush ends the mission there, and you recruit an operator next.

How Breaking New Ground starts

There is no mission menu to choose from. The first time you select DMZ, you begin aboard a transport plane; jump once the light turns green. On the screen’s left, below “MISSION: BREAKING NEW GROUND”, the objective text appears, while a yellow marker indicates your next destination.

You carry a rifle and a suppressed Sang 9mm sidearm.
A countdown timer appears in the HUD’s upper-left corner.
The key prompts below are the PC prompts.

Breaking New Ground objectives, in HUD order

The mission covers three areas. Objective names appear in bold below, written the way the HUD shows them.

North Korean Wilderness: the drone crash

Follow Rex. Once you land in the North Korean Wilderness, stay behind the dog until you reach the crashed drone.

Clear the Area. Kill the enemy near the wreck before you go near the drone.

Search Drone. Press [F] OPEN HATCH to open the drone. The black box is gone; afterward, your tablet plots a course to the nearby village.

Use a Tourniquet. An ambush knocks you down. Hold the “Sacrifice Health to Revive” prompt to get back on your feet.

Move Rex To Safety. Rex is hurt in the ambush. Carry him away from the open riverbank and into cover.

Deadtown: medkit and scouting

Head into the Village and Look for Medical. Walk into Deadtown.

Find and Use a Medkit. Open the green MEDICAL BAG in a house, then use the medkit. Its description reads “Repairs your wound restoring max health”. The bag’s message also directs you to locate a bandage for a temporary wound patch.

Medical bag in Deadtown — The medical bag in Deadtown holds the medkit that clears the Find and Use a Medkit objective. Shown at 03:25 in TheGamingRevolution’s video. Image: Infinity Ward

Head Towards the Signal. Follow the marker through the village.

Find a Vantage Spot to Scout. Climb onto a rooftop and switch to the spotting view, which has zoom and thermal. Use it to check where the guards are before you move in.

Rooftop vantage spot to scout — The thermal spotting view from the rooftop shows where the guards stand before you head for the canal. Shown at 04:24 in TheGamingRevolution’s video. Image: Infinity Ward

Keep noise down in Deadtown. Taking the canal and using your suppressed pistol lets you avoid the patrols around the town square.

Re-education facility: canal entry and black box upload

Sneak into the Canal. Go down beneath the bridge into the canal to evade the guards.

Infiltrate the Re-education Facility. Follow the canal tunnel until it brings you into the facility.

Find the Drone Black Box. Proceed along the corridors, dealing with guards as they appear. Check the military lockers and bags in the hallways for loot.

Several guards hold the facility’s narrow corridors. Check each room before you push forward.

Access the Black Box. At the server room terminal, press [F] BEGIN THE UPLOAD and let the upload run to completion.

Access the black box terminal — The server room terminal is where you upload the black box data. Shown at 06:10 in TheGamingRevolution’s video. Image: Infinity Ward

Get to Exfil. Leave the way the marker points. A barricaded door blocks the path, so use the door breacher charge when “USE DOOR BREACHER CHARGE TO BREAKDOWN DOOR” appears.

How Breaking New Ground ends

Exfil is out of reach. A masked enemy springs an ambush in a cutscene at the top of a stairway, ending the mission. This encounter is scripted, so you have not failed; the game does not show a mission reward screen afterward.

A short briefing cinematic follows, which introduces the meltdown in Hajin and the new DMZ. Then the game shows “RECRUIT AN OPERATOR – YOU MUST RECRUIT AN OPERATOR TO ENTER THE DMZ”. Choose an operator from the SELECT OPERATOR screen, and you arrive at the FOB.

DMZ Orders page 1 after Breaking New Ground

When the first DMZ Orders page opens at the FOB, the onboarding is complete. Page 1 lists three orders.

Order	Task
01 GEAR UP	Equip a Weapon, a Backpack, an Armor Vest, and a Medkit from Your Stash
02 CRACKSHOT	Knock Down 3 Firing Range Targets
03 FIRST OP	Deploy to DMZ in Dynamic Ops

Finishing page 1 gives you a Medkit, a 2-Plate Armor Vest, and Cash.