What changed on October 20
Until October 20 only the campaign was playable early. The mode that opened today is DMZ itself: the extraction shooter on the Hajin exclusion zone, with its own 70-level progression, Forward Operating Base and crafting. Activision's timing has not moved since the October 9 FOB deep dive and the earlier announcement: 10 AM PT on October 20, with the full game still on October 23.
Start time in your region
The switch is global, so every region opens at the same moment. UK and EU clocks are still on summer time on October 20.
| Region | Local start |
|---|---|
| Los Angeles (PT) | 10 AM, October 20 |
| New York (ET) | 1 PM, October 20 |
| London (BST) | 6 PM, October 20 |
| Paris / Berlin (CEST) | 7 PM, October 20 |
| Dubai (GST) | 9 PM, October 20 |
| Beijing / Shanghai (CST) | 1 AM, October 21 |
| Seoul / Tokyo | 2 AM, October 21 |
| Sydney (AEDT) | 3 AM, October 21 |
Do these first in the FOB
Activision's guide lists the stations in the order it wants you to visit them. The first four are open from the start; the printer is not.
- Operators station — pick an active-duty Operator, check status and traits before deploying.
- Orders station — the mission board that teaches the mode and pushes the DMZ story forward.
- Stash / Loadouts — dump loot after every extraction; gear left in the stash is what you take into the next deployment.
- Firing range — targets from close range to beyond 100 m, useful for sighting optics before you drop in.
- 3D Printer — unlocks at DMZ level 2 and is how you craft gear from printer resources and scrap.
- Boss board, Vendor and Gunsmith — hunt bounties on lieutenants and commanders, buy supplies, and attach blueprints you extract with.
How DMZ progression differs from Multiplayer
DMZ levels 1-70 unlock FOB stations, station upgrades, printer recipes, Operator skins, consumables, Survival Kits and Fire Support. DMZ XP also feeds the standard 1-55 player level, but the reverse is not true: Multiplayer and Warzone XP do not advance the DMZ track. Multiplayer and Warzone also get the new Classic vs Regular Prestige choice at Level 55, which is a separate system from the DMZ track.
What carries over to October 23
- XP and Weapon XP carry into your MW4 career, including campaign Early Access rewards once they become usable at launch.
- Campaign rewards — all 16 unlocks (8 Operators, calling card, loading screen, emblem, XP tokens) are waiting for you in DMZ and Multiplayer at launch, not during Early Access.
- Access ends at launch, progress does not — after October 23 everyone with the full game can play DMZ without a pre-order.
If you cannot get in
Check three things in order: the game is the digital edition tied to the account you pre-ordered with, the required October 19 update has finished installing, and your platform store shows the pre-order as purchased rather than pending. If the download is still going, the mode will not appear. Activision has not published a maintenance window, so a missing playlist is more often an unfinished update than an outage.