Surviving Call of Duty MW2 Dark Water Mission without drowning – A complete guide

The Dark Water mission is the 12th mission in the Call of Duty MW2 campaign. The mission is relatively short, but has a whopping 3 available achievements to get throughout the mission. Story wise, this is the second location of the missing missiles that have been stolen by Hassan. Soap, Ghost, Shadow Company and the rest of the 141 Taskforce are tasked with stopping the missile with whatever means.

Post cutscene, you'll start MW2's Dark Water mission by boarding the Oil Rig. The level doesn't get too intense until later, so clearing out the rig isn't too tough. As you move through the lower levels of the Rig, Graves orders you to clear out a back room. There are 2 parts to the shed looking room, and the first of which is empty. However, the surprise is in the back half of the room, as there's another door with 2 enemies. The first will barge open the door, and the second will hide and try to catch you by surprise.

On your way up to the higher level of the oil rig, you'll be able to easily grab an achievement. Once you've headed up the staircase, you'll come across 2 porta-potties. To get MW2's achievement to "kill the enemy in the porta-potty", all you have to do is aim down and pull the trigger during the Dark Water mission. The enemy is always in the left porta-potty, so need to play the guessing game. Just make sure to get the shot in before Alejandro takes it as he passes by.

As you move through the enemy filled room past the porta-potties, you'll come across the main deck of the Oil Rig. This is where enemies will start to spawn and you'll find yourself in the first gun fight of the Dark Water mission. The most troublesome part of the gunfight is the 2 snipers that prone at the top of the Rig. If you don't take them out early, they'll be sure to pose a problem.

Once you've moved up, more enemies will come out of the building and move towards the right side of the boat. Despite their high numbers, the Dark Water mission creators left a pretty easy out. There are 3 sets of explosive barrels that all the enemies take cover behind. So, instead of fighting tooth and nail against them, just shoot the barrels.

In the Dark Water mission brief, it should be getting around the time where Ghost and his team have secured the boat as you are starting up the final push to the missile. You'll need to push up to the helipad, where the missile is beginning its launching sequence. The final building of the oil rig is tight and has hostiles around corners waiting for you. However, just like Kill or Capture mission, take it slow and steady. Although the story tries to add some time sensitivity, there really isn't.

As you head up to the entrance of the main building of the oil rig, you'll have a opportunity to get the Daredevil achievement. The achievement requires you to kill two or more enemies while affected by a flashbang. Conveniently, you are equipped with a flashbang, and the enemies don't suspect your flank. So, flashbang yourself before your entry, and the enemies are all line up for you to mow down.

Then, it's a simple matter of making it to the top of the boat to interact with the missile. Unfortunately, the Dark Water mission isn't that easy. Turns out the missile controls are on board the patrolling cargo ship, not on the missile itself. So you'll need to make quite the entrance to meet back up with ghost.

As Soap, the player character, and Graves board the ship in quite the chaotic way, you'll need to push through to get to the missile controls. The mission takes a creative direction with the boat heading through some rough waters. So the cargo moves in cycles around the deck floor while you have to fight hostiles.

Although you could head through the normal way, using the cargo as cover there is a achievement to be acquired. The "Don't touch the deck!" achievement requires the player to move 90 meters towards the front of the ship without touching the deck in the Dark Water mission. So, you'll need to strap on your parkour boots for this one. Thankfully, Graves and his excellent boat driving skills parked the boat right beside a cargo crate when you board the ship.

Like with the oil rig, there isn't a time limit despite how the mission likes to make everything sound urgent. Additionally, despite the cargo seemingly moving at random with the tides of the ocean, they are all on cycles. So, take things slowly, there is no rush. And, even if you do end up touching the deck, you can always return to the last checkpoint to try again. The most difficult part is surviving the hostiles, as you are climbing over the cover rather than using it. Enemies come in small waves from the little side buildings around each checkpoint. There's also a sniper who has the high ground that can put some damage in, but he, like his comrades, they doesn't have good cover.

Once you've pushed to the end of the containers and cargo, you'll be surprised as to why you haven't got the achievement yet. The distance seems to check out, but not really. See, you'll have to do just a little more parkour to get the third achievement in the Dark Water mission. The 90 meter mark is past the last container. So, you'll need to climb onto the far left container, and then climb onto the rails. A simple press of the jump key gets you on top of the rails, just be careful not to fall off with the sway of the ship. Then, you'll need to walk along the rail and near the vent tube, you jump towards the front of the ship. Once landed, you'll be able to get the achievement.

Once you've made it past the cargo section of the Dark Water mission, you need to breach the control room. Like with the previous section of the mission where you infiltrated the building in the oil rig, the same rules apply: slow and steady. Grenades also work exceptionally well in these tight corners. Once you've made it to the control room, the missile is too far into its launch sequence. So, you need to change the target away from New Orleans. To do this, you'll need to play a little code game.

The code input is pretty self explanatory, as Graves gives instructions on each step. There are 8 controls on the console, but you only need 3 for the Dark Water mission. The first step is to press the "CLR" and the "MODE" buttons at the same time. Then, Graves needs the last digit in column one and row 2. This will be "C" each time, so no need to worry.

Then comes the last step of just confirming the location change, where you need to press the "EXE" button. The order or subject of the codes never change, so despite the pressure of the mission, there really isn't any. Once the target change is confirmed, you are treated to quite the explosion in the final cutscene of the Dark Water mission.

For the full mission details, you can take a look at the Call of Duty MW2 wiki here. For more Call of Duty content, including multiplayer weapon guides, stay tuned and check out Esports.gg!