Call Of Duty 4: My Gold Cross

Anyone who plays Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare multiplayer will be familiar with the coveted Gold Cross.

In the multiplayer game there are 55 ranks, after which you can give up some of your achievements and unlocked weapons to return to the lowest rank. Each time you do this, you get a new prestige medal, the tenth and highest of which is the gold cross, based upon the Navy medal shown above.

Well I got my gold cross this week. All it cost me was hours of my life, and killing over 45,000 people.

But I decided to post my suggestions for leveling up to the Gold Cross as quickly as possible. These are just my opinions, and I'm sure there are better ways of doing things out there. I personally like to play mainly mercenary team deathmatches, although I've heard arguments that there are faster ways to level up.

• During ranks 1-4 the goal is to pick one of the available weapons (MP5, M16 or SAW), and just kill away. Use whatever weapon works for you (or any weapon you find). Your goal should be to kill as many people as you can. It shouldn't take very much effort to get these early promotions.
• At rank 5, you get to create a class, so you now have access to a few more weapons. Again it doesn't really matter what you choose. Just pick something you feel comfortable with and kill.
• Pay special attention to the barracks. Once this opens up you will start earning eXPerience points for certain achievements. Specifically one of the easiest ways to earn XP is to simply shoot 150 people with each weapon. I'm talking only SMG, LMG, and Assault weapons. Shotguns and sniper rifles have different rules, and I'm not much of a sniper, or shotgun player. Although when I do snipe I like the M21.
  
• Since you are aiming to level up to Gold Cross, there is little point in worrying about 'expert' ratings on weapons (head shots). Unless you are an amazing shot, the goal is to really just kill people thus leveling up your marksman stats. 150 kills earns you 1,500 XP points, but by killing that many people with the same gun you will also get 1,600 XP along the way too. The biggest award being 1,000 XP when you hit 150 kills.
• In the early levels I recommend use of stun grenades, stopping power, and extreme conditioning. These are the perks I like to use. Extreme conditioning lets you run around very fast for a long time, which fits with my default style of play. I think stopping power is a must for all classes, pretty much all the time. There is nothing more annoying than spraying someone with a machine gun, and they just turn around and kill you before you can kill them.
• As soon as you get marksman III on a weapon, move to another. Just pick the easy weapons like the LMGs, SMGs, AK47, M16, G36c, and M4. For now, don't worry about head shots. The goal is to get as many promotions as you can as quickly as possible.
• When you reach level 17, Martyrdom becomes available, I have this on every class. Yes I've heard it's a noob thing, but I don't give a shit. It is a great way of picking up extra kills, and quite a few barracks achievements (like car bomb, dominoes, grenade kill etc.)
  
• Speaking of noobs, don't use a noob tube (AKA a rifle mounted grenade launcher). You are getting points for marksman on your guns, noob tubes don't get you anything except the kill.
  
• At level 41, I switch out my special grenades for three frags. This can get you a lot of kills and be a real pain in the ass for enemies on fairly open maps like Countdown and Waterworks. My record in COD4 on Countdown is 41 confirmed kills and one assist, using a combination of an M16 with a red dot sight and frags.
• Speaking of red dot sights, I think these are a must have unless you are an exceptional aimer. I'm no fan of the ACOG. Although on some weapons like the RPD, I'll maybe take a grip.
  
• Keep an eye on what challenges are available in the barracks. Many of them will take care of themselves, but there are some that need special attention. Things like Misery Loves Company and Goodbye are ones that require some thought. If you get a chance, always complete as many of these challenges as you can, but don't get too obsessed with them, you are going to lose them each time you go prestige.
• There is a challenge for using a silencer which is worth a few points. If you are okay with a silenced weapon it's worth switching to a silenced weapon for a little while to get all the points from this.
• Just in case you didn't realize, you can hold two weapons. You don't have to lose your primary weapon when you pick up a new weapon. If you switch to your pistol and THEN pick up a weapon, you will now have two nice weapons. If I have time, I will always switch out the pistol if I want to pick up another weapon.
• Speaking of other weapons, keep in mind that if you pick up a weapon that you have yet to unlock you will not be working towards a marksman or expert rating in that weapon, so it is largely pointless because you are giving up XP.
• As new weapons like the P90 become available I go back to my stratergy of just going for 150 straight kills with them. While tiger stripes are cool, it can take too long to get them. And once you hit 150 kills, spending more time with that weapon to earn your tiger stripes is depriving you of marksman points for another weapon, thus potentially slowing your promotions.
  
• Once I have achieved marksman III in every weapon I like, I return to my favorite weapons and use them until I go prestige. This will usually get me at least a couple of red tigers along the way before Commander.
• I like to 'cheat' when it comes to survival challenges right near the end (level 54). I'll create a class with a silenced weapon like P90 or AK47. I'll give it UAV jammer, some claymores, and dead silence. When the Bloc level comes up, or maybe Downpour, I'll sneak off to a quiet corner and hide behind some claymores. 5 minutes later you get 250 XP for Survivalist and at the end you'll get 250 more XP for Flawless. On Downpour I'll hide in or behind a barn. On Block, I'll hide in the swimming pool.

And that's about it. Stick to that game plan and level 55 will come up pretty quick. As soon as you unlock presige mode, just do it. There is no sense in wasting kills that could be used to level up on the next level.

Once you get a Gold Cross, that's when you can start concentrating on the gold guns. I used to have a gold LMG back before I ever went prestige. It got me a 21 kill streak on Creek. But as I once read on a forum, gold guns are for retirement. If you plan on working your way up to Gold Cross it seems largly pointless to put in the kind of effort needed to get them (Expert III on all weapons in that class).

That's about all I have. You'll find me on the PS3 version playing as ZCT808.