MW4 perks and killstreaks: Launch guide

Modern Warfare 4 has 18 Multiplayer perks and 17 selectable killstreaks. The October 19 Create-a-Class article supplies unlock levels; the October 21 launch patch notes supersede its UAV kill requirement.

The game has shipped. Published effects and unlock levels can be recorded now, while damage, time-to-kill, recoil and effective-range measurements remain unavailable. Release status and measurement coverage are separate questions.

How are the perks organized?

Activision groups the 18 perks into three categories of six. The exact selectable perk-slot count is not published in the reference dataset; this page does not infer a slot count from the tier count.

Create-a-Class customization unlocks at Player Level 4. Before that, players choose from premade Default Loadouts rather than building a class. The playlists are listed on the multiplayer modes page.

The 18 perks

Perk 1 category

Six perks covering what you carry and how you recover. Overkill takes the place of your Secondary Weapon, so equip it if you plan to run another Primary Weapon — built through the Gunsmith and the MW4 weapons list.

• Quick Fix — Level 4. Killing players and capturing or holding objectives immediately triggers health regeneration.
• Overkill — Level 4. Carry two primary weapons.
• High Alert — Level 8. Vision pulses when spotted by an enemy player outside of view.
• Ghost — Level 24. Undetectable by Enemy Callouts, UAVs, Portable Radars, and Heartbeat Sensors.
• Resupply — Level 31. Equipment recharges over time and maximum capacity is increased by 1. Field Upgrade earn rate increased.
• Kill Chain — Level 48. Kills from Killstreaks and award half streak points.

Kill Chain’s sentence is reproduced exactly as printed. Half streak points is the only quantity it gives.

Perk 2 category

Six perks covering handling, pace and survivability. Blood Rush gates Tactical Sprint in multiplayer, as the gameplay mechanics page records.

• Hardline — Level 4. Reduce Killstreak cost by 1.
• Blood Rush — Level 4. Enables Tactical Sprint for a burst of speed. Kills replenish your stamina.
• Bomb Squad — Level 16. Take reduced damage from non-Killstreak explosives. Reset fuse timers when picking up live grenades. Immune to Knockdown.
• Fast Hands — Level 20. Reload, use equipment, and swap weapons faster.
• Ninja — Level 30. Your footsteps are quieter, with significantly reduced range.
• Birdseye — Level 40. Zoomed out minimap. UAV and Radar pings reveal the enemy’s direction.

Perk 3 category

Six perks covering reach, awareness and endurance. Lethal Reach also supplies the melee attack on a weapon butt — the post describes it as pressing the melee button.

• Lethal Reach — Level 4. Throw equipment farther with a visible trajectory. Automatically use your dedicated melee attack when you perform a weapon butt.
• Combat Grid — Level 4. Spot enemy Equipment, Field Upgrades, Killstreaks, and vehicles through walls. Friendly players are also highlighted.
• Battle Hardened — Level 12. Reduce the effect of enemy Tacticals.
• Scavenger — Level 28. Enemies drop a retrievable ammo cache on death. Launcher ammo is not included.
• Tracker — Level 32. Enemies leave behind a footprint trail and their Death markers become visible. Kill markers are hidden.
• Cold-Blooded — Level 36. Undetectable by AI Targeting Systems, Thermal Optics, Recon Drones, Spotter Scopes, Snapshot Grenades, and High Alert.

The 17 killstreaks

Killstreaks can be attached to individual loadouts. An unlock level is account progression, while a kill requirement is the in-match earning threshold. The October 19 requirements below are retained as dated reference values; the later patch notes say launch retains the Beta cost increase for all streaks, but explicitly quantify only UAV. Do not treat the older thresholds as a verified launch cost table.

UAV at launch

• UAV — Unlocks at Player Level 4; requires 5 kills, or 4 kills with Hardline. Launch health increased from 100 to 150. Source: launch patch notes.

The same notes rework Wheelson pathing and targeting to pursue targets more aggressively. This change is attributed to Wheelson, not UAV.

October 19 reference: 4-kill group

• Bomb Glider — Level 6. Hand-held glider with an explosive payload.
• Care Package — Level 9. Call in a random Killstreak care package to your location.
• Impact Warhead — Level 12. Explosive payload that drills through multiple floors.

October 19 reference: 6-kill group

• Artillery Beacon — Level 4. Call in heat seeking missiles that track the deployed beacon.
• Crossfire — Level 20. Call in dual airstrikes to annihilate enemies from both directions.
• Combat Drone — Level 26. Remote controlled anti-personnel drone.
• Counter UAV — Level 31. A drone that scrambles all enemy minimaps.

October 19 reference: 8-kill group

• Wheelson — Level 16. AI controlled vehicle that hunts down nearby targets or guards the area around the owner.
• Missile Salvo — Level 24. Aerial missile platform that fires lock on missiles.
• Railgun Sentry — Level 38. Electromagnetic cannon that fires tungsten flechette rounds at hypersonic velocity. Deployable as an autonomous sentry.

October 19 reference: 10-kill group

• Attack Helicopter — Level 4. Overwatch helicopter that provides overhead support and target tracking.
• Deathstalker — Level 35. Remote controlled helicopter with twin mounted turrets that overheat.
• Advanced UAV — Level 40. Orbital UAV that reveals the enemy’s direction on the minimap in real time. Immune to lock-on capabilities.
• Argonaut — Level 45. Equip heavy assault armor with a pump action cluster grenade launcher and burst fire sidearm.

Argonaut is the odd one out here — hardware rather than a summon.

October 19 reference: 12-kill group

• Gunship — Level 51. Heavy assault gunship equipped with 105mm, 40mm, and 25mm cannons.
• Air Lockdown — Level 55. Call in a series of bombing runs with additional anti-aerial coverage while active.

These are the highest unlock levels in this selectable killstreak list.

Earning killstreaks

Killstreaks are the heavy hitters, earned in Multiplayer for both kills and objective play. Kills remain the primary driver, while playing the objective also counts toward your progress. The post does not publish how much objective play contributes, so the weighting is not stated.

What is not stated

Activision’s launch post is a feature list, not a balance sheet, and the gaps are worth naming.

• No timings. No cooldown, active duration or recharge time is published for any of the 17.
• No damage or radius. The post gives effect descriptions, not damage values or blast radii, so a Bomb Glider and a Gunship cannot be compared numerically from it.
• No perk magnitudes. Reduced damage, quieter footsteps and faster reloads are not quantified. Ghost and Cold-Blooded name the systems that cannot detect you; neither lists a range.
• No full loadout list. The post does not enumerate the primaries, secondaries, lethals, tacticals or field upgrades that pair with these perks. What MW4 does publish about those systems is on the equipment page.
• No mode spread. Which perks and killstreaks are selectable in DMZ or campaign is not stated.
• No skip rules. Whether tier skips or any other reward accelerate these unlock levels is not stated.

The dated unlock and effect list comes from the official launch post, Ready for Launch: All Modern Warfare 4 Operators, Weapons, Equipment, and Multiplayer Create-a-Class Features. The post dates launch October 23, 2026; the launch date labels are compared in full on the release dates page.

Sources

• Activision launch roster — October 19 unlock levels and original requirements.
• Activision launch patch notes — later launch tuning, UAV cost and health, Wheelson behavior.

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