Getting to Level 55 is the straightforward part. After that, MW4 asks whether you want to keep your unlocks, reset them for extra rewards or eventually push all the way through Prestige Master.
The biggest choices are between Classic and Regular Prestige and where to spend Permanent Unlock Tokens. Getting those right can save a lot of unnecessary levelling later.
Fastest Ways to Level Up
Complete your Daily Challenges, play objective-based respawn modes and use Double XP Tokens whenever you have them. Hardpoint and Domination are the best Multiplayer modes to focus on because you earn XP from both eliminations and objective play.
For faster Player XP:
Complete all three Daily Challenges. Each challenge gives you 2,500 XP, with another 8,000 XP for completing all three. That’s 15,500 XP per day before anything you earn normally in matches.
Play Hardpoint or Domination. Stay around the objective rather than treating them like Team Deathmatch so you’re earning XP from more than eliminations.
Use Double XP Tokens. Make sure you activate regular Player XP rather than Weapon XP if levelling your account is the priority.
Take advantage of Double XP events. They’re the best time for longer levelling sessions.
Use DMZ as an alternative. XP earned from Story Missions, Dynamic Operations, Side Ops and other DMZ activities also contributes to your overall Player Level.
Daily Challenges should be your first priority whenever you log in. You can also reroll one challenge each day, so replace anything that would take much longer than the others instead of forcing yourself through it just for the XP.
Double XP Token timers pause outside matches, so you can activate one before you start playing without wasting it while matchmaking or changing your loadout.
DMZ has its own separate Level 1–70 progression track, but the XP you earn there also increases your overall Player Level. If you already play DMZ, Story Missions, Dynamic Operations, Side Ops and other deployment activities can progress both at the same time.
Classic vs Regular Prestige: Which Should You Choose?
Choose Classic Prestige if you want the 20% XP boost, Permanent Unlock Tokens and extra rewards and don’t mind rebuilding your classes. Choose Regular Prestige if you’d rather keep all of your unlocked gear and Create-a-Class options.
Once you reach Level 55, you can stay there or enter Prestige.
Classic Prestige:
Resets your Player Level to 1
Resets your Level Unlocks and Create-a-Class progress
Gives you a 20% XP boost
Gives you one Permanent Unlock Token
Includes additional cosmetic rewards
Regular Prestige:
Resets your Player Level to 1
Keeps your Level Unlocks and Create-a-Class content
Doesn’t give you the 20% XP boost
Doesn’t give you a Permanent Unlock Token
Shares most Prestige rewards with Classic
We recommend Classic Prestige if you’re willing to rebuild your classes. The XP boost, Permanent Unlock Token and additional rewards make the reset worthwhile, especially since you can permanently protect an important late-level unlock each time.
Regular is the better choice if you mainly want to keep playing Multiplayer with your preferred classes. It also makes sense if you’re working on challenges that require specific Perks, equipment or other late-level unlocks and don’t want Prestige interrupting them.
You aren’t locked into the same choice for all 10 Prestiges. Every time you finish another Prestige, you can choose Classic or Regular again.
Best Permanent Unlocks
We recommend using your first Permanent Unlock Token on Stim. It doesn’t unlock until Level 47 and is useful with almost any Multiplayer class, so permanently unlocking it saves you from playing through most of every Classic Prestige without it.
You earn one Permanent Unlock Token whenever you choose Classic Prestige. Anything you unlock with one stays available through every future Classic Prestige reset.
The best Permanent Unlocks to consider are:
Stim – Level 47: Our first choice for most players. It immediately starts health regeneration, refreshes Tactical Sprint and helps mitigate flash and stun effects.
Ninja – Level 30: Makes your footsteps quieter, particularly useful for Search & Destroy or aggressive flanking.
Ghost – Level 24: Keeps you undetectable by UAVs, Portable Radars and Heartbeat Sensors.
Cold-Blooded – Level 36: Keeps you undetectable by AI targeting systems, Thermal Optics, Recon Drones and High Alert.
Kill Chain – Level 48: Kills from Killstreaks award half streak points, making it useful if Killstreaks are a big part of your classes.
Avoid spending your first token on a weapon unless there’s one you know you always want available. Weapon Blueprints permanently unlock the base version of their weapon, so owning a Blueprint can give you the same access without using one of your Permanent Unlock Tokens.
Later unlocks aren’t automatically better either. Gunship doesn’t unlock until Level 51, for example, but permanently unlocking a 12-kill streak isn’t as useful for most players as having Stim available from Level 1.
To spend a Permanent Unlock Token, go to Career > Progression > MP Level Unlocks, scroll to the item you want to keep and select the Permanent Unlock option.
How Prestige Master Works
Complete all 10 Prestiges to unlock Prestige Master. Your level will then stop resetting and continue from Level 56 all the way to Level 1,000, where you become a Prestige Legend.
Prestige Master is MW4’s final progression track, so you no longer need to choose between Classic and Regular Prestige once you reach it. Instead, you keep levelling towards 1,000 and earning rewards along the way.
You’ll get rewards every five to 10 levels until Level 99, including the Paragon Operator skin for Park when you enter Prestige Master and the Master Renegade Han 86 Blueprint at Level 90.
From Level 100, new Level Color options unlock every 25 levels and additional sets of legacy Prestige icons unlock every 100 levels. These let you customise how your level and Prestige icon appear to other players.
Level 1,000 is the final milestone and makes you a Prestige Legend, with the final legacy Prestige icon set unlocked there too.