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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) has four standard campaign difficulties—Recruit, Regular, Hardened and Veteran—plus Realism, which Activision describes as “Veteran with limited HUD.” Choose Recruit for a low-pressure story playthrough, Regular for the normal starting point, Hardened for a substantial test, and Veteran or Realism for a deliberate challenge.
This guide covers the 2019 reboot campaign only. It does not describe Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare II (2022) or Modern Warfare III (2023), whose menus and difficulty behavior can differ.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - PlayStation 4 | $19.93 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare - PS4 Legacy Edition | $24.49 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered - PlayStation 4 | $28.25 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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Call of Duty Modern Warfare III - PS4 | $63.98 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - PlayStation 4 (Renewed) | $16.49 | Buy on Amazon |
Which Modern Warfare campaign is this?
The title “Modern Warfare” is used for several Call of Duty games. This article concerns the game released in 2019, including its single-player campaign. Activision’s official campaign page identifies the game for PlayStation, Xbox, Battle.net and Steam, although the platform and edition available to you should be checked before purchase because store listings change.
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The difficulty descriptions below come from Activision’s “Getting Started in Modern Warfare: Campaign” guide, dated October 24, 2019. That guide names four conventional settings and separately describes Realism. It does not publish health values, damage multipliers, completion-rate data or other numerical measurements, so the differences are explained using the publisher’s wording and practical implications rather than invented statistics.
#1 Best Overall
- In the visceral and dramatic single-player story campaign, the stakes have never been higher as players take on the role of lethal tier one operators in a heart-racing saga that will affect the global balance of power.
- Experience the ultimate online playground with classic multiplayer.
- Squad-up and play cooperatively in a collection of elite operations accessible to all skill levels.
Modern Warfare campaign difficulties at a glance
| Setting | Official description | Who it suits | What to expect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recruit | “For players who are new to Call of Duty®.” | New Call of Duty or first-person-shooter players; readers focused on the story. | The least demanding option in the standard progression, with more room to learn controls and encounters. |
| Regular | “Your abilities in combat will be tested.” | Players familiar with earlier Call of Duty campaigns or shooters. | The baseline campaign challenge: combat matters, but it is not intended as an extreme test. |
| Hardened | “Your skills will be strained.” | Returning campaign players who want a clear step up from Regular. | Less tolerance for mistakes and a greater need to use cover, movement and awareness. |
| Veteran | “You will not survive.” | Players deliberately seeking a serious challenge, preferably after learning the missions. | Activision warns that there is little room for error. |
| Realism | “Veteran with limited HUD.” | Experienced players who want the Veteran challenge with fewer on-screen aids. | Combat is paired with a reduced heads-up display; the official description does not establish specific health or damage numbers. |
The safest way to describe the lineup is “four named difficulty settings, plus Realism.” Realism is presented by Activision as Veteran difficulty with a limited HUD, not as a wholly separate campaign or a guaranteed fifth step on a single numeric ladder.
What each setting means in practice
Recruit
Recruit is the publisher’s entry recommendation. It is aimed at people new to Call of Duty or to first-person shooters and at anyone who wants to experience the campaign without combat becoming the main obstacle. Select it when learning the controls, camera movement and basic shooting is more important than proving your skill.
Recruit also makes sense for a first run when you care about the story, characters and mission flow. You can concentrate on what an objective is asking you to do instead of repeatedly replaying an encounter while still becoming familiar with the game’s weapons and movement.
Regular
Regular is the normal baseline. Activision says it tests your combat abilities and suggests it for players who already know earlier Call of Duty games. It is the most balanced default for someone who has shooter experience but does not specifically want a punishing campaign.
Rank #2
- Legacy Edition Includes: Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered*;Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) Content Description: Blood and gore, drug reference, intense violence, strong language, suggestive themes
- Infinity Ward reaches new heights with Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, which returns to the roots of the franchise with large-scale war, epic battles, and cinematic, immersive military storytelling and takes players on a journey from Earth to beyond our atmosphere.
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare delivers something for every Call of Duty fan with three unique game modes: Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies.
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is back, remastered in true high-definition featuring improved textures, physically based rendering, high-dynamic range lighting and much more to bring a new generation experience to fans.
- Team up with your friends with 10 of the iconic multiplayer maps from the online multiplayer mode that redefined Call of Duty introducing killstreaks, XP, Prestige and more in customizable, classic multiplayer modes.
Choose Regular when you want enemies and objectives to demand attention while retaining a reasonable margin to recover from an imperfect position. It is also a sensible first setting for a returning player who has not played a Call of Duty campaign recently.
Hardened
Hardened is a direct increase from Regular. The publisher describes it as a setting where your skills will be strained and points it toward people who have completed multiple Call of Duty campaigns. The important distinction is intent: you are choosing a challenge that will expose careless positioning and rushed decisions, not merely changing a cosmetic option.
It is appropriate if Regular feels comfortable and you want each firefight to require more deliberate use of the environment. If you are unfamiliar with the campaign’s mission layouts, learning them on Regular first can prevent the difficulty from turning into repeated trial and error.
Veteran
Veteran is the deliberate high-challenge choice. Activision’s “You will not survive” wording is a warning that there is little room for error, and the guide suggests learning the missions before attempting a Veteran run. That advice matters because knowledge of an encounter’s objectives and likely enemy positions can be as important as raw aiming ability.
Rank #3
- One of the most critically-acclaimed games in history, Call of Duty: Modern warfare is back
- Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) Content Description: Blood, intense violence, strong language
Veteran is not the recommended blind first playthrough for most readers. Start there only if you already have substantial experience with Call of Duty campaigns and specifically want to solve encounters under severe pressure. Otherwise, complete the campaign on a lower setting first, then return to Veteran with a plan for the sections that caused trouble.
Realism is described in one concise line: “Veteran with limited HUD.” In practical terms, it combines the Veteran-level challenge with less information displayed on screen. Expect to rely less on prompts and other visible cues, and pay closer attention to the scene itself. Do not import details from later games. The 2019 guide does not state exact health values, damage multipliers, or that every HUD element disappears. It establishes the limited-HUD relationship to Veteran, so claims more specific than that would go beyond the available official description. If you are undecided, Regular is the most defensible middle-ground choice for an experienced shooter player, while Recruit is the safer recommendation for a newcomer or a story-first run. Hardened, Veteran and Realism should be intentional selections rather than assumptions that a higher label is automatically better. Free tools Windows power users keep installed One-click scans. No signup required. Activision’s campaign guide gives broad advice for higher difficulties rather than a mission-by-mission solution. Its recommendations are straightforward: These are general principles, not guarantees for every encounter. A tactic that works in one mission may need adjustment in another, so treat the recommendations as a way to structure your decisions rather than as a fixed exploit. Search results often combine information from different Modern Warfare releases. That can produce incorrect advice about the 2019 campaign. Activision’s later Modern Warfare III guide discusses its own four-level system and says its campaign difficulty can be changed at any time; that statement belongs to MWIII and should not be presented as a rule for the 2019 game. Likewise, later coverage can attach more detailed claims to Realism. For this 2019 title, the authoritative description is limited to Veteran with a limited HUD. Keep that wording intact unless a source specifically documents an additional 2019 behavior. The cited 2019 campaign guide establishes the available settings and gives selection advice, but it does not provide a verified menu rule about changing difficulty during an active playthrough. Do not assume that a sequel’s “change at any time” behavior applies here. If you need to adjust the setting, use the in-game campaign difficulty menu shown by your own platform and edition, and confirm what the confirmation screen says before accepting the change. This distinction prevents a common mistake: treating a feature documented for a different Modern Warfare game as if it were part of the 2019 release. The official 2019 campaign page lists PlayStation, Xbox, Battle.net and Steam options. Availability, digital storefront pages and physical editions can change, and a listing may refer to a different year or platform. Before buying or installing, verify all of the following: No current price, inventory status or platform-specific store link is established here, so those details should be checked directly with the relevant storefront. Activision’s October 24, 2019 campaign guide is sufficient to identify the names, audience and broad intent of each setting. The official game page supplies the 2019 title, campaign context and platform list. Together they support a clear choice framework, but they do not support numerical claims about enemy health, damage, completion times, success rates or the exact number of HUD elements removed in Realism. That limitation is useful when comparing advice online. Treat precise figures as unverified unless they are documented specifically for the 2019 campaign by an authoritative source. The publisher’s qualitative progression—introductory, tested, strained, little room for error, and Veteran with limited HUD—is the reliable basis for selecting a setting. Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.Which difficulty should you choose?
Your situation
Best starting choice
Reason
New to Call of Duty or first-person shooters
Recruit
Matches Activision’s introductory recommendation and leaves room to learn.
Want the story with modest combat pressure
Recruit
Prioritizes campaign progression over a demanding skill test.
Know shooters or older Call of Duty campaigns
Regular
Provides the stated normal campaign test without targeting an extreme challenge.
Have finished several Call of Duty campaigns
Hardened
Designed as a clear step up that strains established skills.
Want a serious challenge and know the missions
Veteran
Activision warns of little room for error and recommends learning missions first.
Want Veteran pressure with less on-screen information
Realism
Uses the official “Veteran with limited HUD” definition.
How to handle Hardened, Veteran and Realism
Rank #4
Realism, limited HUD and later-game confusion
Can you change the difficulty during the campaign?
Best Value
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