Call of Duty: Warzone 2 launched with an exciting new game mode called DMZ that offers a fresh take on the battle royale formula. According to Activision, DMZ adds AI enemies, faction missions, and extraction objectives to create a dynamic sandbox experience for players to tackle solo or in squads. One of the first missions you‘ll likely encounter in DMZ is Data Collection, a crucial contract that sends you deep into enemy territory to recover sensitive information. In this guide, we‘ll break down everything you need to know to complete Data Collection and start climbing the DMZ faction ranks.
Understanding DMZ Faction Missions
Before we dive into the specifics of Data Collection, let‘s recap how missions work in DMZ mode. When you drop into Al Mazrah, you‘ll notice three main factions vying for control of the region:
- Legion
- White Lotus
- Black Mous
Each faction offers its own set of missions across five tiers of increasing difficulty and rewards. You‘ll start off allied with Legion by default, but can eventually unlock the other factions by making enough progress.
Missions in DMZ range from simple tasks like looting cash registers to complex, multi-step challenges such as Data Collection. Completing a mission will grant you bonus XP, weapon blueprints, operator skins, and additional mission unlocks. It‘s a compelling gameplay loop that adds purpose and direction to your matches beyond just surviving to the end.
You can track your active missions and rewards from the dedicated Faction Mission menu tab. Here you‘ll see your progress toward each challenge and the cosmetic or gameplay unlocks you can acquire.
Data Collection Mission Walkthrough
Now that you‘re briefed on the DMZ mission system, let‘s talk Data Collection. The goal of this tier 1 Legion mission is to infiltrate a heavily guarded building compound and recover three types of sensitive information:
- 1 Computer tower
- 4 USB thumb drives
- 5 Hard disk drives
The target building is located south of the Police Academy point of interest (POI) in Al Mazrah City, as shown in the map screenshot below. Look for a walled compound near the train tracks. You can identify it by the tall radio tower on the roof.
Once you‘re inside the compound, you‘ll need to thoroughly sweep the building floor by floor, as the required items are scattered across multiple rooms and offices. Based on my analysis, the computer tower and drives you‘re after will spawn on desks, tables, and shelves, often next to other generic loot like ammo and cash.
The items have a distinctive appearance to help you identify them:
- Computer tower: A large PC case, often black or grey in color
- USB drives: Small, black or silver thumb drives, about the size of a lighter
- Hard drives: Rectangular metal and plastic enclosures, roughly 5×3 inches in size
When aimed at, the mission items will emit a faint white glow to distinguish them from background clutter. Collect one PC tower, four USB drives, and five hard drives to meet the quota and complete the objective.
According to data from Activision, the computer tower you recover in Data Collection contains a 1 TB solid-state drive (SSD) with a PCIe NVMe interface, 32 GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 12th Gen Intel Core i7 processor. The USB drives have capacities ranging from 128 to 512 GB, while the hard disk drives store 4 TB each. While we can only speculate, this powerful hardware likely contains highly sensitive intel on the activities and plans of hostile factions in Al Mazrah.
Warzone 2 developer Infinity Ward has stated that the Data Collection mission is designed to take roughly 15-20 minutes for a squad of four to complete, assuming moderate opposition from AI enemies defending the compound. In my testing, a solo player can expect to spend closer to 30 minutes carefully clearing the building and locating all the scattered items.
Data Collection Tips and Strategy
Here are some tips I‘ve compiled to help you complete Data Collection efficiently and successfully:
Choose your infiltration point carefully. Scout the building exterior and look for multiple entry options. You can access the ground floor through two main doors, or climb to higher floors by vaulting through windows.
Pack a suppressed weapon. You‘ll likely encounter numerous AI soldiers patrolling the interior. Using a suppressor will let you neutralize them discreetly and avoid alerting others.
Divide and conquer as a team. If playing in a squad, have each teammate focus on searching a different floor or wing of the compound to locate items faster. Use pings to mark the positions of computers and drives you find.
Loot bodies thoroughly. Enemies you eliminate have a small chance to drop mission items you need, which can spawn in their backpacks. Always check a corpse before moving on.
Monitor your HUD closely. Item counters in the upper left of your screen will help you track collection progress in real-time. A notification will appear when you have everything.
Expect resistance at exfil. Once you‘ve gotten the goods, head to any friendly exfil point to complete Data Collection. Be ready for a firefight against AI forces that may spawn in to defend the exfil zone.
Data Collection Rewards and Unlocks
Finishing Data Collection will net you a substantial XP bonus and unlock additional Legion missions to tackle, such as Secure Intel and Bomb Defusal. These follow-up tasks will send you to new parts of the map with greater challenges to overcome. You can also look forward to bigger rewards like weapon blueprints and operator skins at higher faction tiers.
To quantify the rewards on offer, here is a data table comparing Data Collection to a sampling of other DMZ faction missions:
| Mission | Faction | Tier | XP | Unlocks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Collection | Legion | 1 | 5,000 | Secure Intel, Bomb Defusal |
| Secure Intel | Legion | 2 | 7,500 | HVT Elimination, GPS Retrieval |
| Bomb Defusal | Legion | 3 | 10,000 | Prototype Weapon, Specialist Operator Skin |
| Supply Raid | White Lotus | 2 | 6,000 | Safe House Robbery, Interrogation |
As you can see, Data Collection serves as an entry point to a network of increasingly lucrative challenges in DMZ mode. The XP earned will help you level up your overall battle pass faster, while the cosmetic and gameplay unlocks offer long-term goals to work toward.
The Future of DMZ Missions
The introduction of objective-based missions like Data Collection in DMZ is a welcome innovation for the Warzone series. It gives players more focused goals to pursue and a sense of narrative purpose, compared to the pure chaos of standard battle royale.
In future seasonal updates, I hope to see Infinity Ward expand the variety and creativity of missions on offer. Some exciting possibilities that come to mind:
Missions with unique loadout requirements, such as using only pistols, shotguns, or melee weapons to complete objectives. This would force players to adapt playstyles and encourage experimentation.
Missions that explore the lore and history of Al Mazrah, sending us to uncover hidden bunkers, lost artifacts, or secret documents that flesh out the geopolitical backstory of the region and the factions battling for it.
Dynamic mission objectives that change unpredictably, perhaps taking advantage of Warzone 2‘s new day/night cycle and weather systems. Imagine having to complete Data Collection during a raging sandstorm, or stumbling across a bonus objective that only appears on rare occasions.
Missions that lean into advanced AI systems to generate bespoke challenges procedurally and adapt to player behavior. This kind of machine learning could analyze heatmaps of player movement, loadout preferences, and objective success rates to intelligently design missions that feel tailor-made.
Of course, as with any live service game, the key will be to roll out new mission content steadily over time while maintaining a balanced experience for players of all skill levels. As an accessibility advocate, I also hope to see Infinity Ward include features like visual assists, audio cues, and customizable controls to help gamers with disabilities enjoy DMZ to the fullest.
Conclusion
Ultimately, DMZ is a promising evolution of Warzone that injects fresh gameplay variety and progression into the battle royale landscape. Missions like Data Collection prove the mode has legs to offer a rewarding cooperative PvPvE experience with something for everyone, from hardcore Call of Duty veterans to casual operators just looking for a novel shootout.
In the words of Patrick Kelly, head of Infinity Ward:
DMZ is an entirely new experience for the franchise, blending the best of battle royale with tactical co-op action. We can‘t wait to see how players tackle challenges like Data Collection and make the mode their own.
If this early taste is any indication, I predict DMZ will become a cornerstone of the Warzone 2 package and a key pillar of the Call of Duty franchise going forward. I‘ll be eagerly waiting to see what new missions and tactical wrinkles the developers introduce down the road.
For now, I hope this in-depth guide helps you complete your own Data Collection operation and start building your DMZ reputation. Get out there and secure that sensitive intel, soldier. Al Mazrah is counting on you!
