“Smile for the cameras and don't miss... Shepherd's gonna be watching. Best shooter gets to join the prima donna squad, if that's your thing.” - Sergeant Foley, Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 2

After passing through the Enlisted Ranks, you’ll find that there is plenty to do after hitting rank 55.

Outside of having the entire arsenal at your disposal for loadouts and Officer Progression challenges, there is also Trials.

Trials are where you can test your skills on a variety of courses to earn some XP rewards. For every Officer Rank you climb, you will earn a Trials ticket. Each ticket gives you three attempts at completing and tackling a Trial.

Currently, there are three Trial courses you can participate in. Within each course, you may be asked to use different kinds of weapons, such as those suited for close-quarters combat, or run the course using night vision goggles.

Ultimately, your goal is to complete each trial as quickly as possible. There are three benchmark times to complete as denoted by a three-star ranking system, with each benchmark awarding an XP reward.

Whether you’ve just earned your first ticket or are looking to get three stars in every Trial, this guide will break down all current courses to help you ace your next Trials experience:

Gun Course

Make your way through the course as fast as possible while clearing all enemy targets and avoiding civilian casualties.

Veterans of the Call of Duty®franchise: welcome to a classic target course.

You will first face the gun rack, where you can choose from a selection of weapons. Then, when you are ready, head forward and step up to the red line. The clock starts ticking when you cross over it and the first targets pop up.

In this course, targets will fall with a single bullet, so there is no need to spray a full clip into one. At the end of the course, your time will be affected by three factors:

·      Accuracy – Higher accuracy shaves off seconds from your final time.

·      Targets Killed – Each missed target adds five seconds to your final time.

·      Civilians Killed – Each civilian killed adds five seconds to your final time.

The obvious tips for this Trial are to be accurate and quick. It may take you a few attempts to learn the course (that’s why you have three attempts per ticket!), but once you know where enemy targets pop up, you’ll snap to them quickly and hopefully avoid civilian targets.

With certain loadouts, it’s possible to fire weapons via single-shot rather than a burst or fully auto fire. It may be wise to switch to a single-shot mode on a weapon if it is available while on the course, as you can better control how many rounds leave the chamber with each pull of the trigger.

Getting a three-star time on this course is difficult for first-timers. However, those seasoned enough on the course know exactly how many targets are in each section, when to run forward, and when notto fire. 

Furthermore, targets can be fired through, meaning that collateral hits can be possible on both enemy and civilian targets. Timing your shots to line up enemies can further improve your accuracy, even to a point of getting over 100% accuracy.

A good time to shoot for when running this course is 42 in-game seconds; even if you hit 40% of your shots, a 42-second time will be reduced under the 40 second threshold, giving you a three-star rating.

And remember: switching to your pistol is always faster than reloading.

Behind Enemy Lines

Live fire exercise: Find and eliminate all hostiles in the Area of Operations as quickly as possible.

Take a Multiplayer map, sprinkle in a bunch of artificial enemies, and you have Behind Enemy Lines.

After choosing your loadout from the weapons on the wall, you will step up to a gate, be given a few seconds to breathe, then be sent out into the map to take out hostile forces.

This simple to understand, but hard to master course will test your map knowledge against enemy forces, which are tuned to be a bit more difficult than those found in a Regular Campaign run.

During this trial, you will have frequent UAV sweeps that show enemy locations and the direction they are all facing. Using this, as well as your map knowledge, will be crucial to earning a three-star time.

Unlike the Gun Course, targets here may take more than one bullet to take down. Enemy hit points are about the same as a normal enemy in Multiplayer, so be prepared to put in a few follow-up shots.

Fortunately, you won’t be graded on accuracy here, but you will be timed. Furthermore, enemies can – and will – kill you, if you give them the chance. It’s best not to get overwhelmed with too many enemies at once, lest they surround you, take you down, and hand you a zero-star rating.

Marksman Challenge

Engage waves of long-distance targets and beat the clock. Missed shots burn time.

In this Trials course, you will be given a single weapon to take down targets placed at various ranges.

The targets will be close at first before progressively getting further away. Some targets will be moving, and it is possible to hit multiple targets in a single shot.

That, as well as a few other pointers, will be key to getting a three-star rating on this Trials course.

The Marksman Challenge is split into four waves, with each wave getting a separate 25-second timer. Each target is worth 100 points, and each millisecond left on your timer at the end of each wave adds a point to your score (i.e. 15.2 seconds left converts into 152 points).

There are 25 total targets in this course, so that’s 2500 guaranteed points, good enough for one star. In order to get three stars, given all the above, you must average 12.5 seconds per wave, or about half the time you are given for each wave.

At first, this may seem tough, but take this course round-by-round, and that three-star ranking may be yours for the taking.

One way to think about this course is to use the first two or three waves as “buffers” for the fourth. The waves get progressively harder, so completing the first few waves as quickly as possible might give you a bit of wiggle room on the last.

Speaking of later rounds, remember that there is bullet drop in Modern Warfare, albeit at extreme distances… Such as when trying to hit targets at the ranges set in the third and fourth rounds. 

Adjust your aim according to the distance of whatever targets are in front of you, using the hashmarks on your sight to account for distance (if your scope has hashmarks). Also, if a distant target is moving, try leading your shots – firing to where you think the target will be by the time your projectile gets to it – in order to catch it on the move.

Take all these tips to heart, and you may find yourself among the stars of these Trials courses.

We’ll see you online. Stay frosty.

For more information and the latest intel on Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare®, check out: www.callofduty.com, www.youtube.com/callofdutyand follow @InfinityWard and @CallofDuty on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook.

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