All Modern Warfare 3 camos guide – how to get MW3 mastery camos

With three times more completionist camos and MW3 carry forward, there’s lots of gun customization to choose from, here’s how to unlock it all.

One of the Modern Warfare 3 camos, pinks skulls on a dark background.
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 

How do you unlock all Modern Warfare 3 camos? Consider Modern Warfare 3 the conjoined twin of MW2 – the two games are closer than any other two CoD titles have been before, as guns, operators, and camos are carried over to MW3. Add to this the brand new multiplayer customization options and those from zombies, and there’s a lot to unwrap.

With the release of Modern Warfare 3, you can start the game on a better footing than ever before by carrying over your best MW2 weapons. The MW3 carry forward mechanic applies to guns, operators, camos, charms, and more. Of course, there are loads of new aesthetic items to unlock in MW3, but this just means there are more MW3 camos to get to grips with in the FPS game than ever. Luckily, we’re here to help, so here’s a breakdown of all old and new base and mastery camos you can get in Modern Warfare 3.

Eight of the different base camos you can get in Modern Warfare 3.

MW3 camos explained

There’s a lot going on in this guide, so if you just want to know how to unlock something in particular, use one of the links below to jump to the right place. If you want general information of all new MW3 camos and how to use existing MW2 camos, just read on. If you don’t have Modern Warfare 2, you can still unlock new MW3 camos and use them in Warzone as normal.

There are 18 new sets of base camo in Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer which are unlocked by completing challenges on individual MW3 guns. Once unlocked, they can be applied to any MW2 or MW3 weapon. Like previous base camos, up to four weapon skins are unlocked on each gun.

With that, the original 14 sets from Modern Warfare 2 can also be used in MW3, on any gun, once unlocked. If you haven’t got them in MW2 yet, you can still unlock them in either MW2 or MW3 at any time with MW2 guns, provided you own Modern Warfare 2.

Then there’s the good stuff: Mastery Camos. Due to multiplayer and zombies modes, there are now more MW3 mastery camos than ever, resulting in a total of 16 completionist camo sets in MW3.

Base camos explained

In Modern Warfare 3, there are 18 sets of base camo. Within these sets are themed skins that can only be unlocked by completing challenges on one specific weapon. Once unlocked, base camos can then be used on any weapon in the game.

Base camo challenges usually require leveling the weapon to certain tier, then carrying out an objective such as ‘Get 50 kills’ with that weapon. All of a weapon’s base camos must be unlocked before you can move on to weapon mastery skins.

MW3 introduces Zombies base camos, so there are now up to eight base camos for each weapon, including those from Modern Warfare 2. Naturally, these challenges must be completed in Modern Warfare Zombies mode. If you just play one mode or the other, don’t worry, you need only complete multiplayer base camo challenges for MP mastery camos, and Zombies challenges for MWZ camos.

Five different shots of the MW3 Gilded Mastery Camo.

MW3 multiplayer completionist camos

Four brand-new mastery camos are available in MW3 multiplayer, and can be unlocked by completing challenges using Modern Warfare 3 guns only. Since these are completionist camos, they are still restricted to the weapon on which they are unlocked. However, challenges have been made easier this time as they are more specific to the weapon – no more generic ‘get 25 longshot kills’ with every weapon type!

To unlock the MW3 Gilded completionist camo on any MW3 weapon:

  • Complete all Base Camo challenges for the required weapon.
  • Complete the Gilded Camo challenge for that specific weapon.

Five different shots of the MW3 Forged Mastery Camo.

To unlock the MW3 Forged mastery camo on any MW3 weapon:

  • Complete the Gilded Camo challenge for the required weapon.
  • Complete Gilded Camo challenges for all weapons in the category.
  • Complete the Forged Camo challenge for that specific weapon.

Five different shots of the MW3 Priceless Mastery Camo.

To unlock MW3 Priceless completionist camo on any MW3 weapon:

  • Complete the Gilded Camo challenge for the required weapon.
  • Complete the Forged Camo challenge for the required weapon.
  • Complete a total of 36 Forged Camo challenges for MW3 weapons.
  • Complete the Priceless Camo challenge for that specific weapon.

Five different shots of the MW3 Interstellar Mastery Camo.

To unlock MW3 Interstellar mastery camo on all MW3 weapons:

  • Complete a total of 36 Priceless Camo challenges on MW3 weapons. 

Unlike Gilded, Forged, and Priceless, completing the Interstellar challenge unlocks the camo for all MW3 weapons at once.

Five different angle views of the Gold camo in MW3.

MW2 mastery camos in MW3

Unlocking the base MW2 camos is the same in MW2 and MW3, but can only be completed using MW2 guns. Each mastery camo is unlocked separately for each gun: for example, if you complete the Gold camo challenges on the M4, you will only have access to the Gold camo on your M4. If you haven’t unlocked these camos in MW2 yet, here’s how to do so.

To unlock the Gold Camo on any MW2 weapon in Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3:

  • Complete all four base camo challenges on the required weapon.
  • Complete the Gold Camo challenge on the required weapon: get three kills without dying ten times with that weapon (except melee and launcher).

If you need more info on how this works, take a look at our original guide to unlocking the Gold camo in MW2.

Five different angle views of the Platinum camo in MW3.

To get the Platinum camo on any MW2 weapon:

  • Complete the Gold Camo challenge on the required weapon.
  • Complete Gold Camo challenges on every weapon in that category.
  • Complete the Platinum Camo challenge on the required weapon: get 25 longshot kills with that weapon (except melee and launcher).

Five different angle views of the Polyatomic camo in MW3.

To unlock the animated Polyatomic camo on any MW2 weapon:

  • Complete Gold Camo challenge on the required weapon.
  • Complete Platinum Camo challenge on that required weapon.
  • Complete a total of 51 Platinum Came Challenges across MW2 weapons.
  • Complete the Polyatomic Camo challenge for that weapon: get 25 headshots with that weapon (except melee and launcher).

See our original Polyatomic camo guide for more details.

Five different angle views of the Orion camo in MW3.

To unlock Orion camo on all MW2 weapons:

  • Complete a total of 51 Polyatomic Camo challenges with MW2 weapons.

We’ve got a detailed guide on unlocking Orion camo if you need more information.

Five different views of the MWZ Golden Enigma camo in MW3.

MWZ mastery camo – MW3 weapons

To unlock the Golden Enigma MWZ camo on any MW3 weapon:

  • Complete all zombies base camos for the required weapon.
  • Complete the Golden Enigma camo challenge for the required weapon.

Five different views of the MWZ Zircon Scale camo in MW3.

To get the MWZ Zircon Scale camo on any MW3 weapon:

  •  Complete the Golden Enigma camo challenge on the required weapon.
  • Complete all Golden Enigma camo challenges on MW3 weapons in the category.
  • Complete the Zircon Scale camo challenge on the required MW3 weapon.

Five different views of the MWZ Serpentinite camo in MW3.

To unlock the animated MWZ Serpentinite camo challenge on any MW3 weapon:

  • Complete the Golden Enigma challenge on the required weapon.
  • Complete the Zircon Scale camo challenge on the required weapon.
  • Complete a total of 36 Zircon Scale camo challenges on MW3 weapons.
  • Complete the Serpentinite camo challenge on the required weapon.

Five different views of the MWZ Borealis camo in MW3.

To unlock the animated Borealis camo on all MW3 weapons:

  •  Complete a total of 36 MWZ Serpentinite camo challenges on MW3 weapons.

Six different views of the MWZ golden ivory camo.

MWZ mastery camo – MW2 weapons

To unlock the MWZ Golden Ivory camo on any MW2 weapon:

  •  Complete all four base camo challenges for the required weapon.
  • Complete the Golden Ivory camo challenge on the required weapon.

Six different views of the MWZ Spinel Husk camo.

To unlock the MWZ Spinel Husk camo on any MW2 weapon:

  • Complete the Golden Ivory challenge on the required weapon.
  • Complete all Golden Ivory challenges for weapons in the same category.
  • Complete the Spinel Husk Camo challenge for the required weapon.

Six different views of the MWZ Arachnida camo.

To unlock the MWZ Arachnida camo on any MW2 weapon:

  • Complete the Golden Ivory challenge on the required weapon.
  • Complete the Spinel Husk challenge on the required weapon.
  • Complete a total of 51 Spinel Husk camo challenges on MW2 weapons.
  •  Complete the Arachnida camo challenge on the required weapon.

Six different views of the MWZ Bioluminescent camo.

To unlock the MWZ Bioluminescent camo on all MW2 weapons:

  • Complete the Arachnida camo challenge on a total of 51 MW2 weapons.

That’s an awful lot of MW3 camo to collect, so you’d better get started. Hopefully our guide gives you a head start on collecting all the colorful weapon skins you want in the multiplayer game. There will no doubt be even more than these 1,000-plus camos to collect as time passes, perhaps in Modern Warfare 3 season 1 and limited-time events.

As a guides writer at PCGamesN, Danielle knows what you’re looking for in a guide - mainly because she probably got stuck and asked the same question herself. You can usually find Danielle fighting for her life in Minecraft, Dead by Daylight, and Modern Warfare 2, so ask anything but her favorite game or genre. If you can’t tell from the list above, she can’t narrow it down. Before PCGN, Danielle wrote for WePC, but she studied music journalism so it may surprise you to find her writing to some baffling combination of Taylor Swift, Def Leppard, and Ghost.