Team up with the SAS to hunt and destroy Scud launchers across the desert.
Setting: Iraq, open map · Operation Desert Storm
Clearing optional points of interest here unlocks reusable killstreaks for The Cradle, which recharge over time: Mortar Strike from lockpicking a cache at any Enemy Encampment, Stealth Bomber from helping the Delta Force soldiers hold the Helicopter Crash Site, and Chopper Gunner from destroying all three SAM Sites and reporting back to Captain Gladney at the Layup. The Cradle has a defence section that is a lot friendlier with them, especially on the harder difficulties. If you skip the optional work here, you pay for it there.
How this one works
This is the open one, but it does not start open: a short linear stretch has you destroy the first SCUD launcher (“Destroy the First Scud Launcher”), and only then does Park hand you the Tac Map and the deal turns simple — help the SAS and they get you into Saddam’s palace. From there the objective is “Destroy the Remaining Scud Launchers”: three more spread across the map, four in total across the mission, and taking out the last one is what finishes it. Everything else is optional, and the optional part is where this mission earns its reputation: 19 points of interest on the Tac Map.
The SCUD launchers
One down in the opening stretch, three more on the Tac Map — a Ridge Outpost launcher in the northeast and a Satellite Farm Outpost launcher in the very south are the two we can name with confidence; the fourth marker is not pinned down by the sources checked. How you destroy them is not a free choice if you want the challenge below. Approach each one the way the terrain suggests — they sit in defended positions and going in straight is the expensive way.
The four audio logs
There are four, one per enemy encampment, each locked in a cache you have to clear the camp to reach. The four camps are Ruins, Dune Sea, Village and Dry Lake. Listening to all four is what gives the Insight Advancement calling card — and since they are behind cleared camps, this and the killstreaks above pull in the same direction.
The challenges
- Endless Options — a hidden Dark Ops challenge: destroy every SCUD without using C4. Worth knowing before the first one, because C4 is the obvious tool and using it once costs you the run.
- Insight Advancement — all four audio logs. Rewards a calling card.
- Full Clear — the achievement for completing every POI on the Tac Map. This is the big one, and it is the same work that unlocks the killstreaks for The Cradle.
- Onyx Echo — the weapon blueprint for the LR 7.62 sniper rifle. It is tied to this mission, but it only actually unlocks once you have also finished The Cradle next, so treat it as a reward for the two-mission stretch rather than for Hunting Season alone.
Doing it in a sensible order
Destroying the three remaining SCUDs is what ends the mission, so do the optional work first — the game does not force you to stop once they are down; you can keep exploring, but there is no reason to leave it to chance. Clear the camps for the audio logs and the POIs, then take the launchers last — otherwise you finish the mission with the map half explored and the next one harder than it needed to be.
Still to verify
Track it as you play
Everything below syncs to your Game Memory, so you can tick items off on one device and pick up on another.
- •
Zombies Easter Eggs
6 entries to tick off as you go.
- •
Wonder Weapons
6 entries to tick off as you go.