MW4 DMZ Bounties Explained: Wanted Status, Bounty Stations and the Most Wanted Leaderboard

DMZ week continues for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. On October 8, 2026, Infinity Ward released an official DMZ Bounty Systems trailer. It shows how hunting other players in Hajin can put a price on your own head. A DMZ Story Missions trailer came out the same day.

Here is what's confirmed about Bounties so far, and what's still unknown, ahead of the October 23 launch.

What Activision has confirmed

According to the trailer's official description, players can "raise the stakes in DMZ by interfacing with Bounties in the field, where certain actions can put a price on their head."

The official DMZ Deep Dive, Part 1 adds three building blocks:

• Bounty Stations: rugged, waterproof laptops found across Hajin. They let you review Bounties on human Operators, then hunt those players down. You can also spend DMZ Cash to pay off your own Bounty during a deployment.
• Bounty Leaderboard: an unlockable station in your Forward Operating Base (FOB) that tracks "the most successful PvP bounty hunters and killers across the Exclusion Zone."
• Dog Tag Case: another FOB station, for displaying Dog Tags taken from defeated Operators. You can favorite the ones you don't want to lose.

The same blog says eliminating rival Operators gives more DMZ XP than killing AI enemies. That makes PvP tempting, and Bounties are the price for it.

What the trailer shows

GamerFuzion went through the 1:44 video frame by frame. Here is what they spotted:

• After killing another Operator, a "BOUNTY INCREASED – WANTED" banner appears with a five-step dollar-sign meter. It warns that you'll be marked on the Tac-Map for nearby enemy players.
• A Bounty Station screen lists "Wanted players to hunt". Buying intel reveals the target's area on the Tac-Map, and a timed "Hunt Operator" objective starts.
• Looted Dog Tags record the victim's bounty, killer and time of death.
• The leaderboard has Most Wanted and Bounty Hunters tabs, with Global and Friends filters.

The footage is labelled as in-development, so values like the $250,000 bounty seen on screen can change before launch.

Don't mix it up with Threat

DMZ also has an AI Threat Level for each area. On top of that, a Hostiles Kill Count meter sends an enemy Hunt Squad after you, marking you "Marked for Death", if it fills (official blog). Both of those come from fighting AI. Bounties are about killing other players.

Still unknown

Activision hasn't said:

• how many kills make you Wanted
• what intel or paying off your Bounty costs
• how hunters get paid
• whether the leaderboards reset weekly

The official blog promised that Part 2, a full FOB guide covering Bounties in more detail, would arrive "later this week". We'll update this article when it's out.

When can you play?

DMZ launches with Campaign and Multiplayer on October 23, 2026 (PlayStation Blog). The platforms are PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2. Digital pre-orders get Campaign Early Access from October 16. For more on the rest of the game, see our MW4 multiplayer roundup.