Plate up and show up in the Modern Warfare 3 Zombies mode with the 3-Plate Armor Vest. But with its steep price at Buy Stations, how do you get your hands on this essential piece of equipment?
The 3-Plate Armor Vest requires a little commitment to obtain. Once you have it, though, you’ll never want to let go. Crucial to your survival, there are two ways to unlock this armor vest for your operator in MW3 Zombies. Let’s dive into it.
MWZ: How to unlock the 3-Plate Armor Vest
The 3-Plate Armor Vest is an essential piece of equipment for Act III Confrontation story missions, beating the final boss, and fighting inside tier two zones in Urzikstan. There are two guaranteed methods to unlock the 3-Plate Armor Vest in MWZ: Checking loot caches inside Mercenary Strongholds and killing zombie hordes during exfils.
Remember that the Armor Vest stays on your selected operator unless you exit mid-match without exfiling or die. You need to repeat one of the methods listed above if you die or forget to exfil.
Where to pick up a 3-Plate Armor Vest in MW3 Zombies
The first method is to infiltrate Mercenary Strongholds. You need a stronghold keycard to access any Mercenary Stronghold around Urzikstan. You can pick these up at any Buy Station for 2000 points. Make sure you’re prepared for a fight inside the strongholds with enough armor plates and ammo. I highly recommend completing low threat Mercenary Strongholds as these have lower-tiered enemies inside. Always be aware of zombies following you into stronghold.
After killing every merc inside the stronghold, open the safe. This will spawn in more enemies, but you should have more than enough firepower to take them on. Make sure to loot around the area before you attempt to open the safe as there are some great weapons lying around.
After unlocking the safe, make sure you loot it and pick up the valuable goods inside. The safe always holds a 3-Plate Armor Vest.
How to buy a 3-Plate Armor Vest in MW3 Zombies
There is another great way to get a 3-Plate Armor Vest. You only need ammo, armor plates, and a single exfil to complete this method. The exfil method works for solo players but it is best to bring it friends or work with random allies if you find zombie horde overwhelming. Make sure to exfil inside low threat zones. Exfils appear two minutes into a new match. Stock up on ammo and plates before you head over to the exfil spot.
You can start an endless cycle of zombie hordes at a single exfil throughout a single MWZ match. Make sure that you do not exfil when you are attempting this method. You need to kill the entire horde, let the helicopter leave, and wait another two minutes for the exfil flare to reappear. Repeat the process until you get 10000 points.
The best part of this method is that two separate hordes appear between exfils and during. After clearing the first horde, wait two minutes until the green smoke appears to call in another helicopter. At this point, a new horde will spawn in for you to kill. Defeat all of these zombies and then initiate the exfil process to spawn a brand new horde.
While this process is not quick, it has multiple benefits. It’s great for weapon levelling, XP grinding, and collecting points. I highly recommend hitting an exfil immediately because the process will take you roughly 20 minutes to complete. You can also use the Pack-a-Punch machine to upgrade your weapons between each exfil if you want this process to go quicker. I estimate that I killed around 300 zombies to achieve 10000 points in a single match.
Make sure that you do not pick up any nukes if they drop during an exfil. Nukes do not reward you with any XP. After you’ve gained 10000 points, head to the nearest Buy Station within a medium threat zone. You can purchase the 3-Plate Armor Vest here.
Head back to any unused exfil on Urzikstan and execute an exfil after buying the vest from a medium threat Buy Station. By exfiling instead of quitting mid-match, the hard-earned 3-Plate Armor Vest will remain on your operator for all future deployments.
