How to get the Dead Wire ammo mod in MW3 Zombies

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mimic enemy in cod mw3 zombies
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Ammo mods are one of the many ways Modern Warfare 3 Zombies players can spruce up their guns, and it’s bound to be one of the most common ones. Ammo mods such as Dead Wire aren’t hard to find, and they feature in specific MWZ missions.

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Dead Wire adds shock effects to your weapon, with shots potentially triggering an effect like Shock Sticks. This makes it easier to handle zombies, especially since they’ll stand still while taking damage.

Unlike Cryo Freeze, Napalm Burst, and Shatter Blast, however, there’s no specific drop for it in Act One missions. This can be particularly frustrating: Shocked, an Act Two mission, will ask you to tase zombies and elites with the Dead Wire ammo mod.

Luckily for players, the mod itself isn’t too hard to find, and the mission requirements aren’t too outlandish (much better than slowing 10 Hellhounds). Here are some of the locations we’ve found for the Dead Wire ammo mod in MWZ.

Dead Wire ammo mod locations in Zombies

In our experience, the best locations to get the Dead Wire ammo mod in Zombies are Aether Nests and Strongholds, but we’ve also gotten them from Contracts. Both should be part of your rotation if you’re looking for better gear.

Tip:

If you’ve found a Dead Wire mod and don’t want to use it, you can extract with it in your Rucksack to save it for a rainy day.

Aether Nests are generally manageable, particularly in threat level one. Clearing an Aether Nest shouldn’t pose much of an issue to a squad as long as everyone has gas masks. You’ll need to shoot the glowing egg-like nodes hidden throughout the nest itself, and once you do, all the loot in it will be ripe for the taking. The chests in Aether Nests usually include ammo mods, and they have a chance of dropping Dead Wire.

Contracts also present a good chance of getting the Dead Wire mod, as well as other ammo mods in general. We’ve had no trouble finding some Dead Wire mods, though we weren’t specifically looking for them (And with our luck, all Dead Wire drops will dry up on the map when we do).

Tip

Saving ammo mods may pay off in the future since you might need them for a future challenge or mission.

Both Aether Nests and Strongholds are good at dropping all sorts of ammo mods, but if you can’t find your Dead Wire, crafting it also be on the table. You’ll have to find the schematic for it, though, which is rarer than the mod itself. The only one we’ve gotten so far is for Deadshot Daiquiri, which dropped from a Contract (twice, in fact). You can also ask a friend to craft it for you if they have the pattern unlock.

If you’re trying to find the Dead Wire ammo mod for a mission, there’s a way to share the mod to a degree. If a friend uses an ammo mod during a deployment and then drops that weapon, the gun will maintain its mod for that run. (That’s how we froze the Hellhounds in Freezer Burn—with a WSP Swarm, a Cryo Freeze ammo mod, and a whole lot of patience.)

Author
Image of Pedro Peres
Pedro Peres
Pedro is Dot Esports' Lead Destiny Writer. He's been a freelance writer since 2019, and legend has it you can summon him by pinging an R-301, uttering the word "Persona," or inviting him to run a raid in Destiny 2 (though he probably has worse RNG luck than the D2 team combined). Find his ramblings on his Twitter @ggpedroperes (whenever that becomes available again).