Juggernaut (character)



For the perk of the same name, see Juggernaut.

The Juggernaut is a unique enemy type found in the Special Ops game mode of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (also found in the Museum level in the campaign). Juggernauts wear a suit modified for high damage resistance, and are able to deal out massive amounts of damage. Juggernauts are first encountered in the "Snatch & Grab" Special Op. The Juggernaut was originally supposed to be a Russian in Bomb-Squad suit, but Infinity Ward decided they would make this enemy more accurate and deadly.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Juggernauts are heavily armoured and always equipped with the M240 light machine gun that sometimes comes with a sight attached (usually Red Dot Sight or ACOG Sight, but sometimes a Holographic Sight). Because they are armored, they rush the player head-on rather than take cover, but in some missions, they do take cover (most notably on Armor Piercing). It is easy to know when a Juggernaut is coming because an ominous theme plays. There are an infinite number of Juggernauts in "Estate Takedown", though they spawn at random times. If dealing with multiple enemies, the Juggernaut should take top priority as while most enemies will stay behind cover most of the time, the Juggernaut will continue to advance towards the player.

In the Museum level, it can be seen that the groin guard of the Juggernaut says "Get Sum!" ; and his rear section says "Kick Me!"; a reference to the film Full Metal Jacket. A decal of a skull can also be seen in the armour that covers their shoulders.

They appear in Special Ops missions "Snatch & Grab", "Estate Takedown", "Armor Piercing" and "High Explosive". When they do appear, a lone drumbeat sounds.

Not much is known about the Juggernauts. They are Russians, as they speak Russian. It is unknown who employed them or who they officially work for. It is most likely they are mercenaries, as they are seen fighting alongside Shadow Company in Snatch & Grab, with Makarov's elite mercenaries in Estate Takedown, alone in High Explosive and Armor Piercing and with Russian Armed Forces in Museum.

Strategies

 * The player should always try to keep a distance from an incoming Juggernaut, as the player stands little to no chance when closed up on. However, as a last resort, the player can throw flashbang grenades to stun him for a little bit and run away. Using any automatic firearms such as normal assault rifles and SMGs against him will have almost no effect, so the player's top priority is keeping him away and snipe or shoot RPGs at him before he gets closer.
 * If the Juggernaut does reach you, you can also keep an object similar to the large ammo crate in High Explosive between yourself and the Juggernaut and crouch. Very few bullets will hit you and you can take your time in killing them since headshot are easily obtained from that range. However this method is useless against multiple Juggernauts.
 * On Snatch & Grab when the first Juggernaut comes, hide under the dismembered plane wing. The Juggernaut won't try to shoot through it, back up or crouch down to kill you. You can then use any weapon to kill him. This works best if you have two people and one person acts as cannon fodder, drawing the Juggernaut in closer and shoot at him when in last stand.
 * Another way to chip away a Juggernaut's armor is if both players unload at the Juggernaut constantly at the same time. (Assault rifles, LMG's, Shotguns etc.) Last stand is also a slightly effective way to kill a Juggernaut. If one player is downed by a Juggernaut and another is firing on the Juggernaut, the person downed can fire upon the Juggernaut with an M9 (or which ever side arm chosen), while the other player is shooting away at the Juggernaut with whatever weapon. However, this will only work until the Juggernaut shoots the downed player into limbo. The juggernaut cannot walk over a player in last stand, so a player in last stand can block one or more juggernauts while the other player kills them.
 * One of the best methods to taking out a Juggernaut is to have one player take a sniper rifle and another to use a LMG, the sniper should be able to line up head shots in rapid succession and the gunner needs to be able to hammer the Juggernaut while not getting hit by him. The gunner should line up the Juggernaut and start chipping away at his armor and draw his fire, and when the Juggernaut is too busy to deal with the sniper, he can start lining up head shots. On "Snatch & Grab", a Juggernaut can be downed by 4 shots from an Intervention (3 headshots) and 1/4 of a mag from an M240.
 * Additionally, if the player wishes to practice with a Juggernaut, it would be recommended to kill all the characters in the Museum other than the Juggernaut and press the red button that says DO NOT PUSH. He will be armed with a M240, and the player can experiment with the effects of various weapons on him. If wanting to practice with a Juggernaut, using a Riot Shield can be very effective; because it can block the Juggernauts' bullets, though it takes 14 shield bashes to kill it. Unfortunately, the Riot Shield is not available in any Spec Op that features Juggernauts.
 * If you take cover under something where the Juggernaut will only be able to hit you if it crouches or goes prone, the Juggernaut will just walk up to you and stand there, meaning that you could take it down with any weapon without fear of being killed.
 * If an M240 is around, grab it and bottle neck the Juggernaut, and unleash the M240. This also works with the Thumper.
 * An effective, yet risky way of killing a Juggernaut is using a high caliber weapon, such as the Barret .50 Cal, or the Desert Eagle. Recoil is Caliber, so if the gun pops up after you fire it, it has an effective chance against a Juggernaut.


 * Killing one with a knife is very easy, especially when playing with two people on the easiest difficulty. Run up to one and crouch. The AI will make it hard for it to shoot, as it was not designed to fail to kill you while you rushed it. Knife its legs quickly, and make as many hits as possible. You will get minimal damage; if you have a partner make him be a decoy by jumping around behind cover. It will soon bend down. Get a weapon like a sniper or Desert Eagle and unload your bullets into its head. This is also effective as a shield, provided while you are knifing or shooting the Juggernaut, it is between you and the other enemies. It provides a lovely show watching them run to a position where they will not shoot their ally. If thrown into Last Stand, or in the prone position by its feet, you are almost always invincible. Until it moves. Or its allies come.
 * If there are two players in Special Ops, one player could fire explosive weapons (Thumper, RPG etc.) while the other could just fire at the Juggernaut with a Light Machine Gun.

Recommended weapons
Juggernauts can absorb a ridiculous amount of damage and will usually continue attacking without responding to damage. Certain weapons are more effective at neutralizing Juggernauts, especially those that can stagger or stun.


 * High-powered sniper rifles (i.e. those that can kill with a single shot on the limbs) are effective against Juggernauts. More importantly, these sniper rifles can continuously stun the Juggernaut while doing massive damage. The Intervention, WA2000 and the Barrett .50cal are good examples of this. The Dragunov and M14 EBR, however, are relatively ineffective on a Juggernaut. It takes 6 torso shots or 3 headshots to kill Juggernauts with the high-powered sniper rifles.
 * The Thumper, AT4 and RPG-7 can do significant damage to a Juggernaut. However, they recover quickly from direct hits and it can take many shots to kill one. A direct hit to the head will instantly kill. This is very helpful for the "High Explosive" Spec Ops mission.
 * Flashbangs are very effective tools to help kill Juggernauts. They can stun a Juggernaut for up to five seconds, allowing the player to continue firing, reload their weapon, switch to other weapons, or find cover.
 * High-damage output weapons, such as the AA-12 and M240, will quickly chip away at the Juggernaut's health, although Juggernauts don't respond to light damage, making these weapons risky in some scenarios. The LMG however can be a good weapon if you have to engage a Juggernaut in close-quarters and he's lost some health before. The M240 will kill a Juggernaut with half of its magazine to spare. The MG4 is also capable of this, but its lower rate of fire means it is less effective than the M240.
 * Two shots to the legs from a Desert Eagle will cause the Juggernaut to trip and fall.
 * Explosives such as Claymores, C4, Grenade Launchers and rockets can stun a Juggernaut, but they need to be positioned in their path and will only do minor damage. Claymore's and C4's require 10 direct hits to kill a Juggernaut.
 * An M4A1 can kill a Juggernaut in about 2 magazines, on Hardened.
 * High caliber pistols such as the Desert Eagle or the .44 Magnum can kill a Juggernaut with about two magazines.
 * The TAR-21 is an excellent weapon with high damage, however, it has moderate recoil when firing fully-automatic, so one should fire in bursts.

Trivia

 * On very rare occassions, a Juggernaut will send the other player, rather than the one being shot at, into last stand if playing split screen special ops
 * The Juggernaut's walk is the same as that of Makarov's forces during "No Russian".
 * The achievement/trophy that is obtained after killing a Juggernaut in Special Ops, "I'm The Juggernaut..." refers to the Marvel villain Juggernaut, and a viral video featuring said villain in which "I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!" is often repeated. Killing the Juggernaut in the Museum doesn't count towards this, even when the Red Button is pushed. This could also be a reference to the common gametype that does not feature in Call of Duty, called Juggernaut, where, if you kill the player who is the Juggernaut, you will become it.
 * The suits of armor the juggernauts use are very similar to the bomb suits seen in episode 22 in the second season of the anime series: "Ghost in the shell".
 * The Juggernauts fight alongside both Shadow Company and Makarov's Elite Mercenaries. For example, in "Snatch & Grab", they are part of Shepherd's soldiers, but in "Estate Takedown" the Juggernauts fight with the Russian mercenaries. They are inevitably Russian considering they shout and yell in Russian in all missions, regardless of allegiance. This is most likely because Special Ops missions have no bearing on the game's story. It could also mean the Juggernauts are mercenaries.
 * Getting a Game Winning Killcam with a Riot Shield earns the player a comic Juggernaut head emblem and the "Owned" title.
 * It is impossible to put a Juggernaut into Last Stand.
 * It would be somewhat useless for a Juggernaut to put a sight on their weapon because they fire it from the hip.
 * In the museum, before one presses the button, the Juggernaut can be killed with one hit from anything - including a direct hit from a flashbang (as with all other characters). Pressing the button reverts him back to his normal health and durability.
 * It is strange that the Juggernaut appears in the Museum, because they are only in Spec Ops. It was probably included so the player can observe the Juggernaut. It also appears that it is Russian.
 * Strangely, when the player walks over an M240 w/ Holographic Sight from a fallen Juggernaut, sometimes the pick-up icon will just read "M240".
 * Sometimes, when a Juggernaut takes a sniper rifle shot, he will go prone for a few seconds before he resumes his running. This could be the weight of his armour simply making it hard to readily recover from tripping over.
 * Sometimes, especially in "Snatch and Grab", the Juggernauts will get down on their knees and aim at you. This commonly happens if you are sniping inside the airplane or if they cannot reach you for whatever reason.
 * They were originally planned to use the Striker in combination with M240, but this was taken out for balancing purposes.
 * It is suprising how amazingly accurate a Juggernaut can be at times.The M240 is not a very accurate weapon due to it's high recoil. To make it even more amazing, they only fire from the hip and are normally jogging while doing so.
 * Even though they wear protective bomb suits, the in game advice still recommends explosive weapons.
 * The Juggernaut was originally a usable character model in multiplayer that would increase the player's health. However, this proved to be overpowered and was replaced by Painkiller. The character model was reused and put into Special Ops.
 * No matter how many bullets Juggernauts fire, they will never reload.
 * In the "Museum", a Juggernaut is beating up a US Army Ranger, but in Special Ops, Juggernauts never appear in any missions with the US Army Rangers featured in it.
 * Even though Juggernauts are Russian, they only use the Belgian, yet American-issued M240 Machine Gun.
 * It only takes 5 indirect, but closely detonated grenades from a thumper to kill a Juggernaut.
 * On Estate Takedown with two players camp on the top of the stairs. When a Juggernaut comes, and one of the players is downed, send the downed player to crawl down the staircase while the Juggernaut comes up. The Juggernaut will stand still and will not stop firing at the downed player, giving the other player enough time to fetch a sniper rifle and get headshots. However, you must be quick or else the downed player will bleed out, and there is also a glitch where the Juggernaut will not take any damage whatsoever while employing this tactic.