Veteran (difficulty)

"You will not survive."

Summary


Veteran is the hardest of the four difficulties that are in the Call of Duty series. The player will find they'll take much more damage and have very low health, with enemies having increased accuracy and deadly reaction time. It has a reputation among fans of the series as being one of the hardest difficulties conceived in video games, and thus completing it is a noteworthy accomplishment.

The Veteran difficulty in Call of Duty: World at War is possibly the hardest due to the enemy AI's tendency to throw many grenades at the player at one time. This will force the player to run away from the grenades, causing them to run away from cover and most likely run backwards or into the firefight. Grenades with the indicator barely showing will not instantly kill them but it will stun and weaken them.

Most of players agree that Burn 'Em Out, Heart of the Reich and especially Blowtorch and Corkscrew are the hardest levels in the whole game on Veteran difficulty. Modern Warfare 2's Veteran difficulty is hard but not nearly as hard as Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The AI enemies having increasing accuracy and they rush the player. In addition to all of that, the player will have about 1/2 of their normal health, and gain about 1/4 of all the checkpoints available on the other difficulties (with the exception of SSDD and Museum.)

In addition to Veteran being available to players in campaign, it is also available to players in Spec Ops. This is the hardest of all 3 available difficulties, but will award the player with 3 stars, if the mission is finished (and the other player is also on Veteran, if there is another player.)

Tips

 * It is best to move slowly and deliberately with care; "bum rushing" will almost certainly result in death. Exceptions to this are Breach & Clear, Race, and Time Trial
 * "Going loud" in stealth sections results in almost guaranteed death on this difficulty.
 * Always have cover nearby except for short dashes between cover; the enemy is able to fire accurate 2-3 shot bursts which result in instant death. Being able to duck down or get behind cover before the second or third shot lands will usually save you.
 * Have your allies do as much work as possible, especially the invincible ones.
 * Avoid "taking point", or leading the group, if at all possible.
 * Check your corners!
 * Use your flashbangs and frags strategically, but don't be afraid to use them.
 * Staying crouched while moving through "hotzones" will reduce your vulnerability, but it will also slow you.
 * Use the map in the pause menu to get the location of any enemies that you can't see.

Trivia

 * In Call of Duty: World at War's splitscreen multiplayer, there is a set class known as the "Veteran".
 * In the Wii version of Call of Duty: World at War, there is a game type mode in multiplayer called "Veteran". It is more common to find hackers in this mode than any other.
 * The Veteran difficulty in Call of Duty 3 has to be unlocked by completing the game on any other difficulty first.
 * In Call of Duty: World at War there is a game mode called Veteran. It is essentially a Team Deathmatch mode, but is supposedly for higher level players, and the mode is unlocked later.