Prestige Mode

"There's no going back..."

- The final message that appears before you accept prestiging.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Prestige Mode is an option that a player can choose after they progress to Level 55 (Commander) and gain a little more experience. Then it can be accessed in the Barracks menu. Prestige Mode restarts a player at Level 1. All weapons and other challenges will be reset. The player must progress through the ranks to unlock challenges and weapons again. Despite being reverted back to Level 1, the player gains a special symbol next to their name indicating they are in Prestige Mode. A player can progress through the ranks a total of ten times and enter a new level of Prestige Mode with a new symbol placed by the player's name. The last Prestige medal, the "Gold Cross", lets players know that they have played through to the last Prestige rank.

Prestige mode is not available in the PC version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Process
Prestige mode is unlocked after Level 55.

Pros
Upon entering Prestige Mode, players unlock new icons next to their names. Higher levels of Prestige are usually indicative of more game experience. Players will usually get better each time they Prestige, but that does not mean that higher Prestige players are necessarily better.

Cons
Prestige Mode causes a player to lose all unlocked weapons and perks. There are no Xbox Live achievements or PSN trophies associated with online play or Prestige Mode.

Military Medals
Every Prestige symbol corresponds with a real U.S. Military medal:


 * 1st Prestige: Army Commendation Medal
 * 2nd Prestige: Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
 * 3rd Prestige: Republic of Vietnam Staff Service Medal
 * 4th Prestige: Legion of Merit Medal
 * 5th Prestige: Saudi Arabian Medal for the Liberation of Kuwait
 * 6th Prestige: Republic of Vietnam Special Service Medal (?)
 * 7th Prestige: Distinguished Flying Cross Medal
 * 8th Prestige: Republic of Vietnam Civil Action Medal
 * 9th Prestige: Republic of Vietnam Wound Medal
 * 10th Prestige: Navy Cross Medal

Call of Duty: World at War


In Call of Duty: World at War, Prestige Mode is unlocked at Level 65, the highest rank, unlike in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, where the highest rank is 55. Prestige Mode is also available for all systems, including the PC, which did not have it available in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Process
Prestige Mode for Call of Duty: World at War is nearly identical to Prestige Mode in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, except that the player needs to reach Level 65, not 55.

Pros
Once the player enters Prestige Mode for the first time, they earn a new Custom Class slot. This also applies to the second, fourth, seventh and tenth Prestiges. There are also two achievements/trophies associated with getting Prestige.

Cons
All of the player's challenges will be reset. Also, the player will lose all Perks, weapons, grenades, and attachments which they have unlocked.

It has been said by many players that it is harder to Prestige in Call of Duty: World at War because most of the better weapons are locked until the higher levels. In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the weapons are more evenly spaced out.

If the player preordered the game with Gamestop and Prestiges, they will lose the ability to use the M1A1 Carbine at Level 1.

In the Xbox and Wii versions of the game there is a glitch that allows players to transport Perks to different profiles, which some players use to unlock Perks early.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Prestige Mode is unlocked at Level 70, the highest rank, unlike in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World at War, where the highest ranks are 55 and 65, respectively. Prestige Mode is also available for all systems, including the PC, which did not have it available in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The experience required from 1-70 (and to the point of being able to go into the Prestige mode) is 2,516,000

Pros
Once the player enters Prestige Mode for the first time in Modern Warfare 2, they will be rewarded with a sixth custom class slot. The same occurs at every odd prestige level, so a total of five additional custom class slots can be unlocked by Prestige Level 9. In addition, any earned titles and emblems obtained before entering Prestige Mode are not lost. Players also unlock some Prestige Challenges to level up faster and get some new Callsigns. There are also certain Callsigns that can only be unlocked through Prestige Mode. The challenges unlocked through Prestige for each gun persist to the next Prestige level (the kills and headshots for each gun's Mastery and Veteran challenges do not reset). This exception also applies to the challenges in the Prestige category that deal with killstreaks (getting a certain number of kills with a specific killstreak reward).

Cons
If a player enters Prestige Mode in Modern Warfare 2, every unlocked weapon, killstreak, perk and challenge will be reset. (Prestige challenges, which are unlocked at 1st prestige, are not reset and will be collective across all prestiges.)

Unlocks

 * Prestige 1: Extra Custom Class Slot (6 Total, custom slots become available at Level 4), New Emblem, New Title, "Prestige" Tier of Challenges, including Veteran and Master challenges for each weapon
 * Prestige 2: New Emblem, New Title
 * Prestige 3: Extra Custom Class Slot (7 Total), New Emblem, New Title
 * Prestige 4: New Emblem, New Title
 * Prestige 5: Extra Custom Class Slot (8 Total), New Emblem, New Title
 * Prestige 6: New Emblem, New Title
 * Prestige 7: Extra Custom Class Slot (9 Total), New Emblem, New Title
 * Prestige 8: New Emblem, New Title
 * Prestige 9: Extra Custom Class Slot (10 Total), New Emblem, New Title
 * Prestige 10: New Emblem, New Title 10

Prestige Mode
When the "Prestige Mode" button is clicked, a message comes up saying:

"Trade all your accomplishments for a bit of prestige. Other players will see your new prestige rank in the lobby, leader boards and game."

After this message the player can select "Learn More" or cancel and return to the menus. After clicking "Learn More", a second warning pops up saying:

"Prestige has a price: Everything you've unlocked including weapons, experience and challenges will be reset; you'll have to rank up again to reacquire them. Only your leader board rankings, clan tag, and play lists will be unaffected."

Should the player still be determined to go to Prestige Mode, one final warning pops up saying:

"There's no going back..."

Should the player then hit "Enter Prestige", the decision is final and Prestige Mode is activated. In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a Desert Eagle shot is heard to confirm it. In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, when the player enters this message, a claymore will tick. if the player decides to press Cancel, they will hear a chicken clucking. If they continue, the claymore will blow up.

Trivia

 * Most players choose to prestige in order to get ahead of others or to show experience or skill.
 * The Prestige symbol of your nemesis will not be present in the After Battle Report of Call of Duty: World at War. Instead, their standard rank symbol is shown in its place.
 * The Collectors Edition of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is entitled the "Prestige Edition".
 * On the official Call of Duty website, Call of Duty: World at War's Prestige symbols show up differently on some pages (an image of these newer symbols can be found above).
 * On the Wii version of Call of Duty: World at War, the fifth Prestige icon is different from the other consoles.
 * When prestiging your challenges get reset but that can be a good thing as you can get challenges XP. Also, with prestige challenges, like Master or Veteran, you can get near it, prestige again, and when you unlock the weapon, get a kill and reap the rewards.
 * In Modern Warfare 2 (As of January 2010), most of the 10th prestigers have hacked or boosted to an extreme point to get to where they are now. Despite their infractions, Infinity Ward have not handed out level-resets (Getting your level set back to 1, non-prestige, due to cheating.) 10th prestigers can also be seen in Call of Duty Modern Warfare Reflex and is commonly used to identify a hacker since for most players it is impossible to get to 10th prestige in just a few months. However, some players have actually managed to play to 10th Prestige, level 70, legitimately - it is very difficult for them to prove this while in an online game, and many people regard them as hackers anyway.