High Explosive

High Explosive is a Special Ops mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It takes place in the Favela of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, from Takedown. The basic objective is to kill ten Juggernauts using only the weapons given to you at the start of the level.

The Infinity Ward best time for this level is 2:47.7, although players with a good tactic can achieve speed runs with times approaching 1:30:00, if not lower.

Overview
The players start near a destroyed car and an ammo crate. They have one Thumper with twenty Grenades, one RPG-7 with four rockets, four Flashbang grenades and fragmentation grenade and ten C4 and Claymores. They can go in three directions, left, straight on through a small shack or right. The first Juggernaut will be in either of these three directions. There is a pattern as to the number of juggernauts in the area. It is one, one, two, six. However there can only be a maximum of three at a time. This is one of the most difficult missions as it has multiple juggernauts appearing from any direction, and without a Barrett .50 Cal or Intervention, they cannot be taken down quickly and accurately. However, a single shot from a Thumper to the face will instantly kill them.

A recommended strategy doing this solo is to make use of corners, staying near the map start point and pound the juggernauts with your Thumper, since ammo crates can resupply your ammunition. The reload is fast enough to knock them down consecutively. For example, once a juggernaut is moving towards you, backup around a corner give yourself sufficient room to fire the grenade (approximately 30 feet). Repeat firing on him until your "Hostile count" goes down ensuring he died. Wait a moment to ensure a second juggernaut hasn't joined the fray and resupply if needed. If a juggernaut gets around the corner and gets an angle to shoot, run back around a new corner and repeat. Toss flash grenades if damaged or too close.

When multiple juggernauts come avoid getting flanked by running further back into the map tossing flash grenades if necessary. Resupply crates are in the back as well. Once they are all coming around the same corner, use your Thumper as before. Note that a single Thumper round to the face will kill a juggernaut in one hit.

Do not use an RPG or C4 in the midst of battle; The RPG is too slow to aim and reload, although if you know how to reload cancel it, the reload is faster then the Thumper's, making it good to quickly take him down in an alley way by shooting him or the wall and the juggernaut may shoot the C4 as you toss it, exploding in your face. Don't fire the Thumper too close or the grenade will not detonate.

A good solo technique is to use the long white house all the way to the left when you start. Jump through the window facing the ammo crate and set up C4 in front of a claymore at the only door in. Wait in the house until a juggernaut arrives, then use the Thumper to pepper the doorway. If the juggernaut starts coming towards you jump back through the window towards the ammo crate.

As soon as you are outside the AI sends the juggernaut back out the door to walk around to where you are. Immediately jump back in the house and pepper the juggernaut with Thumpers as he comes back towards the door. The juggernaut(s) will always move towards the door if you are inside, or back down the alley towards the window if you jump out.

When three juggernauts are there it becomes difficult to keep them in a bunch, it helps to throw stuns down the alley, to keep them close to the door. If you run short of ammo, the ammo crate is very close. If you become overwhelmed, jump out the window and run all the way around the outside of the map and go back in the house. This method takes about six minutes.

Another good strategy is running to the top right corner of the map to an alleyway. It will start to say "turn back to continue mission", and you will see an indent on the wall to your right. Sit in this indent, and when the juggernauts come close, they will slow down and move really slowly, giving you enough time to keep blasting the wall with Thumper shells.

Co-Op
On co-op, you have the advantage of being able to stay alive even if one player is down. If your partner is downed, do your best to lose the juggernauts in the Favela, and return to your partner to heal him. The downed player can distract the juggernauts with his pistol while you escape. If that is not possible, using a stun grenade may buy you enough time to heal your partner. Friendly fire can be easily avoided if you avoid having both players approach the juggernaut in opposite directions, or single file down a narrow alley (In this case the player in back is better off using grenades).

A co-op strategy for those with great difficulty is to use a house on the rightmost edge of the map (from the perspective of the first area, facing toward the Favela). This house has a backroom with only one entrance. One player can hide behind the entrance while the other stands in front, blocking it. The juggernauts will come in and down the player, but are blocked from reaching the second player. As the downed player is repeatedly revived (both most be close enough in order to be revived, without being exposed to gunfire), he can do some damage with his knife, and if he has time, the Thumper may be reloaded. This takes a long time (approximately 12 minutes on Veteran), but if all else fails this may be the only option left to get the last few stars.

Another good spot is the starting point itself. The rusted pick-up truck can be used to provide cover for the one player by going prone on the cargo area/bed, who will be the medic. Though the medic is partially exposed, he will be safe as long as he is stationary. The other player should be in front of the medic. Otherwise, he will risk him to gunfire. The killer may be downed, but the medic will be blocked by the "wall" structure of the cargo area. The AI is programmed to keep shooting if they still see even a very small exposed body part of the player, so they don't turn around anymore. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the medic should repeatedly revive the killer. Ammo shouldn't be a problem, as an ammo crate is a few meters of walking (or crawling) from the rusted pick-up truck.

A tip for when you get knocked down in co-op, is that you can use your body to block Juggernauts from moving forward. You can't die when knocked down unless your Bleed Out time ends. You act as a wall to the Juggernauts, letting your buddy who can still walk around, get some cheap shots in, or allow him to run away to catch a breath. If you get ambushed by one from in front of them and they manage to knock you down, instead of going to your buddy if he's behind you, try to keep the Juggernaut from moving forward so he can't chase your buddy. It's the best you can do if you're knocked down.

When playing with a second player, some of the common causes of death are friendly fire and breaking aggro. By using flashbangs wisely, a player can take on an individual juggernaut with impunity. However, when being chased by two or more juggernauts, players should aim to keep the juggernauts in the same place so that they don't get surprised as they move through the narrow alleys. Try to keep one person with flashbangs to cover a move, take a shot at the juggernauts and repeat the drill.

A trick/glitch that was found out playing, is to have one player in the house to the left (When your back is to the wall) and have the other player go to the green car, and (With your back against the wall) crouch and move forward into the right door, the frame should be sticking out a bit and when you've done this correctly, you shouldn't be able to stand up without backing up a tiny bit, you will technically be invisible to the juggernauts as they will come towards this player's general direction, but then stop and stand static. The player in the house will serve as the decoy and WILL be downed, he/she will lure the juggernauts into the house and try to do as much damage as he/she can to them before he/she is downed. The other player, while crouched under the frame of the door, will then kill the juggernauts with the thumper, this player MUST stay stationary at ALL times while facing the juggernauts, it is best to go for headshots as they will take them down with one shot. Whenever the current juggernauts are dead, revive your teammate and repeat. The player behind the car should make sure he DOES NOT get flanked.

Videos
A very easy method for beating this mission on Solo and Veteran in just two or three minutes is demonstrated in the videos below:

400px|High Explosive -- Veteran, Solo -- Easy Guide

Speed Run
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