MW4 DMZ Free Loadout guide: rebuild after losing your gear

Select a Free Loadout

At the Deploy station, choose your activity and continue to Ready Up, then use Equip Free Loadout. The official guide presents this as a way to enter with basic equipment and grow your Stash; gear brought out successfully is yours to keep.

Before confirming, check the selected Operator and the equipment shown. Keep valuable items you are not using in the Stash. A cheap kit does not make a developed Operator cheap to recover.

Plan a recovery run

Choose one achievable goal: bring back a usable weapon, replace missing equipment, or collect ingredients for a specific craft. Avoid making your recovery depend on a boss kill or an unverified loot spawn.

Your immediate shortage	Preparation
No affordable weapon	Start with Free Loadout and inspect its displayed equipment
No spare healing	Check stored supplies and the Medkit recipe if unlocked
Too little storage	Compare backpack options before carrying an expensive haul
An MIA Operator	Decide on recovery or another Active Duty Operator before deploying

Pick an extraction plan before chasing extra loot. Back at the FOB, reserve the next kit, check what your ingredients can craft, and sell only what you can spare. The keep, sell or craft guide helps with that decision.

Are there hidden penalties?

Players are asking whether Free Loadout reduces XP, but no reliable rule confirming that penalty is established here. Do not read a different match result as proof of a fixed XP reduction.

Also inspect your actual backpack slots rather than assuming the free kit provides Secure Slot protection. The important check is where an item is stored.

What if you spawn with only a knife?

Multiple players have reported missing gear despite enabling Free Loadout. Those reports establish a problem players encountered, not a verified cause or fix. If it happens, record the equipment shown before deployment and what arrived in the match, then use Activision’s bug-reporting page.

A missing Free Loadout is separate from the acknowledged first-Order equipment blocker. If your problem is completing Gear Up at the FOB, use the official Gear Up workaround guide.