The Best Strategies For Ranking Up In Modern Warfare 2

Any "Call of Duty" veteran knows that there's more to the multiplayer experience than just jumping into matches and taking down opponents. Success in "Modern Warfare 2" requires ranking up as quickly as possible. When starting out, players need to rank up to unlock some of the best weapons, equipment, and perks for building solid loadouts. After hitting the max rank at 55, players will still want to keep leveling for the sake of gaining prestige levels, which are worth bragging rights and new cosmetics each season (per The Loadout).

Ranking up isn't easy. Going from one to 55 and then beyond requires earning lots of XP across lots of matches. Some good strategies, however, can speed up the process and help even novice gamers get a jump on the competition.

The important thing for players to remember is that rank is separate from weapon levels. While some strategies for leveling weapons will also help with rank leveling, they mostly rely on scoring kills. Earning rank XP is much more flexible, allowing for more options and more strategies.

However they go about earning XP, players should always look to boost their gains. To do this, they should make good use of XP tokens and XP bonus events.

Gamers will earn several XP tokens for completing the single player campaign and more can be unlocked through the season pass or purchased outright. Simply use one of these tokens before starting a gaming session to increase any XP earned. Just be aware that tokens only work for a set amount of real world time (per The Loadout) so they shouldn't be activated unless there's enough time to take full advantage of them.

Players should also keep up to date on "Modern Warfare 2" news and watch for the announcement of any double XP events. These events rewards a bonus to anyone playing during a certain timeframe, so it's always worth getting in some gaming time when an event is happening.

It's important to remember that, unlike weapon XP, rank XP can be earned for accomplishments other than just killing opponents. As such, it's worthwhile to focus on playing in game modes that allow for other means of earning XP. Specifically, players should go for matches that involve completing objectives to win.

Hardpoint, Headquarters, and Domination are all great options, as a player can net XP by taking and holding locations (per Charlie Intel). Further, the objectives in these game modes will draw in operators, making it easier to find opponents and score kills for even more XP. Another excellent game mode to focus on is Invasion as it pits large teams against each other and also includes bots to fight (per Eurogamer). This makes for lots of kills and bots are less dangerous opponents to face off against.

Finally, it's always a good idea to be a team player and revive downed comrades when possible. This also earns XP and keeps your team in the fight, extending matches to increase the XP gain.

Finally, players should focus on playing the way that they're most comfortable. Experimenting with different weapons and playstyles is best for leveling up various weapons and completing different challenges. When going for rank XP, it's always best for each operator to go with the weapon and tactics that work best for them.

Those that favor run and gun tactics and fights at close range should stick to that, choosing smaller maps and using weapons like the Chimera with the perfect loadout. Meanwhile, long range snipers should go for larger maps and weapons like the Signal 50. Most players will likely want to fall back on medium ranges and the old standby of assault rifles, like the M4.

Whatever consistently works best for a player is what they should go with as they employ the rest of these strategies to rack up the XP and shoot up the ranks.