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Extreme barrage of incendiary gunfire, explosives, and airstrikes is a staple of the Call of Duty franchise, and what best way of creating this havoc and chaos other than activating Killstreaks? This guide serves as an alma mater for you to learn all about Killstreaks in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
We start from the basics, covering what a killstreak is, how you can earn and activate one, and provide an in-depth description of all 19 killstreaks available in Modern Warfare 2 at launch.
Now Read: MW2 (2022) Perks List – which perks are in Modern Warfare 2?
What are Killstreaks?
Killstreaks are the ultimate rewards you get for attaining, well as the name implies, a streak of skills. The game remunerates skilled players for getting multiple kills in a row without dying with various perks. The perks awarded range from heavy artillery, firepower, explosive nukes, and UAV drones to turning yourself into a tank.
Modern Warfare allows you to equip three killstreaks separately from your loadout before the start of each match. Choosing feasible killstreaks, depending on your play style and comfort level, is important, considering the high cost of activating them. It would be best if you experimented with each to understand their viability in specific maps and situations.
All 19 killstreaks available in Modern Warfare too at the time of launch are given below. Their cost and effects are also described in the subsequent columns.
| Killstreak | Score | Kills | Effect |
| UAV | 500 | 4 | A recon ship that reveals enemy locations as a dot on the minimap |
| Bomb Drone | 500 | 4 | A remote-controlled drone with a C4 charge attached to it |
| Counter UAV | 625 | 5 | A drone that scrambles all enemy minimaps. Has a limited range for larger maps |
| Cluster Mine | 625 | 5 | Allow you to launch a cluster of smaller mines within a specific vicinity |
| Care Package | 625 | 5 | Throws a random killstreak care package to your location |
| Precision Airstrike | 750 | 6 | Call in twin jets for a precision strike |
| Cruise Missile | 750 | 6 | Allows you to control a long-range cruise missile |
| Mortar Strike | 750 | 6 | releases mortar attacks on a location |
| Sentry Gun | 875 | 7 | Automated turret that scans and fires at nearby enemies |
| S.A.E. | 875 | 7 | Call three jets to release aerial explosives onto specified targets |
| VTOL Jet | 1000 | 8 | Releases a pair of precision bombs before circling back and guarding a location of the player’s choice |
| Overwatch Helo | 1000 | 8 | An escort help ping nearby enemies and guard your location |
| Wheelson-HS | 1000 | 8 | Remote-controlled amphibious vehicle, with auto sentry capabilities |
| Stealth Bomber | 1250 | 10 | Call in a bomber that releases a large line of explosives along its path |
| Chopper Gunner | 1250 | 10 | Control an assault chopper armed with a turret and air-to-land missiles |
| Emergency Airdrop | 1250 | 10 | Call in four random killstreak care packages to your location |
| Gunship | 1500 | 12 | A chopper that allows you unleash tracking missiles and two cannons to decimate your enemies |
| Advanced UAV | 1500 | 12 | An orbital UAV that can’t be shot down and reveals the enemy’s direction on the minimap in real-time |
| Juggernaut | 1875 | 15 | A gear that gives you great HP at the expense of speed |
Now Read:- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – Best Killstreaks
How to Earn a Killstreak in Modern Warfare 2
The simplest way of activating a killstreak is to get a designated number of kills without dying. This kill threshold ranges from 4 to 15 kills for the initial 19 killstreaks available at launch. While stacking these kills gets progressively more challenging as you rank up, it incentivizes players to play rather tactfully and not rush in like a maniac for underlying rewards.
Getting kills is not the only way to acquire a streak reward. You can also use the method of attaining these rewards by racking up your score instead, aptly named Scorestreaks. On top of just getting kills, the score is also earned via completing objectives and earning assists. It is recommended to switch to scorestreaks in the objective-based mode.
You can use the bottom-left toggle in the Killstreak menu to switch back and forth between the killstreaks and the scorestreaks.
All Modern Warfare 2 Killstreaks
Now that you know about all 19 killstreaks in Modern Warfare 2, let’s delve in a little more to discuss them in detail:
UAV
Summons a UAV recon ship on the map that periodically scans the enemies and pings their location on the minimap. However, the recon ship can be shot down by the enemies. It is not necessary for everyone on the team to equip it but you can chain multiple UAV killstreaks to be constantly aware of enemy locations, giving you continuous pings of enemy locations.
Bomb Drone
Calls upon a drone with a C4 charge that can be manually controlled. The drone is pretty tanky that takes a lot of damage to be destroyed, so you can drop C4 amidst a group of enemies to get a few kills, especially around tight corners and choke points.
However, manually steering the drone takes you out of the action, for the time being, so be extra careful where you choose to deploy the drone.
Counter UAV
Deploys a stationary drone in the air that scrambles the enemy minimap in a certain radius making it challenging for the enemies to navigate. What makes Counter UAV particularly strong is its ability to hard counter the Advanced UAV of the enemies which cannot be shot down otherwise.
Cluster Mine
A device that is used to launch a cluster of mines within a particular area. The area of effect of Cluster Mine is extremely limited and their damage is rather inadequate to kill enemies. It takes at least two mines explosions to kill an enemy at full HP. Furthermore, the mines can be destroyed via grenades, rendering them useless.
Care Package
Calls upon a chopper to deliver a crate to a marked area containing a completely random kill streak. Although it’s based on RNG, most of the time you get a killstreak a few levels above or below the Care Package. It also wastes a lot of time as you have to move to a safer location to attain the package. But if you end up pulling a Juggernaut, you can demolish enemies at such a low cost.
Precision Airstrike
Summons twinjets for a precision strike along a path. It packs a punch due to heavy artillery raining down from the skies, but you need a clear line-of-sight on the enemies to make it work. It takes some time for the jets to show up, so use the Precision Airstrike whenever you have a clear vision of enemies clumped together and camping.
Cruise Missile
Summons a manually-piloted missile from the sky to destroy the enemies. It has quite a long range and explosive power with boost capabilities. However, summoning and controlling the missile puts you out of the action for a bit, making you a sitting duck.
Mortar Strike
Multiple waves of mortars are signaled to attack the marked location. Just like Precision Airstrike, you need a line-of-sign of the area where you want the mortars to drop. Once deployed, mortars keep dropping for a short amount of time causing small explosions.
Sentry Gun
Summons an automatic turret scanning enemies in the nearby area and firing incendiary rounds on the scanned enemies. It will ignore enemies if they have the Cold-Blooded perk. Furthermore, it can also be hacked via the Spotter perk or destroyed with grenades. In addition to that, you have to run down to the frontlines to drop one down for effective use.
S.A.E.
Trio jets summoned in to drop aerial explosives onto the specified targets. It is essentially the Precision Airstrike but with three cascading areas of effect explosives. You are not manually controlling the jets, you merely mark the three targets in line and wait for the incendiary shells to drop.
VTOL Jet
Summons a jet that releases a pair of precision bombs to nuke one area and then circles back to guard another area of the player’s choice. This is not the tankiest jet out there as it only takes three or four rockets to take it down.
Overwatch Helo
It calls upon a Helo that watches over your location. You can call it a better VTOL Jet as it pings the locations of enemies on the minimap and kills them with a machine gun rather than a single nuke. This Helo is also pretty debilitated as it also goes down with merely three to four rockets.
Wheelson-HS
Deploys a remote-controlled mini-vehicle that acts as an auto-sentry and shoots enemies down insanely fast. It is mobile and can rack up kills for you in an instant, especially on larger maps, where it can patrol an entire area killing bots and enemies.
Stealth Bomber
Calls upon a bomber jet absolutely nuking everything in its path with a line of explosives. The explosions are pretty drastic with a large area of effect. However, the killstreak itself isn’t better than S.A.E. since you can nuke three different areas with the S.A.E.
Chopper Gunner
This killstreak summons an assault chopper that you can manually control as a turret. You see enemies as red dots on the ground and obliterate them with a machine gun or missiles. It lasts a while and takes a couple of rocket shots to be taken down. Perhaps the most fun killstreak out of all 19.
Emergency Airdrop
Works just like the Care Package but calls in three random killstreak drops instead of 1. You essentially get three random coin flips with completely RNG-based air packages. But frankly, there’s no need to equip it when Chopper Gunner is too overpowered at this stage.
Gunship
A chopper that allows you to unleash tracking missiles and two cannons to decimate your enemies. It is the beefiest assault vehicle that takes six rockets to be brought down. You can cycle through a cannon or machine gun for extra fun.
Advanced UAV
This is an orbital UAV that reveals the enemy’s locations. It can’t be shot down, and instead of merely pinging enemy locations, it shows the enemies moving around in real-time on the map. But as described earlier, it gets hard-countered via Counter UAV.
Juggernaut
Deploys a care package that drops the Juggernaut assault gear containing a minigun and hyper armor. The hyper armor gives you the HP of 10 people, but you can still be killed through grenade spams and sniper headshots. Once you die, the enemies can pick up the dropped minigun. This is the highest level killstreak with significant risk and reward.
Final Thoughts
There you have it, folks, all the killstreaks in Modern Warfare 2 explained in detail. A fine piece of advice for novices is to initially utilize UAV, Counter UAV, and Precision Airstrike. You can consistently activate them every round if you know how to play tactfully. Tell us in the comments which Killstreaks you are most eager to utilize in the game.
