How to unlock the Rival-9 in MW3

Currently, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer is being dominated by the assault rifle class, which has six incredibly strong new weapons in it. While the submachine gun class is far weaker, there are a couple of standouts in MW3, including the Rival-9.

The Rival-9 is the current meta SMG amongst professional players and it’s most likely the SMG you’re going to be killed by a majority of the time. You won’t see it nearly as much as some of the assault rifles, but it still appears in the killfeed pretty often. If you’re looking to use the Rival-9, you might have discovered that it’s locked for you in the SMG category of your loadout menu.

Today, I’m going to explain why the Rival-9 is locked and all of the ways you can unlock the SMG in MW3.

Unlocking the Rival-9 in MW3

The Rival-9 cannot be unlocked by simply leveling up your character in MW3. Even if you reach the max level of 55, you won’t have the Rival-9 unlocked by default. This is due to the fact the Rival-9 is a part of the Armory Unlock Challenges system, which is unlocked at level 25.

I explained the Armory Unlocks more in-depth in a previous guide, but it basically requires you to complete Daily Challenges to unlock certain content in multiplayer. The Rival-9 is a part of that content, so the primary way to unlock the Rival-9 is through this system. You have to complete three Daily/Bonus Challenges once you activate the Rival-9 in the Armory Unlocks menu.

However, there are also two other ways to unlock the Rival-9 in MW3, which I explain below:

• Successfully exfil with the Rival-9 equipped on your character in a Zombies match.
  • You can find the Rival-9 by killing Zombies, enemy AI, the Mystery Box, Wall Buys, and other loot sources in Zombies. Once you find it, loot the weapon, head to an exfil point, and successfully leave the match. If you manage to do that, the Rival-9 will automatically unlock for you in MW3 multiplayer.
• Use the MW3 Beta weapon blueprint.
  • If you made to a certain level during the MW3 beta, then you already have a weapon blueprint for the Rival-9 in the Gunsmith. You can check this by going to the Rival-9 in the Gunsmith, clicking on its box in the SMG category, and seeing if it’s there. If it is, you can use it immediately and begin leveling it up. However, the base gun will still be locked.

Related: How to unlock the DG-58 in MW3

And there you have it, the three ways you can unlock the Rival-9 in MW3. I recommend going the Zombies route, as you can usually find a weapon you’re looking for pretty quickly, but the Armory Unlocks isn’t a bad way to go either.