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How to Find the Warlord and Strauss’s Research in MW3 Zombies?

Bring the war to the Warlord.

The Warlord and Strauss’s Research are both parts of the Tier 3 Mission Storm the Castle in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Zombies campaign. Before you go to the Warlord, you first need to find the destination on the map, complete the Mercenary Camp, and then clear the Mercenary Stronghold.

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Where is the Warlord and Strauss’ Research?

You can find Warlord during the Storm the Castle mission, after clearing the first two chapters. He’s inside a heavily guarded fortress and he’s armed and very dangerous. After you kill Warlord, he’ll drop his weapon and, more important, Strauss’ Research item.

Merc Camp

To access the later part of the Storm the Castle mission, first, you need to complete the Merc Camp and clear the Merc Stronghold. The first part of this mission is heading over to the Merc Camp in the northeast part of the map. To clear the first check, you need to frag every single mercenary.

Upon clearing the Merc Camp, you will get the keycard to the Merc Stronghold. You can also buy the key card for 2,000 points, but in this case, you will get it as a reward for clearing the first part of the mission.

The Merc Stronghold

The Merc Stronghold is a bit more difficult to clear. It is bigger, and there are stronger enemies, including the Riot Shielders. Make sure you have enough utilities to deal with everything inside. Somewhere inside a stronghold, you will find a safe, and you should start drilling it. Be aware that drilling the safe will attract reinforcements, so you will have to deal with them, too. Once you finish breaking the safe, you will find the fortress key card. This item, called Legacy Keycard, is necessary for the next part, so make sure you bring it with you.

The Fortress

To find the Warlord, you need to access the fortress which is on the northwest side of the map (or top left if that’s easier). There are several ways you can enter The Fortress, but before that, you need to deal with the attack helicopter. Once you destroy the helicopter, you need to make your way inside.

This fortress is heavily defended; it has plenty of sentry turrets as well as elite armored enemies. Additionally, there are reinforcement helicopters that will constantly drop melee mercenaries. After clearing the camp, you follow the icon and use the Legacy keycard on the door.

Upon entering, there would be two riot shield guys. You should lure them out in the open and deal with them. After that, you could push your way inside the main building. Just be careful; there are Bouncing Bettys on the floor and various spring traps, so watch your step. There are also inflatable decoys that will release a flash bang once you shoot them, so avoid that.

The Warlord

Warlord is on the top floor of the building in the middle of The Fortress. After clearing the building, you’ll see a door. Behind that door is the Warlord. Warlord is the toughest opponent in the mission, and he is more than equipped to deal with you quickly. His main weapon is the fire shotgun, and he can rip you to shreds with it. Riot Shield guys are also protecting him, and I recommend clearing them out first.

Be very careful when approaching the Warlord because his loadout is very destructive. After you manage to kill Warlord, he will drop Strauss’s Research item so that way you can check two items at once. Sometimes, Warlord doesn’t drop Strauss’ research after the first playthrough, so you might need to go through the mission once again. You will also collect Warlord’s shotgun, the Fire Haymaker.


If you followed these instructions, you should have all four items on the checklist crossed, which concludes this mission. For more related content, you can check out How to Acquire Cyphered Tablet MW3.

Author
Image of Nenad Grujić
Nenad Grujić
My name is Nenad Grujić and I'm a Staff Writer at GameJournalist. I have decades of gaming and media under my belt, and decades of writing experience. I like to call myself "your favorite ace of all trades", although I specialize in writing, education, voice acting, video editing, and media content creation.