Defcon in Ground War mode in Modern Warfare explained

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s Ground War mode has an interesting forfeit system in place in the cases where a team is unable to stand their ground in the game. 

It’s called “DEFCON.” 

When you see the DEFCON on the top of your screen, it’s combined with a 30 second countdown timer. This activates when one team has captured and holds all 5 flags in Domination. Once all 5 flags are captured by a single team, the DEFCON notice appears on the top of the screen. 

If the enemy team is unable to capture at least one flag within the 30 second countdown of DEFCON, then a tactical nuke goes off and the match ends. 

This works regardless of which team is leading the game at that point. Your team could be down over 100 points in the match, but if you get a good break – and your team secures all five flags for 30 seconds, then your team wins the match – regardless of the score at that point. 

It’s an interesting addition to the Ground War mode, and one of the first times such a forfeit system exists in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

While we were playing, it was a satisfying feeling to get that DEFCON enabled especially when you are down for a majority of the game. 

There could be room for some improvements here – like the timer stopping if a flag is contested  or if the enemy team is on the flag, but right now, the 30 second timer keeps going until a flag is re-secured by the enemy team. 

Keep up to date with our Call of Duty: Modern Warfare launch coverage on our Modern Warfare game page.