Getting a successful Ninja Defuse off is probably one of the most satisfying things a person can do in a Call of Duty 4 Search and Destroy game. Not only does it give you that nice full leet feeling but it absolutely humiliates and demoralizes the opposing team. It isn’t the impossible task that some people make it out to be. The most relevant variables, the skill/blindness of your opponents and plain old luck are out of your hands. There are a few things you can control to get successful Ninja Defuses more often.

First and most importantly is to choose a good camping spot to wait for the plant. Some maps and bomb sites just don’t have enough cover to camp, so if that is the case don’t camp that site. Second is to match your camouflage to the map and place you are camping. The guille suit snipers get is great for maps like Downpour, but I wouldn’t be using it on Chinatown. In that same vein you want to have the smallest weapon possible out when you are camping, a Pistol is much harder to see than someone lugging around a RPD trying to camp. Pistols that aren’t silenced are prefered but not required. because the length of the suppressor sticks out quite a bit. When you actually get camped sit absolutely still still. Aim and stare straight ahead, any motion whatsoever and you will be spotted. Finally you need patience, you probably won’t get a Ninja Defuse on your first try but after the first it gets much easier.

Find a good place to play – Search and Destroy can be a great game, or a terrible one all depending on the rules of the server you are playing on. With no rules 3/4 of the players are dead in the first 10 seconds from nade spam, and with too many rules everyone is stuck playing boring weapons. I look for servers that ban Noobtubes, Grenades and Airstrikes in the first 20 seconds of the game to prevent explosive spam and ban Martyrdom entirely because it just doesn’t work with friendly fire on. I think that anything beyond that is overbearing and takes away a good aspect of the game. You may have different preferences though and given the number of servers out there I am sure you can find one to suit you.

Have a plan – I can’t stress this having a plan enough. This isn’t TDM where you can just run aimlessly around and circles until you get a kill, you need to know exactly what you are doing and where you are going to go the second the match starts.

For example lets say my plan is to rush the enemy early and catch them off guard. This means a need a class tailored to do so, P90+Extreme Condition is a good start. I also need to know what route I am going to take to do this rushing. So on Creek my plan could be to rush over the mountain trial, throw a stun grenade, and flank the enemy from behind. Your play won’t work perfectly every time, so you need to be prepared to improvise when necessary.

Be familiar with the maps – Getting kills in Call of Duty is all about positioning, even more so in Hardcore when it only takes 1-2 bullets to kill. This means knowing what corners to check when you clear a room, and where to hid when you camp the bomb. Being able to strategically jump is also a useful, but not vital skill. This also directly connects back to having a plan and knowing what you are going to do at the beginning of a game.

Beware of Claymores – Because Call of Duty S&D is objective based you get a lot of people, well, defending the objective. This can be done several ways but Claymores are the preferred method because you can just set it and forget it. Hardcore makes it virtually impossible to outrun a Clay after they have been tripped, so you need to concentrate on prevention. One more drastic way to do this is by equipping the Bomb Squad perk. Bomb Squad usually isn’t needed though, simply moving moving slowly through rooms and keeping an eye open instead of strafe jumping everywhere will keep you alive.

Listen – Unlike other game types which are so noisy from the endless fragging you can actually here players when they walk or sprint. The sound of players foosteps gives you valuable information which not even Radar can provide thanks to Silencers and UAV Jammers. Crouching is also the preferred way to travel for this reason, you are move almost as fast as you would walking but with virtually no noise.

I hope these tips were helpful, please respond in the comments if you have any more tips or questions.