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How do I get Gold Bars and Gold Skulls in DMZ?

Applies to
Modern Warfare 4 (2026) DMZ on Hajin, Season 1. Not the 2022 DMZ on Al Mazrah.
Last checked
Nov 8, 2026
How sure
Drop rates come from one community sample of 566 safes taken before Season 1, so treat them as rough. Safe locations and the Stash upgrade costs match across several guides. The Bank upgrade costs are unconfirmed.

Short answer

Crack safes, starting with the military compounds. In one community sample taken before Season 1, about 1 in 18 safes held a Gold Bar and about 1 in 57 a Gold Skull. You also get one Gold Bar for your first Silent Ledger clear and two from page 24 of DMZ Orders. Keep five of each for the Stash upgrades before you sell any.

Gold comes from safes

Gold Bars and Gold Skulls are Ultra items, the game's top rarity. In COD Central's sample of 566 safes (Oct 20 to Nov 3, before Season 1), 32 held a Gold Bar (about 1 in 18) and 10 held a Gold Skull (about 1 in 57), so Skulls are roughly a third as common as Bars. Every piece of gold in that sample came out of a safe.

Safes in military compounds did a little better: gold about 1 in 11 times, against about 1 in 16 everywhere else. COD Central says that gap is small and could be luck. Loot rerolls every match, so any safe can come up empty.

Where the safes are

  • Military compounds. Every compound has one. Per gggamer: Bravo in the watchtower office, Charlie in the office, Delta in a corner of the tent, Foxtrot in the office with the radio. Echo, in Hajin River Heights, has more than one, but guides disagree on where: gggamer says the underground garage and the apartment rooftop, COD Central says the underground parking and the sandbag tent.
  • Cheonwang Peak Array. Three safes, including one upstairs in the DBN building with the two radio towers (DMZMap).
  • Wolves Stadium. A lot of COD Central's gold turned up here, though it says there weren't enough safes in the sample to call it a sure thing.
  • Bank vaults. There are five banks, and their vaults need keys and codes. The Hanex Bank Vault takes a battery, an access card and a 4-digit code.
  • Locked rooms from ops. The Counting Room Vault in the Heavenly Luck Casino (key from Silent Ledger), the Reactor Locker (key from Fallen Ember) and the Supreme Leader's Bunker (access card from Iron Citadel) are locked loot rooms. COD Central says vault safes roll for gold like any other safe.

A good run: hit the compounds you pass, then Cheonwang Peak, and open a bank vault when you're carrying its key.

Three Gold Bars you can count on

  • Operation Silent Ledger: one Gold Bar the first time you finish it.
  • DMZ Orders, page 24: two Gold Bars, plus $20,000 and an Advanced SERE Kit.

What gold is for

  • Stash Weapon Upgrade III: 5 Gold Bars.
  • Stash Item Upgrade IV: 5 Gold Skulls.
  • Selling: $25,000 each at the FOB.
  • Bank Upgrades X to XII: COD Central lists 10 Gold Bars for X, 10 Gold Skulls for XI, and 20 of each plus 3 Irradiated Containers for XII. It took those numbers from community trackers and hasn't unlocked the upgrades itself, so treat them as unconfirmed.

No guide ties gold to Prestige.

Keep or sell?

Keep five Gold Bars and five Gold Skulls for the Stash upgrades, and sell only what's past that. Skulls especially: at about 1 in 57 safes, replacing five can take hundreds of safes. Selling early is fine if you're short on cash and nowhere near those upgrades.

Get it home

Gold only counts once you extract. Put it in a Secure slot: what's in a backpack's Secure slots survives a failed exfil. Exfil sites draw ambushes, so don't relax on the way out.

Sources

More DMZ tutorials