Notes in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 are the campaign's hidden paper trail: recipes, letters, intel reports, and coded hints tucked into drawers, bunkers, and train cars across three missions. One mission holds the overwhelming majority of them, another can permanently lock you out of a note with a single wrong conversation choice, and the third closes things out with a quick pair you could easily sprint past. This guide maps every single location, spells out every keypad code, and flags every missable moment so nothing gets left behind.
How many notes are there in Modern Warfare 4?
Sixty-four notes total, split unevenly across three campaign missions. The table below shows exactly where your time goes.
| Mission | Note count | Tied achievement |
|---|---|---|
| Following Orders (Mission 3) | 4 | No Stone Unturned |
| Stranded (Mission 10) | 58 | Noteworthy (50 needed) |
| Escape | 2 | None |
No Stone Unturned requires all four Following Orders notes plus four contraband items from the same level. Noteworthy unlocks once your Stranded counter reaches 50, meaning the remaining 8 notes in that mission exist as a safety net for anything you walk past.
All Stranded notes by area
Stranded is an open map, so sweeping one region at a time beats chasing scattered pins across the whole thing. All coordinates below are written as map X, Y.
Base Camp and Radio Tower
| Note | Coordinates | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Snow Ghillie Suit Repair Note | 646, 156 | Desk left of Base Camp entrance |
| Silenced Sniper Repair Note | 646, 156 | Same desk |
| Grenade Launcher Info | 646, 156 | Same desk |
| Tactical Gloves Info Note | 646, 156 | Same desk |
| Tactical Boot Info | 646, 156 | Same desk |
| Base Camp Keypad Note | 644, 158 | Container door right of the radio tower |
| Radio Tower Note | 644, 158 | Second landing of the tower |
| Top of Radio Tower Note | 644, 158 | Tower summit |
| Cliff Near Base Camp Note | 646, 149 | In front of the container |
Five notes sharing one desk inside Base Camp makes this the most efficient cluster on the entire map. To reach the Radio Tower notes, scale to the first landing, cross to the adjacent platform, and work up the red and white ledges to the second landing. Push further to the summit for the final tower note and a yellow supply crate. From that height, parachuting southeast toward the smuggler buildings saves significant travel time.
Smuggler buildings, Water Treatment, and the south
| Note | Coordinates | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Smuggler House Note | 653, 162 | Blue and grey building, white double doors |
| Cargo Container Note | 652, 163 | Smaller shed, through the orange door |
| Water Treatment Note | 640, 166 | Inside, left turn, corner with supplies |
| Sewers Note | 639, 164 | Opposite the ladder leading down |
| Sewer Smuggler Remains Note | 639, 165 | Far end of the sewer maze |
| Under Bridge Note | 643, 165 | Directly beneath the bridge |
| Top of Southern Monument Note | 638, 179 | Summit reached by climbing ledges |
| Southwest Village Note | 651, 179 | Search around the coordinates |
| Imninban (Social Police) Report | 654, 183 | Search around the coordinates |
The Water Treatment building appears on your map as a question mark. The Southern Monument climb follows on-screen grab prompts up the ledges. Once you reach the top, look northeast to locate the bridge sheltering the Under Bridge Note, then parachute straight down to it.
Southeast village, train, and bunker objective
| Note | Coordinates | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| South East Village Keypad | 668, 183 | In front of the container |
| Train Boxcar Note | 668, 187 | Rear train car |
| Work Camp Escapee Journal | 667, 187 | Front train car |
| Provision | 659, 206 | Desk on the right as you enter the bunker |
| Mutiny | 653, 208 | Top of destroyed stairs, room right of entrance |
| Discipline | 658, 208 | Same position as Mutiny |
| Traitors | 657, 204 | Available after the bunker objective finishes |
Mutiny and Discipline are time-sensitive. Both sit above the broken staircase in the room to the right of the bunker entrance, and both are only reachable while the objective is active. Shove the yellow cart under the gap in the stairs, climb up, and grab them before the sequence moves on.
Jamming Station and the northeast
| Note | Coordinates | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Jamming Station Entry Room Note | 672, 119 | First building, during the objective |
| Jamming Station Locker Room Note | 671, 119 | Locker room |
| Jamming Station Main Room Note | 673, 118 | Helipad area, during the objective |
| Jamming Station Quarters Note | 679, 123 | Soldier's quarters, during the objective |
| Cliffside Dead Soldier Note | 670, 120 | Beside the dead soldier |
| Exiled in Snow | 666, 126 | Near the storage container |
| South of Jamming Station Keypad Note | 666, 125 | In front of the storage container |
| Ne Statue Note | 660, 127 | Search around the coordinates |
| North East Outpost | 657, 118 | Clear the outpost first |
| Cultural Traitor | 653, 131 | Inside the house |
| Bombed House Note | 651, 135 | Drop in through the roof |
Big Sign, Farm Field, and the river
| Note | Coordinates | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Shed Near Hub Note | 637, 135 | Inside the destroyed shed |
| Big Sign Smuggling Note | 636, 137 | Right of the entrance gate |
| Big Sign Patrol Note | 634, 136 | Side of the shipping container |
| Big Sign Keypad Note | 634, 136 | Front of the shipping container |
| Farm Field Hidden Bunker Note 1 | 631, 127 | Resting on top of the keypad |
| Farm Field Hidden Bunker Note 2 | 631, 127 | Inside the bunker after entering code 0330 |
| River Shed Note | 626, 146 | Inside the guard house |
River islands and outposts
| Note | Coordinates | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Small Island Keypad Note | 618, 132 | On top of the shipping container |
| Helipad Outpost Note | 617, 142 | Clear the outpost |
| Elevator Controls Note | 615, 141 | Left from the elevator, after clearing the outpost |
| Island Hidden Bunker Note | 615, 169 | Mounted on the wall beside the locked bunker |
| NW Bunker Note | 615, 169 | Desk inside the bunker, code 0008 |
The Island Hidden Bunker is positioned on the far riverbank from Infantry Checkpoint 1. A note fixed to its exterior wall explains the door code logic: it comes from the numbers assigned to the infantry checkpoints running along the river. A yellow supply crate sits inside next to the desk note.
SAM Site and the northwest
| Note | Coordinates | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| SAM Site Note About Helipad | 610, 125 | Above the yellow storage crate |
| SAM Site Note About Bunkers | 608, 125 | Next to the statue |
| Change of Plans | 598, 124 | Blue garage at the SAM site |
| Farmer's Note | 609, 114 | Right next to the paddy |
| Booby-Trapped Store Note | 606, 114 | Store on top of the hill |
| Northwest Abandoned House Note | 606, 137 | On the desk |
| Family Affair | 606, 136 | Hallway desk |
What are the Stranded keypad codes?
Three locations in Stranded require codes. Each has a nearby note that hints at the answer, but the table below saves you the puzzle-solving time.
| Lock location | Code | How the hint works |
|---|---|---|
| Base Camp container | 0024 | The hint sequence increases by six with each number |
| Farm Field Hidden Bunker | 0330 | The hint note is placed directly on top of the keypad |
| Northwest island bunker | 0008 | Calculated from the infantry checkpoint numbers along the river |
Notes from yellow supply crates
Two Stranded notes have no fixed map pin. They surface after you've cracked at least three yellow supply crates anywhere on the map. Supply Crates Weapon Inventory tends to appear at Infantry Checkpoint 1, in the corner crate inside the guardhouse. Supply Crates Equipment Inventory shows up at Logistics Station 200, through the left door of the green three-door garage.
Stranded holds 26 yellow supply crates in total. Opening every last one earns the Time to Crate achievement, which runs separately from Noteworthy rather than counting toward it.
All Following Orders notes locations
Following Orders is the third mission and the first place notes appear. All four are hidden inside the houses you search during the level, and one of them requires you to handle a specific conversation correctly or lose it for the entire run.
| Note | Location |
|---|---|
| Baekseolgi-Tteok Recipe | Kitchen of the first house, near the wife during the interrogation |
| Note from your friend | Red cabinet safe, opened with code 214 |
| A Note from your Neighbor | Bedroom closet, behind the second set of sliding doors in the next house |
| Note From Mom | Hidden chamber beneath the kitchen floor |
The Baekseolgi-Tteok Recipe tells you to leave out the salt, which removes 5 from the possible digits. That reasoning leads directly to code 214 for the red cabinet safe. Inside you'll find the Note from your friend alongside a medicine contraband item, both of which count toward No Stone Unturned.
How to get Note From Mom without locking yourself out
This note is the only one in the game that a dialogue choice can make permanently unavailable. The steps below are the only path that works.
- Once you have the neighbor's note, go through the living room doors into the bedroom on your right and open the cabinet to find a key.
- Bring the key to the locked kitchen door. A woman is hiding in a chamber cut into the floor below.
- Select "Please come outside with me." She will push back. Follow up with "No, we're going outside."
- After she leaves, drop into the chamber and crouch to pick up the note she left behind.
All Escape notes locations
Escape contains just two notes and neither requires any puzzle-solving, but both are easy to sprint past during a tense sequence.
- Confiscation Protocol Reminder: After taking down the first guard, move down the hallway and go through the first door on your left. The note is on the desk inside that room.
- Updated Code: An enemy soldier is working in a nearby office. Stay out of his line of sight until he receives a phone call and exits the room, then collect the note he leaves on the desk. It contains the updated code needed to proceed.
How do you check your notes count?
The on-screen counter updates in real time each time you pick up a note within a mission. In Following Orders, No Stone Unturned triggers once you hold all four notes and all four contraband items at the same time. In Stranded, Noteworthy fires the moment the counter reaches 50.
For everything else the campaign and multiplayer have to offer, the full Modern Warfare 4 strategy guides collection has you covered. If you're building toward other completionist goals, the MW4 mastery camos guide covers every unlock across multiplayer, DMZ, and Warzone, and the beta perks breakdown is worth reading before you finalize your loadout.
