Following Orders is one of the most unsettling missions in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign. You play as a North Korean soldier under Commander Ri Ju-Young, moving through a fog-covered village hunting a defector. There is almost no firefighting here. The mission runs on interrogations, dialogue choices, and three decisions that determine whether your character walks away alive. None of the choices cause a mission failure, but two of them combine to set your soldier's fate.
What are all the choices in Following Orders?
The mission has three decision points. The first only affects achievements. The second and third work together to determine the ending.
| Decision | Option | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Interrogating the couple | Contraband questions | Location revealed, no harm done |
| Interrogating the couple | Threaten with weapon | Location revealed, no harm done |
| Interrogating the couple | Shoot non-vital spot | Location revealed, No Harm Done locked out |
| Woman in the hatch | Bring her outside | Final note accessible, survival ending possible |
| Woman in the hatch | Leave her hidden | She is found later, final note lost, soldier hanged |
| The gallows (woman brought out) | Execute the defector | Your soldier survives |
| The gallows (woman brought out) | Refuse the order | Ri shoots you, defector dies anyway |
| The gallows (woman hidden) | Execute the defector | Your soldier is hanged |
Every route ends the same way narratively: the defector dies, Ri orders the village burned, and the campaign continues regardless of what you chose.
First house: how to complete the peaceful interrogation
Sergeant Ko holds the husband in the living room while his wife waits in the kitchen. Before starting any dialogue, search the entire house. Each item you confiscate adds a question you can put to the husband, and you need at least two pieces of contraband to get a peaceful confession.
Here are all six collectibles in the first house:
- Heart medicine (Contraband): Inside the red lockbox in the first room on the right
- NOTE FROM YOUR FRIEND (Note): Also inside the red lockbox
- MP3 player (Contraband): Bathroom wall cabinet near the entrance
- Western novel (Contraband): Upper cabinet in the room left of the kitchen, titled "The Moon and Our Planets"
- BAEKSEOLGI-TTEOK RECIPE (Note): Kitchen, left cupboard
- Extra rations (Contraband): Kitchen cabinet just above the recipe
What is the lockbox code in Following Orders?
The red lockbox in the first room on the right uses the code 214. The clue is hidden in the BAEKSEOLGI-TTEOK RECIPE note in the kitchen. The recipe lists rice flour (2kg), salt (1 tsp), water (1L), and golden raisins (4 packs), then instructs you to use flour first, water second, and raisins third while skipping the salt. That sequence gives you 2-1-4. You can also shoot the latch open if you prefer, though the items inside are identical either way.
How to interrogate without harming anyone
Once all four contraband items are in your inventory, run through the interrogation in this order:
- Approach the wife in the kitchen and select "Please join your husband." Keep your weapon lowered.
- At the follow-up prompt, choose "I will not ask again." She enters the living room unharmed.
- Talk to the husband and ask about the South Korean medicine. You can also question him about the rations, the MP3 player, and the novel.
- Select "Give up the defector. Now." He confesses the defector fled to the abandoned house next door, and No Harm Done unlocks immediately.
Aiming your weapon at either civilian, or bringing the wife to the living room and threatening her there, also counts as harmless and still qualifies for No Harm Done. Shooting either of them in a non-vital spot gets the same answer but permanently locks out the achievement for that run.
Second house: catching the defector
After the interrogation, Ko relays the location to Ri, who orders the defector brought out alive. The house next door has no notes or contraband, so move through the rooms until you reach the bathroom. Blood in the sink confirms the defector passed through. The ambush is scripted: the defector lunges with a knife from whichever room you clear last, you counter, and Ko tackles him. You cannot die in this sequence. The squad drags the defector to the courtyard, and Ri sends you to clear the final house.
Modern Warfare 4 Following Orders Guide: All Choices & Outcomes
Final house: should you hide the woman or bring her outside?
A cellar beneath the kitchen floor tiles is where the mission's final civilian is hiding. Unlike the first house couple, killing this civilian fails the objective outright.
Before interacting with the hatch, collect the two notes in this house:
- Check the cabinet in the room on the left before the living room entrance and read NOTE FROM YOUR NEIGHBOR, which mentions food stored under the kitchen floor.
- Go to the room on the right past the living room entrance and use the TAKE KEY prompt on the cabinet by the window to pick up the spare key.
- In the kitchen, turn off the steaming pot on the stove, then use the key on the locked floor hatch. Forcing it open with Threaten or Strike counts as harm.
- When the woman pleads, select "The defector was found. It's safe to come out." You can also use "No. We're going outside." or the GRAB prompt twice.
- With the hatch open and the woman out, look down into the cellar and read NOTE FROM MOM, a letter addressed to a daughter named Sun-hee. This is the fourth and final note.
Choosing "Okay. Stay hidden." or pressing HIDE WOMAN closes the hatch and locks NOTE FROM MOM away permanently. The woman is discovered by other soldiers later regardless, and hiding her guarantees your soldier is hanged at the mission's end no matter what you do at the gallows.
Should you execute the defector or refuse?
Back in the courtyard, Ko reports every villager is accounted for and Ri demands a hanging. You help tie the noose to a tree limb using the ASSIST prompt. The defector stands on a wooden stool, and you are handed the rope.
- Execute: Your soldier kicks the stool away. If you brought the woman out of the hatch, your character survives the mission. If you hid her, your soldier is hanged instead.
- Refuse: Ri draws her pistol and shoots you. The defector is hanged by the other soldiers anyway. The village burns. The mission still ends and the campaign continues.
Neither the execute nor the refuse option unlocks an additional achievement. The only thing on the line is your soldier's survival.
Modern Warfare 4 Following Orders Guide: All Choices & Outcomes
How to unlock No Stone Unturned and No Harm Done
Both are Silver achievements (50G each on Xbox) and can be earned in a single playthrough of Following Orders.
| Achievement | Requirement | When it unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| No Harm Done | Get the defector's location without injuring civilians | Immediately after the husband names the house next door |
| No Stone Unturned | Confiscate all 4 contraband items and read all 4 notes | When you read NOTE FROM MOM in the cellar |
The game tracks progress in real time. A NOTES FOUND counter appears with each read, so you should see 2/4 when leaving the first house and 4/4 when you look into the cellar. If your count comes up short at the cellar, the first-house lockbox (code 214) and the kitchen and bathroom cabinets are the most commonly missed spots.
Completing the mission rewards a Double XP Token regardless of which choices you made or whether you earned either achievement.
Best path for survival and both achievements
If you want your soldier to survive and collect both Silver achievements in one run, follow this sequence:
- Open the first-house lockbox with code 214 and collect both items inside.
- Grab the MP3 player from the bathroom cabinet, the Western novel from the upper cabinet, the recipe from the kitchen, and the extra rations above it.
- Use the contraband questions on the husband and select "Give up the defector. Now." without threatening or shooting anyone.
- Clear the second house and let the scripted defector capture play out.
- In the final house, collect NOTE FROM YOUR NEIGHBOR and pick up the spare key by the window.
- Unlock the hatch with the key, bring the woman outside peacefully, then read NOTE FROM MOM in the cellar.
- At the gallows, execute the defector.
That path covers No Harm Done, No Stone Unturned, and the survival ending in a single pass. To see the alternate endings, reload the mission through Mission Select and change your decision at the hatch or the gallows.
For everything else the campaign and multiplayer have to offer, the full Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 strategy guides cover modes, maps, perks, and more.
