Alexis Kestler
Hey friend! If you‘ve been enjoying Call of Duty‘s new Warzone 2.0 DMZ mode, you may have heard about a certain key that unlocks some very useful loot. I‘m talking about the Canal Apartment 103 key located west of Al Mazrah City. As someone who has spent countless hours mastering DMZ‘s open-world sandbox gameplay, I can guide you step-by-step through acquiring this must-have key for your inventory.
In this complete walkthrough, we‘ll cover:
- What Makes DMZ Different from Traditional Warzone
- An Overview of Al Mazrah‘s POIs and Setpieces
- Locating the Exact Canal Apartment Building
- Fighting Through the Enemy Guards
- Navigating Inside to Apartment 103
- Alternative Sources for the Key
- Safely Extracting with Your New Valuable
- Recommended Loadouts and Strategies
- Unlocking the True Potential of DMZ Gameplay
Let‘s get into it!
What Makes DMZ Stand Out from Standard Warzone
For those who might be less familiar, DMZ represents a major shift from the traditional battle royale format we‘re used to in Warzone. Instead of a last team standing competition, DMZ focuses on completing faction missions, raiding strongholds, and securing valuable contraband during each match.
The biggest innovation is the persistent inventory system. Anything you extract in one match is retained for future matches. This creates a highly engaging risk/reward loop as you decide how to equip your operator. The introduction of AI enemies also spices up the PvEvP dynamics compared to standard PvP Warzone matches.
Here are some key stats on what makes DMZ unique:
- 8×8 km playable area – Far bigger than Warzone‘s standard map
- PvEvP – Compete and cooperate against enemies controlled by AI and other players
- Inventory System – Extract weapons, equipment, keys, intel, and more to build your arsenal
- Faction Missions – Complete objectives for in-match rewards and inventory unlocks
- Strongholds – Raid loot caches guarded by AI enemies
Overall DMZ offers a fresh take on Warzone centered around open-ended sandbox gameplay. Now let‘s see where our key is located in this expansive world.
Get Your Bearings on the Al Mazrah Map
DMZ takes place across the sprawling and diverse new map of Al Mazrah. It has a really cool blend of urban downtown areas, coastal towns, industrial zones, cave networks, marshlands, and rural farms. From an art and level design perspective, the environments are extremely well-crafted to enable emergent gameplay.
For our purposes finding the Canal Apartment, here are some key points of interest to understand Al Mazrah‘s layout:
Al Mazrah City – The central downtown district with skyscrapers, plazas, shopping areas, and hotels. This is a major hotspot for action.
Al Malik International Airport – Southern area of the map with airplane hangers, control towers, terminals and runways. Great for long range engagements.
Observatory – Huge telescope complex atop a mountain in the northwest region. Gives a great vantage point over the map.
Caves – Large underground cave network running beneath Al Mazrah City. Useful for flanking and avoiding airborne killstreaks.
Marshlands – Swamplands in the northeast with small villages scattered throughout. Close quarters infantry combat.
Canal and Bridges – Manmade canal flowing west from the city center with 3 parallel highway bridges crossing it.
It‘s by these canal bridges where our target Canal Apartment building is located.
Pinpointing the Exact Canal Apartment Location
Now that you‘re oriented to Al Mazrah‘s diverse POIs, let‘s zoom in on the specific area around the canal bridges and locate the exact building we need to access.
The bridges can be easily spotted on the western edge of the downtown Al Mazrah City district. There are 3 identical bridges running north to south crossing over the canal. We want the tall apartment building just west of the center bridge.
Here are some tips for precisely identifying the correct building:
- It‘s the tallest apartment building in the immediate vicinity
- Distinctive blueish window panes reflect sunlight
- Large open courtyard and parking area surround the tower
- The building lies parallel to the canal
- Accessible from ground or roof entry points
I‘d recommend thoroughly scoping out the area from an elevated position first. The observatory to the northwest provides a great oversight of the entire western half of Al Mazrah. Just equip a sniper rifle and scan for the apartment tower‘s unique shape and color palette.
You can also follow the canal itself south then look northwest once you‘re outside the downtown area. This allows you to triangulate the tower‘s position based on the orientation of the bridges.
Either way, with the bridges as your reference, you‘ll be able to pinpoint the exact apartment building. Now to fight your way inside and reach our objective on the first floor.
Equipping Your Operator to Raid the Tower
Before entering the Canal Apartments, we need to prepare our operator and loadout to deal with the AI enemies guarding the interior.
Based on my own DMZ match experience, I highly recommend equipping the following for this mission:
Primary Weapon – Short range SMG or shotgun. The MP5 and Expedite 12 are great options.
Secondary Weapon – Long range rifle to engage enemies outside or provide overwatch. Kastov-74u or SP-R 208 are solid choices.
Lethal Equipment – C4 for clearing rooms or clusters of enemies.
Tactical Equipment – Stim to quickly heal and move fast between cover positions.
Perks – Double Time for increased crouched movement speed between cover. Tracker to hunt down enemies based on footsteps.
Field Upgrade – Dead Silence to mask your movement noises when navigating the tight hallways.
With this combination of weaponry and perks, you‘ll have versatility for both CQB and long range engagements. The mobility and situational awareness helps counter the overwhelming number of guards.
Now let‘s move in and secure that key!
Fighting Through the Apartment Building Interior
Your infiltration starts by approaching any of the ground floor entrances around the tower exterior. I prefer entering from the parking courtyard through the front lobby.
Right away you‘ll encounter resistance from AI guards in the open central atrium area. Toss a C4 up to the overhead walkways to clear out enemies on the balconies. Use your Stim to rapidly reposition between cover spots.
After neutralizing the atrium hostiles, locate the central stairwell and move up one floor. Turn right once you exit to follow the hallway around to apartments 101-103.
On this level, the apartment interiors themselves provide protection from the external balcony enemies. Bounce between room clearing and re-plating armor as needed. Again rely on your Stim for quick health regeneration.
With the guards along the hallway taken out, you‘ll have a safe window to access the open door of apartment 103 itself. Head inside to find the key sitting on a table within. Now just one more hurdle before extraction.
Alternative Sources to Acquire the Key
Before we cover making your getaway, it‘s worth noting there are some other potential methods to obtain the Canal Apartment 103 key besides going directly to the room itself. These include:
- Looting eliminated high value target (HVT) enemies
- Completing certain faction missions
- Finding the key inside contraband caches scattered around the map
However, directly infiltrating the tower is the only guaranteed way to grab the key in a given match. The other sources come down to chance. You could get lucky on an enemy drop or cache, but apartmemt 103 is a sure thing.
Now let‘s get you and this hot commodity safely out of the hotzone!
Escaping the Area with Your Loot
You‘ve made it in, gotten the goods, now it‘s time to exfil swiftly and cautiously. I recommend two possible approaches depending on your style:
Rooftop Extraction – Clear stairs up to roof, call in chopper pickup from elevated position away from ground enemies.
Street Level Extraction – Fight way out of front lobby, use smoke grenades to obscure enemies‘ line of sight as you escape west down side streets.
The rooftop option is lower risk since you gain separation from the bulk of forces outside. Quickly clear the top floor and relay chopper coordinates from the northwest rooftop corner.
If opting to extract at ground level, toss smoke grenades to provide cover as you sprint west away from the canal. Serpentine between parked cars while triggering your extraction flare.
Either way, with your key securely acquired, navigating this extraction completes the mission!
Unlocking the True Potential of DMZ Gameplay
Now that you‘ve gotten a firsthand walkthrough of raiding Canal Apartments 103, you can start to appreciate the massive potential of DMZ‘s open-ended structure. Each match offers new challenges to overcome and rewards to unlock.
Keys in particular are a game-changer since they provide persistent access to unique weapon blueprints, cosmetic items, and intel you can‘t find anywhere else. Given the Canal Apartment 103 key provides access to top tier contraband, it should definitely be a priority target.
Some additional tips to get the most out of DMZ matches:
- Experiment with different loadout combinations to find your playstyle
- Focus fire with teammates to rapidly clear strongholds
- Learn the AI behavior patterns to ambush effectively
- Complete missions for faction unlocks and supply drops
- Extract often to build up your inventory over time
DMZ represents a bold new direction for Call of Duty multiplayer. Let me know if you have any other questions! Now get out there and start unlocking Al Mazrah‘s secrets.
