The material around Call of Duty has grown large enough that knowing what exists is half the question.

Short answer

Treat it as supplementary. Enjoyable on its own, and richer if you have played first.

Licensed soundtracks are the most likely part to be missing from a re-release. Fan work is frequently better than official work and is not the same thing. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional.

What exists officially

Official art books contain material that never appears in the game itself. Canon status is decided by the developers rather than by the adaptation's writers. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. Adaptations take liberties, and the interesting ones take them deliberately.

Assets circulated online are often ripped rather than released, which affects what you can legally do with them. Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. Release order and chronological order are different, and both have their advocates.

Whether it is worth your time

Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work.

  • Look for an official assets page before downloading anything.
  • Play first if you mind spoilers — adaptations rarely respect them.
  • Prefer the in-game option over an external tool when both exist.
  • Credit fan artists if you reuse their work.
  • Check whether something is official before treating it as canon.

What is fan-made

None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over.

Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice.

Where it fits with the game

If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it.

There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you. Everything below is framed around the current state of Call of Duty rather than a launch-week impression. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over.

Where to find it legitimately

A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows. Call of Duty is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look.

Where people go wrong

  • Treating a rare edge case as the normal behaviour and planning around it.
  • Skipping the prerequisite because it looked optional in someone else's summary.
  • Downloading a helper tool for something the game already does in its own menu.

Call of Duty FAQ

What if none of this works for me?

Then something in your setup differs from the assumption — version, region or platform. Check those three before anything else.

Do I need any mods or third-party tools for this?

No. Everything described here works with the base game on any supported platform.

Why do other guides describe this differently?

Most were written for an earlier version and never revisited. Compare the steps against what your build actually shows.

Is it canon?

Where the developers have said so, yes. Adaptations produced under licence are frequently their own continuity.

Bookmark it if you like, but honestly, once you have done it once you will not need to come back.