How to acquire a Cyphered Tablet in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Zombies

The Cyphered Tablet is one of the stranger items in Modern Warfare 3's new zombies mode, but getting your hands on one is the last step in completing multiple Act One missions. Hands Off, Blasted, Bring Em On, and Nest Wrecker all conclude by telling you to grab this tablet, but they don't tell you the specifics of how to get it.

If you haven't encountered this problem yet, you're likely still working your way through the other missions, and will first have to contend with finding a Mercenary Convoy. But for those already on the hunt for tablets, I'll explain how to get them, and what to do if you manage to miss grabbing one the first time around.

Where to get a Cyphered Tablet in MWZ

There are a number of different missions in MWZ where it's necessary to grab a Cyphered Tablet to complete them, but the quest descriptions don't mention how to get one. What you need to do is complete the previous objective to make the Cyphered Tablet spawn. For example, if you were doing the Hands Off mission that requires ten mercenary kills with a sentry gun, the Cyphered Tablet would spawn on the 10th merc that you killed. They are easy to recognise since they're... well, tablet-shaped, and they're labelled as quest items when you aim at them.

Another example: if you are doing the Bring Em On mission, killing a Special or Elite enemy with Frenzied Guard active would also drop the tablet. 

Now that's all fine and dandy, but what if you die or didn't notice to grab the Cyphered Tablet when you first completed that mission objective? The good news is that you can spawn a second Cyphered Tablet by repeating the previous mission step that would've dropped it—just make sure you have the mission active. 

Cyphered Tablets are a very weird item in that they don't appear in your inventory, so try not to worry as to where it's gone once you've picked it up. Armed with that knowledge, you should have no trouble finishing Act One's tier-five missions.