War Zone missions in Marvel’s Avengers are great opportunities to earn experience. If you know where to look, they can also be great places to earn lots of gear. Scattered across every map are a number of question mark icons that signify chests filled to the brim with currency, upgrading materials, and gear. Find them is the easy part, getting them can be a bit more complicated.

Over time you’ll learn to recognize the different types of puzzles and locks keep you away from the prizes, but if you’re stumped on any of the many types of Strongholds, Hero Gates, and Locked Doors, this guide will help you look in the right direction.

Strongholds

Strongholds are A.I.M. facilities found throughout the exterior portions of War Zone missions. These towers contain one or more chest and often require solving a simple puzzle to enter. The puzzles come in 6 types:

  • Step on a button Step on 4 buttons quickly Shoot a button Shoot 4 buttons quickly Punch a button Punch 4 buttons quickly

If the puzzle is a single button that needs to be stepped on, punched, or shot, it may be harder to find or hidden behind some destructible environment. You’ll find out if the button was the only button or the first of four as soon as you trigger it because it will either turn green and the door will open or it will turn blue.

For buttons you step on, look on the ground all around the stronghold. You may have to destroy some boxes to find them. If you’re with a team, spread out. This is generally the same with buttons you punch, but those buttons can be found on the tower as well along a 2nd-floor catwalk. For buttons you shoot, look for a skinny tower with multiple platforms on the side of the Stronghold. If you see a tower it’s almost always buttons that require hits from ranged attacks. Start by climbing to the top of the tower and shooting the highest button, then work your way down level by level shooting each button as you go.

Often Strongholds will have an additional Hero Gate that can only be accessed if you have a specific hero on your team

Hero Gates

Hero Gates are doors that can only be opened by certain heroes. If you’ve played the campaign you’ve already seen one type of Hero Gate: Destructible walls. Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and Thor all have the ability to break destructible walls with a charged heavy attack. Additionally, Iron Man can break destructible walls in the Hulkbuster. If you see a cracked wall with a spider-web effect on it, use a heavy attack.

The other type of Hero Gate is access terminals. Black Widow and Iron Man can hack these terminals to open doors. The other characters will only see “access denied displayed on the terminal”

Captain America can not open either type of Hero Gate.

Bot teammates will not open these gates for you if you are playing single player, so if you find a Hero Gate that your character can’t open, you have no choice but to just skip it. Don’t worry though, there’s still plenty of loot to find.

Locked Doors

Once you get inside the A.I.M. facilities and begin the second encounter of most War Zones you’ll often find more locked doors with similar, but more complicated solutions. There are 3 types of locked doors you can find:

  • Punch 4 buttons quickly Stand on 4 buttons quickly Shoot 4 buttons quickly

For the buttons you have to punch, they may require you to hit them in a certain order. If you punch a button and it turns red, find another button to punch and come back to it. If it turns blue, move on to the next and punch all 4. They should each turn blue until you punch the 4th one, which will turn green and unlock the door. Many if not all of the buttons will be hidden behind destructible objects.

The buttons to stand on our underneath vents. You’ll have to use a ranged attack to break the vent before you can stand on it.

For the buttons you shoot, look for vents near the ceiling with fans spinning behind them. Shoot through the fan to reveal the button. The vents are often at weird angles and, depending on your character, you’ll have to find the right angle to shoot from to hit the switch. Hulk can have a really hard time with these, so it’s best left for Iron Man or Widow if possible.

If you’re ever struggling to find a button, your tactical vision will sometimes reveal them. It’s a bit finicky, but spam the button while you move around until you find what you’re looking for.  Hero Gates are also common within the bowels of these A.I.M labs.

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