Spoiler warning: this guide reveals how Hired Gun ends. It is the fourth of sixteen missions in the Modern Warfare 4 campaign, so if you have not played it yet, stop here.
No, you cannot spare Phillip Graves in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. At the end of Hired Gun, the game gives you a timed prompt to fire. Shoot and Price kills Graves. Wait and Graves grabs the gun and kills Price, which fails the mission and sends you back to the last checkpoint.
So the prompt looks like a choice, but only one result moves the story forward. Below we cover where it comes up, exactly what each option does, why you should be careful on YOLO difficulty, and whether Graves turns up again.
Where the Graves Prompt Comes Up
Hired Gun returns to Captain Price’s side of the story. Price helps Valeria smuggle a package in return for access to the Archer, and Graves, the Shadow Company commander from Modern Warfare II (2022), is hunting that package.
The mission runs from a trainyard through a warehouse, a shipping yard and a maintenance building. Its final objective is to take down Graves’s helicopter with a grenade launcher. After that, Price stands over a wounded Graves, and the prompt appears: fire, using R2 on PlayStation or RT on Xbox. You have a few seconds to respond.
What Each Option Does
| What you do | What happens | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Press fire | Price shoots Graves in the head | Hired Gun ends and the campaign moves on to Losing Ground |
| Hold fire | Graves grabs the gun and shoots Price | Mission failed, reload from the checkpoint just before the standoff |
There is no third option. Holding fire does not open a different cutscene, a truce or an alternate route through the story. It is simply a death screen, and the checkpoint puts you right back in front of the same prompt.
That makes this different from the prompts that do change something small. Our guide to whether you can save Cho goes through the campaign’s other choices, and none of them leads to a different ending.
Be Careful on YOLO Difficulty
Hesitating here costs almost nothing on most difficulties, because the checkpoint is right there. YOLO is the exception. Any death on that difficulty sends you back to the first mission, Mayhem, and that includes dying because you waited at this prompt.
If you want to see what holding fire looks like, do it on a lower difficulty. Fire straight away on a YOLO run.
Can You Try Both Outcomes?
Yes. Finished missions stay in the campaign’s mission select, so you can replay Hired Gun and let the prompt run out whenever you like. Since the failed outcome reloads the checkpoint, you can also see it the first time through and then fire on the second attempt.
Nothing is locked out by trying it, and nothing is gained either. Our trophy list has no trophy for holding fire on Graves. The one trophy tied to this mission is Bullet Train, for 50 kills while standing on train cars.
What You Get for Finishing Hired Gun
Completing the mission unlocks the Dallas Base Operator, a Shadow Company member, for Multiplayer and DMZ, according to Activision’s Operators post. Because only firing completes the mission, that is one more reason there is no real decision here. Our guide to unlocking Operators lists the rest, and our campaign length guide has every mission in order with its reward.
Does Graves Come Back?
Not in this story. Laswell confirms his death at the start of Traffic, the next mission on Price’s side of the campaign.
He does not return as a playable character at launch either. Graves is not on Activision’s launch list of Operators, even though it includes other Shadow Company members, and its Season 1 Battle Pass post does not name him. That is as of November 8, 2026, and a later season could always add him. Every guide we publish for the game lands on our Call of Duty hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you spare Graves in Modern Warfare 4? No. If you do not fire at the prompt in Hired Gun, Graves grabs the gun and kills Price, and the mission fails.
What happens if you don’t shoot Graves? Graves takes the gun and shoots Price. You get a mission failure and reload from the checkpoint just before the standoff.
Does killing Graves change the ending? No. Firing is the only way to finish Hired Gun, so every player reaches the same point in the story.
What button shoots Graves? Your fire button: R2 on PlayStation or RT on Xbox.
What happens if you wait at the Graves prompt on YOLO difficulty? Price dies, and on YOLO any death sends you back to the first mission, Mayhem. Fire straight away on a YOLO run.
Can you replay Hired Gun? Yes. Finished missions stay in the campaign’s mission select.
What does Hired Gun unlock? The Dallas Base Operator for Multiplayer and DMZ, according to Activision.