The 2026 Booze Run: Bottom of the Barrel DMZ Guide

It’s 2026 and somehow, against all odds and a half-dozen Warzone iterations, operators are still trudging through the gloom of the Koschei Complex for this one. The Bottom of the Barrel faction mission for Crown refuses to die, like a cockroach in a nuclear winter. New guns have come and gone, the meta has shifted more times than a politician’s promises, but the three-step dance of trading booze, punching in numbers, and grabbing dusty documents remains a rite of passage—and a headache. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably hit the point where you’re willing to dive into those irradiated tunnels just to get that sweet, sweet 10,000 XP and the Crown Sigel emblem. Buckle up, buttercup. It’s time for another trip through the barrel.

Here’s the deal in a nutshell: the mission tasks every would-be secret agent with three objectives. First, trade a bottle of liquor to a sketchy Shopkeeper for a keycode. Then, use that code on a keypad at the Alpha Cluster entrance. Finally, snag the research documents from the unlocked room and extract without getting sent back to the lobby. Piece of cake? Sure, if the cake is made of concrete and guarded by sentry turrets.

Trading The Shopkeeper A Bottle Of Liquor For The Keycode

Before you even think about getting your boots dirty in Koschei, do yourself a solid and snag a bottle of liquor topside in Al Mazrah. The Shopkeeper, that enigmatic boozehound in the Factory Admin section, won’t even give you the time of day without his favorite tipple. Search fridges—and not just any fridges. Restaurants and the distillery near Sariff Bay have a much higher chance of dishing out the good stuff. Regular kitchen fridges might work, but you’ll likely end up with six bottles of water and a carrot before you find a single whiskey. Don’t be that operator who infils without the booze and then has to beg teammates or, worse, exfil empty-handed. That’s bottom-of-the-barrel thinking.

Liquor in hand, you’re ready to hit one of the four Al Mazrah bunker entrances and drop into the Complex. Once inside, follow the glowing red arrows—the devs mercifully left these breadcrumbs—and make your way to the Chemical Treatment Plant. This part of the trek should feel familiar if you’ve ever done the Bedrock mission. Patience is a virtue, especially when navigating pitch-black corridors and the occasional AI with impeccable aim.

Once you’re in the plant, the real game begins: you need to access the locked Factory Admin area on the north side. If you’re the first squad to arrive (lucky you), you’ll need one of the two Factory Admin Keys. One always spawns in an air duct on the plant’s outskirts—look for the vent that looks slightly less foreboding than the others. The second key drops from an Al Qatala soldier milling about. Pop the poor guy, grab the key, then head to the A/1 or A/2 blast doors. Mind the sentry turret waiting to turn you into Swiss cheese. After that warm welcome, skedaddle east into Factory Admin. The Shopkeeper hangs out there like a grumpy bartender who’s seen too many operators and not enough tips.

Interact with the Shopkeeper’s Dead Drop—basically a glorified dumpster that doubles as his office—and deposit the liquor. A document will pop out like a receipt from a dodgy gas station. This is your keycode, baby. The first objective gets crossed off, and the Shopkeeper probably nods in approval before going back to whatever mysterious characters do in dimly lit underground bunkers.

Entering The Code Into The Locked Room Keypad In The Alpha Cluster Entrance

Now you’re holding a three-digit code, which feels about as secure as writing your PIN on your forehead. Time to hustle to the Alpha Cluster entrance. Specifically, you’re looking for a locked room just beyond the C/1 blast door. Of course, “just beyond” in Koschei-ese means you might need to power a fusebox with jumper cables and a car battery to actually open that door. Hope you brought a battery, or you’ll be scrounging like a raccoon in a recycling bin.

Once the door opens, locate the cubby on the left-hand side. You can’t miss it—it has a keypad that screams “secret room here.” Punch in the three digits from the Shopkeeper’s note. The door clicks open and the second objective is history. If you mess up the code… well, you probably should’ve stayed in Al Mazrah playing with water bottles.

Extracting The Research Documents

The final stretch. Inside the now-unlocked room, look to your left. A cart sits there with a stack of Russian Gas Research Documents that have apparently been waiting for years just for you. Loot them and do a little victory shuffle, but don’t celebrate too loudly—there’s still the small matter of extraction. The nearest exfil points lurk either in the Alpha Cluster itself or back in the Chemical Treatment Plant. Pick your poison and get out. The Koschei darkness isn’t known for throwing goodbye parties.

Successful extraction wraps up the mission and nets you that Crown Sigel emblem plus a fat stack of XP. Not a bad haul for an errand that basically amounts to being an interdimensional liquor delivery guy. Sure, in 2026, some things never change—like the DMZ’s ability to make you crawl through hell for a bottle and a few documents. But hey, that’s why we keep coming back, isn’t it? That, and the inability to let a Tier 3 mission stay incomplete. See you in the barrel, operator.