This is an extremely tricky map because enemies can be found coming from almost any direction. The fact that most buildings feature two stories make keeping track of enemies very difficult. Getting the high ground on this map may give players more range, but they need to keep their eyes open in all directions and altitudes since there is seldom any solid cover on the higher levels. TheCommando perk or a Tactical Knife can be very useful on this map, as players will frequently be running head-on into enemies. Commando Pro's fall damage resistance can be useful too; on the roofs, sometimes the best way to get out of an enemy's sights (or to get the drop on him) is to drop off a building. Also, falling too far from buildings will cause severe injury or death unless using the Commando Pro perk.

Controlling the high ground will help win a match, though every building has more than one way of reaching the roof. Players can jump across most roofs, to help with the battle.

Although this map is fairly large, close quarter encounters are frequent, especially near buildings that lead to rooftops.

Light automatic weapons are recommended for this map. Because of the prevalence of close quarters combat,assault rifles and submachine guns are preferable. Shotguns, especially the AA-12 for its automatic fire, are also highly effective at sweeping alleyways and clearing rooms. A class with Marathon and/or Lightweight can be very effective in getting around the map quickly, and for surprising enemies.

A good tip for snipers is to not always seek the high ground, but to look for wide open areas where a runner is an easy target, and make sure that the location one is sniping from is either hard to get to or has only one entrance to prevent embarrassing knife deaths. A neat little spot is on the roof next to the building with the stone cover, as the roof is a hard spot to target without one noticing. The only problem with this spot is getting killed from behind, but that is not much of a problem because the TF141 spawn point is on the other side, giving the sniper an advantage when they run outside.

This map features many effective places to place claymores, especially in tight alleyways and corners found in the center of the map. Claymores can be a very effective way to defend flags B and C, and to a lesser extent A, in Domination gametypes. Also in domination, it can be a good tactic to place a C4 pack on B, (when the players team has it captured) and, as it is a high-traffic area, as soon as the player hears that they are losing B, they can detonate the C4 gaining at least 1 kill.

In Domination, a good place to defend A, (Task Force 141 spawn), is behind the flag, players can see a small trench with a small bridge of boards in the middle. Players can sit in here and have an almost complete view of the entrances. When a few people start to get killed, enemies will start taking counter-measures against the player, such as throwing grenades into the trench, or flanking the player. Because of this the player needs to be aware of his surroundings at all times while in the trench, if fighting against a player in the trench, players should make sure take a good look around the A flag, as there may be a player, or a group, waiting to take them out when they get near, or start capturing A. Also with Lightweight and Marathon, if the player decides to attack while on the TF141, a player can run from point A to point C before the enemy captures it and kill everyone with a Semtex. Also, it is possible to capture B from inside the ice cream shop nearby.

If using a Harrier Airstrike, a good place to call it in is the large courtyard (the large area between B and C), it can easily gun people down due to a lack of cover for players, but with buildings adding to it's protection making it hard to shoot down.

First Blood kills can be easily done when spawning as part of the Militia by throwing a grenade up the south road, aiming so it lands near the car at the top.

There is an easy, little-known way to enter the barbershop which can be extremely useful in modes such as Headquarters Pro. If a player climbs onto the roof of the Grifter's Green House (The two-tiered house across from the barber's), they have a clear view of the lone window in the barbershop that faces west. If the player runs toward the window while on the roof of the Green House, they can jump into the window and then into the shop itself. If the player mistimes it and doesn't quite make it inside the window, they will still usually land on the small ledge beneath it, where they can then pull themselves up. If there is an enemy looking out the window at the time, one can eliminate them either by shooting them or using equipment. This is perfect for matches where many players camp inside the barber's, covering the two sets of stairs.

• In Portuguese, Favela means 'slum' or 'ghetto'.

• The shower in one of the rooms was swapped to the other side with the March 30th patch.
• A map, also titled Favela, was cut from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare's Variety Map Pack.
• If the player does an elevator glitch on this map and get under the map and run out towards the sea, they can see an actual overview of a real picture of Rio De Janeiro.
• If the player knifes the leftmost mirror in the barbershop it will kill or injure the player, depending on their current health.
• There is a teddy bear found in a building here.
• In the ice cream shop, there is a shelf with candy on it that has the design of Good and Plenty on it, but instead the packaging reads, 'Sweet and Sexy'.
• When an airstrike is called in at the right angle, the jets will appear to fly through the mountain behind the map.
• The Task Force 141 team use Woodland and Desert character models, rather than the Brazilian models like in the campaign.
• The ice cream shop is named "Pelayo's". This is most likely a reference to Cpt. "Deadly" Pelayo, the Cobra pilot rescued in "Shock and Awe" in Call of Duty 4. Pelayo is also an employee at Infinity Ward, whom Cpt. Deadly was originally named after.
• On the top of the map in the newspaper stands, articles with the headline Call of Duty 2 can be seen. The player can break these open with a bullet or knife, and the papers inside read, "Infinity Ward Times".
• If the player goes into spectator mode he can go up to the statue of Jesus on top of the hill which appears to be made out of blocks. This can also be seen if the player looks at it through a sniper scope.
• If the player has the English version of the game, the tombstones near the bottom left corner of the map are printed in English.
• One of the tombstones says "Pablo Escobar" on it. Escobar was a famous drug lord from Colombia.
• If the player goes by the door on the large building in the back of the map, there is a elevation with some bushes and trees, if the player looks closely there are some bricks laid out that spell REMY. This is more visible form the top of the building. A similar signature can be found in Crash.
• The Favela in Call of Duty looks very similar to the Favela da Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro.
• When a Tactical Nuke is called in on this map it usually starts near the O Cristo Redentor statue and goes slightly higher than the mountain and statue.
• If the player stands still long enough he can hear things in the background such as car horns beeping, a child saying "Daddy", a dog barking, a baby cooing, glass shattering, a door shutting hard, etc.
• Originally, there were going to be airplanes flying above the map occasionally (like in "The Hornet's Nest" andHighrise). This was cut, due to players getting distracted or mistaking it for a UAV.
• Favela is the only multiplayer map set in Brazil to be based on a campaign level, including parts of both "Takedown" and "The Hornet's Nest". Rundown, Quarry, Underpass, and Carnival are not based on campaign levels.
• In the ice cream shop, on the counter, there is a VHS tape with a label written in Arabic which says "Death to the enemy. Al-Asad is the savior of the people. Victory is ours".
• One of the many papers littering the area reads: "InfintyWard.com, seeking a job".
• In an alcove on the gray building above the soccer pitch, there is strange writing along with a red lizard. The writing is in an unknown language.
• From the third floor of the green house, there are three cars in the street. If the player jumps and lands on an unexploded car roof, the car will explode and is highly likely to kill the player.
• On top of the mountain in the background, the famous statue "O Cristo Redentor", meaning "Christ the Redeemer" is seen, conveying this map is based in Rio de Janeiro.
• Originally, it was impossible to shoot through the banana leaves found on both this map (the garden roof) and Underpass but since the patch was made for this situation, it is now possible.
• In free spectate mode, if the player goes all the way up to the mountain with the O Cristo Redentor, the player find that the mountain can be flown through, but the statue is solid and floating behind the mountain.
• On the traffic light there is an arrow. This arrow points to the left and down, which is a street. It was most likely an accident on the developers' part.
• In the Family Guy episode, "April in Quahog", Peter buys the kids an Xbox 360. At the end of the episode, Peter is playing on the Xbox 360, and seems to be struggling with the controls. The camera then cuts to a view of the TV, which reveals that Peter is playing a game of Team Deathmatch on Favela, very badly. In addition, the killcam reveals that Peter (with a gamertag of pgriffin69x) was killed by FOURZEROTWO, also known as Robert Bowling.
• In the movie 'Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief', the character Luke can be seen playing Free-For-All on Favela, using an L86 LSW w/ red dot sight. He is using a PS3 controller but the player menu is that for the Xbox 360.
• The clock in the barber shop does not move.
• In the movie Kickass, in the scene where Hitgirl is introduced, the viewer can see a man playing split-screen on this level with someone else. One of them seems to be using a F2000.
• If the player looks at the counter in Pelayo's, directly above it there are two Burger Town menus written in English.
• If the player looks inside some of the cars in the level, they will not have any seats. There will only be news papers with Arabic writing in them.
• Among the background noise, it is possible to hear a small child crying.
• If using the UFO cheat, and you go to the "O Christo Redentor" statue, you can actually see that it is very blocky, probably because it was never intended for people to go there, just for scenery purposes.