SegmentNextMaps
Black Ops is where Zombies grew up: a boss who never quite dies, a celebrity cast locked in a bunker, and the first easter egg quests that genuinely needed a guide. Our eleven pages in this section are lopsided in the right way. Nine of them walk Call of the Dead, the snowbound shipwreck map that houses the Original Characters quest, one is a round-by-round plan for Ascension, and one covers the hidden song in Kino der Toten. This guide puts the Call of the Dead quest in step order first, then the buys and the boss that decide how far you get, then the other two maps.
Call of the Dead: the quest in order
The map's story runs through a locked room. The Original Characters, Richthofen and Nikolai among them, are shut inside, and every step of the easter egg comes from listening to them through the door and doing what they ask. The table follows the steps as our pages present them, and notes where a step is only summarised.
| Step | What to do | What it costs or needs | Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Turn on the power | Clear the debris from spawn up through the wrecked ship to the control room at the top and pull the lever | 2,750 points of debris: 750 at the bridge, 1,250 on the ship's stairs, 750 for the last door | Power |
| 2. Find the Fuse | Listen to the characters again once the lights are on, knife the door until the dialogue runs out, take the Fuse from the table beside PhD Flopper and slot it into the terminal right of the door | Nothing; two backup spawn spots in the same room if the table is empty | Fuse |
| 3. Fetch Nikolai's Vodka | Find the bottle in one of four spots, knife it, catch it, and post it through the air tubes left of the bunker door | A partner to catch the bottle helps; a dropped bottle respawns somewhere else | Vodka |
| 4. Disable the MTD security and raise the submarine | Shoot the orbs with explosives, then set the ship's course to the 5 o'clock position and sound the foghorn with the levers | Explosives; this step is summarised on our Golden Rod page rather than given its own | Golden Rod |
| 5. Get the V-R11 | Hit the Mystery Box; the odds jump once the submarine is up and the lighthouse glows green | Luck and points | V-R11 |
| 6. Make a human and kill him in the light | Shoot a zombie inside the lighthouse with the V-R11 and kill the human before he floats to the top of the green beam | The Golden Rod spawns at the foot of the stairwell | Golden Rod |
| 7. Deliver the Rod | Carry it back to the locked room and exhaust the dialogue | Rewards a Wunderwaffe DG-2 and a Lightning Bolt power-up | Golden Rod |
Finishing the quest sends the characters off to Shangri-La with the Vril Device, and our pages tie the Ensemble Cast achievement to it, with Stand-in as the solo equivalent. Holding either changes what George Romero drops, which matters for the section after next. The V-R11 is worth having even before the lighthouse is lit: a human it creates runs for the nearest water and freezes, dragging nearby zombies with him.
The buys that make Call of the Dead work
| Buy | Where | Cost | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stakeout shotgun | Wall buy on the small shack beside the Lighthouse, where Stamin-Up sits, just before Pack-a-Punch | 1,500 points | One-shot body shots before round 15 and headshots to round 20, ammo off the wall, and a Pack-a-Punch upgrade into the ten-round Raid |
| Claymores | Wall buy in the wrecked ship's stern room, beside Double Tap | 1,000 points for two | Cover the Lighthouse entrance and the shore, where blast survivors freeze in the water; hold them back so George does not trip them |
| Perks | Not from machines: every kill on George Romero drops one random perk bottle | Ammo and patience | All seven perks plus an eighth, Deadshot Daiquiri, which drops the scope while firing for easier headshots |
The wall buy for Claymores changes on every map; our Claymores in every map guide lists them for Kino der Toten, Five, Ascension, Call of the Dead and Moon, and notes that they replenish each round.
George Romero
The director wading through the shallows is the map's real boss, and our George Romero page is blunt about the arithmetic: 250,000 health solo, and another 250,000 for each extra player, so a full party faces a million. Killing him only buys peace for the rest of the round and the next one. In return he drops a Death Machine and a random Perk Bottle, or a Wunderwaffe DG-2 and a Lightning Bolt if you hold the Ensemble Cast or Stand-in achievement. Keep him in the water: it slows him and keeps him out of his berserk state. Knifing him two or three times while he stands in the shallows is a safe way to bank points, and four consecutive hits from him will down you.
| His stage light | What it means |
|---|---|
| Flashing orange | Health around 50 to 70 percent |
| Solid orange | Health around 25 to 50 percent |
| Flashing faster, often black | He is about to go down |
| Weapon | Why our page rates it |
|---|---|
| D115 Disassembler (Pack-a-Punched Dragunov) | 10,000 damage per headshot; 25 clean headshots end him solo |
| L115 Isolator | Headshot damage on a par with the Disassembler, with a smaller magazine and slower fire |
| Pack-a-Punched Galil or FAMAS | Five times headshot multiplier |
| RPK, HK21, Scavenger, Death Machine | The high-damage options before you can Pack-a-Punch |
| V-R11 Lazarus | One shot removes him for the round, but he drops nothing; save it for high rounds |
| Mystery Box loop | Lure him to the box, circle it while shooting, and re-roll when a weapon runs dry; unreliable but workable with points banked |
Our perks page adds two more options for the fight, the sickle and PhD Flopper dives, and one piece of etiquette: have a teammate handle the crawlers while you work on George.
Ascension, round by round
Ascension drops you into a Soviet Cosmodrome and, by our Ascension page's reckoning, counts among the gentler Black Ops maps once you respect its tight corridors. The page splits the run into round bands for solo players and for squads of two to four.
| Rounds | Solo plan | Team plan |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 29 | Hold the power room with the gate beside the switch and the gate toward Juggernog both shut, turn on the power, then roll the Mystery Box for a Thundergun and a Ray Gun and lean on the Ray Gun | Same room; one or two players herd while the rest shoot, or station one player at each spawn (the right wall, the stairs on the right, the middle room) |
| 30 to 100 | Cluster zombies and clear them with the Thundergun to save Ray Gun ammo; buy Juggernog, Speed Cola, Stamin-Up and PhD Flopper; Pack-a-Punch early; ignore the Death Machine, which slows you down and cannot be put away | Take turns leaving for Pack-a-Punch and perks, and revive quickly |
| Monkey rounds | Every four or five rounds after your first perk, Space Monkeys attack the machines and delete any perk they destroy; buy every trap and watch Mule Kick and Speed Cola | More players buy more perks, so monkey rounds come more often; split the machines and put experienced players on Mule Kick and Speed Cola |
| 100 and beyond | Stand at Pack-a-Punch facing the Rocket Room, let the zombies spawn, run laps around the metal pillars to bunch them, Thundergun the pile and get back before spawns drift far away | Run the same loop together with at least one PhD Flopper diver, or hold the spawn points as before |
Kino der Toten: the 115 song
Kino der Toten's coverage is a single secret, the hidden metal track that plays once you touch three meteorite fragments. Our Moon Rocks page places them: under the staircase at spawn, aimed at the glass dome behind the sofa; on a small table in the dressing room, backstage and to the right, behind the MP5K wall buy; and in the room with open windows past Double Tap, up the staircase and through a 1,250 point door, on a corner shelf. The third rock starts Elena Siegman's 115. Claymores on this map sit behind the theatre's circuit breaker, the one that powers the map.
Maps at a glance
| Map | Setting | What our pages cover |
|---|---|---|
| Kino der Toten | An abandoned theatre | The 115 song rocks; the Claymore wall buy |
| Five | The Pentagon | The Claymore wall buy in the Science Labs beside the Pack-a-Punch room |
| Ascension | A Soviet Cosmodrome | A full round-by-round plan for solo and teams; Claymores in the lunar lander room |
| Call of the Dead | A frozen shipwreck and lighthouse | The Original Characters quest, George Romero, perks, the Stakeout and Claymores |
| Moon | A lunar base | The Claymore wall buy in the Biodome beside the Mystery Box |
Frequently asked questions
How do I get every perk in Call of the Dead?
By killing George Romero repeatedly. There are no machines to hunt for; each kill drops one random perk bottle, so you keep going until all eight are yours.
Can George be killed for good?
No. A kill removes him for the current round and the next, then he returns. The V-R11 Lazarus does the same in one shot but yields no rewards.
What does the Call of the Dead easter egg give you?
A Wunderwaffe DG-2 and a Lightning Bolt power-up once the Golden Rod is delivered, plus the Ensemble Cast achievement according to our pages, with Stand-in as the solo version.
Where is the Stakeout?
On the wall of the small shack next to the Lighthouse, close to Stamin-Up and just ahead of Pack-a-Punch. It costs 1,500 points and is easy to miss in the snow.