Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is now available across all platforms and as ever, the Zombies mode is proving pretty popular.
Whilst we’re all familiar with the various modes available in Call of Duty games, there’s a lot of new systems and surprises to get your head around in Black Ops 4.
We’ve compiled a list of the most-asked questions and answers about the Zombies mode, to help you unlock the mysteries, so you can focus on getting good.
You can find outhow to complete the Voyage of Despair and Mad Hatter easter eggs here. For everything else, check out our Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 guide.
Black Ops 4 Zombies Single Player
In the Black Ops 4 Zombies mode, you can play by yourself or with AI bots filling in for absent teammates. This makes Zombies a little easier if you’d rather play by yourself as you probably won’t die in the first round this time.
Black Ops 4 Zombie private matches
To play a private Zombie match, invite your friends over for 4-player splitscreen co-op, to play online or play with the bots. Switch it to Classic mode and it should switch to “private” under the playlist selection instead of “solo”. Call of Duty Black Ops 4 also supports 2-player splitscreen for Multiplayer mode.
Brazen Bull shield IX Zombies
The Brazen Bull shield is a much sought-after item in the IX Zombies map, but first, you need to find the location of all the missing pieces to craft it. The pieces spawn in the same areas each time, though their location within that area can differ, so take this as a rough guide on where to find them.
The Temple of Ra
The first Brazen Bull piece can be found in the Temple of Ra. To reach the temple, head to the right from your initial spawn point and go up the staircase to enter the temple’s main room. There are three potential spots where the piece can be found:
- Off to the right of the staircase
- To the left of the staircase, in the corner
- On the wall with the Egyptian mural
With the first part in hand, head back down the staircase and keep following the path underground to pass a treasure shrine. You’ll then reach a gate you can lower using the points you’ve accumulated in the game. Once through the gate, turn sharply to reach a room with a large, partially buried statue.
Follow the path through the statue room and you’ll reach the second gate. Make your way through into the next section where you’ll find the workbench used to assemble the Brazen Bull.
There is a staircase near the workbench, so climb that and keep to the left to reach the third gate. After passing through, you’ll be in the room where the second piece can be found. Again, there are multiple potential spawn points so check the following locations:
- The corner of the room closest to the gate
- The shield rack at the top of the staircase
- Near a wooden barrel in the main room near Odin’s temple
Once you have the second part, open the gate in Odin’s temple. Then, cross the bridge over to the Temple of Zeus. The third and final piece can be found in Zeus’ temple, again in three potential spots:
- At the feet of a statue in the main temple
- Near a statue with its hand extended, downstairs from the temple
- Near a large mural in the temple’s basement
Crafting the Brazen Bull shield
Once you have all three pieces, return to the workbench to assemble the Brazen Bull shield. There’s a shortcut back to the bench from the basement of the Temple of Zeus. Et voila! You now have the Brazen Bull shield.
Death of Orion
Before you can unlock the Death of Orion, you’ll need to unlock the Pack-a-Punch machine. All you have to do is ring all four gongs, defeat the four champions in each of the God Towers, and place the heads on the spikes in the Temple. Once you’ve done that, you can follow these steps to unlock the Death of Orion weapon.
Build the Acid Trap
It would be a good idea to construct an Acid Trap early on. There are three parts you need to complete the next few challenges, and once you’ve constructed an Acid Trap, it will be unlocked for every Acid Trap location on the map, namely near the entrances of all four God Towers
Once you’ve gathered all the items you need to construct an Acid Trap, interact with a skull switch. The parts you’ll need are:
- Chains, which are found in the underground Temple.
- Gears, also found in the temple
- Metal Pot
The metal pot is the hardest part to collect as you ’ll need to complete three challenges to obtain it. A pot will appear on the centre pedestal once you have done so.
To begin accepting challenges, look for the rolled-up hanging banners in the spawn room. Melee attack the rope holding one of the banners up, and challenges will begin to appear. Complete three of them to get your pot. You’ll also get a reward on the podium in the centre of the spawn arena.
Now that you’ve built your Acid Trap, we can continue. You’ll now need to locate the Scorpion Key.
By now you’ll also have the Pack-a-Punch unlocked, so here’s what you need to do:
Getting the Statue Head
Go to the Danu-Ra Temple Entrance room. There’s a passage blocked by a metal fence with a fire brazier down the hall. Shoot the brazier, and it will fall over.
Go up to the bridge connecting the Danu Tower and the Ra Tower. Look at the ground facing the arena, and you’ll find a burning pointer which is aiming at the tower where the statue head has spawned.
The pointer aims at one of the four towers. On all towers, the statue head will spawn in the room below the entrance:
- In Ra Tower: Behind one of the corner fire braziers.
- In Danu Tower: In the water
- In Odin Tower: Under the massive cauldron.
- In Zeus Tower: In one of the corners of the blood bath.
The Scorpion Key is acquired from the Statue Head. You’ll now need to construct the Acid Trap at any of the trap locations on the map.
Place the Statue Head on any Acid Trap grating after constructing the trap. Once the Statue Head is placed on the grating, activate the Acid Trap to melt the head. The head will melt, revealing the Scorpion key.
The last item you need is the Gold Vase. To get the Gold Vase, you’ll need to gain Crowd Affinity twice in a row and it will spawn as a reward. A special message will signal that the Gold Vase has dropped somewhere in the spawn arena.
How to gain Crowd Affinity
At the bottom-left of your HUD, there is a symbol that represents Crowd Affinity. You’re basically looking to make the crowd cheer louder and louder each time. When green sparks fly from the symbol, you’ll have Crowd Affinity.
You’ll need to complete challenges then melee rewards on the Challenge Podium as opposed to picking them up. For some reason, that’s what the crowd wants, and you’ll gain Crowd Affinity quite quickly.
When you hear the special message, look around the ground in the spawn arena to collect the gold vase. You’re now able to find the Death of Orion.
Go to the Arboretum, the lower section in the Tower of Danu. On the second tree between the stairs and the entrance, there is a tiny hole. Melee the hole to insert the Scorpion key, interact with it to place the Gold Vase inside. Acid will fill the Vase, so wait a turn and pick it back up.
Head to the Mystery Box and use the acid on it. When the box turns green and a prompt appears, use it and the Death of Orion will spawn.
If you use Pack-a-Punch with the Death of Orion, you can create Serket’s Kiss, which is a more powerful version of the weapon. You’re welcome.
IX arena challenges
IX has a series of challenges for those expert Zombie killers among us. To succeed in the challenges, it would be useful to have a sound knowledge of the map, as well as have the previously mentioned items unlocked.
To activate a challenge. you’ll need to cut one of the multiple ropes located at the outer wall of the arena. Once doing so, three tasks will appear on the left-hand side of your HUD. For each one you complete, you’ll be rewarded with something in the central podium.
Danu’s Challenge
Head to the Arena and trigger Challenges by cutting these ropes on the outside walls. Finish three of them and a bowl will spawn. Take this and the Pack-a-Punch pistol that drops.
Next, lure an axe-wielding Gladiator Zombie to throw its weapon at a pyre in the centre of the stage. A wooden plank will break off and you can pick it up.
Go to the Odin Tower Cauldron and drop the wood in there. You’ll need to wait for two or three rounds before anything happens. While you’re waiting, head back to the Arena and have at least one member of your team score some negative affinity by running through the flames around the outside.
Once your meter is a red thumbs-down, the crowd will start throwing things at you, including poop. Run through it while holding the interact button to pick that shit up (haha).
Once you’ve got poop in your inventory, go to the Pack-a-Punch temple and look for a special skull with a marking on its head. The skull will spawn in one of these locations:
- Under any of the gold markings on the wall.
- On a stone pillar closer to the centre.
- On the wall near the stairs.
The skull is always in this general area, it will just move around the room each time. When you see it, equip your Specialist Weapon and it should fall to the ground, so you can pick it up.
You now need to find a skull grinder, which can be found in the Flooded Crypt or very close nearby.
Put the skull in the grinder and shoot it with a charged Death of Orion shot at least three times. The electricity will make the grinder crush the skull into a gloopy mess.
Take the poop, skull gloop and wood to a large bowl in Zeus’ Bath House. Interact with it to mix all the ingredients together. You’ll know the mixture is done brewing when the bowl starts to smoke.
Go to the Danu Tower Arboretum and place the offering on the ground. Wait for two or three rounds until you see green smoke. We’d recommend at this point that you upgrade your special weapons and Pack-a-Punch your Death of Orion into Serket’s Kiss. It would be useful to have a Pack-a-Punch weapon with the Firebomb upgrade, too!
Once the offering is smoking, try to land a Firebomb kill on top of it. The energy will infuse over time and when it’s ready. stand on the goo and interact with it to be teleported. You might need to pull out your special weapon for the teleportation to trigger.
The screen will go white, and you’ll arrive at an unnamed location. There are red hive-like things on the wall and you’ll need to shoot them until they burst while avoiding lots of Zombies. Once a Max Ammo spawns, grab it and sprint up to the top of the stairs. There are more hives at the top of the stairs so keep shooting and climbing until you reach the end, and that completes Danu’s challenge
Ra’s Challenge
For Ra’s challenge, you’ll need to find four bull-head icons. There are few locations where the icons can spawn, and again they may differ in position each time:
- In the Arena. above the gate.
- On the bridge heading toward Zeus’ Temple.
- By the hanging leaves at the Odin-Zeus Temple entrance.
- In the Pit.
- In the Ra Tower Burial Chamber.
- Danu Tunnel.
- Flooded Crypt.
- Behind the barrier in the Danu Altar Room.
When you find a bull, use the Brazen Bull’s ranged fire attack to light it up. A high-level Zombie will appear after you do this so be prepared. You’ll need to find at least four souls.
Once you have four souls, the Ra statue will shoot a beam at the obelisk ahead. At this point, you’ll be locked in Ra’s Temple.
When you interact with the obelisk, it will briefly show four symbols that correspond to special Zombie types. Read the symbols from bottom to top and kill special Zombies in the order shown. The r/CODZombies bot has a page showing the images and their translation to make this easier.
A HUD message will appear to guide you through this. You can kill regular Zombies at any time, but special ones must be dispatched in the displayed order. Kill the four designated Zombies, return to the obelisk and repeat to complete Ra’s challenge
Zeus’ Challenge
For this challenge, you’re looking for four hook-like screws that you can raise up to the surface by shooting at them. They can be found somewhere in the following locations:
- The Cursed Room.
- Danu Tunnel.
- The Collapsed Tunnel.
- Odin Tunnel.
Go to the central platform in the Arena and you’ll find that the symbols there are illuminated. Once your squad is all together, interact with it simultaneously.
Once you spawn in, go to the nearby Pack-a-Punch and keep trying until you get the Kilowatt upgrade. When you have it, go back to the Arena and kill Zombies inside the electric circles with Kilowatt and the rods will fill up with souls. The electricity will dissipate when you’re done with each of the circles.
Complete that task, and the central pillar will have four electric balls on it. Assign one podium to each player and interact with balls until they start glowing red. If you have fewer than four players, you’ll need to work quickly to get all four to turn.
You’ll be teleported to a challenge for a few minutes where you must survive in an arena which can turn frantic very quickly. Survive this to complete Zeus’ Challenge.
Odin’s Challenge
For this challenge, you’ll need to electrify three groups of three symbols using your Death of Orion or, preferably, Serket’s Kiss. Shoot the symbols to illuminate them. You’ll know you’ve done it right when the symbols stay lit. The symbols can be found in the Danu Tunnel, The Crypts and The Pit.
Once you hear a voice mention something about a water main break. Go to The Pit to trigger the final challenge. If it doesn’t work, your symbols aren’t properly lit.
A wave of Zombies will appear, so if you haven’t used a Pack-a-punch to get Serket’s Kiss, do it now. When you’ve conquered this wave, go to the grate that’s now filling up with water to grab the key. You must kill every Zombie if you want to leave the area and complete the challenge.
The Boss Fight
Before starting this fight, refresh your Elixirs, get your favourite Perks ready and refill your ammo. This next bit is pretty difficult, so you want to be well prepared.
Approach the orb in the Arena and wipe out the Zombie herd until the boss approaches. Some Max Ammo will drop while you’re taking of the horde, so make use of them.
Youtube user MrRoflWaffles has an excellent video that shows how his squad defeated the last boss, as well as a surprise at the end.
The main boss is a huge elephant. It has a few exposed weak spots, namely its heart and ribcage. Take care of the riders on top of the elephant, though watch out for slam attacks.
Eventually, you’ll knock off the elephant’s armour. A new weak spot will be revealed as a glowing area on its forehead. Throw everything you’ve got at it, and it will soon fall. Unfortunately, another elephant will spawn at that point and you’ll need to do it all over again!
Defeat the second elephant to complete all the challenges in IX Zombies and you’ll be treated to a very special easter egg.
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