With the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, a whole new era of the Zombies game mode came with it. This iteration of Zombies has made tons of changes from previous entries, making it better for both veterans and beginners alike.
Among these changes, your loadout is as important as ever. Unlike previous installments, the loadouts change as the game progresses, allowing you to upgrade it to become incredibly overpowered, capable of destroying zombies swiftly. There are multiple things you can do in order to make it harder for zombies to do so much damage to you.
Updated March 28th, 2021 by Johnny Garcia: With Season Two reaching its halfway point, Cold War Zombies has continued to grow into what is one of the best Zombies experiences since Black Ops 3. Firebase Z was introduced near the end of Season One, and Outbreak, an entirely new free-roaming Zombies mode was brought in for Season Two. Soon, a new region and objective will be entering into Outbreak, bringing an entirely new form of Zombies to the forefront. New Perks and Field Upgrades have been added as well, including Tombstone's first appearance since Black Ops 2. More upgrade tiers have added, letting you upgrade your skills to five tiers instead of three. All of this allows for some of the strongest loadouts possible in the series.
15 Pack-A-Punch Early
Pack-A-Punch has been a staple since Der Riese and it's perhaps as important as ever in Cold War's rendition of Zombies. The power of weapons falls off earlier than previous entries, however, the first tier of Pack-A-Punch can counteract this.
You don't want to upgrade your gun fully right away, but you want to get your first tier done as soon as possible. This lets you keep a gun that does a good amount of damage so you don't have to waste valuable Essence trying to get a higher rarity gun early on.
14 Get All Perks As Soon As You Can
In Cold War Zombies, Perks are as powerful as they have ever been. Thanks to being able to upgrade them, Perks allow you to significantly boost up your damage output and survivability. As such, getting all of them is important to do early on.
Since every Perk costs 500 more points than the last, it gets really expensive to load up on all your Perks. This is why it's so important to get that done early. Once you are set up on that front, you can start saving for Pack-A-Punch.
13 Upgrade Weapon Classes To Tier V
With the release of Season Two, every single skill can now be upgraded to a fifth tier. Among the many things you can upgrade are weapons. These give massive damage boosts to every kind of zombie, including boss zombies.
Every single weapon class can be upgraded, allowing you to take any kind of gun you want to higher rounds. Wonder Weapons are included in these skill boosts. As an example, Tier V Pistols will also boost the power of the Ray Gun, allowing for even better pushes for high rounds.
12 Don't Rush Tier Upgrades
Every gun in Cold War Zombies has a rarity that you can upgrade. It does take quite a bit of Salvage to upgrade to the max rarity. As such, it should wait until everything else is set up. The weapon rarity is less important than Pack-A-Punch when it comes to boosting damage.
Armor and survival killstreaks should be sought after first before you go for the weapon rarity upgrades. By the time you get to the higher rounds, you'll have more than enough to upgrade fully by the time it starts to matter.
11 Use Tier V Dead Wire
All Ammo Mods are now upgradable to a fifth tier, and with that Dead Wire has run away with the title of best Ammo Mod. At Tier V, Dead Wire can cause the electricity to spread to many zombies.
Dead Wire Tier V feels like having a Wunderwaffe but on any gun. The cooldown for it isn't even that long either, meaning you can constantly tear through giant hordes of zombies with just one bullet. When paired with Elemental Pop, the triggers seem like they never end making you incredibly overpowered.
10 Use Stims
Stims are a Tactical "Grenade" that when used, will instantly start your health regeneration and cause it to recover quicker. Not only are these good in Multiplayer, but that strength carries over into Zombies.
Going down in Zombies sets you back quite a bit in this installment with the changes to the Points system, so survivability is more important than ever. Stims can get you out of tight spots, and you can still shoot while using one making them even more useful. When mixed with Juggernog, Armor, and Quick Revive, you get tons of survivability to make it near impossible to down.
9 Do Trials
Trials are a returning feature from Black Ops 4, and with Black Ops Cold War, they can give you a big boost to progress in the early rounds. By doing Trials until you get Legendary rewards, you have a chance to get a free Pack-A-Punched gun and even Wonder Weapons like the D.I.E. Shockwave and Raygun.
Not only that, but you can even get free Perks you don't have, allowing you to save a lot of Essence that can instead be used for Pack-A-Punching. The Trials are all easy and worth your time, as they can make your loadout incredible to make early rounds a breeze.
8 Get The Free Wonder Weapon
Each map (except Outbreak) offers an easter egg to get a free Wonder Weapon. This means you don't have to constantly spin the box in order to get them and rely on complete chance. The quests on each map are easy, usually only consisting of a small handful of steps.
The quests on each map are different, but reward you all the same with a free Wonder Weapon. Unfortunately, only one player in a game can obtain the free Wonder Weapon. While this isn't a problem in Solo, can lead to debate as to who gets it in multiplayer games.
7 Wait To Hit The Box
The Mystery Box has been a staple since World At War, however, in Black Ops Cold War the mechanics have changed. Every gun has a random rarity, with each higher rarity doing more damage.
The Mystery Box will increase the likelihood of getting a higher rarity gun the later in the game it is. As such, you shouldn't be wasting Essence on the Mystery Box until you're deeper in the game. Early game should be spent getting all of your Perks and Pack-A-Punching your guns. The longer you wait, the greater chance you have of getting Wonder Weapon and Killstreaks.
6 Use And Buy Killstreaks
Killstreaks are a new feature to Zombies in Black Ops Cold War, and do incredible amounts of damage. Combat Bows are good for taking out Megatons, the War Machine does a bunch of damage to easily take out multiple zombies, and the Chopper Gunner can save you in a pinch.
They're all good, but the Chopper Gunner gives you an escape plan if you ever get cornered. If you use a Chopper Gunner, you will become fully invincible during it no matter the situation. It's not too expensive either, so late-game it's easy to always have access to them.
5 Prioritize Armor
Armor is new to Black Ops Cold War Zombies, and have instantly become as important as Juggernog is. Armor gives you a lot more survivability, which is the most important part of Zombies. While it's tempting to use Salvage to upgrade your starting weapon and guns, it's more important to get Level 3 Armor instead.
Pack-A-Punch is enough for your gun to do some damage, and as such, Armor upgrades should be on the top of your list of things to do. Having full Armor makes it so it's a lot harder to go down, and it's a low amount of Salvage to repair it should it ever run low.
4 Do The Loot Crate Easter Egg
Another feature on every map would be a simple easter egg you can do in order to trigger an event that rewards you with a Loot Crate. Whether it's shooting balls on Die Maschine or staring at a bunny on Firebase Z, you'll be given a chance to earn some free, easy loot.
All the maps offer the same contents from doing the Loot Crate easter eggs. You are guaranteed to get a free can of Juggernog as well as a random gun of a random rarity, including Wonder Weapons. You'll also be given a random assortment of Salvage and Tactical and Lethal grenades.
3 Buy The Gallo SA12 Wall Buy
The Gallo SA12 is possibly the best gun in the entire game. Not only that, but it's on the Wall to purchase for 2000 Essence and it's a blue rarity (the 3rd best in the game). This means you don't have to spend any regular Salvage upgraded the rarity, and only need 1500 High-Grade Salvage to fully max out its rarity.
The damage output of the Gallo SA12 is incredible and makes for the most damaging bullet weapon in the entire mode. It being a Wall Buy takes out any randomness and gives you a guaranteed powerful gun right off the bat.
2 Use Ring Of Fire
While Aether Shroud gives you a nice escape plan if you ever get cornered, Ring Of Fire makes you devastatingly powerful and capable of flipping through rounds in a matter of minutes. Ring Of Fire when fully upgraded will let you fire without ever having to reload while active, and hurt and slow zombies that enter into the ring.
Its damage boost is incredible and can make even bad weapons look powerful. All high round strategies utilize the Ring Of Fire to get through rounds quickly, camping in various places on the map so you only have to worry about zombies coming from one direction.
1 Start With A Knife
What is perhaps the strangest choice of a Starting Weapon at first glance, the Knife is by far the best weapon to drop-in with. Getting a melee kill gets you the most Essence gain (that and headshots), and the Knife doesn't drop off for a good while.
If you have another weapon, its melee will still utilize the Knife, so you can continue to rack up Essence with it. This is the best way to maximize Essence gain early on and gives you a ton to work with in order to buy your Perks and upgrade your weapons.