Black Ops 7 Zombies
By The Zombies mode makes its comeback in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, featuring the fresh Ashes of the Damned map. The pathways of Ashes of the Damned are perilous, so you’ll require the map’s new Wonder Vehicle to endure. Here we will assist you in repairing and enhancing Ol’ Tessie to enhance the truck’s capabilities. Additionally, we will offer some valuable advice for locating and respawning the vehicle.
Completing the entire upgrade mission necessitates using the map’s exclusive Necrofluid Wonder Weapon, and you’ll want to begin these tasks as quickly as you can. You can consult our guide on how to obtain the Necrofluid Wonder Weapon. There are also components for later stages that you can gather early during your match, so it’s wise to familiarize yourself with the elements needed for Tessie’s turret upgrade before diving in.
Achieving all enhancements for Ol’ Tessie will also unlock the Black Ops 7 trophy/achievement named “I Heard You Like Upgrades.”
Explaining Ashes of the Damned’s Wonder Vehicle
Ol’ Tessie represents the new Wonder Vehicle in Ashes of the Damned. This map lacks a conventional layout and instead presents a vast area with six primary Points of Interest (POIs) connected by treacherous roads.
At the match’s commencement, you are directed to make the first two upgrades to Ol’ Tessie, including the formidable Pack-a-Punch enhancement, but subsequently, the quest markers vanish. There are additional upgrades that the game does not divulge, along with some useful tools and strategies to help you keep your Wonder Vehicle in optimal condition.
It’s critical to remain in motion while driving Ol’ Tessie on the connecting routes. She’s delicate in her initial form, so you want to avoid her breaking down and leaving you stranded. You can mend her using salvage or allow her to regenerate health over time, but it’s quite challenging to accomplish this while staying alive, especially in a solo match.
There are luminous plant pods dispersed across the map’s roads that you should swerve around and evade, as they explode and inflict significant damage to your truck. Ravager enemies may also latch on and cause harm, so do not halt until you reach the next POI, at which point the Ravagers will vanish.
How to completely enhance Ol’ Tessie
T.E.D.D. enhancement
The early quest markers will direct you to the T.E.D.D. part in the spawn area, allowing you to secure your initial upgrade swiftly during your match. Retrieve the component from the Quick Revive room and interact with Ol’ Tessie to install it.
Pack-a-Punch enhancement
After completing the initial upgrade, your quest marker will lead you to Ashwood. You will need to follow your objective markers to activate the power here, enabling access to the garage. This location is where you’ll apply the Pack-a-Punch upgrade along with the additional concealed enhancements discussed below.
It’s also pertinent to note that this Pack-a-Punch enhancement permits you to upgrade your weapons on-the-go. You can even utilize the machine from the truck bed without ever disembarking.
Furthermore, this Pack-a-Punch enhancement provides a boost to the truck, allowing you to escape from those bothersome Ravagers and reach your destination even more rapidly.
Abomination enhancement
The following upgrade will incorporate the monstrous jaws of the Abomination creature from Black Ops 6. To achieve this, you’ll need to travel to Exit 115. A particular zombie known as “The Cook” will appear in or near the diner. Eliminate this zombie and collect the freezer key that it leaves behind.
Enter the diner and utilize the key on the locked freezer. This lets you acquire the Abomination Carcass upgrade. Return the component to the garage in Ashwood to install it using the upgrade bench.
With the Abomination Heads upgrade, you’ll have the capability to use R1/RB to emit beams from the Abomination’s jaws. This will aid in dispatching foes in your path.
Turret enhancement
This final upgrade demands substantial time and effort to gather components, one of which will not be accessible until after round 15. You will require the map’s Necrofluid Gauntlet Wonder Weapon and the previously mentioned Abomination upgrade for Ol’ Tessie to gather serum parts for this segment of the quest.
Ravager Eyes
Obtain Ravager eyes by defeating them with the saw blade trap at Vandorn Farm or Ashwood. You can effectively eliminate them during the special round, and one will drop the Ravager eyes part.
Human Bones
Employ a throwing axe on the limb of the corpse suspended from the barn’s beams. Aim for the first corpse you observe dangling in the center, just above the hay bales.
It will drop the foot section onto the ground. Toss a Molotov cocktail on this item to acquire and gather the Human Bones part.
Widow’s Lantern
Enter the cabin located at Blackwater. Gather the Jar of Spores situated on the shelf directly beneath the kitchen sink. Next, head to Vandorn Farm and engage with the deceased horse positioned on the road right in front of the farm.
You must wait 3 to 4 rounds for the spores to develop on the horse, and afterward, you can harvest them for the Widow’s Lantern fungus part.
Hoard Husk Chunks
Utilize Ol’ Tessie’s Abomination beam attack on the luminescent purple flowers on the pathways. One of them will yield the Hoard Husk Chunks part for collection.
Powder of the Forgotten
Acquire the Wisp Tea perk from Zarya Cosmodrome, and then proceed to the mirror located in the Tailor Shop in Ashwood. Position yourself next to the mirror in the room while Wisp Tea is active, and then shoot the mirror with the Necrofluid Gauntlet. This action will drop the Powder of the Forgotten part.
Mysterious Limb
The final component you will be capable of obtaining necessitates you to defeat a zombie bear using Ol’ Tessie’s Abomination beam attack. These bears do not begin to spawn until after round 15, but take down the bear with the beam to acquire the Mysterious Limb piece.
After you possess all the serum components, you can subsequently merge them in Yuri’s Lab for the latter half of the turret upgrade quest.
Craft serum at Yuri’s Lab
Proceed to Yuri’s Lab in Zarya Cosmodrome. This can be accessed by opening the metal storage room doors directly across from the entrance you utilized for the Support Systems segment of the map, where you instructed Klaus to assist in retrieving the canister for the Necrofluid Gauntlet.
Initially, engage with the bowl containing white powder on the table. This action will generate three lines of characters, each line translating into one of the serum components you’ve gathered. The substances on the table need to be interacted with in the sequence they appear on the board.
Selecting the first character of each line will identify the required component:
> = Human Bones
L = Hoard Husk Chunks
C = Widow’s Lantern
C with a dot = Ravager Eyes
L with dot = Mysterious Limb
You can view my illustration in the image above, which provided me with the L with a dot, C with a dot, and the standard C. This indicated I needed to engage with the Mysterious Limb, Ravager Eye, and Widow’s Lantern mushroom in that specific order.
If executed correctly, red smoke will emerge and you can proceed with the subsequent steps. If black smoke appears, you will need to attempt again in the next round.
If the smoke is red, you can interact with the table to introduce blood into the mixture. This action will initiate a lockdown survival phase. Prepare yourself. This is a challenging location to endure, so ensure you have resources to assist you. Turret lethal equipment, Insta-Kill GobbleGum, armor, and perks.
If you don’t succeed in the lockdown, you can attempt again in the next round. Once you survive, you can continue the quest, which now necessitates collecting keys.
Gather three keys
Three luminous keys are concealed along the pathways between the POIs. Some key locations are slightly out of reach, thus requiring the Necrofluid Gauntlet to assist you in obtaining these. Keys beyond reach can be struck with the Necrofluid Gauntlet, after which you only need to hit reload with the weapon to pull the item down.
Every luminous key needs to be delivered to the diamond-shaped box that’s secured in Ashwood on the western side of the map. This looks just like the peculiar locked item that appeared in the preceding mirror step.
Nightbird key (Red key)
The red key is located in the Orda Graveyard, which you can access by traveling from Ashwood to Exit 115, ensuring you follow the right path. Its red glow can be seen from a distance.
The identified key locations are:
- Inside the dino skull on the hill
- At the rear of the dino skull on the road
- On the road just beyond the diner which leads to a Project Janus vehicle. The key could be situated behind the vehicle
You cannot regenerate health while carrying the red key, so ensure you jump into Ol’ Tessie and make a direct route to Ashwood to deposit it.
Bruin key (Yellow key)
This radiant key is located on the path from Ashwood to Zarya Cosmodrome.
The identified key appearances are:
- Atop the collapsed radio tower that looms over the road
- On the summit of the tower with the array
- Near the Ashwood road sign as you proceed toward the cosmodrome, elevated on the cliffside
Carrying this key compels you to transition to your specialized melee weapon, so once again, ensure you enter Ol’ Tessie and make your way directly to Ashwood to deposit it.
Terrapin key (Green key)
This emerald glowing key is discovered at the Grounded Ship on the route from Ashwood to Vandorn Farm.
Recognized spawn sites:
- Right inside the entry of a blue freight container near the rear of the ship
- Below the ship among barrels
- Within the window of a small chamber on the ship’s deck
This key hinders your speed by disabling your sprint, so once more, ensure you jump into Ol’ Tessie and head directly to Ashwood to deposit it.
Upon depositing all three keys, you’ll witness a short cutscene to enjoy. You can collect the DG-2 Turret Barrel component once it concludes. Return the component to the Ashwood garage to finalize Ol’ Tessie’s last upgrade.
Tips and tricks to keep in mind for discovering and fixing Ol’ Tessie
Ol’ Tessie can autonomously regenerate health over time. You will recognize this is occurring due to a green glow surrounding the truck. Additionally, she can be repaired at an expedited rate with Salvage.
Ashes of the Damned is an expansive map, and it’s simple to become separated from your truck, particularly in a co-op session. You can utilize the button on the outer wall of the Ashwood garage to respawn the truck for 1,000 points, or you can visit the teleport pad within the garage to pay 500 points to teleport inside the truck, wherever it may be on the map. This streamlines reuniting with teammates and locating the truck faster than traversing the roads.
If you’re outside of Ashwood and need to access the garage, you can utilize a jump pad at one of the primary POIs to return there. The jump pads only cost 500 points, making this an economical approach to move around POIs when necessary.