PART 3: LOCKED AND LOADED: PRE-GAME PREPARATION

Augments: Customizing Perks, Ammo Mods, and Field Upgrades

Augments provide a rich and innovative customization experience, allowing you to invest into research between matches, unlocking Augments for every Perk, Ammo Mod, and Field Upgrade in the game.



Each Perk, Ammo Mod, and Field Upgrade has a research path, accessed in the Pre-game Menus between Matches. Revelations you make during your research allow you to unlock the true power of each item, which take the form of Augments. A total of six Augments per item (three Minor, and three Major) are yours to uncover.

A Minor Augment offers a limited advantage to the item, usually during use.

A Major Augment offers a substantial advantage to the behavior of the item, usually during use.

From the six researched Augments, you can imbue two of them (one Minor, one Major) to each Perk, Ammo Mod, and Field Upgrade.

Augments are designed to create a deep progression path, as well as offering you the ability to delve into research that benefits your style of play. Experimenting with all the available Augments, learning how they interact with other Augments for Perks, Ammo Mods and Field Upgrades, and also how your fellow teammates are using their preferred set-ups, provides an incredible depth to the experience.

Weapons and Loadouts

Neutralizing the frothing undead requires more than harsh words and bravado. You’re fortunate to be able to count on an extensive armory from which to perfect your anti-zombie armaments, before the battles begin. Let’s get to the Gunsmith and find out more about perfecting your pre-game Loadouts.



Stats and Camos: Naturally, each of these Loadout elements have Zombies-related Challenges and Badges related to them, and the weapons have Camos to grind for. This includes four highly-desirable Mastery Camos in Zombies – more information to come!

Keeping Score: There’s no need to manually tally on how many zombies each individual weapon (Primary, Melee, Field Upgrade, Tactical, Lethal) has eliminated; this menu keeps score.

Creating and continuing to adapt your zombie-culling arsenal is the key to in-game success, and the Black Ops 6 Loadout system shares many features from Black Ops Cold War, as well as a few important differences.

Primary Weapon, Fists, and Melee

Your main method of eliminating the undead consists of a primary weapon, your fists (until you find a second weapon in the match) and a dedicated melee weapon (either sharp or blunt) for when the situation gets even messier, as an alternative to a melee strike with the butt of your gun.



Primary Weapon: Choose from any available Assault Rifle, SMG, Shotgun, LMG, Marksman Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Handgun, or Launcher.

Melee Weapon: Choose from the available Melee armaments.

Further Improvements and In-Game Access

Weapons can also be:

• Purchased with Essence at Wall Buys (with a higher rarity than your loadout weapon) or in Mystery Boxes (randomized, with a higher rarity).[/*]
• Dropped and swapped between teammates.[/*]
• Improved with damage-increasing rarity powers, found at Arsenal machines.[/*]
• Improved with different Ammo Mods, found at Arsenal machines.[/*]
• Improved significantly with damage, sometimes hidden effects, and additional ammunition reserves, at the Pack-a-Punch machine.[/*]
• Using the Zombie Build system: Found in a Wall Buy or Mystery Box as one of your own personal weapon builds, provided you’ve saved the custom build and assigned it to be accessible at a Wall Buy or Mystery Box, in the Loadout Menu before a match. This will even implement the camo, charm, and stickers you’ve applied to your Zombie Build weapon![/*]

Field Upgrades

Each member of your squad is bringing a piece of specialized equipment known as Field Upgrades, a powerful device that offers a chargeable, impressive elemental ability, followed by a cooldown period when the Field Upgrade recharges and is ready to be used again. You’ll earn more charges simply by eliminating enemies, not with the passage of time.



At launch, expect to choose a familiar Field Upgrade from past Zombies games:

• Aether Shroud: Phase into the Dark Aether, becoming hidden from enemy detection.[/*]
• Frenzied Guard: Repair armor and force all enemies in the area to target you. During this time, kills repair a portion of your armor.[/*]
• Healing Aura: Summons beams of energy down on yourself and allies to instantly revive and heal to full health.[/*]
• Energy Mine: Create a mine of pure energy that detonates in rapid succession, dealing lethal electric damage.[/*]

In addition, expect a brand-new Field Upgrade know as Dark Flare, offering a new and impressive offensive capability:

Dark Flare: You generate a massive energy beam that deals lethal shadow damage. The beam penetrates everything in its path.[/*]

Further Improvements

• Field Upgrades can be made even more powerful with the use of Augments.[/*]
• Field Upgrades cannot be dropped, but now for the first time in Zombies, you can swap to a different Field Upgrade at any time during a match by using the in-game menu. Note that your cooldown will reset upon switching to a different Field Upgrade.[/*]

Field Upgrade Example: Additional Pieces of Dark Flare

With some promising mass takedowns during previous matches, you begin focusing on researching the Dark Flare Field Upgrade between matches, and start to unlock the Minor and Major Augments, adding yet more power to future uses of this Field Upgrade. Once fully researched, you have the following three Minor Augments, and three Major Augments to choose from.

Before your next match, you simply choose one Minor, and one Major Augment, depending on your specific needs, and can swap between other Augments between Matches. We went with these:

Minor Augment:

Heavy Shadow: Zombies impacted by the beam are slowed.[/*]

Major Augment:

Shadow Ball: The beam is replaced with a sphere that damages enemies as it travels and detonates at the end of the duration.[/*]

Tacticals, Lethals, Support Equipment (Crafting Table)

Unlike Black Ops Cold War, you’re facing down zombie hordes with a choice of Tactical and Lethal Equipment that you can bring into the Infil with you.

Tactical Equipment (Crafting Table)



Tacticals offer the use of an additional, non-lethal advantage to partner with a more devastating attack (from a Lethal or another Weapon). Current Loadout Tacticals include Concussion or Decoy Grenades, or the ever useful Stim Shot.

Once in-game, you can use Salvage you’ve acquired from dropped zombies (Ground Loot) to construct a wide variety of Tactical Equipment, each with a different cost (in Salvage). Craft as many as you like until your Inventory is full, or a lack of Salvage prevents you:

• Concussion: Grenade that slows victim’s movement and aiming.[/*]
• Stim Shot: Combat stim that heals wounds and refreshes Tactical Sprint.[/*]
• Smoke: Deploys a smoke screen that blocks vision and automated targeting systems.[/*]
• Decoy Grenade: Attracts nearby zombies for a short duration.[/*]
• Shock Charge: Electrical trap that sticks to surfaces and electrocutes enemies, stunning them.[/*]
• Cymbal Monkey: Attracts zombies for a short duration before exploding.[/*]
• LT53 Kazimir: Creates a small singularity that pulls in and kills enemies.[/*]

Lethal Equipment (Crafting Table)

Lethals are usually utilized when masses of writhing undead appendages are threatening to overwhelm you or your team. Choose Frag, Sticky, or Thermo Grenades, the Combat Axe, or the new Blast Trap, a small missile strapped with an improvised explosive.

During a match, gather Salvage from dropped zombies (Ground Loot) to increase your pool of Lethal Equipment, each with a different cost (in Salvage). Craft as many as you like until your Inventory is full, or a lack of Salvage prevents you:

• Frag: Cookable fragmentation grenade.[/*]
• Sticky: Timed sticky grenade.[/*]
• Molotov: Thrown incendiary weapon creates a patch of flames.[/*]
• C4: Sticky explosive with large damage radius. Detonate remotely.[/*]
• Combat Axe: Thrown axe that kills enemies in one hit. Bounces off surfaces.[/*]
• Impact Grenade: Precision grenade that explodes on impact.[/*]
• Thermo Grenade: Creates a large fuel-air cloud that explodes after a duration.[/*]
• Blast Trap: Planted explosive device detonates when enemies come near.[/*]

Further Improvements and In-Game Access

• Some Tacticals and Lethals are intermittently dropped by Zombies to be gathered as ground loot.[/*]
• A full complement of Tacticals and Lethals can be constructed at Crafting Tables, along with more powerful ordnance, such as Scorestreaks.[/*]

Support Equipment (Crafting Table)

Between bouts of undead culling, access the Crafting Table and you’ll be able to spend Salvage to construct an impressive array of Support equipment, which also occasionally drops as ground loot. Some examples include:

• Self-Revive: Use when downed to revive yourself.[/*]
• ARC-XD: Explosive RC car that emits small Aether Blasts.[/*]
• Sentry Turret: Automated turret that scans for and attacks nearby enemies in a forward-facing cone.[/*]
• Mutant Injection: Temporarily transforms you into a Mangler… with all the bells and whistles.[/*]

New Support: Mutant Injection

One of the Support items you can craft is the Mutant Injection which allows you to transform into, and temporarily wreak havoc as, a Mangler! Once you inject yourself with the serum, you grow an additional three feet taller, become clad in plated armor, and can throw your weight about with a vicious Melee Swipe, ranged Mangler Cannon attack, and a zombie-killing barging sprint, all with some seriously impressive damage upgrades. Your new form even allows [[REDACTED]].

GobbleGums: Custom Packs (GobbleGum Machine)

Crack your teeth as well as the skulls of the undead with a variety of custom GobbleGum Packs, based on your stored reserves of this killer candy! Pick a single Pack to bring with you; with each Pack containing five different single-use GobbleGums that you’ve chosen to access during a match via a special confectionary machine that holds each GobbleGum in your pack and spits out one randomly once you interact with it.



The GobbleGums you can choose are based on the collection you have in your inventory. One of the ways to continuously keep your GobbleGum collection filled is by earning them in-game (see below). GobbleGums are single-use items and are permanently removed from your inventory once received in-game.

GobbleGum Rarity

GobbleGums come in a variety of rarities: Rare, Epic, Legendary, Ultra, and Whimsical, with the general rule that the higher the rarity, the more powerful the effect of the GobbleGum:

• Rare GobbleGum examples include “Shields Up” (your armor is twice as a strong for three minutes) and “Kill Joy” (spawns an Insta-Kill Power-up).[/*]
• Epic GobbleGum examples include “Free Fire” (firing weapons consumes no ammo for the next 60 seconds) and “Soda Fountain” (the next Perk purchased gives an additional random Perk).[/*]
• Legendary GobbleGum examples include “Phoenix Up” (revive all teammates and they keep their perks) and “Wall-to-Wall Clearance” (Wall Buys cost 10 Essence).[/*]
• Ultra GobbleGums include “Perkaholic” (gives the player all Perk-a-Colas in the map) and “Wonderbar!” (the next gun from the Mystery Box will be a Wonder Weapon).[/*]
• Whimsical GobbleGums include “Newtonian Negation” (Zombies killed fall straight up for three minutes).[/*]

Exceptions to this are the “Whimsical” GobbleGums of course, which – as the name suggests – provide effects that aren’t focused on giving you an advantage, but instead grant a sometimes-hilarious, always entertaining effect. An amuse-bouche, if you will.

GobbleGum Machines



Mr. Peeks is only too happy to provide you with an in-game confectionary machine from which to extricate your gobstopper. Simply interact with it (no Essence required!) and a GobbleGum is randomly dropped, ready for pickup. The machine then cools down on a timer or will be immediately reset on the next round. Grab the sweet, and then it’s added into your inventory and HUD. You can store up to three unique GobbleGums at once, and use one, two, or all three of them at once as well. This may very well add many new dimensions to combat as these GobbleGum effects interact with your fellow teammates and other augmentations and powerups….

Further Improvements

• GobbleGums cannot be dropped or shared, but you can swap to a different GobbleGum Pack at any time during a match by using the in-game menu. Changing the pack will reset the randomized order of the new pack.[/*]
• New GobbleGums are earnable in game, simply for playing. Expect to earn one (or more!) random GobbleGums every few rounds. You’ll know when you’ve been awarded a new GobbleGum due to a reward sequence at the start of a subsequent Round.[/*]
• Any unused GobbleGums are kept between matches, and you won’t lose them if you happen to disconnect from a match.[/*]

*Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III / Call of Duty: Warzone on the pre-ordered platform required to redeem Woods Operator Pack. Sold / downloaded separately. Must be redeemed by October 25, 2025.

**Actual launch date(s) and platform availability of Open Beta subject to change. See for more details. Minimum Open Beta duration is 2 days. Limited time only. Internet connection required. Online multiplayer subscription may be required.

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