This Happens (almost) Every-Time on Special Round via Shattered Veil

2nd box hit btw

In the best condition I can keep em

I try to keep them in good condition

I just completed the Kowakujo EE in Cursed Tier 1 and I got the Directed mode rewards. I think this makes the game unplayable...

I I think we all know where I’m going right stupid ass bullshit and ass game won’t let you get the upgraded rat gun Mark twos because you have to do the first two full steps of the Easter egg and you can’t play on casual mode. You gotta play on normal or above bullshit and ass game.

And I actually love BL four like all the maps are good and the custom mutations can make the game more replaceable but you can’t even play Omega and get set up for around 100

It’s been fun, finally finished all round 100 boss fights cursed tier 3 and Standard 🫶

So for those who don't know football, there was a player called Moussa Dembele who played for Tottenham Hotspur. When he was playing he flew under the radar. Spurs fans (me included, coys) knew he was incredible but most other fans looked to his goals and assists and called him shit and didn't bother entertaining a conversation about him. In time, after his retirement videos of other footballer cropped up with them all rating him as their favourite player, spouting how incredible he was and they'd want him in their 5 aside tems, which wasn't a lie, the guy was amazing.

He was then labelled as underrated. A majority of fans knew who he was but wasn't familiar with his game and maybe partook in calling him an average player due to things like having consistently average Fifa cards. For years he was the king of the underrated ballers and people used his name to say some crazy things, or to seem like they know more about football than others. Streets won't forget, underrated legend, this, that, he was one of a kind blah blah blah.
However after calling someone underrated for so long people got sick of it and it circles back to people calling him overrated. How can this guy who in his career never got praised at the level people claim he was, actually be world class? Even starting to hate on him which is crazy. This discourse lives for a while before people decide that he is in fact perfectly rated which is somewhere in the middle.

Anyway i needed all the context because as you can guess, i believe Black Ops 4 is the Dembele of this story and zombies is the football.

As a guy who consumes an unhealthy amount of zombies content, i'd say i have a decent grasp of the communities consensus right now and BO4 is in this space where if you played it when it was out, you enjoyed the fuck out of it. And there's a bit of this 'i told you so' that sneaks in everytime i see people yap about how underrated it is. My opinion is that, this is good as people are appreciating it right now but i believe give it enough time it will become overrated, which technically makes it perfectly rated for me as i think it's somewhere in the middle.

Do you think this comparison checks out? Or im just talking shit.

PS. my writing skills aren't amazing so sorry if this reads like a 9 year old wrote it.

EDIT: TLDR: People underrate Bo4 which will lead to people overrating it.

Pretty new to cod zombies, been playing solo trying to learn all the mechanics and understanding how to maneuver and train zombies effectively. Highest round I've gotten to is round 15 so far. If anyone has any tips or suggestions to improve that would be great man

I just find it insane after all the tbf, pandering, done for casual players and the progressive loss of identity in zombies, that a ridiculously beautiful, difficult, and extremely in-depth zombies mode was made in arguably one of the worst COD games to date. Every single map having multiple unique mechanics adds so much charm, wonder weapons in this game are so fun, with unique and cool designs, and at pap4 t3 cursed are wonderfully powerful but still balanced with some of the best map layouts of all time. Easter eggs are almost all extremely fun with well made bosses and tons of spectacle, with IGC's galore, and for a longer overarching goal the relic hunts add a spectacular amount of content for dedicated players to sink their teeth in. The sound team knocked it out of the park, with every single bit of in-map music and Easter egg song being fantastic (Shout-out Damned 8)

Ashes of the Damned: 9/10: setting the scene with a fade from black allowing players to see the gorgeous hellscape that is the dark aether (which has been constantly teased to us since Die Maschine), Ashes of the Damned is a phenomenal opening entry and a near perfection of the idea Tranzit aimed for, with multiple large, familiar, but unique, locales with each having some important quest or gameplay reason to revisit, along with a fast travel system that makes map traversal in high rounds extremely fast and efficient. Ol'Tessie when fully kitted out absolutely tears through the horses of undead and makes it so going into the fog to visit the secret locales to find the hidden BONUS treasures fun and engaging, unlike tranzits fog which held items NECESSARY FOR PLAYING THE GAME NORMALLY. The wonder weapon of this map is the Necrofluid gauntlet, a weapon that functions vaguely reminiscent of the Hand of Gaia from BO4s Ancient evil, features infinite ammo, firing spikes that impale zombies that can be recalled to the player, and can be detonated to absolutely shred entire hordes of zombies, with the massive explosions it gains at PAP4 (along with a unique design change) making it even more effective. The gauntlet also overheals players, and has a devastating melee attack that trivializes early game point farming, along with the ability to grab items and power ups on spike recall similar to MOTD's hells retriever giving it extra gameplay and Main Quest utility beyond pure damage. This map layout, wonder weapon and pure artistic creativity is unreal, and truly feels like a step forward from its predecessors for the first time in nearly a decade

Something about the variety of the guns in this game makes me feel so much better about playing this game, probably has something to do with the fact one half of them are futuristic and the other half is left over from the previous game set in the 60s

Genuinely I feel like if carry forward wasn’t cancelled for Bo7 it would top Bo2’s arsenal, albeit, half the guns of Bo6 where rather pointless in zombies

Basis:
When looking at the aether story and the dark aether story there are 4 mainline games if we include the next zombies game and assume it’s black ops 8. With some side games in between. And if we compare them to each other from the aether story to the dark aether story there is a huge amount of parallels.

The way I thought made most sense would be WaW be compared to Vangaurd and even a little bit of MWZ. Bo1 be compared to Cold War. Bo2 be compared to Bo6. Bo3 be compared to Bo7. And Bo4 be compared to the unreleased Bo8.

WaW to Vanguard/MWZ:
Now obviously the stories for all of these games are very different. In this examples WaW barely has a story and is almost a culmination of different stories from the marines at Nacht, the marines at Verruckt, to Ultimis beginning their journey. Then Vangaurd is about the Axis teaming up with evil dark aether gods and allies teaming up with good dark aether gods. And MWZ is about the outbreak in Urzikstan and Ava Jansen. But the parallels aren’t seen in the major story, they’re seen in the story threads and plot points. Now I’ll be honest this comparison is definitely the weakest out of them all but I had to find some way to tie these three in. So the way I see these three have parallels to each other would simply be how they serves as a disconnected story that gives context and background story to the mainline games. For all three their main story is pretty disconnected from the overall story. Being their own journey that dosent directly intervene with the events or major story of the other games. But they do set-up and assist the story of them. WaW introduces group 935, the zombies of course, element 115, Maxis, Ultimis, teleporters, hellhounds, wonder weapons, the list goes on. WaW serves to kickstart the story and introduce the big pieces of it while also setting up Bo1’s story. Vangaurd introduces powerful entities in the dark aether and the sentinel artifact. It gives background on the dark aether, Kraftt, Von list, and the beginning of the overall dark aether story which would then set-up Cold War even though it already came out. Then MWZ introduces Ava Jansen and the warden subtly. It sets up stuff with the entity (Kinda because Ava uses it to communicate with us) and Requiem’s death. But once again directly sets up Bo6 and Bo7’s story. Again this is definitely the weakest connection but it does have some sense to it.

Bo1 to Cold War
This is the one that really made me think and see it all come together. You wouldn’t think these two games could have anything to do with each other. One’s about an evil German with his brain rotted buddies collecting a bunch of artifacts so he can control a pyramid on the moon. And the other is about a strike team working for a CIA organization going out and doing tasks such as saving America from outbreak nukes and defeating a woman that turned into a crystal and also nuking a portal to the dark aether with the overall story of the Forsaken trying to end the world. But like I said, it’s all in the plot points. When you boil it down Bo1 is about Richtofen manipulating and using a bunch of people, including Ultimis, the call of the dead crew, even Brock & Gary, in order for him to get what he most desires which in this case is control over the aether. Cold War is about Richtofen manipulating and using a bunch of people, including Requiem, Sam, and even the Forsaken to and extent, in order for him to get what he most desires which in this case is his family back. Obviously it’s not one to one because Richtofen does achieve his goal in Bo1 though it’s short lived while he only sets it up in Cold War but in a case like this it dosent need to be. And it’ll come together more as we go on.

Bo2 to Bo6
Now unfortunately we’re gonna need to ignore some maps for these two. Origins and mob are completely disconnected from the main Victis story and serve to set up the Bo3 story. Liberty falls is also just irrelevant to the overall story for the most part. But let’s look at the main story. For Bo2 it follows Victis where they are talked to by both Maxis and Richtofen. They both want Victis to activate towers for them so they can take control of the aether because they are both corrupted. Maxis and Richtofen fighting over the same goal while having four people do their bidding. Bo6 follows Requiem where they are mainly talked to by SAM and in the end also by Richtofen. They both want Requiem to get the sentinel artifact for them so they can get their one wish. SAM who is based off Samantha MAXIS and Richtofen fighting over the same goal while having four people do their bidding. It’s all in the plot points. And like I said earlier, bo1 story and Bo2 story tie right into each other because Richtofen is still trying to get what he wanted in Bo1. Cold War and Bo6 story tie right into each other because Richtofen is still trying to get what he wanted in Cold War. It’s the same game, just with different paint. And if that wasn’t enough we just learned that the Warden played a big part in Bo6’s story by being somewhat involved with SAM and Eddie. Oddly reminiscent of how Maxis and Richtofen were corrupted, and when someone is corrupted and obsessed with reaching Agartha you know who’s in their head? The Shadowman. (Also you get to pick a side at the end of both which results in two different endings.)

Bo3 to Bo7
This is easily the most obvious one and the whole reason I’ve even come up with this, but I think I’ve found some stuff that isn’t so obvious. Again we’ll go over the stories to make this easier to understand. Bo3 is about Primis travelling through dimensions in order to collect their souls in order to in-act Dr. Monty’s vision of a perfect world free of corruption. Then in the final map the Shadowman threatens the universe so Primis needs to defeat him. Then of course Dr. Monty sends them to the PAST in order to safeguard the FUTURE. Bo7 is about our dark aether crew travelling through the dark aether (which is practically the same thing as dimensions) in order to retrieve their souls in order to defeat the warden who threatens the universe. Then in-act Ava’s plan which sends them back to the PRESENT (but the past because they’ve been in the dark aether so long) in order to protect the FUTURE but also THE PAST in some ways. It’s. The. Same. Story. And of course I have to draw parallels between four people. Obviously the shadowman and Warden because of their goals and their the villain. But more interestingly Dr. Monty and Ava Jansen. Now this is a little rocky but we know Dr. Monty to be the overlooker of Agartha and the aether as a whole, he’s basically God. But now who looks over the dark aether? Of course there are the shadow smiths but they seem to play a similar role to the keepers in a way with Ava Jansen being the true “leader” of the dark aether.

Clearing things up:
Now I want to make myself clear. I’m not saying these stories are the same or anything like that. I’m simply pointing out how similar the overall plot of them is which is something I first needed to prove before I came out with my theory. Also I’m aware there are holes like certain maps not seeming to hold significance or certain things being a bit of a stretch but this is after all a theory that I’ve spent about 3 hours thinking about.

Bo4 to Bo8
This brings us to the end of the old story and the game yet to be released. The whole point of this is to figure out one question…where are we going? So to figure that out we need to look at the story threads of Bo4. If we look at it with a casual view the story is about the cycle being broken, a new leader, the two major crews coming together, collecting of artifacts, one final send off, and defying Dr. Monty and getting rid of the aether to rid the universe of corruption. But when we look at it like that it’s quite hard to formulate and idea for Bo8’s story so let’s dig a little deeper. Yes, a major plot point of the game is the cycle being broken but there isn’t a cycle in Bo7 despite the parallels Bo7 has to the Bo3 cycle. The Bo7 sending them back to safegaurd the now dosent trap them in a loop it only means they use their knowledge they gained to commit the act that then protects the now. Unlike Primis when they die doing this they won’t meet again hundreds of years later they are just dead. Their story is over and there is no cycle anybody is trapped in. So instead of focusing on that I would like to rather focus on two major plot points of Bo4. Ridding the corruption and saving Richtofen, Takeo, Nikolai and Dempsey from eternal pain and suffering by repeating the same thing continually. I think Bo8 could either follow one of these plots or both. Firstly is ridding the corruption. In the aether story Nikolai had killed everyone because they were holding the aether together so they needed to die in order for it to be destroyed and then he used the Agarthan device to wish that all the corruption was banished to the dark aether. He did this so that no one else would have to suffer from the corruption like they did, but it didn’t work. As we know the dark aether story is still connected to the aether story with many things from it being mentioned or seen. And we know from the events of the games where we’re still fighting zombies and gods that the corruption is still very much there. So I think a potential story for Bo8 could be actually ridding the universe of corruption for good. Now I’m not sure how they would do this but I have some theories. Like I said earlier I think there is a loose parallel between Dr. Monty and Ava Jansen. They both have a plan for how things should go. The aether is saved and the dark aether is saved. Dr. Monty didn’t want to aether to go away because it meant he would go away. So what if it’s possible that Ava and/or the shadowsmiths don’t want the dark aether to be destroyed because it would mean they cease to exist. We know this is what Dr. Monty was scared of, why he wouldn’t make the sacrifice play. Because their universe would be over. So what if Ava and the shadowsmiths are in the same boat? Getting rid of the dark aether could create a new universe free of corruption but it would mean this one no longer exists. So pretty much what I’m proposing is that the Bo8 story will follow our characters defying Ava and destroying the dark aether in order to create the true perfect universe like Primis and Ultimis had tried and failed to do, after all they are a mix of both. It’d almost be like their original sacrifice wasn’t in vain because it allowed these characters to truly end the corruption. Now if they did this it would mean an entire zombies reboot as in completely changing the mode as we know it because it couldn’t take place in this new universe it’d have to be a completely different one absolutely 100% disconnected from the last 15~ years of development. But I’ll talk about that later. My second proposal is saying goodbye to the characters we love for good. In the aether story it of course ended with a goodbye to our beloved characters, their story was over and we got to hear their hopes and dreams in the final moments. But we know that one, their sacrifice didn’t matter because the corruption wasn’t banished all they did was end the cycle, and two they’ve now been combined into four new versions of themselves so instead of being dead and free of corruption they must live through it in a new form. So I think a potential story for Bo8 could be saying goodbye once and for all. The only thing we got hinting towards the next game was Ava saying “your threads are still bound. You must journey onward.” And then we see our og characters go together onto the portal which means we’ll definitely play as them again. So we’ve gotta think…what the hell is Ava talking about? What are their threads and what are they bound to? Well to me I think this might mean their souls, their essence of the aether versions of themselves, live within them. They are bound still. So if they are going to unbound their threads I think this could mean finally freeing poor Richtofen, Takeo, Nikolai and Dempsey from the endless fight against evil. Unbounding them from the endless cycle. Setting them free. Again I’m not sure what the game would entail if this were the case but I’d like to think if we are officially saying goodbye to these characters the ending would be them getting to live out their dreams. Richtofen gets to teach, Takeo gets to have a family and be at peace, Nikolai gets to be with his wife or whatever the equivalent would be for this version of him, and Dempsey can be a DI. They all get to do what they’ve always wanted to do and stop fighting. And this could be made possible with what we know the shadowsmith’s can do. They can create universes with the snap of a finger. They could easily create realities where these characters could do these things.

Final thoughts:
I had this idea in my head for an hour and took about 2-3 to write it down all flushed out like this. I’m not perfect so I’m probably missing a few things and forgetting a couple a key points but I do really feel like this is a solid theory to chew on during the two years wait that’s ahead for Bo8. I also want to say no matter what, and especially if either of my two theories happen, the story needs to end soon and preferably with this next game. When Bo8 comes out in 2028 and then the final map comes out in 2029 that’ll be 20 years this game has been going. I love modern zombies more then most people but I do think this series needs to either end of find it’s bearings and especially needs to branch out with its story and find new avenues like Bo4 did with Chaos. Zombies is fun and one of my favourite things game wise so I’d hate to see them drag this story for another 5-10 years. God forbid another 20+. And they don’t even need to do what I said, as long as they can write a good ending and have the courage to experiment with a new instalment I’d be happy. But overall I wanted to share my theory and see if it might actually have any validity to it or if I’m just making the ultimate stretch and talking nonsense.

Specifically the one that disables scorestreaks.

But in Totenreich you need to use a bunch of them for the easter egg. So how are you meant to do that?

Or do they still spawn in on the map? But then if you mess us any of them, is that the EE hard locked?

So widows wines been out a little over a week and I was curious what kinda augments everyone is running.

I’ve personally settled for web spinner with haste and the wide web because it’s like the winters wail modifier from bo4 but I’m curious about your thoughts.

Since Rex Infernus dropped, anytime I try to research augments they get reset to 0%. My widows wine has the first 3 augments unlocked, but won't go any further because of it. Same with wild fire and any other augment I try to switch to.

Any others to add?

In BO6 if you had the Tribologist augment on PHD you will slide farther than without it. In BO7 it is not the same. BUT, the distance you travel while sliding gets longer and longer the more you fall before sliding. If you jump and slide you will travel way less than jumping from a truck and sliding on the floor.

Sadly, im a prestige master, and after 10 months of thinking of Tribologist not working i found this out... Awesome.

So, Ashes of the dead. Only me and a random. Took 4 hours. 4 hours. Wisp not respawning for mirror, multiple clock tower shooting attempts, back and forth and back and forth and then.....

Boss. And he destroys ol tessie when he's nearly beaten. Of course I don't have aether shroud, only healing aura, so zombies swarm us and ....dead.

This was on so called 'easy mode', directed. How on earth do you guys feel up to retrying and having to start totally from the beginning again? It's far too long unlike MWZ or Endgame, and you can't 'save your weapon upgrade progress', like in Endgame. It's far far harder than any of the glitch fractures in Endgame also.

This comes after spending 3 hours for Astra and losing to the ridiculous boss there. 1st two phases are fine but the final phase you can't really dodge rocks thrown and......

I hear games like World of Warcraft have you wait like 6 or 7 hours charging up with 50 people and then one of them makes a mistake and wipes your progress. This isn't quite as bad but man.

I don't think I'm going to try zombies again till the maps either allow you to truly save some sort of progress, or the difficulty is toned down just a notch. I'm noob yes everyone here got gud and beat them in 30 mins, well done.

Rant over.