Ashes of the Damned

Overview

Ashes of the Damned is the first Zombies map of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, available from the launch of the game on November 14, 2025. It is the largest round-based Zombies map ever made and the first set entirely inside the Dark Aether. The mission briefing: “A new world, a new enemy, and some strangely familiar allies. Uncover the secrets of the Dark Aether’s most dangerous corner and face the primordial power of its ancient guardian.”

The map is a patchwork of places torn from the real world, each at a different moment, and dropped into the Dark Aether after a tragedy. Roads lost in a deadly fog link them, and the crew crosses them in Ol’ Tessie. Treyarch made it a successor to TranZit: three of its places rework Farm, Diner and Town of Black Ops II. Four of them were also cut out as Survival maps: Vandorn Farm, Exit 115, the Zarya Cosmodrome and Ashwood.

Janus Towers Plaza

The research stronghold of Liberty Falls, built in 1989 and pulled into the Dark Aether in 1991. The game starts here.

Vandorn Farm

A farm built in 1920 and taken in 1986, a reworked Farm of Black Ops II and the scene of one family’s descent into madness. One of the two places whose power opens the way further.

Blackwater Lake

A cabin by a frozen lake, built in 1940 and taken in the 1950s, once the home of a horror film director. A pyramid floats above the water.

Ashwood

A frontier town of Georgia built in 1820 and sunk into a rift in 1865, echoing Town and Buried. Its Garage builds and repairs Ol’ Tessie.

Exit 115

A rest stop and a crumbling freeway overpass, built between 1950 and 1980 and taken in 1989, a reworked and larger Diner of Black Ops II.

Zarya Cosmodrome

A Soviet launch site built in 1960 and taken in 1968, inspired by the multiplayer map Launch, with its rocket still on the pad.

The Fog

The roads between the places, full of fast zombies and Ravagers that give no Essence and drop nothing, with smaller places along the way: the Collapsed Tower, the Grounded Ship, the Crashed Rocket, the Crashed Plane, the Orda Graveyard, the Lost Cabins and the Monolith Forest.

Veytharion’s Sepulcher

The temple that floats over Blackwater Lake, the arena of the final boss.

Characters

The story picks up straight after Reckoning. The Sentinel Artifact threw the former Requiem team into a copy of the Janus Towers inside the Dark Aether, where they meet Dark Aether versions of four old faces. The Warden drains the souls of both crews, and the eight of them have to fight together, their memories slowly fading.

The two crews

Grigori Weaver, Elizabeth Grey, Mackenzie Carver and Maya Aguinaldo, with “Tank” Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, Takeo Masaki and Edward Richtofen. In a game the players can also be Operators.

Grey and Dempsey

Dempsey is haunted by a mission in Vietnam, where Weaver of his own world turned him into the vessel of something summoned in a lost temple. Good Soldiers, a side quest of the map, takes him back there.

The Warden

The man in the hat who takes the essence of the crews in cages and leaves them to the zombies. He rules the Shadowsmiths, ancient beings of the Dark Aether.

Veytharion

The Shadowsmith the Warden set to keep the crews in this part of the Dark Aether. He speaks as the announcer of the map and is its final boss; freed, he gives back the souls of Maya and Dempsey.

T

T.E.D.D. and Klaus

The robot driver of TranZit, whose head drives Ol’ Tessie, and Klaus, the robot ally of Requiem, found locked in the jail of Ashwood.

Enemies

Zombies are joined by Armored Zombies and Heavy Zombies, and by two new enemies of the Dark Aether. A single Uber Klaus waits in the Plaza for the main quest, and Doppelghasts appear in Cursed mode only.

Ravagers

Small, fast creatures that run on all fours and attack in packs. They eat Salvage and equipment left on the ground, and drop Salvage for what they ate. They lead the special rounds of the map, which end with a Max Ammo, later spawn with the zombies, swarm the roads of the Fog and jump on Ol’ Tessie.

Zursa

Zombified bears and some of the toughest creatures of the Dark Aether. Their swipes wound and stop health regeneration, and the three hives of Zombees on their back are their weak spots. They come through a portal from round 16, and a Zursa is the target of the exfil.

Uber Klaus

From round 8, one comes out of the wreckage across from the Warden 308 in the Plaza when players look for it. It drops the Stabilizer Chip of the main quest.

Perks

Every perk of Black Ops 7 costs from 2500 to 9000 Essence, more for each perk already owned, and takes a major and a minor augment. Twelve machines stand on the map, Wisp Tea among them, a new perk that summons a demon to kill the zombies near the player. The only one in the Janus Towers Plaza is Quick Revive, in its Server Room.

Quick Revive

In the Server Room of the Janus Towers Plaza.

Juggernog

In the Ruby Rabbit, in Ashwood.

Speed Cola

On the upper floor of the Blackwater Lake cabin.

Stamin-Up

In the bedroom of Vandorn Farm.

Deadshot Daiquiri

In the garage of Exit 115.

Elemental Pop

In the diner of Exit 115.

PhD Flopper

Under the rocket of the Zarya Cosmodrome.

Melee Macchiato

On the ground floor of the Blackwater Lake cabin.

Vulture Aid

Outside the jail of Ashwood.

Death Perception

In the Barn of Vandorn Farm.

Double Tap Root Beer

By the Arsenal of Ashwood.

Wisp Tea

In the Zarya Cosmodrome, next to the road.

Der Wunderfizz appears at the entrance of the Janus Towers once the players have bought enough perks, and also sells Mule Kick since Season One and Widow’s Wine since Season Five Reloaded.

Weapons

Nineteen weapons hang on the walls, all at Uncommon rarity, from the CODA 9 of the Plaza for 500 Essence to the MK.78 and the XM325 for 2000. The Mystery Box, in its Origins look, adds the rest of the Black Ops 7 arsenal, the Ray Gun and the Ray Gun Mark II.

Building the Necrofluid Gauntlet, step by step

Every wall weapon, its price and its place

Ol’ Tessie and Pack-a-Punch

There is no fixed Pack-a-Punch on the map: it rides on the back bumper of Ol’ Tessie, the first Wonder Vehicle of Zombies. The truck needs T.E.D.D.’s head to run, then smashes the wooden gates between the places. The power is already on at Janus Towers, Exit 115 and the Zarya Cosmodrome; at Vandorn Farm, Blackwater Lake and Ashwood it comes back at a Power Pump, once its growths are destroyed, and the first two lower the electric fences on the roads.

Ol’ Tessie, her upgrades and her repairs

Easter egg: Dust To Dust

The main quest frees Veytharion from the Warden. It opened on launch day and needs the Necrofluid Gauntlet, Klaus and a fully upgraded Ol’ Tessie. Its steps:

1. Kill the Uber Klaus of the Plaza from round 8 and wake Klaus in the jail of Ashwood.
2. Build the Necrofluid Gauntlet with Klaus, the Power Pumps and the cube of Vandorn Farm.
3. Upgrade Ol’ Tessie, then brew a serum in Yuri’s Lab for the DG-2 Turret.
4. Pull three keys out of the Fog and pass the Gauntlet challenges of four places.
5. Rally Ol’ Tessie through the Fog and defeat Veytharion in his Sepulcher.

Dust To Dust, step by step

Trivia

• The game files call the map zm_sat_firefly.
• West Coast Customs built a real-life Ol’ Tessie, shown at Call of Duty NEXT 2025. Inside the truck, the gear knob is the head of a Mister Peeks plush.
• The power switch of the Blackwater Lake cabin is the one of Infinite Warfare Zombies, a nod to the film director Willard Wyler.
• The Juggernog building of Ashwood is the Ruby Rabbit, the nightclub of Shadows of Evil.
• A dead Orda, the giant of Firebase Z, lies in the Orda Graveyard of the Fog, and the sunken ship of Terminus is the Grounded Ship.
• Once Klaus’s Stabilizer Chip is in place, his cell answers “Update requires restart”.