Black Ops 4

Black Ops 4 is the game that rebuilt Zombies around a loadout. No campaign, a mode built around a loadout, and two stories side by side: Chaos, a new cast in a world of myths, and Aether, the story that began on Nacht der Untoten and ends here, on Tag der Toten. Perks are chosen before the game, health depends on the difficulty, and every player carries a special weapon and a set of elixirs.

For this site that means one thing: almost everything Black Ops 4 adds is switched off. The eight boards track a single category, Purist, played on Hardcore, two hits from going down, with no elixir, no talisman and no special weapon. What is left is the room, its wall weapons and the round counter.

The Purist category

Purist is the only category tracked for Black Ops 4. On six of the eight maps, the rules are the same.

In co-op, the loadouts have to be shown in the lobby before the map is launched; in solo it is recommended. The whole game has to be on video. On PC, the Project-BO4 client is allowed alongside the Battle.net version; split-screen is allowed, bots are not.

Dead of the Night and Tag der Toten are played differently, on custom mutations that every video must show:

The eight First Rooms

Dead of the Night is the second split spawn in the series, after Verrückt. The barrier between the two halves only opens with the map’s Sentinel Artifact, far behind the doors, so the two sides of a co-op game stay apart for the whole run.

The records

The world records of the eight Purist boards at the time of writing, in rounds reached.

Several records are shared. On Voyage of Despair, Zombie_Menance and BITUM both hold 42 in solo, and the two-, three- and four-player records are ties too. Ancient Evil has two teams on 27 with two players, Tag der Toten two teams on 29 with three.

Dead of the Night stands apart: 70 with three players, 55 with four, 54 with two, where no other board goes past 47. It is the only board where the specialist weapons and the Classic elixirs are allowed and the special zombies are switched off. Classified is the other end of the scale: no record above 29, with Hellhounds in the room and Nova 6 crawlers that no longer stay in the laboratories. Tag der Toten, on its own mutations, drops from 47 in solo to 23 with four players.

What the game itself says

Black Ops 4 has its own First Room challenges, as achievements. Four maps have one, all stopping at round 20, and one more comes close.

One more correction to a common idea: Blood of the Dead was not a Black Ops Pass map. It came on the disc with Voyage of Despair and IX. The bonus map of the pass at launch was Classified, which could also be bought on its own for $7.99 from February 19, 2019 on PlayStation 4 and February 26 on Xbox One and PC.

The maps

Dates are the first release, on PlayStation 4 for the four maps of the pass after launch. Xbox One and PC followed a week later: December 18, 2018, April 2, July 16 and September 30, 2019. Classified, Dead of the Night, Ancient Evil, Alpha Omega and Tag der Toten all came with the Black Ops Pass, included in the Digital Deluxe, Digital Deluxe Enhanced and Pro editions or sold on its own.

The crews

Perks

Black Ops 4 removed the perks that every run used to buy first: Juggernog, Speed Cola and Double Tap. In their place, 18 perks to choose from in the loadout, four per player. On the Chaos maps they are sold at four altars, Danu, Ra, Zeus and Odin; on the Aether maps at four machines, Brew, Cola, Soda and Tonic. The altars need no power. The Odin altar and the Tonic machine also give the perk’s modifier, an extra effect, once the player owns all four; owning all four also speeds up reloading.

Going down costs two perks at once, and in co-op the other two drain away while the player bleeds out. On Voyage of Despair the Danu altar stands on the forecastle, to the right of the spawn, so a First Room run there can buy the perk of its first slot.

Wonder Weapons

The map Wonder Weapons come from the Mystery Box or from quests. The special weapons, which every loadout carries, are banned on every Purist board but Dead of the Night.

Trivia

• No campaign. Black Ops 4 is the first Call of Duty without a traditional campaign: Multiplayer, Zombies and Blackout, its battle royale.
• Not on Steam. The PC version is sold only on Battle.net, the first Call of Duty missing from Steam since 2005.
• Classified ends at round 150. It has no main quest; the ending cutscene plays on its own once a game completes round 150.
• Free doors. Finishing the quest of Voyage of Despair or IX lets the player open doors for free on every map but Alpha Omega and Tag der Toten, until the game is closed. A First Room run never uses them.
• Round 200 on Tag der Toten. Freezing completely in each of the map’s ten stretches of water reveals a button near the spawn. Press it, finish the round on the move, since standing still now freezes the players, and the game jumps to round 200.
• A captain among the zombies. The intro of Voyage of Despair shows Edward Smith, the real captain of the Titanic, turning into a zombie.
• Tag der Toten means Day of the Dead, a nod to George A. Romero’s 1985 film. Its achievement Mile High Jug asks to break a jar on top of the lighthouse with the Strife.

All Black Ops 4 leaderboards