How to install Plutonium for World at War, Black Ops and Black Ops II
Install Plutonium to play Call of Duty: World at War, Black Ops and Black Ops II on PC with your own Steam copy: the game files, the launcher, the community patches and what a First Room record needs.
GamesWorld at War (T4)Black Ops (T5)Black Ops II (T6)
PriceFreeThe games must be owned
SystemWindows 10 64-bit (1607+)Windows 11
AccountFree Plutonium forum account
TimeAbout 15 minutes, once the games are downloaded
Plutonium is a free community client for the PC versions of Call of Duty. It runs World at War, Black Ops and Black Ops II with dedicated servers, an anticheat, unlocked settings such as the FPS cap and the field of view, and support for community patches. For First Room players it is more than a comfort: on PC, a World at War or Black Ops II record is only accepted when it is played on Plutonium.
This guide covers the whole path, from the Steam purchase to the first game of Zombies, then what a run needs to be valid on ZFRR.
Plutonium is a modification that sits on top of the original game. It does not contain the game: in the words of its own documentation, it cannot function without these files. You install World at War, Black Ops or Black Ops II from Steam, then point Plutonium at that folder. The Steam copy stays untouched and keeps working on its own.
Many videos and pages promise the games “free” or “without Steam” through Plutonium. Those files are pirated copies, Plutonium itself no longer supports them, and they are a common way to get malware. Everything below uses a copy you own.
cat 02-what-you-need.log§ 2/10
What you need
Windows 64-bit
Windows 10 version 1607 or later is recommended, Windows 11 works. Windows 8.1 64-bit is the floor; Windows 7 is not supported.
A DirectX 11 graphics card
There are no other hardware requirements. A PC that runs the original games runs Plutonium.
The games on Steam
Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Black Ops and/or Call of Duty: Black Ops II, fully installed.
The map packs
On Black Ops and Black Ops II, each DLC map you want to play must be bought and installed on Steam. Plutonium does not add any map. World at War needs nothing more: its map packs are part of the PC game.
A forum account
The launcher logs in with a free account from forum.plutonium.pw. Its name is your name in game.
500 MB on C:
For Plutonium itself, on top of the games.
cat 03-the-world-at-war-files-on-steam.log§ 3/10
The World at War files on Steam
Call of Duty: World at War is a single Steam entry. On PC its three map packs were released for free in the game’s patches, and the Steam version is already up to date: the four Zombies maps are all there, with nothing else to buy.
Content
Released
Zombies map
Base game
November 2008
Nacht der Untoten
Map Pack 1
March 2009
Verrückt
Map Pack 2
June 2009
Shi No Numa
Map Pack 3
August 2009
Der Riese
Zombies is part of the campaign side of the game, so it is the campaign executable, CoDWaW.exe, that Plutonium starts. The Black Ops versions of these four maps, from the Rezurrection pack, are a different game with their own leaderboards.
cat 04-the-black-ops-files-on-steam.log§ 4/10
The Black Ops files on Steam
Call of Duty: Black Ops installs as two Steam entries in the same folder: Call of Duty: Black Ops (campaign and Zombies) and Call of Duty: Black Ops – Multiplayer. The base game holds Kino der Toten and Five. The other Zombies maps come with the four map packs:
Map pack
Released
Zombies maps
Base game
November 2010
Kino der Toten, Five
First Strike
March 2011
Ascension
Escalation
June 2011
Call of the Dead
Annihilation
July 2011
Shangri-La
Rezurrection
September 2011
Moon, Nacht der Untoten, Verrückt, Shi No Numa, Der Riese
Install the Multiplayer entry too, even if you only play Zombies, and tick the map packs on both entries: in Steam, right-click the game, Properties, then the DLC tab. Without the packs on the Multiplayer entry, players on the Plutonium forum report texture problems. Up to four packs appear on the Zombies entry and three on the Multiplayer one, since Rezurrection is Zombies only.
cat 05-the-black-ops-ii-files-on-steam.log§ 5/10
The Black Ops II files on Steam
Call of Duty: Black Ops II installs as three Steam entries in one folder: the campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies. Zombies is the one you need for First Room. The base game holds TranZit and its Survival areas, Bus Depot, Town and Farm. The rest comes with the DLC:
DLC
Released
Zombies content
Base game
November 2012
TranZit, Bus Depot, Town, Farm
Revolution
February 2013
Die Rise, the Turned mode
Nuketown Zombies
April 2013
Nuketown Zombies
Uprising
May 2013
Mob of the Dead
Vengeance
August 2013
Buried
Apocalypse
September 2013
Origins
The Season Pass holds the four packs and Nuketown Zombies: do not buy Nuketown Zombies again if you own it. A map you do not own shows up in Plutonium as grey and blue tiles and does not load.
cat 06-install-the-launcher.log§ 6/10
Install the launcher
Create your account on forum.plutonium.pw/register. Choose the name carefully: it is the one other players and the leaderboards will see.
Save it wherever it is handy, on the desktop or in the game folder: it is only an updater.
Run it. If Windows SmartScreen shows a blue warning, click More info, then Run anyway.
The launcher downloads the client files into %localappdata%Plutonium, that is C:Usersyour-nameAppDataLocalPlutonium.
Log in with your forum name and password.
The launcher updates itself each time it opens, so it needs an internet connection to start.
cat 07-point-plutonium-at-your-game.log§ 7/10
Point Plutonium at your game
In the launcher, open World at War, Black Ops or Black Ops II.
Click SETUP and select the game folder. With a default Steam install it is C:Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonCall of Duty World at War for World at War, ...steamappscommonCall of Duty Black Ops for Black Ops, and ...steamappscommonCall of Duty Black Ops II for Black Ops II.
Not sure where it is? In Steam, right-click the game, Manage, Browse local files: the window that opens is the folder to select.
Click PLAY. Plutonium starts the game itself: there is no need to press Play in Steam.
The right folder is the one that holds the game’s executables and its zone folder: CoDWaW.exe and CoDWaWmp.exe for World at War, BlackOps.exe and BlackOpsMP.exe for Black Ops, t6zm.exe, t6mp.exe and t6sp.exe for Black Ops II. To change it later, use Game Settings, the cog next to the PLAY button.
cat 08-your-first-game-of-zombies.log§ 8/10
Your first game of Zombies
On Black Ops II, solo and private games start from the Play button of the main menu; public games go through the server browser. To play with friends, follow each other on the Plutonium forum (the green + on a profile), then invite them from the game. The host may need UPnP or a forwarded port, and the Windows network set to Private.
The console opens with the key under Esc: ~ on a QWERTY keyboard, ² on AZERTY, Fn + Esc on a 60% keyboard. Two commands most players set once:
Command
What it does
com_maxfps 144
Caps the frame rate. Plutonium advises never going above 250, and the First Room rules accept 20 to 250.
cg_fov_default 90
Sets a lasting field of view on Black Ops II (cg_fov only changes the current game). Changing the FOV is allowed in First Room.
Controllers: turn off Steam’s controller support, or quit Steam. Xbox controllers work as they are; PlayStation controllers need DS4Windows.
cat 09-playing-for-a-record-on-zfrr.log§ 9/10
Playing for a record on ZFRR
Each leaderboard has its rules, in the Rules window of its page. For the PC client, they come down to this:
World at War: Plutonium required on PC
Steam alone is not accepted, and the community patch must be loaded (below). The anticheat output stays visible for the whole run, and the anticheat settings cg_flashscripthashes and cg_drawidentifier are never turned off. FOV goes up to 120, FPS from 20 to 250.
Black Ops: Plutonium allowed
So is the Steam version. On Plutonium, the anticheat output must stay visible for the whole run: the text in the upper right corner and the checksums in the upper left are never covered.
Black Ops II: Plutonium required on PC
A run played on Steam alone is not accepted. The most recent Plutonium version is required; test and staging builds are refused.
Black Ops II: the B2FR patch
The community First Room patch must be loaded, in its latest version. No other script may be loaded alongside it.
No LAN mode on Black Ops and Black Ops II
The small triangle next to PLAY starts the game offline with the anticheat turned off. Fine for practice, never for a record. The World at War rules accept LAN mode, as long as the anticheat settings above stay on.
5and5 Mod
The unofficial Black Ops 5and5 Mod boards are played with the 5and5 mod, which runs through game_mod and its own shortcut, not through Plutonium. Its board explains the setup.
To install B2FR, download the latest release from its GitHub page (the .gsc file, not the “Source code” archive), then drop b2fr_hud.gsc or b2fr_nohud.gsc into %localappdata%Plutoniumstoraget6rawscriptszm. If an older copy sits in storaget6scriptszm, delete it, or the game warns that two patches are loaded. Check the version before every record attempt: an outdated patch is refused like an outdated client.
To install the World at War community patch, download waw-community-patch.gsc from its GitLab page, and only from there, then drop it into %localappdata%Plutoniumstoraget4rawscriptssp. Remove any other script from that folder. If the game says the patch is outdated, close it and open plutonium.exe again: the launcher updates it. The patch adds the game and round timers, and options such as fixed_backspeed 1 and, on Der Riese, fixed_waffe 1, which must be set before the end of round 1. No other script may be loaded alongside it.
cat 10-troubleshooting.log§ 10/10
Troubleshooting
Problem
Fix
The antivirus deletes or blocks Plutonium
A false positive: Plutonium changes the game in memory, as a virus would. Add an exclusion for %localappdata%Plutonium. For Windows Defender, in PowerShell run as administrator: Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "$env:LOCALAPPDATAPlutonium"
“Invalid Game Path”
The selected folder is not the game folder: not the drive, not Documents, not steamappscommon. Pick the folder that holds the .exe files and zone, through Game Settings.
A map shows as grey and blue tiles
Its DLC is not owned or not installed. On Black Ops and Black Ops II, check the DLC tab in Steam (on both entries for Black Ops), then verify the game files.
Crashes or missing files
In Steam: right-click the game, Properties, Installed Files, Verify integrity of game files.
Low frame rate
Cap the FPS with com_maxfps, update the graphics driver, force the dedicated GPU on a laptop (Windows Settings, Graphics), and tick “Disable fullscreen optimizations” in the Compatibility tab of plutonium-bootstrapper-win32.exe.
The image is zoomed in
Windows scaling above 100%. Try Alt+Enter; otherwise, in the Compatibility tab of plutonium-bootstrapper-win32.exe, “Change high DPI settings”, “Override high DPI scaling behavior”, “Application”.
Anything else: the official documentation at plutonium.pw/docs and the support section of the Plutonium forum.
Rankings
Tools
