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The snowy spawn area behind the castle, with its fence, its trees and a tank, The Iron Dragon, Call of Duty Black Ops III Zombies

The Iron Dragon

The Iron Dragon, the Black Ops III custom map by truman08 inspired by Der Eisendrache: the snowy spawn behind the castle as the First Room and its ZFRR rules, what changes from the original, the perks, the weapons, the four elemental bows, the main quest and the secrets.

  • 7 min read
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The First Room

The snowy spawn area behind the castle, with its fence, its trees and a tank, The Iron Dragon, Call of Duty Black Ops III Zombies

The game starts in the spawn area, behind the castle of Der Eisendrache: a snowy yard with a graveyard, stone walls, wooden fences and sandbags, next to an Origins church with a tank outside. The guides do not agree on where the spawn area ends: Not So Serious Gaming puts the church “within the spawn area”, Glitching Queen “outside of the spawn area”. Glitching Queen explains that this is the back side of the castle, with “the spawn area behind it”. A game starts there with the Mauser C96, as every guide and record watched for this book shows.

The doors that leave the spawn stay closed in a First Room game. YaBoyBadger counts two doors between the spawn and the first dragon head, on the gate at the entrance of the bridge, and Glitching Queen goes through “a couple of barriers” from the Origins church to that head. No source gives the price of the spawn doors; the change notes of June 3, 2023 only say that “most doors now only cost 750”.

Weapons

The record runs watched for this book play with the EBR-14, which Sassy Asi places on a wall of the graveyard, and the RK 7 Garrison. No source says where the RK 7 Garrison is bought, and none gives a price.

Perks

No perk icon appears in the HUD of the First Room records watched for this book, BooGieMAn’s round 16 and Ninjahunter22’s round 15. The Map Guide places Quick Revive at the top of the Origins church and Der Wunderfizz near its entrance; no source says whether a First Room player can reach them.

The raven of the spawn

One of the five ravens of the free perk sits on a pillar over the wall, seen from where the game starts, Not So Serious Gaming shows.

Enemies

Zombies, in the snow and between the graves, all through the record footage.

The The Iron Dragon leaderboard keeps one board for solo and one for two players. The Iron Dragon is a custom map: it is listed with the Black Ops III custom maps, whose boards “count in no ranking and no rating”. The rules of the board:

Doors closed

“Reach the highest round you can without opening any doors or barriers.” “Every round must be played in full.”

No glitch

“Glitches or Exploits are NOT ALLOWED.”

Video

“Full gameplay is required.” “Twitch: Make sure your footage is highlighted as past broadcasts will not be accepted.” “YouTube: Make sure your video is public or unlisted.”

Overview

The Iron Dragon is a custom Zombies map for Call of Duty: Black Ops III on PC, made by truman08 and posted on the Steam Workshop on May 31, 2023, as a beta, version 1.00; the full release, version 1.01, followed on June 2. Its Workshop page opens on a line that rewrites the mission briefing of Der Eisendrache: “Bound together by a fragile alliance, our heroes embark on a journey to the old castle but things are not the same”. The Workshop page sums the map up: it “is inspired by Der Eisendrache and reimagines ideas and areas from the original map”.

GameBlack Ops III (PC, Steam Workshop)
Creatortruman08, with assets and scripts credited to some two dozen modders
Workshop releaseMay 31, 2023, beta version 1.00Full release on June 2, 2023Last update on July 21, 2024, version 1.13
Steam WorkshopTHE IRON DRAGON, 8.97 GB
Subscribers203,378 current subscribers, 401,279 in all (November 12, 2026)
Based onDer Eisendrache, Black Ops III, 2016, with elements of Origins
LocationThe back side of the castle of Der Eisendrache, in the snow, with an Origins church and a graveyard behind it
PerksSeven perk machines and Der Wunderfizz placed by the guides, and two custom perks, Elemental Pop and Snail’s Pace Slurpee
Pack-a-PunchOn the roof of the castle, opened with four orbs and a summoning key
Wonder weaponsWrath of the Ancients and its four elemental bows, Ragnarok DG-4
ModesSolo and co-op

The Workshop page lists three features: a full Easter egg quest, four upgradeable bow quests and several side Easter eggs. It credits a long list of modders for the pieces of the map, from the dragon heads (Koentje) and the Panzersoldat (Harry Bo21) to the Der Eisendrache HUD (Ardivee) and skybox (Deadshot).

What changes from Der Eisendrache

The guides that played it at its release call it “Der Eisendrache 2.0”. What they say changes:

The church room kept from Der Eisendrache, with the control panels at the back, The Iron Dragon, Call of Duty Black Ops III Zombies

The other side of the castle

Glitching Queen explains that truman08 took the center of Der Eisendrache and built backwards: the game is played on the back side of the castle, with the spawn behind it. The church room and the Armory are still there, but the doors to the courtyard and the bell tower are closed, and so is the way to the Undercroft.

The Origins church in the snow of the spawn area, The Iron Dragon, Call of Duty Black Ops III Zombies

Origins in the snow

An Origins church stands in the spawn area, with the torches of its tank station underneath, and three portals lead into the heads of the giant robots of Origins. YaBoyBadger sees the map blend Der Eisendrache and Origins together; Glitching Queen compares the purple statues of the void quest to the wind staff domes of Origins.

A new Pack-a-Punch

No Der Eisendrache ritual: four orbs, one per bow, and a summoning key open the way to the roof.

The same bows, reworked

The four upgrade quests are “very very similar to DE, with a step or so slightly changed”, the Map Guide pinned on the Workshop page says. The guides find the weather vane, the urn, the paintings and the fire circles of the original, and Glitching Queen notes that the Storm Bow quest now goes behind a gate of the Armory that players could never reach before.

Easier Keeper

The Keeper of the main quest accepts kills from any weapon at its four stone tablets, where Der Eisendrache asks for specific bows, the guides note.

A buyable ending

The quest ends with a portal that ends the game for 75,000 points.

Characters

The Workshop page does not name the crew. It credits the Great War character models to Kingslayer Kyle and the voice lines to Ardivee, Zeroy, Harry Bo21 and DTZxPorter.

Enemies

Zombies

The Workshop credits the zombie models of Die Maschine, the first map of Black Ops Cold War, to Midget Blaster.

Panzersoldat

Credited to Harry Bo21. The update of June 3, 2023 raised its health, the creator writing that the bows were still very strong against it. YaBoyBadger advises getting the bow quickly because the Panzers of this map “are genuinely no joke”.

Dogs

The update of July 21, 2024 fixed dog spawns on the staircase that leads to Mule Kick. Sassy Asi says dogs keep coming during the Keeper step of the main quest.

Perks

Seven perk machines are placed by the guides: Quick Revive at the top of the Origins church, Speed Cola, Double Tap, Juggernog, Mule Kick, Electric Cherry and Stamin-Up, with Der Wunderfizz in the spawn area. The custom Elemental Pop and Snail’s Pace Slurpee come with the Perkaholic of the main quest. Five ravens give a free perk.

The power, the four orbs, the Pack-a-Punch and every perk

Weapons

The game starts with the Mauser C96. The walls sell Black Ops III weapons next to Black Ops 4 and Modern Warfare ones, like the EBR-14, the Maddox RFB or the SWAT RFT; the First Room records also play with the RK 7 Garrison. The Ragnarok DG-4 is built from three parts behind a coded gate.

Wall weapons, Mystery Box, Ragnarok DG-4 and crafting tables

The elemental bows

Three dragon heads to feed give the Wrath of the Ancients, which four quests turn into the Void, Fire, Storm and Wolf bows.

The Wrath of the Ancients and the four elemental bows, step by step

Easter egg

The main quest needs the four bows: an essence for each orb, a melded orb chased around the castle and shot down with the flak cannon, the Vril Device, a ghost Keeper and a boss fight against the Keepers, rewarded with a Perkaholic, then a buyable ending for 75,000 points.

The main quest step by step

Secrets

Five ravens for a free perk, five vases for a Max Ammo, the booze of Leroy and a dragon for free points, two songs, a disco ball and the three parts of the shield.

Every side Easter egg of the map

Trivia

Too many doors

The first players found the map had too many doors. The update of June 7, 2023 removed some and linked the doors that open onto the same area, buying one opening both; four days earlier, the update of June 3 had already lowered most doors to 750 points.

The colors of Der Eisendrache

The update of April 28, 2024 reworked the color grading of the map to make it more vibrant and to match the palette of Der Eisendrache.

Der Eisendrache 2

Several guides of June 2023 call it Der Eisendrache 2.0, in their titles or their commentary, and the Easter egg video of FPSpsycho is titled “DER EISENDRACHE 2 Easter Egg and Boss Fight!”.

The copyrighted song

The Workshop page warns content creators that one side Easter egg plays a copyrighted song, and that every other piece of music is copyright free music by Treyarch.