For all of the time I’ve spent playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 since it launched in late October (235 hours and counting), most of it has been in multiplayer. I’ve finished the campaign, finally, and played a few rounds of Warzone, but until the last few days hadn’t touched Zombies at all.
I never really have in all the thousands of hours of Call of Duty I’ve played over the years, which I actually find surprising, since generally I gravitate towards PvE content over PvP. Friends and YouTubers have been raving about Zombies in Black Ops 6, so I dived in this week. And boy did I struggle!
Even in Directed Mode, as a complete noob, I kept failing. I’m not familiar with the mechanics or just how to play Zombies in general. But then I went and looked through the Gobblegums I had acquired, and some of them turned into a cheat code that helped me blitz through the Liberty Falls main quest. So, if like me, you’re struggling a bit, here’s how I made life a lot easier for myself.
Directed Mode is the best place to start
If you’re new to Zombies like I am, then I definitely recommend using Directed Mode. It’s only available currently on Liberty Falls and Terminus, but it will help you out so much. Citadelle des Morts will get Directed Mode at a later date.
For one, it’ll guide you through the main quest on each map, and if you’re an achievement hunter, you can still unlock main quest-associated ones. You can’t do side quest easter eggs in Directed Mode, but for completing the story aspect, it’s an easier way to get through it and get a feel for the maps. You’ll also be capped at round 15, so things won’t get too crazy.
I say easy, but it’s still not if you’ve never played Zombies before. It took several hours before I was comfortable with the map layout and the mechanics of Black Ops 6 Zombies, but even then, I couldn’t get over the line. Then I finally had a look at my Gobblegum stash, and that changed the game entirely.
If you have these Gobblegums, use them, you’ll thank me later
Gobblegums each have a unique ability attached to them, and while you certainly don’t have an unlimited supply, there are a couple which can really help make life a lot easier if you’re a newer player trying to finish the main quests.
The two main ones I used are both Ultra rarity (the red ones). The combination of both, though, turned constant failure into immediate success.
The first is Perkaholic (pictured above). Popping this will apply all available perks to you all at once. That means not only will you be immediately stronger, but you won’t have to spend your Essence on applying them at the vending machines around the map.
The other Ultra Gobblegum I used in conjunction with Perkaholic is Hidden Power. This upgrades the weapon you’re currently holding all the way to Legendary rarity, with damage output gains to go with it. Combined then with Pack-a-Punch (in the Church on Liberty Falls and the Inclined Lift on Terminus), nothing you’ll face in Directed Mode will ever be a challenge. Not even those pesky Manglers that keep showing up from round 11.
In hindsight, I could probably have got away without Perkaholic, but it certainly made life a little easier, so if you only have Hidden Power, don’t worry. You can still buy perks around the map, anyway.
The other one I could recommend to make getting through it a little easier is Wall Power. This Gobblegum makes it, so the next weapon wall buy you make comes with Pack-A-Punch already applied. If you use this, you can get a pretty solid backup weapon to your main.
Speaking of weapons, I applied Hidden Power to the XM4. A little boring, I know, but with good reason. It’s easy to use, has a 100 round magazine attachment (though you do need to level the weapon up to get this first), and when you add Pack-A-Punch on top of that, this doubles to 200 rounds.
For someone getting to grips with Zombies and getting into some sticky situations with hordes approaching, it’s a good get out of jail free card that you always have, unlike your Field Upgrade. 200 rounds on a Legendary, Pack-A-Punched XM4 goes through a lot of enemies, and it does it with ease.
My first successful run, I paired this with a Wall Power infused blue rarity SMG and absolutely shredded everything in front of me. So, that’s all there is to it. If you have these Gobblegums, it’s likely you only have one or two at most, but if you’ve been getting frustrated, as I was, pop them, and I’m confident you’ll have the same success I did!
