For some in the Call of Duty Zombies community, January 15 is a de facto holiday. To celebrate this year’s 115 Day, Treyarch has revealed another new map—titled “The Tomb”— that is coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 for the Zombies mode, with the launch of Season 2 on January 28. The team has also kicked off a double XP and double GobbleGum event leading up to the launch of Season 2.
Activision and the Call of Duty team also shared that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Zombies players have generated 480 million hours of playtime in the third mode, with Liberty Falls holding the top spot as the most-played Zombies map. Despite racking up the massive number of hours played, over 90% of players who hop into Zombies still do not complete any of the game’s three Main Quests. The introduction of Directed Mode more than doubled the number of players completing the game’s map-centric storylines, but the team claims there is still work to do to help grow the community.
What is 115 Day in Call of Duty?
You could be forgiven for not understanding why 115 Day is even a thing to celebrate. The ‘holiday’ refers to the Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies mode story, which features “Element 115”, the chemical compound that reanimates dead cells and causes the undead to rise again. However, because Zombies modes are rare in other Call of Duty titles not developed by Treyarch, we really only see 115 Day mentioned every few years.
This year, Treyarch has leaned into celebrating 115 Day with a Double XP event that offers double the GobbleGum earn rate in Zombies, as well as double player XP, double weapon XP, and double battle pass XP, starting now. The double XP event will last until January 21, 10 AM PT/1 PM ET.
Welcome to “The Tomb”
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Treyarch introduced a third map, Citadelle des Morts, to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies with the launch of Season 1, and you would have been forgiven if you didn’t expect any other Zombies maps to be added until closer to 2025’s The Haunting event for Halloween. However, Treyarch decided to surprise us all and tease a brand-new map for Black Ops 6 coming at the start of Season 2. “The Tomb,” as the new map is dubbed, is built to resemble the player experience on Liberty Falls, with tight gameplay spaces and replayable design.
The Tomb’s story will pick up after the events of Season 1’s Citadelle des Morts map, with the crew attempting to secure the Sentinel Artifact. Their efforts led them to an excavation site among some ancient burial grounds. What could possibly go wrong there?
The Tomb is built from scratch explicitly for Zombies, but there will be plenty of quirky Easter Eggs, a reimagined Wonder Weapon, and the return of an iconic SMG.
Quality of life changes for Zombies
Treyarch has also revealed a slate of new quality-of-life changes are coming to Black Ops 6 Zombies to address feedback from the community. One of the most notable is the introduction of Co-Op pausing. Pausing was already introduced to Zombies for Solo mode, but those of us running Liberty Falls at higher round numbers were out of luck if someone from the crew needed a potty or snack break. After Season 2, if all players in a game of Zombies are in the same party, the leader can pause the game for everyone. No more trying to keep a crawler alive!
In addition to Co-Op pausing, getting kicked out for AFKing in Zombies is about to be a lot less disastrous. With the launch of Season 2, players who are kicked for being idle for too long can rejoin the same co-op game and restore their loadout.
Other oft-requested changes coming with Season 2 include the ability to manually track up to 10 calling card challenges and 10 camo challenges per mode. If you do not select a specific challenge to track, Call of Duty will now track the challenges you’re closest to completing, instead. Camo tracking will appear both in the game lobby and in the in-game Options menu. Additionally, players will finally be able to separate their Zombies HUD presets from their Multiplayer HUDs.
Looking ahead to Season 2
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6‘s first season of post-launch content has been rough. While there were plenty of events to keep player hype drummed up, including a Squid Game 2 crossover, the season was marred with sloppy AI images doled out as in-game rewards and troubles with an underperforming anti-cheat. With Season 2 set to launch on January 28, Treyarch and the supporting studios are looking to repair some damage done to the player base’s goodwill by making adjustments based on community feedback. However, the team ultimately faces an uphill climb without significant improvements to the anti-cheat and server stability.
