I was never one of those crazy guys who could get to wave 30 and beyond on World At War, and so far I haven’t got there yet on Black Ops either. Those relentless Zombies always seem to creep up behind me or chase me into a corner while I scream like a 5 year old girl.
However, I’ve got some mates who are seasoned BO nuts (Black Ops), already by some impossible trick of nature, and have been telling me many useful tips for surviving in the dark corridors and rooms of the Zombie mode. When I teamed up with them I doubted they were as good as they claimed, and then some 3000 revives later I shut my mouth and paid close attention. We played on Pentagon 5 most of the time so these will be specific for this map.
Tip 1: The Box mistake. One of the first things I’ve realized on ‘5’ is that the wave-10 players (e.g. people who can only get up to round ten) seem so hell-bent on reaching the box and playing lucky dip with their guns that when they get there they don’t know what to do once they have the gun they want…suggestions: shoot. But as we know this isn’t enough, advice to players would be to find the best gun that it is relatively easy to access, like the MPL, which is just through the first unlockable door on 5, or the MP5K on the top floor of the War room (first lift downstairs).
Tip 2: Block them out. Bizarrely, a lot of people forget to barricade and repair holes, leaving huge openings in their defence as they get carried away running deeper into the map or looking for more guns. While ammo and weapons and completely necessary, you should always have one or two people checking the windows. This leads nicely on to the next key point.
Tip 3: Can you hear me! Communication is absolutely vital to progressing in to the later waves of Zombie mode. Too many people don’t turn on their headsets and/or mute other players. This is shooting yourself in the foot before you’ve even begun. For one, your teammate could use the lift by himself, without you knowing about it and then when you need it to escape, it’s on the wrong floor, costing you precious seconds. Or, if you have some sort of plan, you need to be able to communicate it. Most players do go in with some form of strategy so if you’re all doing your own thing it simply won’t work. Most successful matches have an unofficial leader in the lobby that makes decisions when to move down or up a level into a new area.
Tip 4: F****** Doctor. So many gamers have been flummoxed by the appearance of the Doctor (or Tech as some call him). He runs after you and if he grabs you he steals your equipped weapon and teleports you to a random spot on the map. Whilst he can be killed with either a nuke pickup or spamming him with all your gunfire for AGES, you can prevent him coming at all by NOT turning on the power. Although, this means you sacrifice access to the president’s lounge (which is a killer place to camp….see the pun there?) and the sucker punch vendor.
Tip 5: Who’s a tough guy now? As the game hints at in the loading screen, you don’t always want to rush in to revive a downed player straight away. The downed period can keep a player alive for roughly a minute, before they have to spectate the rest of the round. So get someone to cover you while you revive your buddy and choose your moment carefully. One useful thing is using the lift to teleport the Zombies up to the next floor (or down) with you, then quickly going back down to revive someone who can crawl towards the lift. It gives you a few seconds of clear to bring him/her back into the match. Of course there are still occasions when it is simply suicide to try to help a dying player but generally if you play it right this shouldn’t happen much (we hope).
Tip 6: Butcher. In the early stages (say 1-6) it is fairly easy to hold the undead hordes off so it is a good time to rake in the points by using your knife to finish them off. Usually if you stab at a window and then pull out before they lash back you can kill them quite effectively. It gives you a lot more points than regular kills and it saves ammo in the early stages. Also when you get to the last few zombies of a harder round you can once again pick them off with your knife.
Tip 7: Personal space. If you can keep a fair amount of space to move about in, you can mow the zombies down before they get to close to create another space. I have on many occasions hid in a corner and sprayed all my ammo at them, then when I needed to reload I had nowhere to go and no time to get there. Camping spots are the way forward for some players, but you always should have a route of escape if you get overwhelmed. Note that ‘5’ has teleporters once the power is on (but the Doctor will come so you have to weight things out before hand I guess).
Tip 8: Where to pitch?. From what I’ve heard the most sustainable locations are the following:
-The top floor by the first lift (because you can alternate between the two floors, but make sure someone is always near the lift button side)
-The presidents lounge (only two windows, the double doors, and the teleporter to cover. Has the Sucker-punch and also the teleporter as emergency escape) Note: to open the lounge you must turn on the power, and pull the switches in the war room to defcon 5 to lock the teleporters on it, then go in any teleporter. You must leave someone in there at all time if you want it to stay open though.
-The bottom floor in the middle of the labs (because it is a four way corridor with access to multiple rooms and teleporters)
Tip 9: Taste in weapons. Annoyingly when you use the box, you don’t always get a particularly good weapon (note it always starts on the bottom floor in one of the labs) and you haven’t got time to try again so you settle for it and try your best. Try to avoid this. Basically if you can make a crawler to be last zombie still alive in a round, keep him alive and take turns to distract him whilst your teammates take time to get the right gun from the mystery box, it will make a huge difference to your chances of getting further.
Tip 10: Directions. Make sure you learn all the nuances of the levels and take time to familiarize yourself with where all the doors and corridors lead, where the dead ends are, weapon locations etc. Over time this will help to minimize clumsy mistakes and ultimately make you more efficient at dispatching those damn zombies.
Hopefully a few of these pointers were useful, but if you have any golden snippets of knowledge you feel are missing from this list, and that you’re willing to share, then leave a comment and let everyone else know.
UPDATE: Part two and three of the carnage course continues with Kino and Ascension – building on the basic principles and introducing some of the more advanced and subtle tricks.