Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies - The Tomb Story Easter Egg Guide
The Tomb Zombies map is live in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 with Season 2. This is a brand-new map with a story that takes place directly after the events of the Citadelle des Morts final cutscene. In this walkthrough, we'll guide you through all the steps needed to complete this hidden quest and piece together the story for The Tomb.
Just like the past three maps, completing this storyline quest will reward you with unique items. This quest will earn you a calling card and a cosmetic weapon blueprint for the Ice Staff. Completing this early before the guided Director mode arrives will reward you with a unique stamp on your calling card, so everyone knows you did the hard work.
The guided Director mode will arrive near the midseason update, and it will not unlock the weapon blueprint or give the special stamp on the calling card. Following this guide will help you obtain all the unique rewards.
Recommended loadout
An assault rifle or LMG with a decent ammo count and good mobility is recommended here. Something like the XM4 or AS VAL assault rifles or the PU-21 light machine gun.
A combination of Healing Aura and Aether Shroud can be good for Field Upgrades when playing co-op. If you're solo, Aether Shroud is more likely the best choice.
Gums like Perkaholic and Idle Eyes are very helpful, and maybe Phoenix Up if you're playing co-op. Wonderbar is good if you're trying to skip the steps needed to build the Wonder Weapon needed for the map.
How to get started with The Tomb story quest
The map holds your hand through the first part, guiding you through the excavation site to reach the Pack-a-Punch machine. Just follow the orange icons and work through the steps. Once you've reached Pack-a-Punch, the map stops giving you prompts.
From here, we'll guide you through the hidden steps needed to complete the story. You will need the map's Wonder Weapon to progress through this main quest. The full guide for the Staff of Ice Wonder Weapon can be found here, and this is where you'll want to start.
This guide continues below with the steps needed to continue and upgrade the staff.
Shoot purple crystal lanterns
Once you've gotten your hands on the Ice Staff, you'll need to perform the steps to upgrade it.
You need to use the Ice Staff to shoot/freeze three of the purple crystal lanterns around the map. These are shown in the image above. It's trickier than it sounds because you need to shoot them in such quick succession. The Neolithic Catacombs section of the map seems to be the best place to attempt this, with a long stretch of the map and plenty of potential crystal spawns.
The spawns are random, so try to find an area where three are in close view. You can also try shooting them to make them respawn somewhere else. You'll get an audio cue once you've done this successfully.
Find runes on rocks
Next, head to the Dark Aether Nexus via any of the portals. Look up at the floating space rocks above you. Three of these rocks will have glowing purple runes on them.
Shoot each rune with the Ice Staff. This will cause the rock to float closer, and you'll want to make note of the specific symbol on it.
You'll get an audio cue once you've found and shot all three. This means one of the portals has closed. Use one of the other portals to get back to the main part of the map, and find the portal that was closed off to you.
This closed door will have a set of eight runes on it. Using the Ice Staff, shoot the three rune symbols you noted earlier from the rocks.
Doing this successfully will open a new door. Head through the door and you'll be teleported to a higher location within the Dark Aether Nexus. A purple orb is in front of you when you spawn here.
Follow the orb
Interact with the purple orb. It will move, and you'll need to follow it closely.
Enemies will spawn around it, and killing them will charge the orb, but you want to make sure you focus on following the orb.
The step will fail if you get too far away from the orb, and then you'll need to advance to the next round to try again. This also means you'll need to repeat the step with the door runes to get back.
You basically want to stay close to the orb and kill as many zombies as you can in the process until the orb brings you to the stone structure where you previously built the staff.
I'm not sure if it's a bug or intentional, but be careful about using GobbleGums during this step. Using the Killjoy GobbleGum insta-failed this step for me more than once.
Upgrade the staff
Completing the orb step will cause the zombies to disappear and leave you in front of the stone structure where you built the staff. You can now interact with the structure again, and you will then receive an upgraded version of the Ice Staff.
This upgrade adds the healing ability to the Ice Staff. Pressing left on the D-pad will flip the staff around and make use of the bottom of the staff for healing. So, pressing D-pad and then shooting with the right trigger will fire a blast of healing energy. This will be necessary for the remaining steps.
Vermin statue
Having the Stamin-Up perk might be a good choice for this next step.
Nearby the area where you just upgraded the staff, you'll find a small Vermin statue holding a blue crystal. Switch to the staff's healing ability and shoot the crystal. It will start glowing and you can pick up the energy inside it. Take this energy back to the spawn room of the map via the blue portal.
Vermin Trial
There is another Vermin statue at the bottom of the pit in the spawn room. Place the glowing energy here. This starts a lockdown with tons of Vermin enemies spawning around you. You need to kill them in a specific amount of time.
This is surprisingly difficult, especially when playing solo, so try using the charged attack on the Ice Staff (holding down the right trigger) or using something like Aether Shroud if you're struggling to survive.
Completing this means you'll then need to interact with the statue again, and this lets you take the energy from the glowing crystal.
Rush the energy back to the original Vermin statue. This part is timed, so you'll want to rush back into a portal to the Dark Aether Nexus, and interact with the Vermin statue from earlier.
This completes the Vermin trial for the blue portal.
Parasite statue
Repeat a similar process as above. You'll find the Parasite statue in the Dark Aether Nexus near the yellow portal, shoot it with the healing ability of the staff, and collect the crystal energy.
Parasite trial
Exit the Dark Aether Nexus via the yellow portal nearby. Take this energy to the Shrine of the Hierophants. Here, there is another Parasite statue. Interact with it to start the lockdown, and you'll be faced with waves of Parasite enemies. Survival is key, but mostly focus on the Parasites that turn purple. These will drop small purple energy orbs, which you need to deposit into the statue.
Completing this step means you can take the energy from the Parasite statue. You'll need to rush back to the original Parasite statue using a portal to the Dark Aether Nexus.
This completes the Parasite trial for the yellow portal.
Doppleghast statue
In the Dark Aether, locate the Doppleghast statue near the green portal. Use the healing ability of the staff and collect the crystal's energy. Exit the Dark Aether Nexus via the green portal nearby.
Doppleghast trial
Take the energy to the Doppleghast statue found in the Ossuary (Near Speed Cola) and place the energy.
It's a similar process here. You need to survive the trial. This one is full of Doppleghast enemies, but there are also laser beams on the floor you'll need to avoid.
Surviving this trial means you can collect the energy from the statue, return to the Dark Aether Nexus, and place it in the original statue.
This completes the Doppleghast trial for the green portal.
Amalgam statue
Lastly, you'll find the Amalgam statue near the red portal. Use the healing ability of the staff and collect the crystal's energy.
Amalgam trial
Use the red portal and take the energy collected to the Amalgam statue near Quick Revive. Starting this trial spawns an Amalgam. However, this enemy is protected by a purple shield orb. This orb is tethered to zombies, so use the Ice Staff to freeze and kill the zombies, and this will make the Amalgam vulnerable.
Killing the Amalgam completes the step, and you can rush the energy back into the Dark Aether Nexus. Interact with the statue again to complete the trial.
Completing all four trials will cause giant purple beams to shoot into the air and target a doorway. This is the point where you want to stop and prep for the boss fight.
Boss fight prep
You'll want your gun upgraded to Legendary rarity with Pack-a-Punch tier three. Upgrade your armor as well. Make sure you have all your essential perks equipped, and Kazimir or Decoy tactical equipment can be handy.
For killstreaks, the Sentry Guns or Mutant Injection might be helpful here, but don't bother with arial streaks.
Boss fight
Once geared up, head into the Dark Aether Nexus. Follow the purple beams to a wall with a pedestal. Interact with the pedestal and a bride will appear.
Interact with the Sential Artifact at the center of the arena. All players will need to vote to continue. Unlike the recent boss fights with three phases, this is a tedious boss fight with about ten phases. Each phase will provide you with a Max Ammo power-up.
In the first phase, just survive and avoid the red beam shot from the Sentinel Artifact. Once the Sentinel Artifact turns purple, it becomes vulnerable and you can shoot it. Group Aether Shroud strat works well here.
Each phase thereafter will progressively add more lasers. You just want to stay alive and deal damage once the Sentinel Artifact goes purple.
Just keep working through the phases, and you'll get a final cutscene and rewards for completing this story quest.
More Zombies guides
For more BO6 Zombies, we have a full guide for unlocking the hidden song in The Tomb. Make sure to also check out our guide for the best perk augments to use.
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