Beginners Guide to Staying Alive in Call of Duty Black Ops 3 Zombies

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 has gone all out with zombies this year. We get our dose of A-List celebrities to play the roles of the four main characters, but Treyarch has also built an entire city for us to slay zombies in, and created a bespoke story for the mode to boot. However, Zombies represents an incredibly tough challenge, especially if you don't know what you're doing, so VideoGamer has put together some tips and tricks to help you survive the nightmare.

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Playing with friends will keep you alive

Zombies mode is built around communicating with your teammates: playing with strangers who don't know what they're doing will make you wish you were a zombie. Find three friends who you can jump in with, that way you're all on the same page. It's important that everyone on the team is aware what the others are doing: when you decide to open a gate; when one of you becomes the beast; where a sudden horde of enemies appears from and so on.

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Stick together, survive together

A natural extension of the above point is that it makes sense for the four of you to stay relatively close together. If one of you goes down, it's a pain to have to run all the way to the other side of the map to revive them. In later rounds, when zombie R.A.P.S and giant monsters are coming your way, working as a unit is the only way you're going to make it to the next wave, so don't wander off.

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Don't stay still, keep moving

Staying still is the best way to be killed by a zombie running up to you from behind. It only takes a couple of hits before you're down, and these zombies are relentless and can quickly make it very difficult for you to escape.

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Sprint, turn, shoot

Don't be running backwards while you shoot, either, as you're likely to back into a crowd of the undead who will corner you and you'll soon be downed. Sprint into an area of safety, turn, fire off a few rounds, then turn and sprint again.

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Don't open gates too soon

It can be tempting to see what lies behind the locked gates as soon as you've accrued enough points to do so, but don't be naive in thinking that making the map bigger is the best tactic. The bigger the map, the more places there are for zombies to jump in and attack you from, and the more entry points you'll have to repair. If you open gates too soon, you won't have enough points to buy the weapons you need and build the traps that will save your life to survive the later rounds.

Make sure you survive at least a few rounds before opening the first gate, that way each player should have enough points to buy a decent weapon, and you should all be familiar with the first room.

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Grab a Gobblegum

Keep an eye out for Gobblegum machines. These cost 500 points and can give pretty handy perks. You can customise the five potential Gobblegums available to you in the pre-game menu, unlocking more as you level-up. Make sure there aren't any zombies around before you pay, though, as the machine takes a while and if you don't grab the boost quickly enough, the lion's head will swallow it back up and you'll lose out.

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Becoming the Beast

Becoming the Beast is the most important part of Zombies. It isn't about running round and killing, either, you're actually tasked with activating every vital power station and unlocking new areas.

The Beast can do things that the humans can't, like breaking down the cursed chain-link doors, which can house artefacts or buffs which will help your team progress. You are also required to smash open boxes, again potentially housing an artefact or buff.

You'll notice that the Beast has a couple of abilities: electricity and grapple. You need to run around as the Beast and look for anything in the map that's glowing red. Many of these are the electricity boxes, zap them to bring power to the item stations littered around the rooms, which you and your teammates will quickly begin to desperately need, like Gobblegum machines and quick revives. These electricity boxes and cursed doors will also grant access to new areas, like the teleporter in the sewers which takes you to the abandoned subway.

If you look up there will also be some grapple hooks, some of which will take you to the higher levels of the map, and allow you to unlock more stations.

Remember that once the timer runs out, you'll spawn back as your human character at the chalice where you became the beast, so be ready to fend off some zombies if you have already cleared the area. Also, you can click and hold R3 if you want to terminate your summon early, once you've opened a nearby door, this is the safest option. The best tactic is to look around the area near a chalice to see what you can use the Beast for before summoning.

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Don't pick up buffs immediately

Character buffs are perfect for saving your team in a pinch, but don't grab them as soon as they drop. The 'Kaboom' nuclear blast, which sets all zombies currently in the level on fire, is worth saving until you can see loads of them, that way it's most effective. Max ammo is best saved for when you and your team are low on ammo, ask on the headset if anybody is low on ammo before deciding to pick it up (again, communication is vital in this mode).

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If you die, you lose your weapons

Remember that if you die and respawn at the start of the next round, you lose the weapon you had, and begin anew with just your pistol. Quickly find a weapon station (the chalk outlines of guns) and buy a new gun.

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Got Insta-kill? Switch to the pistol

If you hear someone has picked up the 'Insta-kill' perk, switch back to your standard pistol. It's a waste of your primary weapon's bullets if the zombies will go down with a single round, switch to the basic weapon and save that vital ammunition.

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Don't be selfish

It's nice to stockpile points to spend on the best guns in the map, but remember you're part of a team, and the cost of unlocking barriers needs to be divided equally amongst you.