Call of Duty: Ghosts Extinction Guide

Call of Duty: Ghosts introduces players to a brand new game type called "Extinction". In the vein of the well-known Zombies mode, Extinction lets up to four players compete in a round-based challenge and test their mettle against the oncoming swarming forces. Instead of zombies however, Extinction has you facing off against different types of aliens and destroying the hives that they have spread throughout various areas. There’s a lot more to it than it first seems and we’re here to show you the ins and outs of this new mode from beginning to end.

Table of Contents

Getting Started
Classes and Skills Points
The Point of Contact
The City
The Cabin
The Bomb

Getting Started

As you start the game, you and your team will be placed in front of a chopper that drops off a rather large drill. Get used to this drill as you will be lugging it through the entire game with you. As soon as the chopper takes off, pick up the drill and carry it a few feet forward to the gooey, pulsating blob of pink nastiness which is the first hive. Place it at the front of the hive and as it begins to drill into it, the aliens will start to attack, and your first challenge will appear. More often than not it is to only use melee attacks, but sometimes it is to not get hurt.

Kill the aliens as they swarm in and you will also need to protect the drill as it works on the hive. You can check the status of how far the drill has gone and has to go by the meter on the left side of the screen, and if the drill gets destroyed during its process, it will end the game. It can get damaged which will require someone to run over and repair it (which an engineer is useful for), but if the person repairing the drill is covered, it is not that big of a deal. Once the drill finishes its business, the round will end and you will be awarded a skill point.

If you satisfied the challenge requirements, you will receive two skill points. This is the gist of the entire game. You will move from hive to hive and let the drill destroy them as you and your squad try to protect it and wipe out the alien threat that constantly appears until you finally reach the end. You will need to have a squad that is properly outfitted and hopefully leveled up some to make it, and even then, it can be a rough ride. To let you have a fighting chance, there are several classes and skills that you can choose from…

Classes and Skill Points 

Before you start on your alien assault, you will need to pick your class. There are 4 classes to choose from: Weapon Specialist, Tank, Engineer, and Medic. Each class has their own strengths and weaknesses, but it’s always a good idea to have at least one medic in your squad. Tanks are insanely powerful once they have fully upgraded their class (which doesn’t take long) as they can have twice the health and twice the melee damage.

Each time you play, you will earn XP for your number of kills, hives destroyed, etc. and you will gain levels. These levels are permanent and will carry over from game to game, the higher you get; the more items that you can unlock. Items such as sentry guns, different ammo types, and stronger pistols become invaluable later on in the run, so don’t expect to get too far in your early goings.

Aside from the XP you earn, you can also earn skill points. As you earn these, you spend them on any one of the six categories you have available. These are Class, Pistol, Ammo, Team Support, Strike Package, and Equalizer. Each of these categories has their own varying types of tools that will need to be unlocked as you progress through levels.

With each skill point that you receive at the end of a round--when a hive is destroyed--you can place it in one of the six categories to increase its effectiveness. Later slots will require two skill points to upgrade, but if you complete the challenges given to you, you will be able to earn two skill points per round. The challenges are randomly given at each hive and can range from easy—like kill 25 enemies using only assault rifles—to overly difficult—like keep your accuracy at 75% or higher.

When the challenges appear, it is in your best interest to try and complete them, especially early on when the game hasn’t ramped up the difficulty. Earning the two skill points at a time is required to get your skills up to where they will be needed as you enter the City section of the game.

The Point of Contact

After you have received the drill and taken out the initial hive, you will have the choice of three other hives to drill. It is random in which hives appear active, so it’s not always the same from game to game. Between rounds, you can take this time to scour the area to buy weapons that are on the ground and search the bags and boxes that are scattered about to find things like ammo, money, and even extra weapon parts like scopes, and grips.

You will take out the next three hives in the general same way that you took out the first, although now you will be able to use specific traps that are around the area. There are electric fence traps near the center hive in the parking lot and a fire trap barrel at the far end near the Motel sign. Once you have dealt with the first 4 hives, which honestly shouldn’t prove to be too much of a challenge, even in the early levels, the game will start to ramp up. Now you will encounter the barrier hive at the end of the street.

To get through this, the drill just won’t cut it. A chopper will announce to you that it is inbound and this will take on the barrier. While the chopper is shooting at the barrier, scorpion aliens will show up and fire their acid at it. You and your squad will need to take out the scorpions as fast as possible for if the chopper gets hit too many times, it will fly away to evade the spews. The more the chopper gets hit, the longer the fight will take, the more ammo you will use, and the more money you will spend.

To help the chopper take down the barrier (the barriers health is on the left side where the drill depth indicator usually is) you can pick up propane tanks that are scattered around the area and toss them into the barrier where they will stick. Toss a few in and shoot them to take a chunk of damage, as well as using grenade turrets and mortars if you have them unlocked.

The scorpions will always go to the same places—on the roofs, the rocks, and the sign—so taking them out fairly quickly won’t be an issue after you learn where they like to land. Once the barrier is destroyed, kill off the rest of the aliens and you will be rewarded with a money pile of $3000. Before you pick it up, buy whatever you need—ammo, guns, armor—or whatever as you can only carry a maximum of $6000 at a time. Now that the barrier is down, you can enter the second area, the city, oh and don’t forget to pick up the drill.

The City

Now that you are in the city, the game will start to ramp up in its difficulty. If you want, as soon as you enter the streets, there will be a Rhino alien on top of a building that you can shoot to bring him down to you. The Rhinos are the toughest enemies in the game and you will get $1000 for killing it. In this section of the game, you will only need to destroy three different hives before reaching the barrier, but they are more difficult as they take longer to destroy and the aliens that attack are more varied.

Now you will face the regular aliens and Scorpions, as well as Seekers, Hunters, and Rhinos. Seekers have red bubbles on them and will explode when they get close to you. Hunters have plated heads and resist being hit from the front, and Rhinos are plated all over and are bullet sponges that can run darn fast. As you start drilling and taking down hives, enemies will begin to exit meteors that fall from the sky. These are large red crystals that basically look like markers from Dead Space.

Dealing with hives is the same drill (pardon the pun) as the previous section, but when you reach the barrier, things get a little more hectic. The barrier is between two buildings on a large wide open street and leaves a lot of room for aliens to attack and plenty of areas for scorpions to attack the chopper from. Always focus on the scorpions as much as you can to keep the helicopter attacking the barrier using turrets and sentries if possible.

There will be a ton of scorpions and they will leave their acid puddles everywhere and if you dawdle in them for too long, they can eat through your health and armor in no time. Also try to give the helicopter as much help as you can attacking the barrier, as this battle can go on for a real long time if not. Once you get the barrier down close to being destroyed, Rhinos will appear and can be rather tough to deal with. Have everyone in the squad focus on them until they are down and then focus back on the other aliens. Once the barrier is finally down, grab the drill and head through the alley to face another Rhino and continue to the next area, the Cabin.

The Cabin

Once you have cleared the city, pick up your $3000 and you will enter this final area that has a bunch of dilapidated wooden buildings. There are five hives here that you will need to deal with and no barriers—but the final hive will have a little something "extra" to deal with—but we’ll get to that in a bit. The first hive you should deal with in this area is inside the barn on the second story.

The barn will be the building located at the far end, straight across from the bridge you walk under, to the right of where you enter. It will have an open garage on the right side and a ladder leading up to the second story. In here will be a hive as well as a Chain SAW gun you can buy for $3000 that does some hefty damage.

There are three hives to deal with in this main area near the buildings and thankfully they are less difficult than those in the city were. By now your skills should be full in a couple categories, so keep dropping full armor and ammo to your team mates. The third hive is always across from the large building with the stone wall, and beside a broken chain fence. Once the drill has destroyed it, you can then pass through into an area with a raised platform and a wide open area with another large hive against the far cliff.

Before going through the newly opened area, enter the passage across from it, along the stone wall, that takes you to the cellar of the building there. In here you will find a laptop against the far wall that you can use to call in an attack chopper to help you. It costs $6000 for it and each player can contribute to it, but for now, only drop $5000 into the laptop.

Exit out of the basement and go through the space where the hive was that you just dealt with and head for the hive that is atop the plateau. Continue fighting and protecting the drill as usually and don’t stop moving until you get the all clear. Once you do, you will have one final hive left to deal with which is arguably the toughest, given your position. Stock up on all the ammo and armor that you can and set the drill in motion.

Prepare for a long defensive position as this drill time is 5 minutes compared to the rest of the non-barrier hives that are 3 minutes or under. Now a huge swarm of enemies will appear of all varieties, although it’s mainly the scorpions that will make life difficult for you with their acid. Make sure you keep an eye on the drill and your team mates as failing the mission at this point would be heartbreaking.

Keep the enemies in your sights; use all you have—turrets, ammo, and armor— restocking every chance you get. There are more than enough enemies to keep your money supply up and not have to worry about running out. Once the hive is finally drilled through, you will notice there is a little something there behind it.

The Nuke

After the hive is drilled out, the bomb will become reachable. Once the bomb is armed, you and your squad will need to get the hell out of dodge and run all the way back to the starting area where you originally began the game. Yep, all the way back to the beginning.

Before arming the bomb however-if you have sentries—go back to the near entrance of the cabin area and set them up on the path facing away from the area entrance. Why you ask? Because as soon as you start the bomb countdown, you will be attacked non-stop by aliens as you are trying to run.

Once you have the sentries set up, return to the laptop in the basement of the large building and deposit the final $1000 to get the attack chopper on its way. This will also help keep the aliens off your back as you try to make your way to the start.

Return to the bomb, and to arm it, each of the players will need to hit the X/O button simultaneously. If you have boosters, throw them down to give you some additional speed, as well switch to your pistols as if they are upgraded at all, you will be able to run faster with them equipped.

Now you will have 4 minutes to return to the helicopter, so get moving! As soon as the bomb is armed, aliens will start appearing and attacking. Keep running and only stop to kill those that are in your way. Once you reach the city entrance, a meteor will block the path between the buildings and you will have to make a stand and fight off all the enemies that show up. Throw down your ammo and armor and stand your ground until the meteor blows apart and you can pass.

Once you can, keep running to the exit of the city to the motel and there will be another meteor blocking the road. Again, make a stand with all you have and take out the rush of enemies there until this meteor blows apart as well. Now you just need to run to the very first hive location and the helicopter will be hovering above a circle of lights.

As soon as all 4 players—or whoever is left alive--enters the circle, you will board the chopper and take off, completing the game. As a bonus, if you make it to the chopper with over a minute and thirty seconds left on the timer you will earn yourself an extra achievement/trophy for being so speedy.