01Plan Around the First Panzer, Not a Perfect Speedrun

The opening objective is a survivable setup before the first Panzer at round 8. Get a shovel, open the central area, secure Juggernog, build the shield, and prepare a dependable damage option. If snowfall begins, pause optional spending and look for Ice Staff parts in the regions you can access.

For co-op, give each player a staff assignment and one shared responsibility: generators, shield/drone parts, the gramophone, or the last zombie. Say where the gramophone is before leaving a tunnel. It is a shared tool, and leaving it behind can make a teammate’s apparently complete staff route stall.

• Black Ops II Main Quest: MrDalekJD ↗
• Zombies Chronicles Main Quest: MrRoflWaffles ↗

02Generators and Pack-a-Punch

Each generator supplies local power. Start it with points, remain within its pad, and survive until the activation completes. If everyone leaves the pad before completion, progress drains. Generator guardians are a setup hazard; regular zombies may still join the fight.

Pack-a-Punch sits on top of the central Excavation Site and requires all six generators to be running at once. Later generator attacks can disable it again. If the machine unexpectedly becomes unavailable, check the generator indicators before assuming the game has broken.

1. Activate your opening generator and buy a weapon you can refill from a wall.
2. Open toward the workshop and central mound, collecting parts along that route.
3. Reach the church and activate Generator 6; check its reward chest for the Fire Staff component.
4. Once all six indicators are lit, use Pack-a-Punch at the mound. A first upgrade costs 5,000 points; keep a reserve for doors and recovery.
5. When generator defenders attack, deal with the affected generator if your route is safe. Restore lost power after the attack rather than continuing to run to a disabled upgrade machine.

03Gramophone, Records, and the Crazy Place

Pick up a shovel in spawn before leaving. Additional shovels can be found near the church and tunnels if both opening ones are taken. Dig sites may contain weapons, points, parts, or hazards, so do not dig with a zombie already touching you.

The gramophone is below Pack-a-Punch. Find the black/white excavation record around the mound—check the wheelbarrow near Pack-a-Punch, the machinery by the ramp, and the church-side wooden wall. Place the gramophone on the downstairs table to open the deeper staff chamber, then take it with you.

Each colored record opens its matching tunnel portal to the Crazy Place. Use the gramophone on that tunnel’s table, take the colored crystal from its pedestal inside, and return through a portal. Retrieve the gramophone afterward when nobody still depends on that exit. A crystal, three staff components, and access to the lower mound are needed to assemble a staff.

04Shield and Maxis Drone: Search by Zone

Build the shield early rather than treating it as a late quest requirement. It protects your back while you move through the trenches, but it breaks; choose a workbench you know how to revisit. The Maxis Drone is needed later for the main quest. Its parts can be collected while opening the church and excavation chamber.

Parts have alternate spawns within a zone. When a checklist says “Tank Station,” inspect the relevant building and nearby trench before crossing to the other side of the map. Check your inventory after a pickup so you do not spend another lap looking for a component your teammate already collected.

1. Collect one shield piece from each zone and assemble it at a bench such as the workshop.
2. Collect the three drone pieces and assemble the drone at an available bench.
3. Collect the finished items yourself. In co-op, agree who carries the drone when a quest step needs it.
4. Let the drone recharge between deployments; do not begin the seal step while it is still unavailable.

05Wind Staff: Enter Each Robot Safely

One component is inside each of the three giant robots: Thor on the spawn side, Odin across the central generators, and Freya by the church. Watch the underside of the incoming foot. Only the lit foot can be opened. Shoot its panel with a bullet weapon, confirm the hatch opens, then stand where that foot will land.

Running beneath a closed foot is lethal. If your shot did not register or the correct foot is on the other side, move out of the footprint and wait. A saved attempt is worth more than a rushed pickup.

1. Enter Thor, Odin, and Freya in separate passes and collect their Wind Staff parts.
2. Find the yellow record near Generator 5 and use the gramophone in the Wind Tunnel near Generator 4.
3. Take the yellow crystal in the Crazy Place, return, and assemble the Wind Staff at its pedestal under the mound.
4. For the upgrade, enter the Crazy Place and shoot the rings above the Wind portal to align the fixed symbol sequence. Use the visual reference below with the same viewing direction; an upside-down viewpoint reverses the apparent order.
5. Outside, shoot the three smoking stone spheres so their smoke points toward the Excavation Site: near Juggernog, near Generator 5, and along the tank route behind the church. Stand on the outside of the sphere and aim toward the mound.
6. When the puzzle is accepted, align the excavation rings to yellow, shoot the yellow orb below them, and complete the common soul-charge finish described below.

• Wind Puzzle: Visual Symbol Reference and Video ↗

06Ice Staff: Use Snowfall and Keep a Bullet Weapon

Dig the Ice Staff’s three pieces while it is snowing. Search three separate regions: the opening trenches around Generators 2–3, the middle area around Generators 4–5, and the church/Generator 6 region. Clearing every dig site in one region will not replace searching the others.

The upgrade has two different weapon actions. The staff freezes the tombstones, but a bullet gun shatters them. Keep one before entering the puzzle phase; the Ice Staff and an explosive weapon alone can leave you unable to finish the next step.

1. Collect all three snowy dig pieces, find the blue record in the Tank Station, and take the Ice crystal through the portal behind the church.
2. Build the staff beneath the mound. In the Crazy Place, read the changing tablet near the Ice portal and shoot the ceiling tile with the matching symbol. Repeat until the puzzle signals success. The linked chart pairs the dot/tablet symbols with the ceiling symbols.
3. Return outside and find the three tombstones: in the footprint by Generator 4, on the mound-facing side near the central footprint, and behind the Tank Station on the muddy route.
4. Freeze each tombstone with the Ice Staff, then shoot it with a bullet weapon to break it. Check that all three physically shatter.
5. Align all excavation rings to blue and shoot the blue orb underneath. Finish at the Ice pedestal in the Crazy Place with the common soul-charge procedure.

• Ice Puzzle: Visual Symbol Reference and Video ↗
• MrRoflWaffles: Ice Staff Build and Upgrade ↗

07Lightning Staff: Tank Jumps and the Piano Puzzle

The tank starts below the church and pauses to cool at the Tank Station. Its route passes three platforms holding Lightning Staff parts. Take the first jump on the outward trip toward Generator 2; on the return trip, one jump leads into the excavation scaffolding and another reaches the church. You can take extra rides rather than risking a frantic run back to the moving tank.

At the Crazy Place puzzle, number only the seven lower-row keys from left to right. Ignore the upper-row keys. Fire single shots for one three-note group, let the previous notes clear, then play the next group. Continuing to shoot while an incorrect chord is still active makes diagnosis harder.

1. Ride the tank and collect the three components from its jump-off routes.
2. Find the purple record near Generator 4, take the Lightning crystal through the tunnel by Generator 5, and build the staff beneath the mound.
3. Play these lower-row sequences in the Crazy Place: 1–3–6, then 3–5–7, then 2–4–6. Wait between groups for the notes to clear.
4. Visit the electrical panels listed below and rotate any sparking dial until its sparks stop. A panel in the upper workshop is not part of this puzzle.
5. When all required panels are correct, align the excavation rings to purple, shoot the purple orb, and complete the soul-charge finish.

• Lightning Dial Orientation Reference ↗

08Fire Staff: Three Rewards and the Church Torches

The Fire Staff components come from three different events, so repeated digging will not find them. One comes from powering Generator 6 and opening its reward chest; one drops when you shoot down the glowing plane; one drops from the first Panzer. Keep a bullet weapon for the plane and pick the fallen part up near the mound.

The church puzzle uses the lit symbols on the upper wall to identify which numbered torches to ignite downstairs. The visual reference below is useful because the marks are not ordinary printed numerals. Read the lit set for this run rather than reusing a previous game’s torch combination.

1. Collect the Generator 6 reward, plane part, and Panzer part. Find the red record around the church.
2. Use the Fire Tunnel near Generator 3 to take the red crystal, then assemble the Fire Staff at the mound.
3. In the Crazy Place, stand by the metal grating in the Fire area and kill zombies with the staff until the four nearby cauldrons are lit. Wait for the puzzle’s completion cue.
4. Read the lit church-wall symbols and translate them with the Fire reference. Go downstairs and ignite their numbered torches with the staff; include the blood-stained/unmarked torch represented as 4 in the chart.
5. After the torch puzzle is accepted, align the excavation rings to red, shoot the red orb below them, and perform the common soul-charge finish.

• Fire Torch Symbols: Visual Reference and Video ↗

09Finish Each Staff Upgrade and Verify It

After its individual puzzles, every staff follows the same final pattern. At the excavation chamber, use the levers to rotate all four rings until the staff’s color is aligned. The orb under the rings should match that color. Shoot it with that staff, then return to the Crazy Place.

Place the staff on its colored pedestal and kill nearby zombies until the soul effect stops and the upgrade is ready. Pick it back up and check its changed name and charged attack. An unfinished pedestal is not an upgraded staff merely because you completed the overworld puzzle.

Upgraded staffs also provide Sekhmet’s Vigor, a revive mode. Learn its weapon-mode control before a teammate goes down, but do not fire it through an uncertain line of sight while standing in a closing wall corridor.

1. If the colored orb does not appear, revisit the individual puzzle and its outside-map step before spinning every ring repeatedly.
2. During soul charging, defend a position with an exit. The Crazy Place’s moving walls can cut you off.
3. Check all four upgraded staffs are complete before moving to the main-quest pedestal stage.

10Earn Thunder Fists and G-Strikes

Fill the four soul chests located in robot footprints around the middle map and church. Kill zombies close enough for souls to enter. A robot stepping on an unfinished chest resets that chest, so begin just after the relevant robot passes and concentrate your kills. Once all four close and disappear, collect the melee reward from a challenge chest.

G-Strikes are earned using a tablet from the Tank Station. The cleansing route matters: touching mud after washing the tablet dirties it again. Plan the wooden-board and trench route from the church before picking it up.

1. Fill the soul chests near Generator 4, Generator 5, below the excavation mound, and outside the church. Claim the One-Inch Punch/Thunder Fists reward.
2. Take a stone tablet from the table inside the Generator 2 Tank Station and put it in the holy-water basin upstairs in the church.
3. Get melee kills close to the basin until the tablet is cleansed.
4. Pick up the clean tablet and carry it back to the Tank Station without stepping in mud. If it becomes dirty, return it to the church basin and cleanse it again.
5. Place it on its original table and earn more nearby melee kills until G-Strikes appear. Collect them before starting Rain Fire.
6. In co-op, the person who will throw into the seal must actually have G-Strikes equipped. A teammate completing their own tablet does not put them in everyone’s inventory.

11Secure the Keys and Ascend from Darkness

Begin with all six generators active and all four staffs upgraded. The first quest stage is the full set of upgrades; merely assembling the basic staffs is insufficient. Recheck power after generator attacks before blaming the next pedestal.

The next stage distributes the staffs among the robots and excavation. This guide uses the intended route in both editions rather than relying on a Black Ops II skip. After the assignments succeed, collect the staffs again from beneath the mound.

1. Carry the correct upgraded staff to the matching robot. Shoot its lit foot with a bullet weapon to enter safely.
2. Interact with the staff pedestal inside the robot before the purge timer ejects you.
3. Place Fire in the excavation pedestal and wait for the stage’s completion cue after all four assignments.
4. Retrieve the staffs from the lower mound and confirm the next stage has started. Keep G-Strikes and the Maxis Drone available.

12Rain Fire: Open the Seal at Generator 5

Find the large concrete seal outside the playable area near Generator 5. A robot’s red button authorizes the strike for a short window. One teammate can press the button while another waits with G-Strikes at the throwing position. Count down together rather than throwing as soon as someone says they entered a robot.

In solo, wait for the middle robot’s usable foot on the Generator 5 side. Use the button late enough in the purge countdown that you can leave and immediately throw at the seal. The goal is a coordinated button-and-grenade window, not just landing a grenade on the correct texture.

1. Enter the robot through its opened lit foot and locate the red button.
2. Have the thrower ready near Generator 5 with a clear view of the seal.
3. Press the button, then throw a G-Strike onto the concrete seal during the authorization window.
4. Confirm the seal physically opens. If it remains closed, preserve another G-Strike and repeat on the next robot pass.
5. Do not release the drone until the opening is visible and the team is ready for combat.

13Unleash the Horde, Then Find the Invisible Pilot

Release the Maxis Drone near the open seal. It enters the opening and triggers a dangerous Panzer wave. Spread out enough to avoid trapping one another, keep a route out of the mud, and use upgraded damage. Finish the wave before moving to the sky search.

The next plane and its pilot are visible under Zombie Blood. This is a different plane task from the Fire Staff component. If the effect expires, obtain another Zombie Blood and resume the search; do not waste ammunition at a sky target you cannot currently see.

1. Deploy the drone at the broken seal and defeat the Panzers that emerge.
2. Obtain Zombie Blood. If needed, use the Ice Staff to extinguish the three burning carts around the mound, then collect the temporary Zombie Blood near Pack-a-Punch. Collect it promptly.
3. While the effect is active, locate and shoot the glowing plane circling above the map.
4. Find the invisible pilot running around the excavation mound and kill it while you can see it through Zombie Blood. Search the mound’s loop rather than standing at the plane’s crash point.
5. Pick up the Maxis Drone dropped by the pilot. This recovered drone is needed for the finale.

• Community Quest Reference: Pilot and Zombie Blood ↗

14Wield a Fist of Iron

Return to the lowest excavation chamber with your Thunder Fists. Special zombies with glowing/white-smoke effects arrive. Kill them with melee until a tablet drops, then collect it to upgrade your fists. Let the zombies reach the appropriate chamber area before taking the kill.

In co-op, every player must complete and collect their own fist upgrade. One player repeatedly killing everything can leave the remaining players unable to finish their requirement. Call out when your tablet is obtained, then let the next teammate work.

1. Equip your melee reward and enter the lower excavation chamber.
2. Use melee on the marked zombies and watch for the dropped tablet.
3. Collect the tablet and confirm your melee has upgraded.
4. Repeat for every active player. Only proceed when the entire crew is ready.

15Raise Hell and Choose When to End the Game

Bring all four upgraded staffs to the Crazy Place and put each on its corresponding pedestal. You temporarily give up those staffs, so prepare other upgraded weapons and agree on your movement area before setting the last one down. Kill zombies in the Crazy Place until the central soul collection finishes and the ceiling portal opens.

There is no separate conventional boss arena here. The finale is a soul-defense stage followed by the drone and exit interaction. Do not leave a teammate behind while the group is still completing that stage.

1. Install all four staffs at their colored pedestals in the Crazy Place.
2. Survive and feed the central portal until the completion cue and open ceiling confirm the stage is finished.
3. Release the recovered Maxis Drone into the open portal.
4. When the blue central exit/teleporter interaction becomes available, have the crew gather and activate it to end the game and view the ending.
5. If you intend to keep playing for rounds before the final exit, agree on that first. Record a main-quest completion only after the required finale is actually finished, with quest time separate from the session’s survival round.

16Digging Rewards, Golden Shovel, and the Free Upgraded Gun

Using the shovel repeatedly eventually upgrades it to gold. Watch for the changed inventory icon rather than assuming every dig counted toward an exact threshold. Further digging with the golden shovel can yield the golden helmet, which protects against robot footfalls. Do not test that protection until the helmet icon actually appears.

With the golden shovel and Zombie Blood, hidden red dig sites can provide perk-slot bottles. A bottle adds capacity; it is not the same as buying a specific missing perk. Keep the route safe rather than sprinting through every footprint during the short power-up.

For a free upgraded machine gun, deploy the Maxis Drone near four yellow discs and let it collect them: on the church entrance roof, excavation scaffolding, a roof near Generator 5, and burning debris outside spawn toward Generator 2. After all four, check beside Pack-a-Punch for the reward. Choose which teammate takes the gun before interacting.

• Digging and Reward Reference ↗

17Songs and the Chronicles Samantha Challenge

For Archangel, interact with the three green rocks: beside the spawn bunk beds near the reward chest, under a bed upstairs in the workshop, and on the excavation scaffolding near the spawn-facing entrance. Listen for the acknowledgement after each interaction.

For Shepherd of Fire, activate the red radios on the excavation scaffolding, inside Freya’s head, and along the Fire area in the Crazy Place. The radio inside the robot requires the same safe foot-entry procedure as a staff pickup.

The prone interaction sequence on the generator floor panels—1, 1, then 5—plays the instrumental Aether. Music discoveries are side achievements; they do not advance Little Lost Girl.

• Community Song Locations ↗

18Samantha’s Dolls in Zombies Chronicles

This challenge is a Black Ops III addition. Build all four staffs, then shoot the four marked squares on the excavation’s inner stone ring with their corresponding staffs. Use the image reference to match the symbols and directions instead of treating any square as interchangeable.

Go to the Crazy Place and interact with the Samantha doll in the central blue circle. Shoot the small dolls as they appear there. Allow the final ascending doll to rise rather than shooting it. The completion reward includes a Max Ammo and the song Remember Forever. This challenge is optional and separate from the quest’s central soul-collection finale.

• Chronicles Doll Puzzle: Marked-Square Reference ↗

19Build a Route You Can Recover After a Down

Atlas route advice: travel the wooden paths through the central map and enter the mud with a destination already chosen. Check robot footfalls before crossing a footprint. Treat the church approach and narrow trenches as transitions, not comfortable places to stop and read a guide.

When a generator attack interrupts your quest, decide whether the team can clear it safely now or restore power afterward. It is better to delay Pack-a-Punch than to run blindly through the horde. Replace your shield before moving into a staff tunnel or beginning melee-only tasks.

After a down, a teammate with an upgraded staff can use its revive function from a clear line of sight. Communicate which side of a Crazy Place wall the downed player is on. Do not assume an outline means the revive projectile has an unobstructed path.

20Black Ops II: Original Rules and Equipment

The original uses Black Ops II movement and weapon pools. PhD Flopper is part of the available perk set; GobbleGums are not. The quest route in this guide does not require glitches that skip staff placement. Follow the robot assignments even if an older speedrun video uses a shortcut.

Keep a bullet weapon available for robot feet and the Ice tombstones. Do not assume an upgraded Mauser or a Ray Gun can perform every interaction that an ordinary rifle can. For Atlas records, select Black Ops II → Origins and note any custom rules that changed your attempt.

21Black Ops III: Zombies Chronicles

Chronicles keeps the staff-and-quest structure but brings Black Ops III weapons, GobbleGums, and additional Pack-a-Punch upgrade effects. Widow’s Wine replaces PhD Flopper in the perk selection. A video that relies on PhD’s original behavior or a Black Ops II skip is not automatically a safe instruction for this edition.

Mud movement also feels different: repeated jumping can slow you down further. Use the boards, learn your slide/sprint transitions, and avoid importing a Black Ops II movement rhythm without checking it. Panzer pressure can differ after the first encounter, so do not plan every later round around a single enemy.

GobbleGums can simplify parts of setup, but this walkthrough does not require them. If you use a powerful consumable or a category-specific restriction, note it when comparing results. Select Black Ops III → Origins → Zombies Chronicles in Atlas so the original and remaster stay separate.

• Compare Records Without Mixing Editions ↗