What Are The Perks In Black Ops 3 Zombies
Vilma Steiert
Perks are an essential part of any Call of Duty Zombie game, even the classic ones. Magical drinks such as Juggernog, Speed Cola, Stamin-Up, and many more have been slowly added in with each addition to the franchise, each one giving the player character some brand new power or ability. This, among a few other features, is what really separated Call of Duty's Zombies mode from all other Zombies media.
Updated April 4th, 2023 by Jacob Buchalter: With how much Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War switched things up with the standard zombies' formula only to have CoD: Vanguard completely ruin everything it had built up, it seemed like an apt time to look back again. Perks in these games are basically the 'superpowers' the player characters gain over the course of a survival attempt, and each one has its own completely unique effects. So, let's take another look through all the ones introduced in the Black Ops games while waiting for Call of Duty 2024 to see if the rankings have changed at all.
Who's Who was added exclusively to the Die Rise map in Black Ops 2, and, luckily, that's where it stayed. It was a useful perk, giving the players the ability to revive themselves within a certain time limit. This worked by having players spawn as their very own doppelganger (which has strong Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man vibes), which was hilarious. However, mechanically it was essentially like having a worse version of Quick Revive.
Functioned like a mix between Who's Who and Tombstone. Players could choose to instantly respawn when downed as a 'Dark Aether' version of themselves and would then have to make it to where their body was currently downed before it bled out and revive it.
Tombstone Soda was only featured in the Green Run section of the TranZit map and didn't return again until Cold War, as the Aftertaste Gobblegum did mostly the same thing. In Black Ops II, players could choose to end themselves early while down, they would then 'respawn' the next round and had about 90 seconds to go and interact with their tombstone left at the place they died. If they made it to the tombstone in time, they would get back all their Perks and Weapons from before they went down, except for Tombstone itself. If they didn't make it in time, then the tombstone would dissapear forever.
Tombstone Soda has since been reworked in the new Black Ops Cold War game, among many other things, and is better than it used to be. While still not the most amazing perk, it acts more like Who's Who. When players get downed with this Perk they reappear as an ethereal Dark Aether ghost (don't ask it's confusing) and are able to run over to their body and revive themselves. Thanks to the upgrade system in the new game, players can use Aetherium Crystals to upgrade their Perks up to Tier 5, with each Tier granting new benefits such as increasing the time a player is 'down' or preventing the loss of any Perks except for Tombstone Soda when downed, as long as they had Tombstone Soda activated.
At the base level, increases basic run and sprinting speed. Tier upgrades would then increase backpedal speed, give fall damage immunity, faster ADS walking speed, the ability to use Equipment while running, and finally it removes the sprint speed fall off entirely.
Stamin-Up Soda was first introduced in Ascension in Black Ops and in that game as well as Black Ops II and III, it increases general sprinting endurance as well as the overall sprinting speed. While it didn't provide any offensive benefit, many players loved this Perk since it just made it more enjoyable to use heavy weapons or get around in the first place.
Stamin-Up was then 'upgraded' in Cold War with its introduction of the Tier system. Now, players who fully invest in the Stamin-Up Perk Tiers using Aetherium Crystals will get much more than just a simple running speed buff.
Removes scope sway as well as reduces recoil and increases hip-fire accuracy. Additionally, this Perk will 'snap' the auto-aim sight to the Zombie's critical areas when ADS'ing rather than their torso.
By default, removes scope sway and adds a 'snapping effect' while ADS, making headshots easier. Tier upgrades would then add extra critical damage on full-health enemies, extra armor damage, reduced hip-fire spread, increased critical damage overall, and a ramping buff per consecutive shot hit on the same enemy.
Deadshot Daiquiri was introduced in the Call of the Dead map in Black Ops and has since found itself in almost every Zombies map thanks to the Wunderfizz machine. Though this perk offers tons of aiming benefits, it doesn't quite live up to the rest of the Perks due to the massive increase in PC-only players over time. The intention with the Perk was to make the 'auto-aim' snap to the Zombie's head instead of their torso and reduce weapon sway, but most players hated having their aiming control ripped away from them.
Deadshot Daquiri received a much-needed upgrade in Cold War. While it still moves the player's sight to the critical spot of an enemy, it has other upgrades that are worthwhile to get. These upgrades range from simply dealing more critical damage against full-health enemies to a 2 percent ramping extra damage buff for every consecutive hit against the same enemy, capping at 20 percent overall. This last effect especially made a big difference in Cold War, at least against some of the more threatening enemies.
Vulture Aid Elixir is one of the few Perks with multiple effects as well as one of the few Perks to only appear in one game, which was Black Ops III (one of the most beloved CoD games out there). The Perk's effects were pretty minimal on their own, but when considered all together, they made Vulture Aid a pretty hard Perk to ignore.
With this Perk, players could see Perk Machines, Wall Weapons, the Pack-a-Punch machine, and the Mystery Box through walls when relatively close to them. Additionally, it added a bunch of new effects to Zombies, such as the chance to drop ammo packs on death and the green gas cloud that appeared from rare Zombie corpses that players could stand in to briefly to gain a short buff that caused Zombies to ignore them.
The PhD Flopper Perk was first introduced alongside the Stamin-Up perk in Black Ops' Ascension map. When bought, PhD Flopper nullified all self-inflicted damage as well as it would create an explosion around the player if they dolphin dove off a height that would normally damage them. And, don't be mistaken in thinking this explosion isn't worth it, as it could deal thousands of damage in its epicenter and was enough to one-shot any Zombies hit by enough of it up until around Round 20.
While a version of it appeared in Black Ops 4 and was given a new name as PhD Slider, the Perk didn't really make a full return until Cold War when it came back in the Season Six content update. In Cold War, PhD Slider would create explosions if the player slid into an enemy with the size and damage being dependent on the distance they slid. With the Tier 1-Tier 5 upgrades, PhD Slider would also grant immunity to environmental damage while sliding, grant a longer slide duration, an immunity to self-inflicted damage, increased slide speed, and would grant the effects of PhD Flopper when falling (minus the dolphin diving aspect).
Electric Cherry was first introduced in Mob of the Dead, AKA the second Black Ops II DLC pack. This offered a new way for players to protect themselves against the Zombies and made reloading much safer. Basically, at the end of a reload, the player with Electric Cherry expels a radius of electricity that damages and stops nearby Zombies in their tracks. And, players could even actively decide how much damage this would do or how large of a radius it would affect.
Increases the rate of fire but also shoots two bullets for every one round, essentially doubling damage output. This effect only applies to weapons that use bullets, however, so none of the fancy Wonder Weapons benefitted from it.
Double Tap Root Beer technically has two different versions, the second of which first appeared in Black Ops II. The original version of this, otherwise known as the 1.0 version, was a bit of a double-edged sword. It increased the rate of fire, sure, but the Bouncing Betty speed increase was dangerous, and when weapons were Pack-a-Punched the rate of fire was almost too fast to handle.
Thankfully the Perk was changed from Black Ops II onward, giving it a rate of fire buff as well as the ability to fire two shots for every one round, which made weapons deal double damage if both bullets hit.
Faster health regeneration rate, less time before health regeneration triggers, and reduces the time required to revive allies. From Black Ops onward, in solo, this Perk can also be purchased before the power is on and allows the player to revive themselves when downed at the expense of losing the Perk.
Improved health regen rate and ally revive speed. At Tier 1 it increases downed movement speed, Tier 2 reduces time before health regeneration starts, Tier 3 refills the player's health when they revive an ally, Tier 4 gives both the player and their revived ally a short movement speed buff, and Tier 5 lets players kill an enemy while downed to revive themselves and lose Quick Revive.
Quick Revive is among the highest of essentials for any solo Zombies player. When playing solo, this perk allows the player to get auto-revived if they go down. This changes depending on the map, though, and it can only be used three times before the machine disappears. When playing multiplayer, this Perk doesn't have the self-revive effect but instead massively increases the speed at which players revive their allies.
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