10 tips and tricks to get started in epidemic mode – call of duty: black ops cold war wiki guide

Quick tips and tricks

• Look for the star icon on your map because it indicates your main goal – which can be one of five possible goals. Without achieving the main objective, you will not be able to move on to the next region.
  

• It’s easy to get caught off guard in Outbreak, so make full use of your available field upgrades. While there are a number of these special abilities available, we have found that Healing Aura Tier III – especially as you improve its various levels – will be an essential ability for your team. Not only will this revive any downed teammates, but it will heal you as well.

• Running out of ammunition? Look for the bullet icons that appear on your minimap to find ammo crates around the map.

• Don’t be afraid to spice things up! Teams with variable loadouts have proven to be much more effective than others that use the same weapons, loadouts, and buffs in the field.

• Don’t underestimate the lagging zombies, as more often than not that zombie you’ve chosen to leave alive while you continue to explore nearby buildings or using tools like Pack-a-Punch or Arsenal Machine will end up be the dead of you. As these singular zombies manage to hook up with a herd, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to get caught off guard and quickly swarmed.

Melee zombies during the first difficulty levels for bonus points

Much like the standard Zombies mode, Outbreak offers additional points for melee zombies; While this isn’t a huge bonus, any extra points when you start out will help you unlock upgrades faster.

Keep in mind that stabbing zombies isn’t necessarily an effective strategy beyond difficulty two, unless you’ve managed to earn enough points to justify hitting a rarity green combat knife or more. Although you manage to kill most enemies with the upgrade, you will be battling elite and special zombies, which are becoming much more common.

Otherwise, if you have to use a weapon, try aiming for headshots, as these will also earn you extra points.

Teamwork is the source of dream work

Success in Outbreak depends on teamwork. Without communication, your team will quickly become overwhelmed and achieving goals will become much more difficult than it should be.

So if you’re playing with a random team or even a bunch of friends, be sure to talk and start making coordinated calls that include asking for help, calling loot boxes, side activities, and more.

If you’re struggling to succeed with Random Teams when your friends are not online, we recommend sticking to the dedicated single-player Outbreak playlist. This will not only allow you to train, but it will make your overall epidemic experience much easier.

Loot all that is possible

Don’t rush through the different worlds, as you will get a great advantage by staying and looting the different areas that each map has to offer. This will become perfectly clear as you begin to explore each map, as you will start to find loot chests hidden in buildings and other random locations that contain everything from rare weapons, salvage items, ammunition, armor and even consumables.

While these chests are not marked on your minimap, they can be found by listening to a clink-like noise, followed by childish laughter. If you can hear this noise, it will indicate that a loot chest can be found somewhere nearby.

However, these chests come in different rarity levels, so don’t be surprised if you need a bit of research before you come across the more rare level chests.

Buy armor ASAP

As you start to open more and more loot boxes, you will quickly start to rack up a pretty impressive collection of Salvage. You’ll want to take full advantage of this junk by purchasing some armor from the Arsenal Machines that you can find all over the map.

These machines are red and gray in color and feature a standing mannequin wearing armor. As you progress through the waves and the different regions, the game will start to increase noticeably in difficulty, and armor will be a must if you plan to survive.

Armor isn’t the only upgrade you can buy, as you can also buy weapon damage, which we found to be more powerful than Pack-a-Punching your weapons. While armor is always your top priority, we highly recommend upgrading your weapon damage once you have enough points to lose.

Vehicles are not only intended to travel from point A to point B

While vehicles such as the Sedan and Light Truck will make it even easier to explore the large maps of Epidemic, they are also extremely useful in taking down hordes of zombies. While they do end up getting damaged over time, finding a new vehicle for you and your team shouldn’t be too complicated as we’ve found that they appear quite frequently on different maps.

Additionally, if you want to take out at least 100 zombies with your vehicle, you’ll complete a Dark Ops challenge. If you complete all nine challenges, you’ll unlock an epic “Gray Matter” unique sniper rifle blueprint.

For more details on how to unlock each of the 9 Dark Ops challenges in Outbreak, check out our full guide below: