Call of Duty fans are still finding Easter eggs that were squirreled away deeply in Black Ops 3, four years after its release, thanks to dedicated data miners.
Over the years, Call of Duty Zombies has become much more than simply a horde mode for surviving endless waves of the undead. Today, it’s well-known for being packed with complex story twists and hidden secrets, and has a community dedicated to rooting them out.
Treyarch, the originator of Zombies, is known for hiding tons of surprises within its Zombies maps These Easter eggs could be something as small as a hidden item or coded message on the map, while larger eggs require specific actions to be performed to unlock a special weapon, song, or story-related cutscene. Treyarch senior executive producer Jason Blundell has long teased that undiscovered and perhaps impossible Easter eggs still remain in the Black Ops series.
But maybe he didn’t count on data miners. Some of these otherwise undiscoverable eggs are now being unearthed via a tool created to read the scripts on Zombies maps, which reveals the triggers or actions that make up the Easter egg steps.
News of the recent findings comes from Reddit user LackingAGoodName, who gives credit to Scobalula for creating the Cerberus GSC Decompiler tool used to read the scripts.
This tool allowed for the discovery of a personal egg hidden on Black Ops 3’s “Der Eisendrache” map by Treyarch developer Drew Marlowe. If the player goes through a wildly specific series of gun purchases and window barrier rebuilds before completing Round 2, a heart-shaped shrine will spawn at the edge of the map. The shrine contains a photo of Marlowe and his family. The developer acknowledged the discovery in a tweet, noting that it is not a memorial piece, as his family is alive and well.
Another newly-uncovered script has revealed a more traditional Zombies Easter egg that can be completed if you own Black Ops 3’s Zombies Chronicles DLC. You can complete a series of steps on the remastered “Ascension” map to play Avenged Sevenfold’s “Not Ready to Die.” (That’s also the song for Black Ops 1’s “Call of the Dead” DLC map.)
Coincidentally, this was discovered just as Black Ops 4 was adding Avenged Sevenfold’s lead singer M. Shadows as a Blackout skin with the recent “Apocalypse Z” event.
If you want Avenged Sevenfold to serenade you while slaying the undead on Ascension, YouTuber “MrRoflWaffles” has a video to show you exactly how to activate the song.
The Cerberus GSC Decompiler software can’t be used with Black Ops 4, so the community will have to stick with traditional Zombies sleuth work to uncover any remaining secrets in the current Call of Duty’s Zombies maps. This also only works for Easter eggs that were created with scripts, so there are probably still unsolved eggs lurking in past games that don’t require any type of in-game trigger.
While players did have to cheat to find these Easter eggs, it’s unlikely that anyone would’ve found them otherwise, especially given the extremely specific list of steps that unlock Drew Marlowe’s shrine. I’m excited to see what other Black Ops secrets might surface.