How to Play the Call Of Duty Zombies Storyline in Order Before Black Ops 6

Black Ops 6 is set to continue the Call Of Duty Zombies storyline this Fall. This latest chapter in the Dark Aether Saga will take players into the 1990s, following the finale of Black Ops: Cold War’s undead offerings. Here’s how to play the Call Of Duty Zombies Storyline in Order before Black Ops 6.

Call of Duty Zombies: The Aether Storyline

Before Treyarch rebooted Zombies with the Dark Aether Storyline in Black Ops: Cold War, fans fell in love with the sprawling but convoluted Aether story. This spanned from every Treyarch CoD from World at War through Black Ops 4. If fans really want the full zombie-filled picture, it’s best to play all those maps in release order, minus the Chaos storyline maps from Black Ops 4, as those exist separately from the Aether Story.

The TL;DR of this multiversal saga is as follows. A multinational group of heroes set out across space and time to try and create an end to the suffering caused by zombies and a war between supernatural ancient orders. Tragically, they learned the only way to do so was to sacrifice themselves. So that’s what they did, putting all the worst of the multiverse in a dimension called the Dark Aether and giving birth to a new singular universe. The only characters who crossed over into the new one were Eddie Richtofen and Samantha Maxis, two children who represent the purest forms of a mad Nazi scientist and a little German girl who battled for control over the zombies and mythical places.

Related: Everything We Know About Black Ops 6 Zombies So Far

Call of Duty Zombies: The Dark Aether Storyline Release Order

The Dark Aether Storyline is the current canon for Call of Duty Zombies. It takes place alongside the other titles in the current connected CoD universe. In the Dark Aether saga, players control operators seeking to aid in the research and containment of outbreaks as the horrors from the Dark Aether seep into our world. Here’s how to play this CoD Zombies storyline in order.

1) Black Ops: Cold War

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War kicked off the Dark Aether storyline with its launch map in 2020. With a storyline taking place a couple of years after the game’s campaign, this Zombies mode sees players taking the role of Requiem’s strike team. Requiem, a secret branch of the CIA, contained Dark Aether Outbreaks and attempted to develop weapons and technology from their findings to give the U.S. the upper hand in the Cold War. Requiem was in an arms race with the Omega Group, Soviet Russia’s answer to the CIA’s department.

The action kicks off at Die Maschine, a map that has Requiem’s strike team revisit the site of the original Nazi Zombies map: Nacht Der Untoten. Guided by the heads of Requiem, players investigate, destroy, and exfil from the facility. The next map is then Firebase Z, where Requiem’s strike team is sent in to rescue Samantha Maxis from a Soviet base in Vietnam. This leads to the events of Outbreak.

Outbreak is a large, open-world mode spanning across several reused multiplayer maps. This mode has two Easter Egg Quests which deliver their narrative. Here the strike team is captured by Omega Group, which leads into Mauer Der Toten. This map sees players fighting to earn their freedom from Omega Group by helping them defeat the deranged daughter of a Nazi scientist. This all occurs in Berlin, right along the Berlin Wall, which divided East and West Germany. The finale of Cold War Zombies is the map Forsaken, which takes players to an Omega base in Ukraine. Here, in an eerie recreation of an American town, players defeat the Forsaken, the monstrous king of the Dark Aether.

2) Vanguard

The next entry of CoD Zombies is actually a prequel. Vanguard Zombies takes players to the final days of World War II and the months following it in order to put an end to an evil Nazi who makes a deal with a demonic god. The battle of Axis and Allies becomes a sort of proxy war for the demons and gods who inhabit the Dark Aether. Several of them side with the Allies while the evil Lord Kortifex sides with the Nazis.

This battle takes place across four maps. The first two are Der Anfag and Terra Maledicta. These two maps have hub worlds set in Stalingrad, Russia, and an eastern desert in Egypt respectively. Players enter portals from these hubs to take them to various objectives in other locales.

The final two maps in Vanguard are traditional Round-Based Zombies maps. One of them is a remake of Shi No Numa, the terrifying swamp in the Japanese-occupied Pacific. The next takes players back to Egypt through a level called The Archon, which sees players defeat Kortifex and wrap up the Vanguard storyline.

3) Modern Warfare 3

The current CoD Zombies entry is the Modern Warfare Zombies (MWZ) mode in Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. This mode sees a combination of returning characters from Black Ops: Cold War Zombies and the current Modern Warfare series. Ravenov, Soap, and some new characters fight to contain a Dark Aether Outbreak in Urzikstan in the year 2021. Urzikstan appears to be the only map we’ll be getting in MWZ, so players will only need to play the story missions within it to get the full MWZ story before Black Ops 6.

Related: Every Returning Character in Black Ops 6

How to Play the CoD Zombies Dark Aether Storyline in Chronological Order

Playing the Call Of Duty Zombies storyline in chronological order will see players bounce around quite a bit. Unfortunately, players aren’t able to get the full Zombies storyline as of yet, as Black Ops 6 contains a crucial chapter right in the middle. To play in chronological order, players will want to play all of Vanguard‘s Zombies maps. Then, they will play the Cold War maps, Black Ops 6’s, and finish with Modern Warfare Zombies.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is set to release on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC on October 25, 2024.