Black Ops 7 Zombies: Augments and Research System Explained
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Zombies has arrived, and with it comes a deep and rewarding progression system designed to let players craft their perfect undead-slaying build. At the heart of this system are Augments, powerful, researchable upgrades that enhance your core abilities. Building upon the foundation of its predecessor, the Augment system returns with familiar categories and a host of brand-new options to discover.
Whether you're a seasoned veteran who first sampled the system during the game's beta or a newcomer ready to dive in at launch, understanding how to research these crucial upgrades is the key to surviving higher rounds and conquering the toughest challenges. This guide breaks down every Augment category, how the research system works, and what you should prioritize to gain an early advantage.
What is the Augment Research System in Black Ops 7?
The Augment Research system is a permanent progression mechanic in Zombies that allows you to unlock and upgrade passive bonuses for your Perks, Field Upgrades, and Ammo Mods. Instead of being limited to the base version of these abilities, you can invest research progress to unlock multiple tiers of enhancements.
For example, a base Perk like Juggernog simply increases your maximum health. By researching its Augment tree, you could unlock a tier that adds damage resistance, another that speeds up health regeneration, and a final tier that creates a powerful defensive blast when your armor breaks. This allows for an incredible level of customization and strategic depth, empowering you to tailor your loadout to your specific playstyle. Progress is earned by playing matches, completing challenges, and reaching specific milestones within Zombies.
How to Research and Unlock Augments
Progressing through the Augment research tracks is a straightforward but rewarding process. As you play Zombies, you will earn Research Tokens by completing matches, finishing daily and weekly challenges, and achieving certain round milestones.
Here's the most effective way to start unlocking your Augments:
- Focus on Challenges: The fastest way to accumulate Research Tokens is by actively targeting the Zombies-specific challenges in your menu. These often reward a significant number of tokens and guide you toward using different weapons and strategies.
- Play to High Rounds: The longer you survive, the more progress you make. Pushing into higher rounds in a single match provides a substantial boost to your research.
- Experiment with Your Loadout: Many Augment research paths require you to use the specific Perk, Ammo Mod, or Field Upgrade you wish to improve. Make sure to equip the item you want to level up to ensure you're making progress on its specific track.
- Spend Tokens Wisely: Early on, it's wise to unlock the first tier of several different Augments rather than pouring all your tokens into maxing out one. This will give you a broader set of initial advantages.
All Perk Augments
Perks are the backbone of any Zombies strategy, and their Augments in Black Ops 7 transform them into multi-faceted powerhouses. Each Perk has a dedicated research track with several tiers of upgrades.
- Juggernog: Focuses on pure survivability. Tiers can increase total health, boost armor durability, reduce damage from elite enemies, and speed up health regeneration.
- Speed Cola: All about quickness and efficiency. Upgrades can drastically increase reload speed, weapon swap speed, and the speed at which you use equipment and Field Upgrades.
- Stamin-Up: The ultimate mobility enhancer. Research tracks unlock faster sprint speeds, unlimited tactical sprint, and immunity to fall damage.
- Quick Revive: Essential for co-op play. Augments can reduce revive time for teammates, grant you a temporary speed boost after a revive, and even allow revived teammates to return with full armor.
- Deadshot Daiquiri: For the precision player. Tiers increase critical damage multipliers, reduce weapon sway, and automatically snap your aim to a critical hit location.
- Elemental Pop: Enhances your Ammo Mods. Augments can increase the activation chance of any equipped Ammo Mod and add a small chance to trigger a random, unequipped Ammo Mod on hit.
All Ammo Mod Augments
Ammo Mods add an extra layer of elemental damage and utility to any weapon. Researching their Augment trees makes them significantly more potent and reliable.
- Cryofreeze: Upgrades increase the slowing effect on enemies and provide a higher chance to completely freeze a target. The final tier can cause frozen enemies to shatter, dealing damage to nearby zombies.
- Napalm Burst: Tiers increase the initial fire damage and the duration of the burning effect. A key upgrade causes burning enemies to have a chance to explode on death, spreading the fire to others.
- Dead Wire: Focuses on crowd control. Augments increase the number of zombies stunned by the electrical charge and can cause the arc to chain to more targets.
- Brain Rot: Turns the undead against each other. Upgrades increase the duration a zombie fights for you and boost its damage. The final tier allows up to three turned zombies to be active at once.
- Kinetic Void (New): This new Ammo Mod has a chance to create a small gravitational vortex on impact, pulling in nearby enemies for easy multi-kills. Augments increase the vortex radius and duration.
All Field Upgrade Augments
Field Upgrades are your powerful, rechargeable special abilities. Augmenting them can completely change their function on the battlefield, turning a good escape tool into a devastating offensive weapon.
- Aether Shroud: The ultimate escape tool. Research can increase its duration, grant you a speed boost while cloaked, and cause you to reload your weapon instantly upon activation.
- Ring of Fire: Creates a zone of pure damage. Upgrades increase the ring's size and duration, boost the damage multiplier for those inside it, and can be augmented to burn away enemy projectiles.
- Healing Aura: The primary support ability. Augments can increase the amount of health restored, provide a temporary damage boost to healed allies, and knock down all normal zombies in its radius upon activation.
- Frenzied Guard: Draws all enemy aggression. Tiers can increase its duration, repair all of your armor instantly on use, and cause affected enemies to move slower.
- Energy Mine: A versatile explosive trap. Research tracks can increase the number of mines you can deploy, boost their explosive radius, and add a stunning effect to the blast.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: What is the fastest way to research Augments in Black Ops 7?
A: The most efficient method is to consistently complete your daily and weekly Zombies challenges. These offer the largest single rewards of Research Tokens. Combine this with matches where you survive to at least round 20 to maximize your gains.
Q: Do I have to unlock the base Perks and abilities first?
A: Yes. You must first unlock the base version of a Perk, Ammo Mod, or Field Upgrade before you can begin spending Research Tokens on its specific Augment track.
Q: Are Augment unlocks permanent?
A: Absolutely. Once you research and unlock an Augment tier, it is permanently available for you to equip in all future Zombies matches. You can toggle different unlocked tiers to fine-tune your build before each game.