Call of Duty: Vanguard Zombies perks, upgrades, Pack-a-Punch details revealed

Treyarch has revealed a slew of new information about Call of Duty: Vanguard’s Zombies mode, which is launching alongside the game on Nov. 5.

The initial Zombies map in Vanguard, Der Anfang, will feature a new storyline that continues the Dark Aether story from Black Ops Cold War. Things are set to become straight-up demonic and the team outlined changes coming to Zombies in a new blog post.

Perks in Vanguard Zombies are found and bought via Perk Fountains. The fountains available in Der Anfang at launch are Fiendish Fortitude (increased health), Diabolical Damage (increases critical damage), Venomous Vigor (boosts health regeneration speed), Demonic Frenzy (boosts reload speed), and Aethereal Haste (boosts movement speed).

“Perks will offer powerful base stat upgrades at each Tier, but they won’t come cheap,” Treyarch said. “Once you’ve activated the free Tier 1 version of a Perk, you’ll need to pay 2,500 Essence for Tier 2, then 5,000 for Tier 3, and 7,500 for Tier 4. Each upgrade will increase a specific base stat, with higher Tiers providing bigger enhancements. As an example, Fiendish Fortitude provides +25 Health at Tier 1, and goes all the way up to +100 at Tier 4 for a massive boost in survivability.”

A new addition called the Altar of Covenants is “one of our biggest innovations in Zombies to date,” according to Treyarch. The Altar will have 11 unique Covenants at launch, with each one offering different upgrades to Zombies gameplay. Players can carry three Covenants at a time.

Here are all of the Covenants and what they do:

• Bloodlust: Melee attacks do more damage and heal you.
• Resurrectionist: Revive allies faster.
• Brain Rot: Chance to turn enemies to your side.
• Cryofreeze: Chance to slow enemies.
• Death Blow: Critical kills return bullets to the clip.
• Ammo Gremlin: Stowed weapons refill ammo from stock automatically.
• Dead Accurate: Consecutive hits on the same enemy do more damage.
• Splatterfest: Enemies killed by explosions may explode.
• Unholy Ground: Deal more damage while stationary.
• Cull the Weak: Deal more damage to slowed or stunned enemies.
• Mother Lode: Chance to keep Equipment after using it.

There are also Dark Aether Entities and Artifacts that further change up the Zombies equation. Artifacts give players different abilities and, at launch, are as follows:

• Dragon of Saraxis: Spawns an Aethereal explosive, dealing massive damage to enemies who set it off.
• Mask of Bellekar: Cloaks you in Dark Aether, masking your presence from enemies for 5 seconds.
• Sword of Inviktor: Sparks a ring of Aethereal flame to boost damage for anyone within its radius for 15 seconds.
• Horn of Norticus: Summons a frigid vortex, damaging enemies with the initial blast and slowing those that enter.

By using different combos of Covenants, Artifacts, and perks, players can create different kinds of builds in Zombies, which has the chance to completely change how the game is played each time.

It sure sounds like CoD Zombies fans have a lot to look forward to when Vanguard launches on Nov. 5.