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How to Prepare for Ashes of the Damned, Black Ops 7’s Biggest Round-Based Zombies Map

Ashes of the Damned is Black Ops 7’s first Round-Based Zombies map, with six major locations connected by foggy routes. Learn how its vehicle, jump pads and modes shape the experience.
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Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s Ashes of the Damned is the first Round-Based Zombies map in the game. Activision calls it the biggest Round-Based Zombies map in Black Ops history—not the biggest map in all of Call of Duty, and not a measured acreage claim. Its six major locations are linked by foggy roads, so prepare to navigate a broad multi-region space rather than a single compact arena.

What “largest” means for Ashes of the Damned

Ashes of the Damned is a released map in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which launched November 14, 2025. Activision describes it as the biggest Round-Based Zombies map in Black Ops history. That is the publisher’s relative, mode-specific claim: official materials reviewed do not give the map’s area or a travel-distance measurement, so there is no supported numerical size comparison. Activision’s Black Ops 7 page and Treyarch’s map deep dive provide the scope and map context.

Learn the six major locations

Call of Duty: NEXT identifies six major areas, set amid places from different times and dimensions that loom through the Dark Aether fog:

  • Janus Towers Plaza
  • Vandorn Farm
  • Blackwater Lake
  • Ashwood
  • Exit 115
  • Zarya Cosmodrome

These named points of interest are connected by thoroughfares. The practical preparation is to think in terms of moving between regions, rather than assuming every objective or encounter will stay close to one central hub. The Call of Duty: NEXT recap describes the locations and the foggy routes between them.

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Sonic Frontiers - PlayStation 5
  • Race across five massive overworlcl islands, each with their own unique action-platforming challenges and hidden secrets to uncover
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Plan around Ol’ Tessie and jump pads

Use Ol’ Tessie for road travel

Ol’ Tessie is the crew’s rusting pickup and Wonder Vehicle, designed to carry players along the map’s fog-choked roads. Treyarch says it can be repaired and upgraded; it is also useful in combat, with upgrades that include a mountable DG-2 turret and help from T.E.D.D. Treat the truck as more than scenery: vehicle traversal is one of the map’s defining ways to move between dispersed locations. The developer’s launch deep dive details the vehicle’s role and upgrades.

Look for powered jump pads

Jump pads offer another rapid-traversal option once powered. They complement the road network and vehicle rather than replacing the map’s broader route structure. The official overview establishes that they are available as a traversal feature, but does not publish comparative travel times or say which option is best for every route.

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  • Join Kliff, captain of the Greymanes, and his comrades as they embark on a relentless journey to defend Pywel and fulfill their mission.
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Choose a mode that matches your familiarity

Standard Round-Based play is not the only way to approach the map. The Season 01 announcement introduced Directed mode for Ashes of the Damned: a guided Main Quest experience with rounds capped at 15, recommended there for casual or new players. That makes Directed a useful choice if you want more structure while learning the map and its quest. See the Season 01 announcement for the mode description.

Zombies content expanded after launch. Season 04 announcements covered other modes and maps, including Nuked Survival, Totenreich Directed and Starting Room modes, Rogue Run, and the Kowakujō Round-Based map. Those are later Zombies additions, not locations within Ashes of the Damned. Seasonal availability can change, so check the game’s current menus or latest patch notes for what is playable now; the Season 04 announcement documents that broader expansion.

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Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6 - PlayStation 5
  • Developed by Treyarch and Raven, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a spy action thriller set in the early 90s, a period of transition and upheaval in global politics, characterized by the end of the Cold War and the rise of the United States as a single superpower.
  • This is signature Black Ops across a cinematic single-player Campaign, a best-in-class Multiplayer experience, and the epic return of Round-Based Zombies.
  • The Black Ops 6 Campaign provides dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay that includes a variety of play spaces with blockbuster set pieces and action-packed moments, high-stakes heists, and cloak-and-dagger spy activity. 
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  • Black Ops 6 also marks the epic return of Round-Based Zombies, the fan-favorite mode where players will take down hordes of the undead in two brand-new maps at launch. Post-launch, players can look forward to even more exciting maps and groundbreaking experiences dropping into both Multiplayer and Zombies.

Why the map is built around a larger space

Treyarch Design Director Kevin Drew connected the scale to the team’s interest in a drivable Wonder Vehicle. In an Xbox Wire interview published November 12, 2025, he said, “That kind of dictates that you need a bigger space.” Drew also described the intended Dark Aether atmosphere as a Bermuda Triangle-like place where things arrive from different dimensions. The vehicle, separated regions, and shifting setting are therefore parts of one design approach, rather than evidence for a specific map measurement.

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Where to play

Black Ops 7 is listed for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox PC, Battle.net, Steam, and Game Pass on Activision’s game page. Confirm the current edition and platform in the store or service you use before buying or installing; the map is part of the released game, not a separate map purchase identified in the official materials cited here.

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  • Race across five massive overworlcl islands, each with their own unique action-platforming challenges and hidden secrets to uncover
  • Blaze a trail as you see fit and discover side quests, solve puzzles, scale enormous structures, go fishing, and encounter a firendly face or two along the way
  • Unlock Cyber Space levels featuring signature 3D platforming at Sonic speeds and a variety of challenges to test your skills like never before
  • Use the all-new battle system and skill tree upgrades, combining moves such as dodges, parries, counters, combos, and the new Cyloop ability to take down mysterious foes
  • Become Sonic and journey to uncover the mysteries of the remains of an ancient civilization plagued by robotic hordes

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