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Ashes of the Damned has optional rewards beyond its Main Quest, including a free-perk recipe, hidden power-ups, and a Tank Dempsey character quest. This map-organized guide separates those side activities from the main story and flags where the available guides do not establish every step. Side-quest triggers and rewards can change with updates, so treat community walkthrough details as version-sensitive rather than as an official, exhaustive inventory.
What counts as a side Easter egg on Ashes of the Damned?
Ashes of the Damned is a round-based Zombies map in the Dark Aether, with six principal locations connected by dangerous roads. Treyarch identifies those locations as Janus Towers Plaza, Vandorn Farm, Blackwater Lake, Ashwood, Exit 115/Reba’s Diner, and Zarya Cosmodrome in its September 24, 2025 map deep dive. Ol’ Tessie, the repairable and upgradable vehicle, is central to getting around the map.
For this guide, a side Easter egg means optional content with its own trigger or reward, rather than a step required to finish the Main Quest. That distinction matters: the Main Quest itself includes power pumps, Pack-a-Punch attached to Ol’ Tessie, the Necrofluid Gauntlet Wonder Weapon, serum ingredients, further puzzles, and a boss encounter. A detailed route is available in PC Gamer’s Main Quest walkthrough.
Free perks: the Mixologist quest at Exit 115
What it does
The Mixologist side quest lets a player make one of four perks—Juggernog, Speed Cola, Stamin-Up, or Quick Revive—by collecting three ingredients and placing them in the soda fountain at Exit 115. The Call of Duty: Zombies Guides Mixologist guide, updated July 7, 2026, says each player can complete the quest once per game. In co-op, that means teammates can each pursue their own free perk.
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What to know before starting
- Reward: One of the four listed perks for the player who completes the recipe.
- Limit: One completion per player per game, according to the guide.
- Known destination: The soda fountain at Exit 115/Reba’s Diner.
- Ingredient details: The available source summary establishes that three ingredients are needed but does not provide a verified recipe and pickup-location list for each perk. Check the current in-game prompts or a current step-by-step guide before committing to a particular recipe.
Because the recipes are easy to confuse, this guide does not guess at ingredient names or locations. Zombies Codex also covers the quest, but its recipe details should be checked against the current game before relying on a full ingredient list: Ashes of the Damned guide.
Hidden power-ups: seven initial targets, then two more
The Hidden Power Ups side quest guide lists seven shootable power-ups placed around the map. It says Fire Sale and Random Perk appear after the first seven have been collected. The listed areas are useful search landmarks, but the source does not make this a fixed route: use the map’s different locations to check the described areas rather than assuming the order is mandatory.
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- Server Room
- Vandorn Farm silo
- Grounded Ship container
- Ashwood church
- Exit 115 highway
- Flame Trench
- Fog near the Lost Cabins
These area names and the seven-then-two unlock condition come from the Call of Duty: Zombies Guides Hidden Power Ups guide, updated July 7, 2026. It does not establish precise target coordinates in the information summarized here, so look carefully within each named area and verify any exact spawn description in the current game.
Tank Dempsey’s Good Soldiers quest
Trigger and character requirement
The character-specific quest begins at Crashed Rocket: the Dempsey player collects his dog tags to enter a Vietnam flashback sequence. It is not a general-purpose side quest for every operator. The route and reward details are documented by COD Central’s Good Soldiers guide, accessed October 3, 2026.
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What the quest involves and rewards
The flashback involves surviving waves. COD Central reports an in-match weapon and currencies, plus the Good Soldiers achievement or trophy and the Lucidity Dark Ops calling card as unlocks. The guide also reports that, in co-op, only the Dempsey player is transported into the flashback.
Run-risk caveat
COD Central says dying during the flashback prevents another attempt in that match. That behavior is a secondary-source report, not an official rule; confirm it in your current version before treating the attempt as irrevocable.
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Other documented secrets and rewards
Zombies Codex’s Ashes of the Damned index, accessed October 3, 2026, also documents these categories:
- Song Easter egg: A hidden-song route, listed as separate from the Main Quest.
- Free weapon route: An optional way to obtain a weapon.
- Bear Tracks side quest: A separate side activity.
- Calling-card and relic goals: Map-specific objectives tied to unlocks or collectibles.
The index describes seven documented side eggs according to its own count and categories. That is the site’s taxonomy, not an official total of every secret in the map; the brief source information available here does not establish the exact steps, gates, or rewards for these four entries. Use the index as a discovery starting point, and check its current walkthroughs for actionable steps rather than inferring mechanics from the category names.
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How game mode affects quest expectations
Activision presents Directed mode as a guided way to play the Main Quest on its official Black Ops 7 Zombies page. However, a Standard Mode walkthrough warns that step order may differ in Directed Mode. That caveat concerns the Main Quest walkthrough; do not assume that a side-quest guide written for one mode behaves identically in the other unless the guide or game confirms it.
For a standard run, keep optional goals separate from required Main Quest steps: the map’s large story progression and the Mixologist, power-up, and Dempsey activities have different triggers and rewards. If a step does not match a walkthrough, check whether the walkthrough specifies Standard or Directed mode and whether it reflects the current update.
Quick checklist before spending a run on a secret
- Want a perk? Plan for three ingredients and the Exit 115 soda fountain; the documented limit is one Mixologist completion per player per game.
- Want more power-ups? Search the seven named areas; the guide says collecting the initial seven unlocks Fire Sale and Random Perk.
- Want the Dempsey story quest? Use Tank Dempsey and begin at Crashed Rocket by collecting his dog tags; account for the reported flashback survival risk.
- Looking for more discoveries? Use the Zombies Codex index for the song, weapon, Bear Tracks, and relic/calling-card categories, while treating its count as that guide’s own inventory.
These optional activities sit alongside, not in place of, Ashes of the Damned’s Main Quest. Ol’ Tessie, the mobile Pack-a-Punch, the Gauntlet build, and the closing boss route belong to that larger quest rather than to the optional list above.
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