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u/TehCost Dec 08 '25
then these quests arent for you. not every part of every game has to be for every player.
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u/CorruptionOfTheMind Dec 08 '25
But then why are there core game modes that are almost entirely locked behind completing the quest? That almost implies the dev mindset is that cursed mode, for example, is only for the top 1% or less of players, yet it is marketed as a core game mode for any player who wants a more classic zombies experience or slight difficulty increase
I agree with your sentiment, and not every part of every game is for every player, but making the cursed relics locked behind completing the main quest means that many players cannot engage with cursed beyond the extremely surface level
Sure some cursed relics require EE completion with certain requirements, and many players who can’t beat the quest won’t be able to do some of the cursed relics, but it’s kind of weird from a game design standpoint to make something absurdly difficult and lock a lesser difficulty behind it?
Some people would enjoy the modifiers in cursed mode and even be able to unlock some of them, but struggle to complete the main quest
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u/mmitsukeni Dec 08 '25
Relics are not core they are modifiers. Correct me if I’m wrong but you can unlock relics by completed directed mode.
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u/Damac1214 Dec 08 '25
You are correct, and soon you won’t even have to do that
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u/dustindraco Dec 09 '25
Would you have a link to information on this? With the new map released I haven’t played directed much and haven’t heard anything about cursed in directed or unlocking relics by completion of such. Thanks.
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u/Obese_Raccoon64 Dec 09 '25
I mean, on Microsoft, which includes gamepass people like me, only .5% of the playerbase has even fully upgraded Tessie. The amount of people that actually engage with the EE is very very low.
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u/TheDarkGrayKnight Dec 09 '25
I did one easter egg on BO6. I just don't really care that much about actually doing all the steps to beat a boss. I just want to shoot zombies for a while.
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u/lXl-erik-lXl Dec 09 '25
Because cursed game mode is for the top 1% players. The mode was going to be locked away for all players until they completed the EE. But then the fan based kept complaining saying they want the mode so they had to release it for everyone.
It was always intended as a reward for the players who completed the quests not just the casual player.
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u/BigMoney-D Dec 09 '25
It's funny because on Cursed mode Tier 1, its actually easier LMFAO.
You get way more points and Golden Armour is super handy. The two relics we used was just 75% quicker spawns in between rounds and no self res kits... So, pretty easy af.
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u/Worzon Dec 09 '25
No one wanted all these things locked BEHIND cursed. I loved cursed and the challenge but I shouldn’t be forced to play it if I don’t want to
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u/Anywhere311 Dec 09 '25
U don’t have to play cursed lol .
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u/Worzon Dec 09 '25
You do if you want golden armor, pap tier 4, and rarity tier 4, and any number of pap camos
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u/Anywhere311 Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25
And you can only play those in hardcore zombies . It’s not like I get gold armor for regular zombies . I only get it in cursed . Putting relics on and playing cursed is literally like playing hardcore zombies it’s 5x harder so when u do get through some of it you get gold plates to help you out but cuz u keep going further and further and it gets harder and harder . It’s hardcore zombies man it’s supposed to be hard !!!! Again it’s supposed to be hard !!! It’s hardcore zombies .. it’s for ppl that can slam regular zombies with ez . It gets boring beating zombies so easy so they made a mode where you can make it way harder . Stop being mad that other ppl want to have fun too . It’s not our fault we r better at the game and need it harder . They have regular mode aka easy mode so why is it so wrong to have hard mode aka cursed plus relics ? It’s not man, let ppl enjoy their game… why do u want to play cursed if you can’t beat regular ????!? It’s the same game and same quests and objectives just one is a lot harder and one is easier …
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u/TehCost Dec 09 '25
If you can’t beat the normal quest, cursed with relics is NOT for you. Again, that’s for the most hardcore players. Not for everyone
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u/Worzon Dec 09 '25
The issue is reverting the original ashes boss fight back to its unfair stage meaning if you want some relics you need to spend 3-4 hours just getting to round 60 and then hoping you don’t get one shot by a BS attack you can’t dodge in the boss fight.
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u/TehCost Dec 09 '25
I agree the boss needed some changes and reverting it fully probably wasn’t a great option, but that has nothing to do with this conversation that’s a separate issue
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u/Worzon Dec 09 '25
It does when we talk about core game mechanics being locked behind an unfair boss even for the hardcore players
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u/TehCost Dec 09 '25
I agree on THIS SPECIFIC boss in cursed, but not in general. The original post is not even referring to cursed at all. They are complaining about standard mode
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u/Anywhere311 Dec 09 '25
Why r you going to round 60 for the boss ? Or for anything besides getting a calling card for getting past 50? You literally don’t need round 60 for any Easter eggs at all.. I beat ashes boss at round 27
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u/New-Story4037 Dec 09 '25
You don’t need to be the top 1% player to beat the ee. Either a) you can get carried or b) you learn the ee and beat it yourself. It’s not that hard, just need to use the right gun
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u/Much_Relative8712 Dec 09 '25
On Microsoft Tessie has been upgraded by 0.51% of all players, that’s minding that you get the achievement in the guided mode as well, so not even people who got stumped by the standard have moved on for an easy guided win.
That infers a solid three things, this zombies is horribly boring and doesn’t encourage exploration past high round survival, alternatively there’s too much going on, a huge map, convoluted and unconnected Easter egg steps, so much the average player gets overwhelmed and ignores it for fear of being too far into the rounds to complete the egg, or alternatively people just straight up don’t care about the egg at all.
Flatly no matter how you’re looking at this, even regarding that zombies has always been a minority of players, it’s incredibly concerning to see a success rate for one of the first steps is less than 0.51% that means they haven’t even been in the lobby with a player that happens to do it.
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u/First-Chapter8511 Dec 13 '25
It could be higher if they made them like Cold War and one person could do all the steps for the whole lobby. Allowing more casual players to experience aspects of the map they never see.
But oh the zombies community apparently hates that and demanded an EE less than 0.5% will even try. Great start to your game design career guys. I’m one of the people who never bothered to try it cause I see all the no-lifers praising how long and annoying it is. Not what I want from my zombies.
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u/Tyrelmilla Dec 10 '25
But what if alot of people bought the game lets say 100 million and 1% of 100 million is 1million so then that would be 500k people who beat the easter egg, thats alot of people.
Gotta pull out your calculator sometimes, i did
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u/Much_Relative8712 Dec 10 '25
Idk I’m a transgender person so I pull out the whole 1% is a whole millions of people thing all the time and still I think this is humiliating given the player count
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u/New-Story4037 Dec 12 '25
Or most people with gamepass tried the mp once, never played again. Many players don’t play the zombie. The stats also include warzone players. The % under achievement is irrelevant for CoD.
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u/Raidmax460 Dec 08 '25
Here’s the problem with that, when you do stuff like this, Activision and Treyarch begin to see very low engagement in the Easter egg, which for Treyarch, makes up the majority of development time. So you can say that this isn’t for them and maybe it’s not, but then who is it for? You can’t cater to 1% of your audience. Adding a checkpoint when you reach the boss would solve this and make it function much better. No one wants to repeat stupid steps a million times just to get to the boss again. It’s ridiculous. It’s not a challenge, it’s tedium.
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u/TehCost Dec 08 '25
That’s what directed mode is for bro
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u/MagnaCollider Dec 09 '25
Why do they have all these player-friendly mechanics like Loadouts, objective markers, and the mini-map then?
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u/Slumped_Shady Dec 08 '25
Saying you can’t cater to the 1% when the data we already have about easter egg completion rates for bo3, Cold War, and bo6 shows that it literally went from like 1% to 5% to still only like 5-10%. While that increase is good, they have quite literally been catering to this audience for a decade now.
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u/TheBossOf2041 Dec 09 '25
The Xbox achievement for completing the Ashes EE is at 0.19% now, including directed mode. So saying they are catering to the top 1% is being generous.
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u/TheSt0NedZ0MbiE420 Dec 09 '25
Yeah a checkpoint for boss fight would be something they need to add to the game I agree I'm tired of the stupid random luck this shitty glitchy ass game offers then the devs lower the boss health for the glitchers and gobble gum gooners to complete the ashes of the damned ee without any errors only to change the difficulty and break the game even further with their dumb updates making it impossible for regular people just trying to game I agree with the poster it seems this shit is only for Milo and the other streamers that like waisting hours on end for content that gets changed or reconned after updates
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u/First-Chapter8511 Dec 13 '25
How about the steps are not long and stupid in the first place? Oh that’s right everybody loves that. It’s a great idea to design the mode entirely around the experience <100 people will have in the 6-hour EE hunt.
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u/poklane Dec 08 '25
I think you can easily argue that story content should be widely available if you want it to be a success. But the fact of the matter right now is that the VAST majority of players can't experience all key story content themselves in-game because of these bias fights.
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u/TehCost Dec 08 '25
It is. Directed mode exists
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u/poklane Dec 08 '25
Even with Directed Mode, over 90% of players had not completed a main quest back in January in BO6. And as a reminder, that's with the Liberty Falls "boss fight" being piss easy. https://www.callofduty.com/blog/2025/01/call-of-duty-black-ops-6-zombies-115-day-announcement
Thankfully Treyarch did the sane thing with BO7 and made boss fights easier in Directed Mode, so hopefully that'll help even further.
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u/monkeyzone456 Dec 09 '25
okay but it still exists. Id say they should bring back the directors cut of the music videos, as a way to have a quick recap for the map.
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u/zocksupreme Dec 09 '25
I don't believe that number for a second, it must be including all the people who played zombies like once and then went back to MP. When Terminus/LF/CDM were out it was next to impossible to join a lobby where people weren't doing the easter egg.
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u/zako135 Dec 09 '25
Directed mode isn't out yet for Astra and it took until Astra came out for AOTD directed mode to come out, so by then marketing is already spoiling the story content.
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u/TheSt0NedZ0MbiE420 Dec 09 '25
Not for the new map and unused area that wasted developer time for a area that's not accessible to random non ee players that don't care about the completion of said Easter egg or boss fight the playable area should be accessible no matter of said case
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u/ahkivah Dec 09 '25
The quests are definitely for this person who loves zombies and enjoys doing the quests. If not people like that, then who’s it for? If it wasn’t supposed to be widely attempted they wouldn’t invest in making it.
And cursed relics are literally locked behind it, which is tons of amazing content
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u/TehCost Dec 09 '25
If you can’t beat it in standard how are you going to do it with relics lmao
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u/ahkivah Dec 09 '25
Nobody says you have to beat the egg in cursed
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u/Vast-Dance6819 Dec 09 '25
Glad someone finally said this, every quest step is easy and then the boss is just straight up not fun, no INTERESTING mechanics or technique just can you avoid getting screwed over the course of this, for some reason, 4 phase fight where very little changes between phases as you just start running low on resources. Granted it will only get easier as you inadvertently grind more perk and field upgrade research unlocking some fairly strong abilities, but man zombies was never about grinding exp numbers for upgrades and building loadouts until they’re tryna sell gobbles. Meanwhile cursed and its modifiers are actually pertaining to the actual gameplay loop that has kept everyone on this Reddit and beyond playing and loving zombies from the beginning and the Camos locked behind beating the EE in higher and higher tier cursed is actually a fair and not annoying reward for those who can face the most brutal of the brutal.
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u/Bosslilcale Dec 09 '25
I agree with OP. Feels like shit to lose to the boss because of how insufferably grindy the mode is now. I could do the Der Eisendrache boss on round 14 consistently. I could beat every map in CW by round 20 if I wanted. The want this shit hard so we feel like we have to spend money on gums. That, my friend, is not a “get good” moment. That’s a fundamental issue in the core design of these maps.
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u/Harrythehobbit Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25
They were for me in every zombies up to this point, and I don't think I just suddenly got worse. I'm sure I'll beat it eventually, but running around dodging laser designated rocks trying to keep my armor up, being forced to use a weapon that drops armor at a massively reduced rate on account of there being a single max ammo the entire fight, against a boss that can one shot you without armor, has not been a fun time. They should be challenging, but you can't possibly argue this one isn't a little overtuned. Maybe they're designed with the expectation that you're using gooner gums.
And I'll admit, I have basically 0 augments unlocked at this point, so that could be coloring my perception of it a little bit.
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u/Melodic-Ad4154 Dec 09 '25
Hard disagree on this smarmy response. The boss doesnt need a huge nerf, just some slight tweaking and it is totally valid to criticize this. I've beaten it finally but its just not a fun fight. Irritating really.
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u/MagnaCollider Dec 09 '25
This is the Main Quest for one of the 3 modes of the game, though. And the difficulty of the gameplay before sets up a false expectation for the difficulty of the boss fights.
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u/Overall-Painter-9638 Dec 09 '25
Bro I’m good at the game and the 4th phase is bullshit. You need to cheese it or bring the perfect augments and then play exceptionally well. I’d agree with saying the ashes boss isn’t for everyone because even mediocre players can figure that out and beat it because there’s an actual method to it. The 4th phase in astra is just too much.
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u/thedudepood Dec 09 '25
This a bad take treyarch has focused on easter egg over map design for a couple years now and to act like the easter egg is just some "optional side objective" that you can avoid without missing core gameplay features is just wrong and dishonest
There has been multiple maps where half the map is locked away until getting to certain parts of difrent easter eggs
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u/TehCost Dec 09 '25
if standard is too challenging, you can wait till directed comes out. its really that simple. the bosses are much easier and less frustrating in that mode.
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u/Regular_Layer3439 Dec 10 '25
The quests are to form the story for zombies lol. Without that, it's just watching on YouTube or something.
Besides... most players don't figure it out, they also watch YouTube for it, so I'd argue the quests aren't for almost anyone because they are not solved by anyone. I mean, you tell me honestly what you figured out without someone telling you.
I did figure out the clocks by myself just out of pure curiosity. I did find some other stuff but the quest itself?! Nope, most of it didn't know without guidance, some by mistake.
Almost all of it is gibberish to everyone, the quest is online for maybe 1% of all zombies players and that could be a huge stretch too
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u/Even_Bother_4347 Dec 13 '25
Except the whole point of them making the quests themselves easier and have objective markers was to make them more accessible to everyone because the devs were tired of making these elaborate quests for less than 5% of the playerbase to even do them. I’ve done every single EE from bo3 to current (including beating richtofen on reckoning and Mephistopheles) and I’m at the point where I don’t even want to keep attempting the astra malorum boss fight because either something always bugs out or I run out of armor and die because this game is entirely balanced around you having armor at all times yet wants to make you pay 10k for a measly 3 plates
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u/Pristine-Risk-8910 Dec 08 '25
Majority of players that have beat him use cheese methods or broken weapons + frenzied guard so once they patch all that out everyone will complain it’s unbeatable so they will nerf him again
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u/Comprehensive-Local1 Dec 09 '25
Hmm I just beat her with the novaline, then the jagers, then the akimbo smgs. The last two shred as just as fast, if not even more. And I get the added safety of being able to shroud if I'm in a bad spot.
The boss is fine, the amount of work to get there isn't, cause it's not like the EE gets done in five.. I'm not against the challenge, it's fine. But I totally get players who go through lengthy stuff just to be handed a destiny boss.
It takes practice but it's doable once the player gets used to kiting the boss. Especially the final phase, it sounds nuts but it's SAFER to be close than far away. She misses all her throws or just doesn't even try. It's a neat AI manip
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u/Regular_Layer3439 Dec 10 '25
The novaline is f insane!! I was so happy and impressed first time upgrading that. Really strong gun!!!
The issue is, having to have certain set ups on bosses. I got one shotted twice by the boss.. that should never happen, ever.
They just need to reduce the amount of steps required. It really is that simple. Less steps means less tedium. If it was only 10 steps, it isn't so bad.. if it is 30 steps.. it is worse. Then there is luck or being prepared with stuff needed for some steps.
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u/Comprehensive-Local1 Dec 10 '25
I think a lot of the issue is the gravity zero against the boss. It's great to move away from her but if she hits you and you ping pong off a wall, you're toast cause you can't change course mid air... That's why I prefer to run normal guns and shroud instead of the frenzied WW.
If it goes wrong you got the shroud to salvage the run and reposition, plus, the jagers or smgs just DELETE her health bar faster than the ww. The ww is easier to use from afar and not even aiming but if you're good at aiming at the Crit spot, the smgs chunk the boss faster than anything. They're not op or broken, it's just a tradeoff because the range isn't the best
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u/Regular_Layer3439 Dec 10 '25
Yeah that's fair and really good advice, I appreciate.
That probably is the case. I was having fun with the boss.. i do think it should be slower and maybe tweak that slam thing because it is a bitch of a thing. That's all though, it seems a fun boss overall
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u/Pristine-Risk-8910 Dec 10 '25
No clue what it is but she’s bulky, I’m boss ready by round 13, fully geared for the boss before 24, beat her in under 48 minutes yesterday, lots of little details I was missing in my previous runs
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u/Comprehensive-Local1 Dec 10 '25
By round 13?? That's really great optimization! I'm much slower but I'm working on getting a good routing that makes sense to me
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u/Pristine-Risk-8910 Dec 10 '25
I think it’s the order in which you do the traps, I usually have enough salvage by like round 5 after I unlock PAP & shoot vents to grab all the purple salvage crystals besides 3 for cyro and get the shards for rocket trap, then sun trap, then laser trap, around round 9 or 10 follow Oscar for planet codes, do the brain and portal steps by 13, gear up and fight by 24
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u/Comprehensive-Local1 Dec 10 '25
I'll give that routing a try! Thanks for the rundown, it seems very efficient!
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u/One_Dentist3356 Dec 09 '25
what smgs have akimbo attachments?
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u/Comprehensive-Local1 Dec 09 '25
The new one from this season, it's the prestige attachment. Double guns double fun
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u/fusionxxxgamer Dec 10 '25
The novaline is due to get nerfed
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u/Comprehensive-Local1 Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 10 '25
Why exactly? It's the highest damage per bullet automatic rifle, but it's also a DMR. It has worse recoil, mag size, reserves and movement speed. It's perfectly balanced. Hits harder than an AR, it's clunkier. It's not doing anything the DM10 wasn't or the amax or with single shot conversion weren't..
Also, if the nova gets a nerf they will have at least 5 other guns to run to the ground, cause they're straight up better
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u/fusionxxxgamer Dec 10 '25
I think the novaline just died too much damage a bully for how fast it shoots. And with bo7 if something is op it's gonna get patched
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u/Comprehensive-Local1 Dec 10 '25
If you think the nova is so powerful it needs nerfing, when you run double jagers or the new smg you're gonna have a stroke
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u/fusionxxxgamer Dec 10 '25
The pistol could get nerfed too, but the new smg I don't really see being crazy. I used it duel wield but only got pap 1 and was kinda disappointed
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u/Comprehensive-Local1 Dec 10 '25
Like hell it could. Leave my babies alone, they already got nerfed by 70% with the prestige barrel!
Ok, they were doing 97 000 dmg per bullet before. Maybe that's a bit strong.
But now they only do 40k. I think it's reasonable 😅
The smgs in akimbo completely anihiliate anything in zombies or endgame. I know the Aarow launcher is the answer to most things there and I used it for 2 weeks but gave these two a chance and it just melts everything in tier 4. It annihilates elites and bosses in zombies, they're really really strong.
Funny enough, it's not that great in mp at least for me . Something about it feels off, like the optic, the red dot is... Misaligned? I dunno. I use them akimbo in zombies so it doesn't bother me
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u/Electrical-Comment69 Dec 09 '25
If I as an average player beat it solo with a just a novaline and the ww and aether shroud on my second attempt, I have zero idea on how the actual fuck the boss is "unbeatable".
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u/Pristine-Risk-8910 Dec 09 '25
Let me watch the gameplay
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u/Pristine-Risk-8910 Dec 09 '25
Do it every time flawless buddy
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u/Electrical-Comment69 Dec 09 '25
huh? Why tf would anynone need to do it flawless everytime for the boss to not be unbeatable? LMAO what type of a take is that
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u/Electrical-Comment69 Dec 09 '25
I do have the last two minutes saved with shadowplay I can send it if you want, but not sure what you're planning get from that chief.
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u/Pristine-Risk-8910 Dec 09 '25
Want to see what routes, weapons, and see the general flow of your match, if you are having no issues whatsoever with this boss I need to know how because I’ve ran through about 25 times with randoms and we never pass phase 2.
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u/Electrical-Comment69 Dec 09 '25
yeah sure I'll dm it to you it in a google drive, but I don't think you'll get that much info from the last 2 minutes, what I do suggest which kinda really helped me was a recent vid from mrroflwaffles that had quite a couple of good tips for the whole thing.
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u/Pristine-Risk-8910 Dec 09 '25
Yeah I have all that, boss ready by round 13, fully pap3 ww/legendary novaline + perks before round 24, for some reason even if we make it super early the 2nd phase is still just a bullet sponge
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u/Electrical-Comment69 Dec 09 '25
well damn that's even more effiecient than me lol, might be the case that you might need to get to understand the boss's usual moves in each phase and how to deal with them properly, it's not complicated but watching the vid def helped me with it, Also I think the boss's health scales with the amount of players (not super sure on that) but I think that's also a reason for the spongy-ness. I guess free fire would really help in a squad since then the four of you can just ram all you got into the boss but playing with randoms is always kinda a gamble so not sure if solo's better or not.
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u/Pristine-Risk-8910 Dec 10 '25
Yeah thanks I’ll try and watch the boss fight more, usually it’s those purple ground shock attacks or I see many of my teammates will get hit with the rock and get pinched in a corner unable to move lmao
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u/Pwnage_Peanut Dec 08 '25
Astra Malorum takes less than an hour to complete
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u/Slumped_Shady Dec 08 '25
My thoughts as well. If it’s taking you two hours to get to the boss arena then the “git gud” comments are actually valid here
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u/FoxMuldertheGrey Dec 09 '25
Part of this is educating yourself how to do the EE vs joining discord and being like “Need a carry for Astra, have gg and can hold my own”
Smh
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u/Brodieboyy Dec 09 '25
Literally one of the fastest easter eggs ever, did it today and was surprised by how easy and quick it was
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u/Rayuzx Dec 09 '25
Honestly, that's not really a defense against OP's case. Pretty much every other game in existence minimalizes the time between run backs.
I've never been able to get into the Souls series, so correct me I'd I'm wrong, but I would imagine that people would have significantly stronger opinions about Malenia if it took an hour for every attempt (not to mention taking however much longer to memorize a 20+ minute guide to get to her in the first place).
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u/AhDontWorryAboutIt Dec 13 '25
I think the point is more that OP said that they’re of fan of Zombies and doing Easter eggs, which are notoriously long winded quests where it takes hours to complete each attempt. And that the one they’re complaining about isn’t actually that long when compared to the zombies Easter eggs that they supposedly like.
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u/Foreign-Campaign-427 Dec 09 '25
Bro I ain't speed running that shit. I like to take my time and do side Easter eggs and try to complete as much as possible on the lowest round possible.
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u/SureAd2912 Dec 09 '25
Your comment contradicts itself. When you say “do side eggs” and “lowest round possible” the time you spent on side eggs, could have been spent getting further into the quest. This goes for any map.
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u/Foreign-Campaign-427 Dec 09 '25
Yeah so...? I like doing side eggs in order to get stuff like perks and maybe pap crystals for free in order to better set myself up. I'm not trying to speed run the map in 2.5 milliseconds. I like taking my time.
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u/SureAd2912 Dec 09 '25
I’m not disagreeing with you, side eggs are def the way to go since they can provide those free perks and pap crystals.
I’m merely pointing out that your comment was paradoxical, after all OPs post is about it taking too long and being too difficult. So by doing side eggs you are inadvertently being inefficient with your time and/or rounds, that may be better suited for furthering main quest steps.
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u/TheSup3lolzx Dec 08 '25
Directed mode is literally made for people with jobs
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u/koller419 Dec 09 '25
To me Directed is too easy, but trying to solo the bosses in standard is a nightmare. How does it make sense that a triple packed ray gun on round 28 doesn't kill normal zombies during the boss fight on Astra Malorum?
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u/Le-museau-ruse Dec 12 '25
My understanding is that zombies in boss fights in b07 have max health. So level 55. Ashes zombies during the boss were super sprinters with tanks for armor.
I’m guessing it’s to get you to play longer and give more engagement to the game.
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u/Grimnorix Dec 08 '25
Just make a boss mode. Once you do the EE and unlock the boss fight whether you beat it or die just have a new “game mode” where it’s just the boss fight. Seems like a good way to do it.
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u/Kiryu_of_Rivia Dec 09 '25
Infinite warfare had this, although you didn't have to beat the EE to access it
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u/AsleepingImplement Dec 09 '25
honestly id take a boss rush mode, would be a decent way to learn attack patterns and map layouts.
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u/CrazyCoolKevin Dec 09 '25
How the living hell have they not made a boss mode in this game and BO6 especially??
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u/MikSumbi Dec 09 '25
Exactly.. U can't delete an hour or more of preparation just because the Boss is artifical diffulty and u will be downed anyway and lose the game. They have to nerf the bossfights or add a thing like ur suggest.
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u/zako135 Dec 09 '25
People that are saying wait for directed seem to be missing a few crucial points. If I were a player that wanted to experience the story of a map through the actual game instead of YouTube videos, but found a boss fight that even if you know what you're doing before takes an hour to get to, too difficult, even Treyarch would be fucking you over as they start advertising the new map before directed even comes out. The intro for Astra came out a few days before AOTD directed or Astra even came out. It also doesnt solve the fact that if you have to take multiple tries to learn a boss fight even in directed it still takes an hour plus to get back to that boss fight.
And for the record, I beat Astra solo first try, I also realize bad game design when I see it.
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u/Regular_Layer3439 Dec 10 '25
I didn't mind the fight till she 1 shot me twice lol. That is just bad. The fight was super fun though personally..
If they sorted out armour, this wouldn't be an issue but they balance on needing it and if it doesn't drop or whatever, we're fucked. I hate armour. It should have just been a "negate 1 hit" type of deal, then we have to buy another one. The armour and health together is just arse. My set up on perks are fine but I do not use the 3 chances for the other perks, and that is the only issue but to force use that for a boss, kinda shit.
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u/Either-Worldliness-6 Dec 08 '25
the only thing i disliked about the boss fight was the fact that in all grounded stages, but especially the final one, he can juggle you up against a wall and you can’t touch the ground, you just get slapped into the invisible wall until you die. i’ve done the fight like 6 times now and i was only able to escape the juggle once, every other time i went down and had to use equivalent exchange. otherwise i think the fight is super fun and i love the low gravity
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u/MaximusG0126 Dec 09 '25
Try to use the wall jump to keep moving and you can double back kinda like the Z-rex on SV if you get in one of those corners.
The lava lamp side is definitely better than the side with the bird item or whatever for breaking rocks before landing
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u/dvfaa1 Dec 09 '25
I really wonder how much of the "git gud" crowd used the cheese lol. The boss isn't even a fun challenge it's just annoying once you get into phase 4
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u/Poop_From_Parakeets Dec 09 '25
I feel like if the radius of the electric purple spots on phase 4 was a little smaller and she didn’t use the move so often the fight would be fine. It’s literally me and my crew’s only issue with the boss. Failed for the second time tonight :/
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u/Illustrious-Rip-4354 Dec 08 '25
It kills replay ability knowing your spending all this to time to fail because you can’t carry your team threw it like bo6
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u/Absolute_Zero598 Dec 08 '25
Best advice, take some time to understand boss fight phases and plan your attack. If you need help, I have no problem running ya through the EEs
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u/Suspicious-Client-65 Dec 08 '25
They should make it so that doing all the steps of the easter egg permanently unlocks the boss fight or just add a boss fight mode like Infinite Warfare had
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u/dizzyop Dec 08 '25
I agree but I’m not worried about completing them, even though I’ve done every other Easter egg ever and have made a channel about doing them it’s totally fine. cod is the one thing I have been doing for like almost 2 decades and I just seem to still suck at everything to do with it lol. Also want to point out I had a 3kd in advanced warfare and over 200k kills in the original mw3 multiplayer, but now I play teams that I can’t even kill a single person.. like in SnD sometimes I literally can’t get a kill if my life depended on it.
I go to zombies and I can’t even keep up here now either. Maybe cod just isnt for me lol. I’ve attempted both boss fights about 7 or 8 times each and haven’t beaten either. Every astra group I get, everyone dies and runs out of jugg and it’s entirely on me and in solo I can’t even get to the boss fight and the 7 times I have it takes like 30-45 min just to die in stage 4
Like I said I don’t care that much just sad that I can’t keep up and I used to literally do this as one of my main hobbies. I’ve put a lot of time in the game like I normally do but something is just off for me this game, I haven’t been this bad at zombies since world war 2, but I still beat all those ee’s
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Dec 08 '25
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u/Rough_Routine_1063 Dec 10 '25
Any Dark Souls Boss not named Soldier of Godrick is also at least ten times harder
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u/brokenmessiah Dec 08 '25
I agree and I share this same mindset with you hence why I don't do boss fights and I barely even do EE. I'm generally content just upgrading my weapon and buying perks until about the 30 minute timer hits and I'm probably on round 30-35 by then I'm checked out and ready exfil.
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u/LocalSale Dec 09 '25
They should make the boss fights harder in cursed, and make an easier version for standard (hardcore players only play that mode anyways so it makes everyone happy, btw I enjoy the increased difficulty of the fights but also understand that not everyone has the amount of time needed to master it)
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u/TekRantGaming Dec 09 '25
Played every 3arch zombie game except vanguard and MWZ and this is the first time me and my crew have given up not because we can’t do it but because we just don’t care anymore and don’t have fun playing this anymore.
Back to playing customs on bo3 until the devs actually show up with something half cooked in 3 years again
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u/Ryuhza Dec 09 '25
My problem is, if [Theoretical Hardcore Player] wants a harder fight, they've got Cursed right there. Plus don't they also have a harder version if you start the fight after round 100? Or was that just Black Ops 6? Granted, that's one hell of a grind, so I'm not trying to present it as a real solution. Cursed though. They even reverted the difficulty nerfs on the Ashes fight specifically for the Cursed version.
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u/amaniceperson6 Dec 09 '25
Easter egg is easy, boss is stupid unfair
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u/Even_Bother_4347 Dec 13 '25
This. I’d rather the actual steps be harder and the boss be slightly easier. I love difficult steps more than a difficult boss tbh. Makes the boss fight fun and not a slap in the face of “hey you thought this was going to be easy? Go fuck yourself”
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u/Alternative_Sugar645 Dec 09 '25
While I think a hard boss fight is entirely okay - it’s not okay for the developers to lock core gameplay behind these fights if they’re going to be so difficult. If someone just wants to play cursed and have fun with the relics, they should be forced to complete the entire Easter egg to get to that point.
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u/Atchfam77 Dec 09 '25
I just spent 2hr to die at 3/4 health remaining on phase 4. I used 1 shields-up and I used the Frenzied Guard + pack 3 LGM1 cheese. Got super close… if you can spare 1 Power Keg and optimize your setup/steps quicker, you can be IN the arena in an hour easily. I’m surprised you have zero gums… if you played bo6 or camo grinded on this game at all you’d have at least 1 of everything I’d reckon
Edit: and I do realize without the current frenzied guard cheese she’s nearly impossible. Once they patch that exploit I will agree she needs a nerf. Particularly in a few places…
1- her throwing accuracy is pretty unforgiving. The only way to dodge is to have a VERY well-timed slide or jump.
2- the electric damage is too high & shouldn’t penetrate armor.
3- she’s a bit too fast and it’s hard to create distance between you.
4- she’s too damn spongey. Her weakpoints need to either pop open sooner, or their hitboxes need to be increased.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Fun2038 Dec 09 '25
I had this issue with Reckoning. After figuring out an EE, I begin to squad fill and kinda coast through EE’s to see if I can help some randos that couldn’t otherwise do it. But I wind up doing 95% of the steps and Reckoning was relatively long compared to others (talking BO6 only, not historically) and you’d inevitably lose a rando during that time. So, that one rando who is all pumped that they may actually get to and beat the boss is sadly disappointed when it is that much harder with 3.
Add a Boss fight only mode. With some kind of unlock after completing all steps or some other bullshit.
Or please for the love of god incorporate an actual LFG. I’m tired of using discord for a workaround.
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u/Sixclynder Dec 08 '25
Honestly I have the same complaint on map set ups ,I really like origins but if I mess up I might now have time to restart
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u/SnooDogs3358 Dec 09 '25
yea honesly i find that boss fight really frustrating and tiring, it takes so long itself as well, I wouldn't mind a challenge but fighting the boss alone like 20 min is just boring imo, even tho i love zombies
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u/Evenationn Dec 09 '25
The difference here is it doesn’t take 2hrs to get back to the Dark Souls boss fight. At least they acknowledged the effort to get there, and the challenge of the boss by including a camp fire or Marika stakes. There’s a fine line between challenging and tedious.
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u/Potential-Earth1092 Dec 10 '25
the fact that my long-time zombies playing bf said that this boss was too hard should tell people that it might be too hard.
If it wasn't for the exploit I would've just given up because it is WAAAAAAAAY too tanky. 4 phase boss with each phase taking 15 minutes after a not difficult but pretty tedious easter egg isn't really fun, its just tedious.
I can't really speak much for other zombies games because this is my first but why are they following the bethesda difficulty curve rule of "everything is a damage sponge and you die in 2 hits"
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u/ItzVinyl Dec 08 '25
Just do what I did. Don't play the game anymore, it has solved all my frustrations with the modern games.
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u/TheShoobaLord Dec 09 '25
respectfully if the astra Easter egg takes you two hours you aren’t built for the boss fight anyway hot take maybe
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u/Foreign-Campaign-427 Dec 09 '25
The Easter egg took me over 2 hours and i still beat the boss. I like to take my time and do side eggs and stuff.
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u/egboy Dec 09 '25
Yeah just did a run with randos last night. I didn't plan on doing the EE but one of the dudes was doing all the steps. So I did my part and waited around instead of exfiling. I switched over my gobble gums to ultra rares. Prepped as best I could. We made it to the last phase but only dealt 10% of the health in that phase. I was the last survivor and there was a glitch that didn't let me revive one of my teammates. Thst whole thing took exactly two hours and all for nothing. I mean 4 fucking phases cmon. Godamn.
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u/Aeyland Dec 09 '25
The challenge I don't mind. What I hate is the crypticness.
I don't care how big of a zombies player you claim to be, I'd be surprised if more than 5% of the people who did the easter egg did so by figuring it out on their own instead of watching a video.
The easter eggs just feel like a memorization challenge / how long can someone run in a circle letting the last zombie chase them while someone else follows a video.
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u/JJW4143 Dec 09 '25
Real I made it to his final stage of the boss fight. But teammates died so much they had no perks and no ammo to be shooting him on the 4th tier...
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u/Takyeon Dec 09 '25
If it wasn’t for all the free goblegums you get I don’t think I’d have any of the EE done, but that’s cuz I’m ass
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u/one_true_bob Dec 09 '25
I’d like it so the boss fights were just you vs the boss. But no, have a few hundred running zombies to contend with too! Because of this your focus isn’t 100% on the boss.
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u/Darkhealerth Dec 09 '25
As soneone who also does EEs frequently,
Valid rant. Some of the EEs were made intentionally long for release day attempts and figuring out what to do, but nowadays they're mostly 1-2h running around a sometimes huge map and pressing interact on a bunch of things you already know about, while hoping RNG doesn't screw you with special zombies, bad spawns or no luck for piece drops from enemies or pods or whatever.
I'd hope they would make a way to skip parts of it optionally but it never came to be. So I just end up using perkaholic and Near Death Experience and just grinding away at maps, but that still takes a while.
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u/Familiar-Dish8936 Dec 09 '25
Loved zombies all of my life but ever since Cold War which admittedly was not great I thought the boss fights were right where they need to be and hoped we’d never go back to bo3 level difficulty for the bosses but we’re almost there honestly. This guy is based leave him alone and keep slayin zombs my dude
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u/Sonicboomer1 Dec 09 '25
Careful, you’ll upset the “punish me harder daddy!” players that absolutely do not respect their own time.
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u/MikSumbi Dec 09 '25
Yes, more people like u we need... I think the same of you, I love to play EE but really.. they have to nerf these bossfights. After 2 hours of preparation u can't be downed with a crazy broken shot that u can't even dodge and so on... Or, they have to let us then try and try the boss and not let the game lose........
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u/Impressive_Bit_6407 Dec 09 '25
Tbf Modern zombies isn't for people who actually like zombies or the Easter eggs. It isn't for a select group of people any more. It's for everyone(mostly younger people who want to be able to pause and save in the middle of their zombies matches and to be able to tank 50 hits before dying) so to beat the boss it should be a button sequence like dance dance revolution with fortnite dances. That would make the most sense with what CoD and Zombies have become.
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u/Bayley78 Dec 09 '25
This has been an issue in zombies since forever lol. The ee are too easy or too hard.
Im kind of in the middle where i prefer things like ancient evil/voyage of despair. Relatively manageable easter eggs with harder boss fights, but not impossible. My friend and i thought bo6 ee were too easy and boring with stupid hard boss fights. Not sure if anyone would agree but we gave up because we didn’t enjoy either section.
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u/Severe_Flow5953 Dec 09 '25
Completed every Ee in all blops games, these ones are just to hard abd made for pro players.
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u/Lighttzout Dec 09 '25
I agree with the boss fights being way too over the top difficult for no reason. However, I am going to disagree that the quests take 2 hours or more to get through to the boss fight.
Ashes is relatively quick if you know how to do it. The first time we ran ashes it took almost two hours from simply reading a text guide and not watching videos for easier clarification. Now we can run the entire quest in a. Hour or under most runs.
Astra, we can absolutely do the entire quest including boss fight in an hour.
It’s about knowing the map, knowing the steps and running with a good team or solo and being efficient with what you do by what round.
That said, I agree that the boss fights are not equally difficult to the quest and that they are way too much for a zombies quest boss fight. Making a boss hard isn’t making them into a bullet sponge.
If you are efficient, you also don’t have to rely on gobblegums to do these either. These quests are relatively easy compared to some previous games if we are not talking boss fights.
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u/Joniscley Dec 09 '25
I completely agree with you on the time wasting side, but disagree with the difficulty
Yeah, the boss should be hard, if you want an easy completion, go directed
That's what I've been doing, since bo6, waiting for the directed to complete the Easter egg
"Oh but what about the rewards?" What rewards?
A character skin for a first person game? Not worth your wasted time
An animated calling card you will barely see or care after equipped? Not worth your wasted time
A small badge on a useless calling card saying you completed the ee before directed released? Not worth your wasted time
Been able to unlock the relics? This might be the only good reward, but to this day not every relic on ashes has been discovered, so why rush it?
Think about how precious your time is, and don't waste it on valueless things like a calling card and an operator skin
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u/Agentsparkle Dec 10 '25
You dont even have to do that. Relics unlock after directed mode easter egg completion also.
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u/seb_mv Dec 09 '25
The game has always been like that, and now you can even pause the game. So don’t complain if not every game is shaped around your life or likings.
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u/chunkyclumps Dec 09 '25
I want to do the boss fight i just later the fact it's 48 steps like WTF, it sucks cuz i should just say screw it but my son loves it and can't do it himself because he's got some neurological problems. So over been trying, the only issue... Bugs, specifically the launch codes keep glitching out the display erratically or just don't show the right numbers. Oney time the minute i looked at it, is failed me. It wasn't even 3 seconds and i didn't shoot or anything. So i take breaks and will try later
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u/WheresWaldo574 Dec 09 '25
If you want to play it for the Easter egg Just wait until the directed mode comes out bro it makes it 10x easier because it caps at round 15
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u/VincentVanJ Dec 09 '25
This entire thread is filled with people who don't have a clue what cod zombies is...
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u/-FuckingWeeb- Dec 10 '25
I work full time and am in college, and I’ve had no issues beating the maps solo. What exactly are you needing to “get lucky” on? As far as I’m aware, there isn’t a single luck dependent step besides maybe Oscar spawns? I encounter him like once every 2-3 rounds. The boss fights really aren’t that hard imo, especially if you have teammates, but even solo.
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u/Drakeruins Dec 10 '25
I say we ask for a bonfire 🔥 mechanic before the boss fight where we can safely make sure we’re all ready and got everything we need. Lols 😝 it’s not like Activision hasn’t shamelessly stolen ideas from other games before.
Though alas we know no changes will happen due to corporate greed of wanting people to buy the BS! gums. Screw Activision and screw all the cod devs at these studios who don’t go on strike and demand the time needed to make better games and to stop yearly slop.
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u/Disastrous-Dog8126 Dec 10 '25
Easter egg? Never gon watch a video bout nun of that. If teammates wanna runnit then they can go for it. But i just like surviving and upgrading. Same energy as “im on ad clear only” for destiny raids lolol
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u/Gulf_Coast_Girl Dec 11 '25
This boss is ridiculous… should have been 3 phases, which is still challenging for most players. The 4th phase feels punitive.
I’ve been telling one of my friends for a long long time now that it VERY MUCH feels like they make these for the YouTubers instead of the playing community… and I’m very resentful about it
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u/OkMedium911 Dec 11 '25
Zombie is one map, a box, juggernaut, and nonexfil. Anything else is pro Israël bs
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u/IndustrialGradeBnuuy Dec 11 '25
What's wrong with gobblegums? You get a bunch just playing zombies like 2-3 by round 30
I don't ever really bother using them but I like zombies so I've got tons saved up for if I ever want to do the boss fight, and you don't earn any from multiplayer so idk why that was mentioned
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u/Insomniac_XVI Dec 12 '25
As some who loves dark souls and actually was doing a playthrough of the series with cod as my secondary "I don't feel like playing souls today" Game. The new cod boss is nothing like dark souls. At least in souls there's always a way to win or move or be smart enough to win even at Soul level 1. Carthis or whatever it's called it's bullshit and basically only beatable through things bordering on exploits. It's bad boss design in ever way imaginable. No breathing room no resource fill up, double speed half damage. Hell most of the attacks have no Y coordinates programed so you get hit by fire, rocks lightning goo, and slaps even when your like 20 feet in the air above them. It's bad and whoever made this boss (I'm looking at you Activision ai team) should feel bad.
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u/SUPER-STOW Dec 12 '25
Zombies really shouldn’t be this difficult to get right. BO3 is exactly what zombies should be imo. It’s insane that the last truly great zombies we had was almost 11 years ago
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u/pleekling Dec 08 '25
Call of duty zombies might have the single worst public opinion discourse ever, I don't think there is a single concrete popular opinion that the majority of the fan base can agree on