The Call of Duty’s Zombies series has given us some interesting perks over the years since there release into the games in attempts to make our fight against the zombies easier. Here is our pick of the top 10.
Grading Criteria: We will grade there perks based on their usefulness and abilities within both co-op and solo modes.
10: Dying Wish
Starting with Black Ops 4’s exclusive perk, this essentially gives you a second chance at living. Instead of going into last stand you will enter berserk mode, which will greatly increase your melee damage and prevent you from dying for 9 seconds. This is highly useful as we all know there are moments when you are stuck and have to make split second decisions in order to survive, not only does this perk keep you alive but also gives you an opportunity to rid some bombs while you are at it.
9: Electric Cherry
Another helpful perk that gets you out of trouble, Electric Cherry or Burst produces a shock that stuns enemy zombies nearby when you reload your weapon. The less ammo you have in the clip when reloading, the stronger the burst is to the zombies. This is great in higher rounds as it gives you some time during reloading before the zombies can reach you. As an extra bonus, if you go down with this perk then you will produce a blast that also stuns enemies which is useful in Co-Op.
8: pHD Flopper
Introduced in the Black Ops map, “Ascension”, this perk gave us a bit of fun. When jumping from a substantial height, this perk produces a large explosion which has no cooldown. Additionally, this also eliminates fall damage and damage from explosives, which is very helpful for any players that are running any sort of explosive builds like the famous Ray Gun. A variant known as the slider was introduced in later games where instead of jumping you would slide to get the explosive effect. Quite cheap too at only 2000 points, one of the easier, useful perks to have.
7: Stamin-Up
Another perk introduced in “Ascension”, whilst we personally do not like Stamin Up, we cannot deny that it is very useful in later rounds and on maps where you actually need to cover a lot of ground. It gives your spring endurance a double boost and also an increase in your actual speed. We all know that on some maps, a few steps to outrun the zombies is the difference between life and death and movement with this perk just makes the play-through much easier.
6: Vulture Aid
Introduced in Black Ops 2’s, “Buried”, the Vulture Aid or Vulture Aid Elixir costs 3000 points and gives you Superman X-ray vision to see helpful tools like guns, the mystery box and Pack-a-Punch through walls over a short distance. Great for beginners to the map but once you get to know it, not so useful. Don’t fear however, the perk also allows players to pick up small ammo packets from killed zombies and also some zombies that are killed may release a green gas cloud that may hide the player from other zombies, although at the cost of hearing and vision being distorted. A very helpful perk and we wish we could rank it higher but there are others more worthy.
5: Winters Wail
Another amazing perk from Black Ops 4, the Winter’s Wail enables the activation of an ice blast when hit, giving it a similar effect to Electric Cherry. This either slows or freezes zombies with enough time for you to think your way out of any tough situations. With modifiers, this becomes stronger giving more charges and stronger blasts, putting it above the other defensive perks. It also generates a frost ring that lasts for a while, which looks cool…
4: Double Tap 2.0
An upgrade from the original Double Tap, this perk is now even better. While retaining its effect of higher rate of fire, this now also doubles the damage you deal by firing an extra bullet. There’s not much choice when deciding to get this perk or not, you will definitely need it in the higher rounds and will also give your weapons a much needed boost when the zombies inevitably begin getting stronger and faster. Couple this perk with Speed Cola and you’ve got yourself a one-man army. A double-edged sword however, in the sense that this also makes your ammo deplete faster.
3: Widow’s Wine
An amazing perk introduced in only Black Ops 3, the Widow’s Wine can help in multiple ways when fighting the zombie hordes. First of all, when you are hit, it produces a stun blast effect stopping zombies momentarily. You can also throw up to 4 charges in the form of Semtex grenades which stick to the surface and collect back these charges in the form of little spider tokens that replenish the stock and it also improves your knife melee damage. With many benefits given by just one perk, which is substantially cheaper than most others, it deserves a high spot up this list.
2: Speed Cola
We love Speed Cola, this would definitely be our perk of choice. At first glance the ability to reload quickly might not seem like one deserving of such a high place but, this perk is in fact crucial for any successful high-round playthrough. Those pesky wonder weapons can sometimes take a bit longer to reload (we’re looking at you, Thundergun) and the larger capacity weapons such as the LMG’s will require quick-loading to chew through those zombs.
1: Jugger-nog
We all knew this one was coming, the Jugger-Nog takes the top spot of our list. Essential to any play-through, this perk improves your health and allows you to take more hits from zombies before you go down. Super essential in higher round games as your health is the most important aspect of the game. This is often the first perk that everyone scrambles for during any game and will probably always be the best perk of choice for anyone. A true hero and saviour.
Honourable Mention: Quick Revive
The cheapest and often first perk you ever see, the fishy-tasting Quick Revive. Now this perk has different effects depending on game mode. On solo mode, it is probably the most important one, it self revives you should you enter into last stand to keep the game going. Although you only get 3 uses, this is still quite helpful as it doesn’t cut your game short. In co-op, however, it just enables you to revive any fallen teammates quicker. This is not very useful for most part of the game as there are other more important perks that need to fill up your slots. Also, it definitely has the best jingle of them all, in our opinion.
Other Contenders
Timeslip: Decrease cooldown rate of equipment as well as trap and fast travel. Gives mystery box and Pack-a-Punch weapons quicker.
Zombshell: When zombies are killed they have a chance to explode and leave behind a contamination field that leaves other zombies more susceptible to damage.
Mule Kick: A useful perk that lets you carry 3 weapons at once.