Map Strategy: Origins

Another post on Zombies! I can't help myself. I just enjoy it too much. As someone who is regularly without internet, the fleeting hours I actually do have my 360 connected to the internet is spent, generally speaking, downloading the map packs for the cod games that have zombies in. As such, i've been able to download all the map packs save for a) Die Rise, and b) origins. As such, I won't be able to address the finer details of Die Rise. So, i'm going to do this in reverse order. Start with Origins, then work my way back to Tranzit. Which i'm currently loving, while Origins is sadly absent from my hard drive.

*These strategies are for solo.

First thing you're going to want to do, is to head over to Generator Station 2. This is the Station that contains the MP40 in the adjacent room, outside of which the tank stops at, whenever it is it that its wheels get set in motion. This is the superior route to take as the MP40 allows easy point gains at early rounds, and more importantly, has a number of ammunition spots convenient for you to buy ammo from. It's particularly important that you are able to rack up a high amount of points early on, so that the main threat in the early rounds, the Panzer Soldat, becomes just as trivial as your average zombie.

An important point is that, well, points are more important than anything else. Hold off on Pack-a-Punching anything or filling in your perk slots until you have the weapon you want, which can often affect which kind of perk loadout you want, apart from the two obvious necessities - Juggernog and Quick Revive. A suggestion would be to wait until about round 9, the round after the first panzer soldat arrives, and then open all the Generators, and activate them, accumulating points up with the MP40. I know it's hard, but the best thing to do is to simply refrain from hitting the box until you're secure. Now, a few extras - getting nine perks is key. This will, quite simply, turn you into a machine. Double Tap 2.0 should be the last perk, as getting it once will mean that if you go down and lose it - you won't be able to get it again. The rewards from the chest are very useful if you're in need of a weapon, and should you be on a slightly higher round and lacking points and/or ammunition, head to the Rituals of the Ancients box and take a free upgraded weapon.

Now, running trains. All you need to do is to activate two generators, although you may as well activate three, to get to Juggernog. Once you have that, you need to locate a spot to run around in. Myself, I prefer the Stamin-Up Generator (5) for running trains. Yes, there are six entrances, but the tubes of the generator itself and the open space to either side of it allows for some nice motion and dodging of otherwise uncomfortable encounters. Generator Station 4, or the Juggernog Station, is also perfectly good. This is also ideal for the early rounds as it does not involve opening unnecessary doors. There is also an MP40 chalk in the footprint next to Generator 4. The order I activate them in usually goes 1, 2, 4, 6/5, 3, on solo.

Getting nine perks is somewhat a lengthy process. First of all, you need a golden shovel. The method of gaining a golden shovel is digging up a large number (unfortunately, not having origins, I can't calculate the exact number) of dig sites with the regular shovel, without getting downed. That is key - you cannot down, otherwise you will have to begin the process all over again. Getting the golden shovel allows access to several items you would otherwise not be able to get, and increases the chance of getting items you may otherwise never see when digging with the regular shovel. E.g. All other power-ups, not just zombie blood, the Ray Gun, the golden helmet (prevents the robots from having any effect on you at all), the Ray Gun Mark II, and a perk slot. The latter two must both be dug from a dig site during Zombie Blood, and the final one, the perk slot, must be dug up from a glowing red dig site while Zombie Blood is active. Now, there is a way to get Zombie Blood, apart from the random drop system. If you shoot three burning carts with the ice staff, a Zombie Blood will spawn atop the excavation site. This actually works once per round. Apart from when it's raining. Essentially (I've never tested the three carts altogether), check if the carts are burning. One is next to the MP40 at the bottom of the dig site. They're all dotted around the excavation site.

The staffs. Your choice of staff is based a little on personal preference, a little on which suits which task. If you're a fan of either the Paralyzer or the Winter's Howl, you may want to think about taking the Ice Staff. If you ever liked the Wunderwaffe DG-2, think about the Lightning Staff. And the Thundergun to the Wind Staff. The Fire Staff seems to be the most destructive, almost a combination of the Ice Staff and the Lightning staff, but with lessened effects both ways. The staffs are all incredibly effective at destroying the Panzer Soldat. I'd like to point out that hypothetically speaking, it's very possible, and quite probable, that a player would be able to obtain an ultimate staff by round 11 - which means increased power, a number of useful utilities, including a melee attack that is a one-hit kill up until round 16. The collection of the parts is no more than the opening of few doors. Locations are limited, and the upgrading of the staff requires at most one round, to power the staff with zombie souls while in Agartha. Just in case you are unaware of staff parts, locations and how to upgrade each one, here are some links:
Staff Of Ice: http://callofduty.wikia.com/wiki/Staff_of_Ice
Staff Of Fire: http://callofduty.wikia.com/wiki/Staff_of_Fire
Staff Of Wind: http://callofduty.wikia.com/wiki/Staff_of_Wind#
Staff Of Lightning: http://callofduty.wikia.com/wiki/Staff_of_Lightning

I haven't played solo, so maybe it'll be different to two player-co-op. Still, good luck, hope it helped. Please do comment if there's something you want me to discuss or puzzle out or put out a strategy for.

What's the Next Stop?

Given that we've reached the end of Black Ops 2, it's no wonder that Treyarch have done the honourable thing and send the series out with a bang. Origins is the seventeenth map (including Dead Ops Arcade, which I suppose I must) contained within Zombies, that has, let us be honest, given Treyarch any hope of competing with the 'Modern Warfare' side of things, and given that we've reached the same stage where we really ought to be considering, well, what's next.

World at War was our introduction to the series, moving from four unnamed soldiers fighting anonymous enemies in a one-dimensional environment (it was amazing, let us not forget that), to the introduction of perks, then characters and wonder weapons, then teleportation and upgrades, and gradually, a story. Part of the fun, that I've partaken in since the very beginning, is figuring out how the story pieces together. After the fourth map pack for WaW, I took great pride in being the only able to explain the backstory of Nazi Zombies to my fellow players. I loved the mysteriousness, the unknowable paths behind the barriers, the little easter eggs that you could only access by noclipping out of the map, I loved the slow realisation that things did actually make sense, if barely.

Then we had Black Ops! We moved to the theatre, and for once, the storyline was moving forwards, if only slightly. And then Ascension, one of my favourite maps to date, linked both Five to the main storyline, and advanced the story arc of the four main characters. The map packs then continued to create increasingly story-driven experiences, culminating in a thoroughly lengthy easter egg set on the moon, resulting in the destruction of the earth, the revealing and changing of the Demonic Announcer, and the availability of Samantha Maxis as a playable character.

Onto Black Ops, where the story became even more convoluted and confusing than ever, and...I loved that. It was a return to the old days, where we had vague pieces of information and had to make what sense of them we could. Difference is, we now have an absolute overload of information and we had to fill in the tiniest details. In fact, sometimes, the story was perfectly clear. Now we've reached the end, and well, it's all very ambiguous. Did the final, ultimate easter egg ending in buried really signal the end of Nazi Zombies? Or was it a prelude to the next instalment. Myself, I didn't believe that Buried was the end. It just didn't even feel like an ending! Then, we have Origins, which leaves us with numerous questions, completely unanswered.
e.g. How does Maxis find a new body? (Which he has, at some point in the future, as he is shot by either Schuster or Groph). Is Agartha eternal? (essentially, is it a realm where time is meaningless? This question must be asked, as it is the only answer to the question of how Samantha attempts to get her future father to free her, before she becomes trapped in the MPD.) What is the link between the test tubes of blood (which contain the serial numbers of Salvatore De Luca and Finn O'Leary) and Richtofen/what is the link between Mob of the Dead and Origins, especially as Mob of the Dead, chronologically speaking, occurs after Origins.

And yes, that infamous ending. The Easter Egg ending to 'Lost Little Girl' has been hailed as Treyarch's final shit on the faces of the Nazi Zombies community. However, before you start nodding, and agreeing with that statement, let me tell you how wrong you are. It's a beginning. Not an ending. It's the how, and why, answer, that I have been looking forward to for a long time, not least because of how ambiguous it is. I love figuring it out.

And so that, ladies and gentlemen, is why we can expect more. Unexplainable occurrences, impossible hints and questions without a clue to their name. And that last line, foreboding, chilling - 'don't worry. My father has a plan.'

Look forward to more. I bloody well hope.