Black Ops 2 Zombies Guide: Unlock and Keep All Perma-Perks
Black Ops 2 Zombies has a set of hidden “Perma-Perks,” also called Persistent Upgrades, that you can earn through very specific in-match actions—and then potentially lose if you fail the associated conditions. These upgrades can be found in Tranzit, Die Rise, and Buried, but some are tied to only one map. A few are genuinely important, such as Perma-JuggerNog and even Perma-PhD Flopper, while others are more niche (like a way to guarantee a free Ray Gun).
If you’re also working through the mode’s progression systems, it helps to know how the ranking and requirement checks function—because several Perma-Perks are basically “do this challenge perfectly, then protect it” upgrades. Below is a full rundown of the Perma-Perks and what you must do to unlock or lose each one.
Quick facts: all Perma-Perks and upgrades
- Perma-Quick Revive
- Perma-JuggerNog
- Perma-PhD Flopper
- Perma-Tombstone
- Double Headshot Damage Upgrade
- Double Sniper Points Upgrade
- Double Pistol Points Upgrade
- Mystery Box Luck Upgrade
- Steel Barriers Upgrade
- Ray Gun Wall-Buy Upgrade
- Insta-Kill Upgrade (Perma-Insta-Kill)
- Carpenter Upgrade (Steel Carpenter variant)
- Half-Off Upgrade (during Double Points)
- Cash Back Upgrade
Before you chase any of these, know where they can actually be earned. The majority of Perma-Perks are limited to Tranzit, Die Rise, and Buried. Additionally, Perma-PhD Flopper is exclusive to Buried, meaning you should not waste time attempting to set up its requirements in maps like Mob of the Dead or Origins.
Perma-Quick Revive unlock condition: revive another player 17 times in a single match.
Perma-Quick Revive can be lost if you cancel a revive—either intentionally or because you get interrupted by a zombie. If you fail a revive, you lose the Perma-Perk, but you can restore it by completing 17 more revives.
With Perma-Quick Revive active, your revive speed is permanently increased. And if you’re running standard Quick Revive, you can revive teammates four times faster than normal.
Perma-JuggerNog unlock condition: die three times before Round 3 while you do not have Quick Revive. This is easiest in solo play—go in, get killed by a zombie to trigger a “Game Over,” then repeat the process two more times.
Once you have it, Perma-JuggerNog grants +90 HP. When stacked with JuggerNog, your total becomes 340 HP, letting you take seven hits before you drop.
To lose Perma-JuggerNog, you need to be downed after Round 15. You can keep it if you avoid going down, or if you leave the match before you are downed. But if you’re in Round 15 and you get downed, expect the perk to be taken away.
Buried-only: Perma-PhD Flopper
Perma-PhD Flopper is exclusive to Buried. To obtain it, you must take fall damage 6 times in a row, and each fall needs to be worth at least 30 HP. The game makes this relatively straightforward by jumping from the top of the stairs at the Sheriff’s House by the Jailhouse.
With Perma-PhD Flopper, you’re immune to self-explosive damage. Using a dolphin dive from a height will also trigger an explosion. The tradeoff versus the normal PhD Flopper is important: you are not immune to fall damage while this is active.
To lose it, you must take 50 HP worth of fall damage, so don’t keep dropping from high ledges. Also, if you’re holding a Claymore and then perform a dolphin dive, you’ll deal noticeably more explosive damage.
Perma-Tombstone is unlocked by buying 4 Perks by Round 6 or earlier across three separate matches. When it’s active, the game will always make you lose the most recently acquired perk when you go down. If you’re using Quick Revive, you will lose that perk instead of the Perma-Tombstone effect in that same down scenario.
It’s “almost impossible” to lose Perma-Tombstone, but there are two things you should avoid if you want it to stick forever. Don’t buy a perk in the same round where you gained Perma-Tombstone. And if you join a match already in progress, don’t purchase a perk in the same round you joined.
Double Headshot Damage Upgrade is earned by landing 5 collateral headshot multi-kills. These happen when you kill two or more zombies with a single bullet aimed at the head. A Sniper Rifle with Double Tap 2.0 helps, since you can line up shots for multi-headshot kills more consistently.
You lose the Double Headshot Damage upgrade if you get 25 non-headshot kills in a row. The practical fix is simple: keep your momentum by getting a headshot kill before returning to mowing down a trained horde.
Double Sniper Points Upgrade: you can permanently earn 300 points per Sniper Rifle kill if you score 5 sniper kills at least 800 distance units away during the same round. There’s no in-game distance ruler, so the advice is to play it safe—stay as far away as possible and still secure all five kills in that one round.
You lose this upgrade if you miss three sniper shots in a row, so aim carefully. It also isn’t affected by Double Points, though you can use Perma-PhD. For reasons that aren’t fully explained in-game, an explosive dolphin dive while holding a Sniper Rifle can still count as a sniper kill.
Double Pistol Points Upgrade requires at least 8 kills, plus the condition that one of those kills must come from a pistol shot with 25% or lower accuracy. The easiest way to set this up is in the first round: use a knife to eliminate 8 zombies, then purposely miss a chunk of shots before finally firing to finish a zombie.
The payoff is straightforward: it doubles the points you earn from pistol bullets. Unfortunately, it’s also easy to lose—if you kill a zombie with pistol accuracy higher than 25%, the upgrade will be removed, so it tends to fall off quickly.
Mystery Box Luck Upgrade improves your odds by having you accept 5 Mystery Box weapons in a row before Round 10. After you hit that point, the game begins using weighted rolls that tilt toward the specific weapon set for the maps listed below.
To lose the Mystery Box luck upgrade, reach Round 10. Once Round 10 starts, the luck boost ends and there’s no workaround—so make sure you pull the gear you want before then.
Steel Barriers Upgrade can be unlocked by rebuilding 74 wooden boards on Round 10 or later without using a Carpenter Power-Up. When your 74th wooden board is placed back onto a zombie barrier, you gain Steel Barriers. After that, barriers are repaired with steel boards instead of wood, making them harder to break.
You’ll lose the Steel Barriers upgrade if you fail to rebuild at least one board per round. Note that it’s not the entire barrier—placing a single board each round is enough. Still, on later rounds, barriers can become more of a burden anyway.
Ray Gun instead of Olympia: Ray Gun Wall-Buy
Normally you’d buy the Olympia at the Wall-Buy, but there’s a way to instead obtain a Ray Gun. To do it, you must meet two conditions: never reach Round 10 across Tranzit, Die Rise, Buried, Mob of the Dead, and Origins (offline play can bypass this). Then, you must kill 5 zombies while ensuring none of those kills are headshot kills, melee kills, or kills through a barrier.
Once those requirements are satisfied, go to the Olympia Wall-Buy and take the free Ray Gun. The upgrade stays through the current game session, but the moment you reach Round 10, you can no longer buy a Ray Gun in place of the Olympia.
Perma-Insta-Kill is earned by picking up an Insta-Kill Power-Up and getting 0 kills. Then repeat the same thing a second time. When you pick up Insta-Kill again afterward, a red skull appears above the main power-up—and it lasts for 18 seconds.
This upgraded Insta-Kill lets you kill zombies by simply walking into them, but the reward is reduced to 50 points per kill. To lose the upgrade, you must take damage from a zombie while Insta-Kill is active, so keep moving carefully.
Steel Carpenter upgrade replaces the normal Carpenter Power-Up behavior with steel repairs. When it’s active, every board you repair becomes steel and is harder to break than the standard wooden version. To obtain it, grab the Carpenter Power-Up and kill a zombie trapped behind the barrier.
To lose this variant, pick up the Carpenter Power-Up and then do not kill a zombie trapped behind the barrier. It’s described as one of the more pointless upgrades, but it still exists for players who want to chase it.
Half-Off Upgrade gives you a 50% discount on items like the Mystery Box and doors, but only while a Double Points Power-Up is running. To get it, pick up Double Points, score 2,500 points, and that’s all that’s required.
To lose Half-Off, pick up Double Points and then earn more points than you had previously. That means you may want to avoid killing during Double Points, or simply ignore the perk if you don’t want to manage the risk.
Cash Back refunds 1,000 points when you buy a Perk. The unlock route is to purchase 50 Perks total. Of those purchases, 15 of them must be followed by going prone within 2.5 seconds. After that, every time you go prone after buying a Perk, you get a partial refund.
To lose Cash Back, buy a Perk and fail to go prone within 2.5 seconds. The requirement is tedious to track every single time you purchase, so it may not be worth chasing for everyone.
If you’re looking for more Black Ops 2 Zombies content, here are additional guides listed for players: Black Ops 2 Zombies Super Easter Egg; Tranzit Easter Egg (Richtofen); Tranzit Easter Egg (Maxis); Die Rise (Maxis); Die Rise (Richtofen); Buried (Maxis); Buried (Richtofen); Mob of the Dead Easter Egg; and Origins Easter Egg.
