Call of the Dead Easter Egg Guide (2026) for PS4/Xbox One

Call of the Dead turns your zombie run into a star-studded survival story, putting Michael Rooker, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Danny Trejo, and Robert Englund in the middle of the undead chaos. Your job is to push through multiple waves while trying to avoid being “managed” by director George Romero—because the end goal is helping Ultimis using the Call of the Dead easter egg. This walkthrough covers every major action you’ll need for both solo and co-op so you can beat the COTD easter egg with confidence in Black Ops Zombies.

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This guide applies to Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 3, covering the Call of the Dead easter egg mechanics as well as the related Ascension “Casimir Mechanism” / Gersh step. The important gameplay distinction is whether you’re attempting the full sequence solo or as co-op: solo runs can complete the main objective without mods and earn a dedicated achievement, while co-op expands the process with several extra steps.

Repair the Casimir Mechanism and free Gersh in Ascension using this step-by-step easter egg guide for Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 3.

It’s possible to complete the Call of the Dead easter egg entirely solo with no mods. Doing so awards the Stand-in achievement, and you’ll also receive a Wunderwaffe each time you kill George Romero. If you’re playing in co-op instead, you can also earn Ensemble Cast. The co-op version of the easter egg includes four additional steps, which are detailed later in this guide.

Call of the Dead Easter Egg Steps Overview

Turn on the Power
Interact with Ultimis and give them the Fuse
Use explosives to destroy 4 Shield Generators
Acquire the Frozen Vodka (co-op only)
Solve the Lighthouse Dials puzzle (co-op only)
Find the four Radios (co-op only)
Interact with the ship’s wheel and levers
Activate the four Fog Horns (co-op only)
Shoot a zombie with the V-R11
Kill the human with explosives in the Lighthouse to get the Golden Rod
Give Ultimis the Golden Rod

Step #1: Turn on the Power

Your first goal is to activate the Power Switch to bring power online across the map. This doesn’t just unlock convenience—it also enables Pack-a-Punch and perks, and it’s required to interact with Ultimis so you can start the first major phase of the easter egg. To reach it, go right from spawn and head upstairs in the large ship.

Step #2: Interact with Ultimis & Get the Fuse

With power restored, head into the area beneath the stairs at the Lighthouse entrance. Past PhD Flopper, go down the stairs to a metallic bunker door. You can melee this door to trigger Ultimis dialogue. That action also spawns a Fuse upstairs, inside the PhD Flopper room.

You can locate the Fuse in one of three places:

On a table to the left, next to batteries
On a table to the right, close to PhD Flopper
Against a cabinet on the right

Once you have the Fuse, interact with the panel to the right of the door where Ultimis is trapped to place it. Now melee the bunker door again to hear more Ultimis quotes and trigger four generators with blinking red lights.

Step #3: Destroy the Four Shield Generators

At this point, there are four red-blinking generators. You can destroy each one using explosives. Grenades work well if you cook them and throw at the right moment, but you can also lean on explosive options pulled from the Mystery Box to make the process smoother:

The first generator is directly across from the Ultimis room.
The next generator sits behind the zombie barrier near Stamin-Up, which you reach downstairs using the left doors in the Lighthouse.
The third generator is at the back of the ship (to the right, where Double Tap is), close to the rock.
The last generator is left of the walkway that leads down toward the lower portion of the boat.

After all four are destroyed, return to Ultimis and melee the door once more. This triggers another quote and moves you into the next stage.

Step #4: Grab the Frozen Vodka

Nikolai wants Vodka, and the Frozen Vodka can spawn in four possible locations. For this co-op step, the timing matters: one player should stand directly under the frozen Vodka, while the second player melee-interacts it to drop it so the first player can pick it up before it breaks.

On the steps leaving PhD Flopper toward the outside area of the Lighthouse
On the railing to the right of the Mystery Box, outside the Lighthouse entrance
On a railing on the ship facing Double Tap on the floor above
On a railing on the ship just before the drop to the opposite end of the boat

When you’ve secured the Vodka, interact with the tube located to the left of where you inserted the Fuse to deliver it to Ultimis. Then melee the door to interact with Ultimis and begin the next part.

Important: the Vodka phase belongs only to the co-op easter egg. If you’re running solo, skip ahead to the next step.

Step #5: Solve the Lighthouse Dials Puzzle

Inside the Lighthouse are four colored dials. Each floor has one dial, and you must use the correct interaction sequence so that the readout from top to bottom becomes 2-7-4-6. You’ll need to follow the dial interactions exactly as laid out here:

Go to the bottom floor’s purple dial and turn it to 6.
Go to the second floor and do not touch the blue dial. Instead, calculate how many interactions it would take for the blue dial to reach 4.
Go to the ground floor and interact with the orange dial the same number of times you calculated for the blue dial to hit 4.
While still at the orange dial, do not interact it. Count how many interactions it would take for the orange dial to reach 7.
Head to the top floor, find the yellow dial, and interact with it the same number of times as required for the orange dial to reach 7.
Still at the yellow dial, count how many interactions it would take for the yellow dial to reach 2. Remember it, then set the yellow dial to 2.
Return to the purple dial on the bottom floor and turn it the same number of interactions it took for the yellow dial to reach 2.
Go back to the blue dial on the second floor and interact until it displays 4.

Once your dials read 2-7-4-6 from top to bottom, you can start the next stage.

The Dials phase is also co-op only. Solo players can ignore this section and move on.

Step #6: Interact with the Four Radios

There are four radios across the map, and they must be activated in a specific order:

Below the Power Switch, to the left of the Mystery Box spawn point, on a shelf of servers
On a barrel inside the same room as Stamin-Up
Inside a container on the back of the ship
On a locker under the stairs where the Ultimis group is located

This is another co-op easter egg segment, so if you’re solo, skip it.

Step #7: Interact with the Ship’s Wheel and Levers

Head back to the Power Switch room. You’ll find three levers and a ship wheel. Interact with them in this order:

Pull the left lever once
Pull the right lever three times
Turn the ship wheel two times to the right

Step #8: Activate the Four Foghorns

Now you need to activate four Fog Horns around the map, again in a specific order:

By the ice water, to the right of the Lighthouse exterior area (near the AK Wall-Buy)
Down the ice slide at the bottom of the Lighthouse toward Speed Cola, directly to the right after the slide
Across from the first foghorn, outside the left Lighthouse door
At the bottom of the ice slide, behind a rock on the left

This Fog Horn step is co-op only. Solo players should skip ahead.

Step #9: Get the V-R11 and Shoot a Human with Explosives in the Lighthouse

Next, you’ll need to spin the Mystery Box until you get the V-R11. With it, take a zombie down to the bottom of the Lighthouse under the spiral stairs. Use the V-R11 to shoot the zombie. It will transform into a human and be pulled toward a green light that carries it up the stairs.

Once the human spawns, you must immediately fire an explosive weapon (a Ray Gun is specifically called out) until the human drops like they’re in a downed state. When the human reaches the top of the Lighthouse while downed, the Golden Rod will fall at the base of the stairs.

Step #10: Grab the Golden Rod and Take it to Ultimis

Pick up the Golden Rod from the bottom of the Lighthouse and bring it back to Ultimis. There’s a tube you can interact with to send it upward. The Fuse will start to spark, so melee it to reactivate the setup. That reactivation allows Ultimis to teleport away, which completes the easter egg.

You’ll need to complete the Call of the Dead easter egg because the Golden Rod is used in the Moon easter egg—but only for Black Ops 1.

Looking for more Black Ops Zombies content? There are guides available for every Black Ops Zombies map, including Ascension, Call of the Dead (You Are Here!), Shangri-La, and Moon.