just like the other Cold War quests, Forsaken can be completed solo or co-op.

1. 🌀 Escape the Staging Area

When you spawn, the rounds advance continuously until you leave, so don’t hang around forever. Activate the teleporter’s initiation sequence, survive while it powers up, and jump through.

Continue through the facility until you reach the Observation Tower and lift the lockdown. Pack-a-Punch and the rest of the facility become accessible.

2. 🔴 Press the button

Inside the Observation Tower, find the large button on the wall opposite the bunker teleporter.

Interact with it.

A cutscene reveals what’s really going on with Zykov, and three enormous Dark Aether crystals spawn around the map.

Congratulations—we have officially started the main quest. 😂

🪓 3. GET THE CHRYSALAX

You absolutely want Forsaken’s Wonder Weapon:

🪓 CHRYSALAX SAVAGER

You can potentially obtain it through Trials or the Mystery Box, or build it through its dedicated quest. The build requires three components:

💎 Polymorphic Crystal Core — after two rounds, it lands in Jim’s Donuts. Survive the special-enemy waves around it and collect it.

💎 Energetic Geode — lure an Abomination into using its ranged attack on a Dark Aether crystal.

💎 Tempered Crystal Heart — defeat a Tormentor with fire damage.

Put all three components into the tank in the Particle Accelerator and complete the required nearby melee eliminations.

Then grab:

🪓 CHRYSALAX!

It switches between an axe and a ranged energy form.

4. 🔧 Collect the Neutralizer components

We’re building an:

☢️ AETHERIUM NEUTRALIZER

First comes the Fuel Tank. Go to Fuel Processing and activate the fuel tanks.

In solo, you can start the sequence yourself. In co-op, each player needs to interact with a different console at the same time.

Survive the lockdown.

When it’s finished:

⛽ FUEL TANK ACQUIRED.

5. 👹 Get the Housing Unit

Go into the Board Room and wait for an Abomination.

Notice the object hanging in the corner?

Stand near it and bait the Abomination into:

💥 CHARGING THE WALL.

It knocks the object down.

Grab the:

🔩 HOUSING UNIT.

6. 🕹️ ARC-XD mission

Find the arcade machine that lets you control an ARC-XD.

Activate it for 2,000 Essence.

Drive the little RC vehicle into the TV Store, get behind the counter, enter the vent and detonate at the end.

The explosion opens the hidden compartment.

Return there normally and collect:

📟 MONITORING DEVICE.

And yes, apparently saving reality required us to stop playing Zombies for a minute and drive a tiny RC car through an air vent. 😂

💎 7. THE THREE GIANT CRYSTALS

Now the Chrysalax becomes mandatory.

There are giant Dark Aether crystals at:

💎 Staging Area

💎 The Amplifier

💎 Storage Zone 5 Rooftops

Each has three purple orbs floating around it. Destroy the three orbs, then use the Chrysalax’s axe form to smash the giant crystal.

A throwable Crystal Shard drops.

8. 👹 FEED THE ABOMINATION

After breaking a crystal, an Abomination appears.

Pick up the Crystal Shard.

Wait until the Abomination opens one of its mouths and:

💎 THROW THE SHARD INTO ITS MOUTH.

When successful, its tail starts glowing.

Defeat it.

It drops:

💎 CATALYZED CRYSTAL SHARD

Do this for all three giant crystals.

You’ll finish with:

💎💎💎 THREE CATALYZED SHARDS.

9. 🔨 BUILD THE NEUTRALIZER

Take everything to the workbench on Main Street.

Build:

☢️ AETHERIUM NEUTRALIZER

⚠️ WARNING

Activating the Neutralizer starts the final sequence and there’s no going back to the normal map afterward.

So get yourself completely prepared before turning it on.

10. ☢️ ESCORT THE NEUTRALIZER

Activate it.

The Neutralizer creates a protective bubble as it slowly travels through the highly contaminated area.

STAY WITH THE BUBBLE.

Eventually the machine runs out of fuel.

You’ll see orange crystals outside the safe zone.

Move out briefly, break them, collect their shards and bring those shards back to the Neutralizer.

🟠 Crystal → shard → Neutralizer → MOVE.

Repeat until you reach the end of the route.

11. 🛒 ONE LAST CHANCE TO PREPARE

At the end of the Neutralizer escort, the game gives you one final opportunity to prepare before the boss.

Take advantage of it.

Because it’s time.

🌌 THE FORSAKEN

The gigantic Dark Aether entity we’ve been hearing about throughout Cold War finally appears.

And there’s one person who can help us stop him:

👩 SAMANTHA MAXIS.

12. ⚡ Charge Maxis

During the fight, you’ll need to defeat enemies around the designated areas to charge Samantha’s Dark Aether energy.

Keep the area controlled while her power builds.

Once she’s charged, Samantha fires her energy toward the battlefield.

That lets you progress to the next part of the fight.

13. 💥 Use the giant cannons

The arena contains enormous mounted cannons.

Use Samantha’s energy and the cannons to attack the Forsaken’s armored weak points.

Destroy one section.

Then you’ll have to survive another enemy phase.

14. ⚡ CHARGE SAMANTHA AGAIN

More enemies.

More chaos.

Charge Maxis again.

When she’s ready, return to the cannons and attack another vulnerable section of the Forsaken.

The basic cycle becomes:

🧟 Clear enemies → ⚡ Charge Maxis → 💥 Cannon → Break armor → Repeat.

15. 🌌 FINAL PHASE

Keep completing the charging phases and destroying the Forsaken’s remaining armored weak points.

Eventually his defenses collapse.

Samantha unleashes her power.

And—

💥 THE FORSAKEN IS DEFEATED.

But Cold War has one last surprise.

🎬 THE ENDING

Samantha sacrifices her freedom to contain the Forsaken and enters the Dark Aether.

Requiem thinks they’ve won.

Then we finally see what The Director has been planning.

Requiem’s senior staff are arrested.

The strike team is taken into custody.

And the Director is revealed as someone longtime Zombies players know extremely well:

🕶️ EDWARD RICHTOFEN.

Yeah.

That Richtofen.

And after everything we’ve done for Requiem, his response is basically:

“Thanks for saving reality. You’re all arrested.” 😂

🏆 PYRRHIC VICTORY — COMPLETE