Black Ops 6 Zombies Augments explained

What are Black Ops 6 Augments? Augments are a new mechanic in Black Ops 6 Zombies that allow you to customize Perk-A-Colas, Ammo Mods, and Field Upgrades. For the most part, there are different Augments for different playstyles and abilities, but there are also some stand-out options and we’ve listed our top picks below.

We’ve also listed every single BO6 Augment available for each of the Black Ops 6 Perk-A-Colas, Ammo Mods, and Field Upgrades, and which work well together, so you need look no further for help with this new mechanic in the multiplayer game. You can’t take on hordes of the undead with just perks and Field Upgrades though, so don’t forget to kit yourself out with the best Black Ops 6 weapons, too.

The best Zombies Augments

The best Black Ops 6 Zombies Augment pairings to prioritize are:

Quick Revive – Perk-A-Cola

• Major Augment: EMT
• Minor Augment: Karmic Return

Speed Cola- Perk-A-Cola

• Major Augment: Supercharged
• Minor Augment: Speedy Roulette

PHD Flopper – Perk-A-Cola

• Major Augment: PHD Slider
• Minor Augment: Tribologist

Napalm Burst – Ammo Mod

• Major Augment: Firebomb
• Minor Augment: Contact Burn

Shadow Rift – Ammo Mod

• Major Augment: Explosive Rain
• Minor Augment: Haste

Dark Flare – Field Upgrade

• Major Augment: Extension
• Minor Augment: Broad Beam

Frenzied Guard – Field Upgrade

• Major Augment: Retribution
• Minor Augment: Rally

Energy Mine – Field Upgrade

• Major Augment: Carousel
• Minor Augment: Siren

Head to a specific section for the details on every available BO6 Augment:

How do BO6 Zombies Augments work?

From player level 11, you can select Augments to research from the main Zombies menu. Then, as you play and earn XP, your research progresses, unlocking Augments: three major and three minor per item. You can equip one major and one minor Augment for each.

There are Augments available for all Perk-A-Colas, Ammo Mods, and Field Upgrades. All Perk-A-Colas are available from your first game, so you can start Augmenting these as soon as you want. Every Perk-A-Cola you Augment and then buy in-game comes with those effects.

You can, however, only equip one Field Upgrade in each loadout, and one Ammo Mod per weapon, which can be unlocked from an Arsenal Machine in-game. This means you need to more picky about which Field Upgrades and Ammo Mods you Augment and equip. Take a look at our favorites in our list of the all-round best Augments, and keep reading for every single unlockable Augment.

All Perk-A-Cola Augments

These are all the Augments you can research and unlock for Perk-A-Colas:

Jugger-Nog

Base effect: increased maximum health.

• Major Augments
  • Probiotic – further increases maximum health.
  • Turtle Shell – causes armor to completely absorb damage to your back, but no longer offers protection from the front.
  • Reactive Armor – briefly stuns nearby enemies when an armor plate breaks.
• Minor Augments
  • Retaliation – deal extra damage when low on health.
  • Hardened Plates – armor plates protect from more damage.
  • Durable Plates – armor plate durability is increased.

If Jugger-Nog is one of your go-to Perk-A-Colas, there are a few great Augments here, depending on your playstyle or weaknesses. We think Turtle Shell is a great consideration if you get easily overwhelmed by zombies, allowing you to focus on just what’s in front of you, especially with Hardened or Durable as a minor Augment. Alternatively, Reactive Armor goes great with Hardened, but make sure not to pair it with Durable Plates if you want to get the most out of it.

Stamin-Up

Base effect: increased movement speed.

• Major Augments
  • Free Faller – makes you immune from fall damage.
  • Dasher – increases Tac Sprint duration.
  • Stalker – lets you walk faster while aiming.
• Minor Augments
  • Hard Target – projectile damage is reduced while Tactical Sprinting.
  • Quarterback – allows you to use equipment while sprinting.
  • Hot Foot – gain a speed boost when your equipment kills an enemy.

As with all Augments, the best option for you depends on your playstyle. For example, the Dasher Stamin-Up Augment is ideal for people who run and gun, while Stalker might be more applicable for you if you take more care around enemies. Considering this is Zombies mode, though, we think Dasher is probably the way to go for most here, backed up with the Quarterback minor Augment.

Speed Cola

Base effect: faster reloading and armor replating.

• Major Augments
  • Supercharged – causes Field Upgrades to recharge faster.
  • Classic Formula – further increases reload speed.
  • Phantom Reload – slowly refills weapon mags over time.
• Minor Augments
  • Speedy Roulette – causes the the Mystery Box to work faster.
  • Quick Swap – lets you switch weapons faster.
  • Fast Pitcher – allows you to deploy equipment faster.

Speed Cola is one of our favorite Perk-A-Colas already, but add some of these incredible Augments to the mix, and you’ll be flying. In fact, every one of these Augment is good, so it’s tough to choose our favorites, but we absolutely love Supercharged as a major pick given the amazing Field Upgrade Augments we’ve discussed further down. Until you have these ready to go, though, Classic Formula and Phantom Reload are both great choices, and Speedy Roulette is without a doubt our top minor pick – we’ve been distracted by hordes of undead while digging through that precious weapons cache far too many times.

That said, if you aren’t planning on utilizing the Mystery Box, either of the other two are great depending on your loadout and gameplay style. If you use equipment a lot, Fast Pitcher is a natural choice, while Quick Swap is great if you have two solid weapons in your loadout.

Deadshot Daiquiri

Base effect: aiming down sights moves to critical hit location. Increases critical damage.

• Major Augments
  • Dead Head – further increases critical damage.
  • Dead First – deals double critical damage to enemies at full health.
  • Dead Again – gives a chance of adding a bullet to your mag with each critical hit.
• Minor Augments
  • Dead Break – increases damage to armor pieces.
  • Dead Draw – reduces hip-fire spread.
  • Dead Set – reduces gun movement while performing advanced movement.

Again, Deadshot Daiquiri is always one of the best Perk-A-Colas to pick up, and there are a few Augments here that really take things up a notch. For a major, we’re torn, but Dead First slightly inches into first as that double critical damage to healthy zombies is going to allow you to take down those busy waves a bit quicker. Dead Again sounds like a solid choice, but without knowing the percentage chance of granting an additional bullet, it could be close to worthless.

For a minor Daiquiri Augment, we like Dead Set or Dead Break, but then we don’t fire from the hip all that often. If you do, you could equip Dead Draw, but Dead Break is going to provide a lot of value during higher level waves.

Quick Revive

Base effect: recover health and revive allies quicker.

• Major Augments:
  • EMT – allows the revived ally to keep all of the Perks on their bleed-out bar.
  • Equivalent Exchange – automatically revives you if you kill an enemy when downed, but removes your Quick Revive. Can be done three times per match.
  • Dying Wish – removes Quick Revive, but leaves you with one health when you would otherwise have been killed.
• Minor Augments:
  • Swift Recovery – briefly increases both of your movement speed when you revive an ally.
  • Karmic Return – heals you to full health when you revive an ally.
  • Slow Death – increases your time in last stand.

Without going into too much detail, Quick Revive is a popular perk here at PCGN – some of the team get downed a little bit too often, you see. Whether you’re playing with friends or strangers, there’s always one, and getting as far as possible in waved-based zombies depends on a full team. That’s why we think EMT is the best major Augment choice here, since the other two turn the perk on yourself. A helpful alive ally with all their perks is good to have around, even more so when you pair EMT with Karmic Return.

That said, there is a Field Upgrade that offers the same benefits as EMT later on in this guide. So, if you are heading into battle with Healing Aura and Persistence, go for Equivalent Exchange here instead. We don’t think it’s as valuable until later in the game, unless perhaps you know you’re always that one that gets downed fast, in which case Equivalent Exchange works well with Slow Death.

Elemental Pop

Base effect: firing has a chance to trigger random ammo effects.

• Major Augments:
  • Citrus Focus – forces Elemental Pop to only trigger an existing applied Ammo Mod for a weapon.
  • Imperil Peach – can trigger a random Ammo Mod when an enemy hits you.
  • Electric Cherry – creates an electric damage discharge that damages and stuns nearby enemies. The emptier the mag, the greater the damage.
• Minor Augments:
  • Vulnera Bean – slightly increases enemy elemental weakness damage.
  • Pineapple Blast – grants a chance at triggering a random ammo mod when using equipment.
  • Chill Berry – slightly reduces all Ammo Mod cooldowns.

These are easily the best Augment names, but they’re also pretty good effects, as well. That said, we think Electric Cherry stands out as the best Major Augment. If you do have a favorite Ammo Mod applied though, especially with some of the Ammo Mod Augments further down, you might want to utilize Citrus Focus instead. Perhaps use Cherry in your earlier matches, and move on to Citrus once you’ve perfected your loadouts, especially since Ammo Mods are unlocked by leveling up. We reckon you should pair either with Vulnera Bean for the best results overall.

PHD Flopper

Base effect: grants immunity to self-inflicted explosive damage and dive to prone triggers an explosion.

• Major Augments:
  • Gravity MD – creates an explosions when falling from height.
  • Dr Ram – knocks down and damages basic zombies when rammed with Tactical Sprint.
  • PHD Slider – triggers explosions when sliding into enemies.
• Minor Augments:
  • Environmentalist – makes you immune to environmental damage when sliding.
  • EOD Technician – reduces height and distance requirements for explosions.
  • Tribologist – sliding distance and speed are increased.

Where do we start with this one. Honestly, we struggled to choose a favorite Major Augment here as they’re all so much fun. Once you’ve taken them al out for a spin once though, PHD Slider is the way to go, but Dr Ram is a great choice too. Gravity MD is probably the most difficulty to get any value from. The difficulty with this one is remembering which you have equipped and getting the most from it.

Minors depend heavily on which major you choose, so if you are going for Gravity MD, stick on EOD Technician. Otherwise, Tribologist is our go-to here. It doesn’t directly impact Dr Ram, but is still generally useful.

Melee Macchiato

Base effect: Replaces your weapon gun butt with a deadly punch.

• Major Augments:
  • Espresso – increases the speed of melee attacks.
  • Vampiric Extraction – heals a small amount of your health on melee attacks.
  • Triple Shot – hits multiple enemies at once.
• Minor Augments:
  • Stick ‘N’ Move – increases backpedal speed after a successful melee attack.
  • Strength Training – can one-hit kill normal enemies for longer.
  • Hidden Impact – reloads a portion of your held weapon ammo on a melee kill.

We’re huge fans of melee attacks in Call of Duty, particularly in multiplayer, but we’d go as far as to say Melee Macchiato should be the lowest priority for Augment research. It’s fine, but with some of the other buffs and boosts above, it’s pales in comparison. Once you do get to unlocking and equipping these Augments, though – or if you just love that comical punch – Triple Shot and Strength Training make for a solid combo, while Espresso is a sound alternative.

All Ammo mod Augments

The Augments you can research and unlock for Ammo mods are:

Dead Wire

Base effect: Bullets deal electric damage and have the chance to stun a normal or special enemy, causing them to generate an electric damage field.

• Major Augments:
  • Chain Lightning – can spread the stun effect to other enemies.
  • Big Game – has a chance of stunning elite enemies.
  • Lightning Strike – can trigger a bolt of lightning, stunning all normal nearby and special enemies.
• Minor Augments:
  • High Voltage – slightly increases electric damage dealt.
  • Haste – slightly reduces the cooldown of Dead Wire.
  • Extension – increases the duration of the stun and electric field.

As the Ammo Mod available by default, it’s understandable that you might research this one first. So, while it’s not the best Ammo Mod, it will be useful at early levels. Taking this into account, we recommend Lightning Strike and High Voltage. Used together, you can stun a wider group of zombies, then continue to deal as much electric damage as possible for the duration of the effect.

Napalm Burst

Base effect: Bullets deal fire damage and have a chance to apply a burn effect on normal and special enemies, dealing damage over time.

• Major Augments:
  • Big Game – has a chance of burning elite enemies.
  • Thermite – increases the ongoing damage of the burn effect.
  • Firebomb – causes burned enemies to explode on death, spreading the fire to nearby enemies.
• Minor Augments:
  • Extension – increases the duration of the burn effect.
  • Incendiary – has a chance to spread burning damage to a nearby enemy.
  • Contact Burn – deals more damage on the initial burn effect.

Not only does Napalm Burst look awesome, but unlocking and adding some of the above Augments makes for even more of a spectacle. We’d suggest using Firebomb and Contact Burn, as Contact Burn should result in Firebomb happening slightly faster.

Cryo Freeze

Base effect: Bullets deal frost damage, and have a chance to slow a normal or special enemy and increase the damage they receive.

• Major Augments:
  • Big Game – has a chance of slowing elite enemies.
  • Ice Cloud – can cause a slowing cloud to be left by enemies killed when frozen.
  • Frozen Stiff – freezes enemies in place.
• Minor Augments:
  • Extension – increases the duration of the slowing effect.
  • Freezer Burn – slightly increases damage to frozen enemies.
  • Liquid Nitrogen – significantly increases the chances of Cryo Freeze activating.

Cryo Freeze on its own is one of the better Ammo Mods, but we’re actually not all that moved by the Augments here, except perhaps Liquid Nitrogen, which is the only time we see an Augment increasing the chance to trigger the base effect. If you are running Cryo Freeze it’s worth boosting its effects, so unlock and add Big Game and Liquid Nitrogen here.

Brain Rot

Base effect: Bullets deal toxic damage and can temporarily turn a normal or special enemy into an ally.

• Major Augments:
  • Plague – gives a charmed enemy the chance to turn other enemies.
  • Pheromone – briefly causes a charmed enemy to distract nearby normal and special enemies.
  • Big Game – has a chance of turning elite enemies into allies.
• Minor Augments:
  • Extension – slightly increases the duration of Brain Rot.
  • Haste – slightly reduces the cooldown of Brain Rot
  • Explosive – causes charmed enemies to explode when Brain Rot expires, dealing toxic damage.

Brain Rot has always been one of the best Ammo Mods given the chance to charm an enemy and turn them into an ally. With the Big Game Augment, this effect can eve affect elite enemies, but we still think Pheromone is the best Major Augment here given its guaranteed effect, as opposed to Plague and Big Game only granting a chance at an effect. Add Explosive as a minor to get even more value our of your new friends.

Shadow Rift

Base effect: Bullets deal shadow damage and have the chance to spawn a black hole near a normal or special enemy, warping nearby zombies away or dropping them from the air.

• Major Augments:
  • Big Game – has a chance of spawning a black hole on elite enemies.
  • Topple Ganger – causes one warped enemy to deal shadow damage to others.
  • Explosive Rain – causes dropped enemies to explode on contact.
• Minor Augments:
  • Haste – reduces the cooldown of Shadow Rift.
  • Targeted – causes dropped enemies to fall on other enemies.
  • Supermassive – increases the black hole’s radius and boosts it’s ability to kill enemies.

Shadow Rift is a brand-new Ammo Mod in Call of Duty, and can spawn a black hole near enemies. This sucks enemies in, not only offering a crowd control function that could be incredibly useful in wave-based zombies, but also dropping them from a height, causing additional damage. This is what we’re capitalizing on with Augments, as Explosive Rain is our top pick here, causing those dropped enemies to explode on impact. While Targeted might seem like a good Minor choice here, we’re already affecting nearby enemies with the explosion, so we’re simply going to suggest Haste.

All Field Upgrade Augments

The Augments you can research and unlock for Field Upgrades are:

Energy Mine

Base effect: creates a mine of pure energy that detonates three times, dealing lethal electric damage.

• Major Augments:
  • Scatter – splits the mine into three smaller mines that scatter and each detonate once.
  • Turret – replaces the mine with a turret that shoots at the nearest enemy
  • Carousel – causes three Energy Mines to float around you, detonating when an enemy is nearby.
• Minor Augments:
  • Frequency Boost – increases Energy Mine duration and detonation count.
  • Extra Charge – increases max charges by one.
  • Siren – causes nearby enemies to be distracted by Energy Mine for a short time.

This is a good one. Honestly, it’s tough to call which Augments we’d go for here as they’re all great, but Carousel is a powerful contender, especiall with Frequency Boost as a Minor. That said, we’ve actually chosen Siren as our favorite Minor instead due to its ability to distract enemies, great for when you’re overwhelmed and perhaps about to be downed. Before you’ve researched these, Scatter is also a good option.

Frenzied Guard

Base effect: Repairs armor to full and forces all enemies in the area to temporarily target you – your armor takes all damage during this time.

• Major Augments:
  • Phalanx – also repairs teammates armor when they kill enemies near you.
  • Retribution – triggers an explosion on activation, injures and downs enemies who melee the player within the duration.
  • Frenzy Fire – uses ammo from stock while frenzied.
• Minor Augments:
  • Repair Boost – repairs more armor per kill.
  • Extension – increases the duration of Frenzied Guard.
  • Rally – repairs all nearby teammates’ armor to full on activation.

There are a few different ways to use Frenzied Guard with Augments depending on whether you want to focus on yourself or your teammates. That said, this shouldn’t really be your top Field Upgrade pick unless you’re confident in your own skills to protect your team.

In that case, pop on Retribution and Rally for possibly one of the best Field Upgrades in the mode. If one or more of your teammates are struggling, head towards them and trigger Frenzied Guard – all of your armor is then repaired to full, while you give your teammates a small breather to recover as enemies are focused on you. While they are, you have Retribution on your side. You’ll be the MVP of any match.

Dark Flare

Base effect: generates an energy beam that deals lethal shadow damage and penetrates everything in its path.

• Major Augments:
  • Extension – increases the duration of Dark Flare.
  • Supernova – releases a traveling sphere instead of a beam that damages all enemies it comes into contact with and detonates at the end of the duration.
  • Dark Pact – heals and revives allies on contact with the beam.
• Minor Augments:
  • Broad Beam –  significantly increases the size of the beam.
  • Heavy Shadow – slows enemies on contact with the beam.
  • Extra Charge – increases max charges by one.

This is what we’re talking about. There are so many good Field Upgrade and Augment choices here, but this one just screams Zombies mode. Why? Trains, that’s why.

An all-timer Zombies mode move is to get a train of zombies to trail behind you by just running around the map. This means most enemies are all in one place and you can save on ammo without being attacked from all sides. At this point, letting out a Dark Flare is going to decimate countless undead foes, even without Augments. For superb value, chuck on simple Augments Extension and Broad Beam.

Healing Aura

Base effect: immediately heals all nearby players.

• Major Augments:
  • Resilience – temporarily reduces health regen delay and increases rate of healing of all affected players.
  • Enduring Radiance – healing effects persist for a short time after leaving the area of effect.
  • Persistence – allows revived players to keep all Perks on their bleed-out bar.
• Minor Augments:
  • Inner Strength – slightly increases the damage dealt by affected players for a short time.
  • Protection – somewhat mitigates damage dealt to healed players for a short time.
  • Stoic Presence – nearby special and elite enemies are stunned and normal enemies are knocked down when Healing Aura is activated.

Like Quick Revive, Healing Aura is a great Field Upgrade to have equipped if you want to keep your team going for longer – especially during those tougher waves. That said, given the fact that you can only have one Field Upgrade equipped but you can buy all Perk-A-Colas with enough Essence, we’d pick one of the other Field Upgrades for our loadout.

Nevertheless, if you love Healing Aura or are heading into the belly of the beast with a less-than-skilled team, Healing Aura with Persistence and Inner Strength is a good combo. If you use this, we recommend popping the Equivalent Exchange Augment on Quick Revive.

Your best bet, though, is keeping EMT on Quick Revive and using Resilience and Stoic Presence here, when you and your team are in a tough spot, heal everyone, including downed teammates, and stun nearby enemies in one fell swoop. Still, our suggestion for Frenzied Guard is probably a better choice.

Aether Shroud

Base effect: temporarily hides you from enemy detection as you phase into the Dark Aether.

• Major Augments:
  • Group Shroud – also cloaks nearby allies.
  • Burst Dash – warps you forward a short distance, killing all enemies in your path.
  • Void Sheath – swaps your held weapon to your chosen melee weapon imbued with Dark Aether energy. Kills with the weapon keep you shrouded for longer.
• Minor Augments:
  • Instant Reload – instantly reloads your held weapon on activation.
  • Extra Charge – increases max charges by one.
  • Extension – increases the duration of invisibility.

Dark Shroud is a great choice for getting you out of the way of large hordes of enemies when you’re being overwhelmed, but we don’t think it’s going to hold off the hordes for long enough to be more worthwhile than other Field Upgrades. If you’re playing with friends, however, having one person on the team with Aether Shroud and Group Shroud could come in clutch. Instant Reload is easily the best choice for a Minor Augment here.

That’s a lot of information to get to grips with but, trust us, familiarizing yourself with these Black Ops 6 Zombies Augments is worthwhile. They are set to be a game-changing addition to your best BO6 loadouts in Zombies mode, and you can always jump back up to our recap of the best of the best for a refresher. While we’re talking about the zombie game mode, though, make sure you also check out all the BO6 Wonder Weapons this time around.