Call of Duty: Hardest Zombies Maps

With well over 30 maps and 16 years in the Call of Duty Zombies saga, there have been some that have exceeded expectations in terms of difficulty and provided players with a hard time. While most COD Zombies maps can be considered thrilling and fun, there are others that provide a badge of honor for those brave enough to experience them and try to reach high rounds.

Call of Duty Zombies is infamous for its ranging difficulties across a multitude of maps, whether it’s some of the best or the most controversial. With so many COD Zombies maps to choose from, it’s time to look at those of which are the hardest to endure and survive on.

10 Call of the Dead

A Chilling Map Where George Romero Endlessly Hunts

• Featured in: Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call of the Dead is one of the best maps of all time when it comes to COD Zombies and produced something wholly original with its Siberian outpost design. Call of the Dead does excel in difficulty, both with its choice of Wonder Weapons with the somewhat underwhelming VR-11, and the powerhouse Scavenger. Yet, the weapon choices aren’t where Call of the Dead gets truly difficult.

Navigating Call of the Dead is fun but challenging with the ice waters that can slow and freeze players, but the biggest battle of all comes from the roaming mini-boss zombie of George A. Romero, who will constantly follow players at a slow pace unless shot at, to which he will sprint and deal immense damage until he is cooled off in the water. George’s function in Call of the Dead makes it so players cannot camp, and they constantly have to stay moving and be careful not to shoot him.

9 Zetsubou No Shima

A Scary Swamp Holds Overwhelming Mechanics and Thrashers Galore

• Featured in: Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

Zetsubou No Shima comes hot off the heels of Der Eisendrache, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. It’s a map that stands on its own as a terrifying Division 9 map with experiments on spiders and nature itself to produce some chilling mini-boss enemies with the Thrashers. Thrashers are hulking plant-like monsters that can only be damaged through their glowing spores, and they can easily overwhelm players with their speed and ferocious attack.

Zetsubou also had a tad tough design when it comes to mechanics, as those unfamiliar with how the power works, how each special buildable works, and what to do with water buckets and seeds, might have a difficult time ahead. It’s a fun map, but definitely a challenging on in terms of map design and enemy variety.

8 Verruckt

An Extremely Claustrophobic Map With Terrifying Super Sprinters

• Featured in: Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

The first DLC map to ever grace the COD Zombies franchise was Verruckt, and it was certainly a terrifying doozy. Taking place in an abandoned German asylum, it was clear that this was going to be a haunting map for a few reasons. First and foremost when it comes to a difficult COD Zombies map is the layout, and Verruckt definitely forms a trend with a harsh layout due to its claustrophobic rooms and corners.

Verruckt may have some things going for it, like the introduction of the core crutch Perk-a-Colas, but its still a tough map for anyone, especially with its debut of super sprinter zombies and the tight design of the map that makes for a challenge when it comes to confidently training zombies.

7 Shangri-La

Another Tight Map Where Traps, Corridors, and Special Zombies Add Fright

• Featured in: Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

Shangri-La definitely has a stellar atmosphere as players enter deep into a jungle utopia that may or may not be on Mars. Shangri-La adds some exciting new features to the game, continuing the early trend from Black Ops of adding something new with each map. This time, the features are in abundance, with one of them being thieving undead monkeys that will try to steal Power-Ups.

Other features like the special banshee and napalm zombies will add further variety in how players try to survive, but what truly makes this map a challenge is how co-op is needed to turn on the Pack-a-Punch machine, and how most spots on the map aren’t training friendly, and instead players will need to try and find optimal routes to run through to stay alive.

6 Die Rise

A High-Rise Building Where Verticality Makes for An Easy Demise

• Featured in: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

One of the most infamous maps in COD Zombies history is Die Rise, the first DLC map for Black Ops 2 that didn’t exactly excite players like the older maps once did. Die Rise has some interesting concepts, but their execution proves they are too difficult. Die Rise features verticality as a mechanic in which players must rise through elevation, and many corridors may lead to them falling to their death.

It’s a map perfect for PhD Flopper, but the Perk never returns for it. A bundle of zombies, armored zombies, and jumping jack Nova-Six Crawlers makes for a difficult time, and as players try to navigate through the unwinding corridors and staircases of this fractured high-rise building, they will have a tough run to high rounds.

5 Five

The Tight Inner Workings of the Pentagon Holds a Gun Thief

• Featured in: Call of Duty: Black Ops

Taking to the interior of the secret Pentagon makes for an exciting atmosphere, especially when playing real-life politicians like Fidel Castro, John F. Kennedy, and Richard Nixon. However, Five isn’t just a blast from the past, but a dangerous journey through underground laboratories and a battle across the Pentagon that will have players entering Defcon 5.

Five is intense, and most of the room’s features are tightly spaced so there’s not much room to train zombies. Players must always be on the move, and the unpredictable nature of the teleporters and the Pentagon Thief that chases and steals weapons on special rounds makes for a scary map with plenty of challenges.

4 Alpha Omega

A Tightly Woven Map With Frustrating Nova-Six Crawlers

• Featured in: Call of Duty: Black Ops 4

Alpha Omega might have come as a bit of a disappointment to fans of Black Ops 4 since it was essentially Nuketown Zombies from Black Ops 2 but with a PS4/Xbox One coat of paint. Alpha Omega did feature new areas in Nuketown for the crews of Ultimis and Primis to explore, but it still had its fair share of difficulties that ranged outside of what’s familiar and what’s different.

Alpha Omega has tight spaces woven between the suburban houses and the gardens of each zone. The underground base is also extremely tight and hard to run through, and the addition of experimental Nova-Six Crawlers can make the map even more challenging with how they can buff zombies and electrocute players – and to top it all off, continuing to manage valves to keep Pack-a-Punch active is a tad tough.

3 Revelations

An Extremely Large Map With Many, Many Mechanics

• Featured in: Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

Revelations is the finale of Black Ops 3, and it definitely feels as such. It’s a celebration of Call of Duty Zombies, from World at War to Black Ops 3. As a montage of COD Zombies’ best moments, Revelations places the most famed locations of every map into a cluster in space, where players have such free range on where to go and where to train. However, that saving grace can also be a burden.

With such a large map and so many areas to navigate to, if another player goes down, they may never be revived due to how far away and spread out the team is. On top of locations, Revelations is certainly not beginner-friendly, and so many steps for powerful weapons, the main quest, and the new helmet system require a vast knowledge of the map to progress.

2 TranZit

A Map Over Reliant on a Bus System and Buildables

• Featured in: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

TranZit is easily regarded as one of the most polarizing COD Zombies maps, but it’s also one with a clear intention – one that might not have translated well on the old systems of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 due to hardware limitations. Regardless, TranZit still remains a difficult and frustrating experience, especially when one considers the traversal system that requires the use of T.E.D.D.’s bus.

The bus feels slow and is vital to navigate through the fog. Except, the bus won’t wait around, and if players miss it, they will have to hold out and survive until it returns. Venturing through the fog is a death wish, as Denezens will jump on players’ heads and lava will block their paths. There’s also the case of buildable turbines that are required for manual power activation.

1 Nacht der Untoten

A Tiny Map With No Perks or Pack-a-Punch

• Featured in: Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

The first COD Zombies map to ever be released is arguably the hardest for what it features. Across all the games that have added Nacht der Untoten, it holds strong as one of the hardest maps for a few reasons. When entering Nacht der Untoten, players will have to survive with no Perks and no Pack-a-Punch machine to allow their weapons to truly provide the power high-round zombies need. (Unless players use GobbleGums on Black Ops 3).

Nacht der Untoten is limited in terms of space and weapons, so players in a squad aren’t going to be able to survive for too long considering there aren’t enough training spots to go around, and those that are available require specific doors kept shut, and the patience to kill zombies with an entire weapon’s magazine supply thanks to the lack of increased firepower from Pack-a-Punch and Double Tap.