Call of Duty: Black Ops III

This trophy is for completing the Origins Easter Egg. It is one of the longest EEs to complete, as there are a lot of steps. It also takes about 1 hour just to prepare for the first main step alone! It is very tough to do solo, but I find having 2 or 3 players is the most optimal.

Glitch Warning: Some people are experiencing a glitch where you cannot pick up a staff and use it for the Easter Egg. There is no known cause for the glitch and no way to fix it, but some people have reported that only using a single staff and not letting others use it can help prevent the glitch from happening.

For this EE, I will list the steps as they are called in-game, so all the steps that take place before the “official” Step 1 will be listed under Step 0.

Step 0: Build all 4 staffs + Get the Fist power + Build the Maxis Drone + Get the Gramophone + Get the Airstrike Grenades + Activate all generators. Also build the Zombie Shield (optional but highly recommended).

This is the main setup for the actual EE and is one of the longest steps to complete.

Most of the setup can be done simultaneously; For instance, you can work on obtaining the Fist and work on getting the staffs obtained at the same time (As well as upgrading them, as Step 1 is to have them all upgraded).

See Overachiever for the locations of the generators and chests to fill for the Fist power. Also note that completing the first generator in co-op rewards you with a Zombie Blood powerup, make sure you save this! It will be needed for Step 5!


Zombie Shield

The Zombie Shield is a necessity in my opinion, as it gives you lots of protection from attacks from behind.

Here are the locations of the parts:

1. • Generator 3 Area, behind a crate under the generator.
   • Path leading to Generator 3 from Spawn, on a shelf on the right as you enter the area.
   • Path leading to Generator 3 from Spawn, in a dead end right before the Generator 3 area.
2. • Path leading to Generator 2 from Spawn, on a shelf on the right.
   • Generator 2 Area, on top of the Tank Station where the robot steps.
   • Generator 2 Area, in the back right corner of the trench.
3. • No Man’s Land, in the footprint near Juggernog.
   • No Man’s Land, in the footprint near the Excavation site where you drop down from the top.
   • No Man’s Land, in the footprint on the other side of the Excavation site.

I advise building the Shield in the tunnel near Juggernog, also known as the Wind Tunnel.


Maxis Drone

You will not actually need the Maxis Drone until Step 4, but it’s easy to build anyways.

Here are the part locations:

1. • In the spawn room on the desk in front of you.
2. • On top of the Excavation Site, in one of the corners near the PaP machine.
   • Inside the Excavation Site, on one of the wooden platforms near the very bottom (Requires the Gramophone to be placed first).
3. • From the Church, follow the tank path towards Juggernog, the part will be on the left near a sign about halfway there.
   • From the Church, follow the tank path towards Stamin-Up, it will be on the right about halfway there.
   • Inside the Ice Tunnel.

I advise building the Drone inside the Church on the lower floor.


Airstrike Grenades

The Airstrike Grenades are not needed until Step 3, and I do not recommend going for them until you have the Fist power and the staffs upgraded, but here is how to get them:

1. Go to the Tank Station (Generator 2), and enter the bunker. On the back of the room, there is a table with 4 tablets, featuring a picture of a fist on each. Pick any up with .
2. Next, head to the Church. On the upper floor there is a white fountain where you can place your tablet with .
3. Now get around 20 melee kills on zombies while they are near the fountain. You can use the Zombie Shield, but it’s better to wait until you have the Fist power. When it’s done, the tablet will be clean and you can pick it up with .
4. Take the tablet to the Tank Station where you picked it up. You cannot get it dirty (by standing on mud), or else Samantha will yell “Start Over” and you’ll have to place the tablet in the fountain again. To get back, just follow the wooden planks back to the footprint, and then go clockwise around the Excavation Site (or above through it, doesn’t matter). Then forward through the bunker and back outside into the Tank Station. Place it where you picked it up with .
5. Now kill another 20 or so zombies with melee in the Tank Station, and you’ll see the grenades appear on the table where you placed the tablet. Pick them up with .

Finally, the most important part, getting the Gramophone and the staffs!

Gramophone

The Gramophone has 2 parts; a CD and the gramophone itself.
The CD is located in 3 possible spots:

• On top of the Excavation Site, in a wheelbarrow.
• On the side of the path leading up to the Excavation Site from the Bunker, hidden next to a radiator or something like that.
• On the opposite side of the Excavation Site, on a box near the blockage leading to the Church.

As for the Gramophone, it’s very easy to find:

• On top of the Excavation Site near the PaP machine.
• Inside the Excavation Site, on the side of a workbench where you will place the Gramophone.

Once you have both parts, place the Gramophone on the bench, and it will open a hidden area down below. This new area is needed for building the staffs as well as upgrading them too.

Make sure you pick up the Gramophone when you’re done using it! You’ll need it for the staffs as well.


As for the staffs, there are 4 of them. You have to find three pieces of each staff, plus the corresponding CD for it.

Wind Staff:

• CD:
  • Inside the Lightning Tunnel.
  • Next to Stamin-Up on the ledge.
  • On the ledge opposite Stamin-Up.
• Parts:
  1. Inside the rightmost robot (Patrols Generators 2 and 3, shoot the glowing foot open and get stomped to get inside).
  2. Inside the middle robot (Patrols No Man’s Land).
  3. Inside the leftmost robot (Patrols the Church area).

Once you have the CD and all 3 parts, head into the Wind Tunnel (near Juggernog) and use the Gramophone to get into the Crazy Place. Grab the Wind element from the pedestal, then exit and build the staff inside the Excavation Site at the bottom.

Lightning Staff:

• CD:
  • On a table near Juggernog.
  • On a wagon between Juggernog and the Excavation Site.
  • Inside the Wind Tunnel.
• Parts:
  1. Ride the tank from the Church towards the Tank Station. About halfway there, you’ll notice a raised ledge on the right, jump from the tank to this spot and follow the path to the first part. Note that the robot CAN crush you if it’s there so look up just in case.
  2. Take the tank from the Tank Station back to the Church. Right before the Excavation Site, you’ll see a raised ledge on the left. Jump onto this path and you’ll get the next part.
  3. Take the tank from the Tank Station to the Church. Right before the tank finishes its journey, you’ll see a small path on the right that leads around the church. Jump over there and follow the path for the final part.

Once you have the CD and all 3 parts, head into the Lightning Tunnel (near Stamin-Up) and use the Gramophone to get into the Crazy Place. Grab the Lightning element from the pedestal, then exit and build the staff inside the Excavation Site at the bottom.

Ice Staff: (You will need a Shovel for this staff, but don’t dig up any dig spots yet!)

• CD:
  • Inside the Tank Station. It will spawn on one of 3 possible shelves inside the station.
• Parts (All parts can only be obtained if it’s SNOWING):
  1. Dig all the dig spots between Generators 2 and 3. It will spawn randomly in one of those.
  2. Dig all the dig spots in No Man’s Land. It will spawn randomly in one of those.
  3. Dig all the dig spots in the Church area. It will spawn randomly in one of those.

Once you have the CD and all 3 parts, head into the Ice Tunnel (between the Church and Generator 6) and use the Gramophone to get into the Crazy Place. Grab the Ice element from the pedestal, then exit and build the staff inside the Excavation Site at the bottom.

Fire Staff:

• CD:
  • Inside the Church, hidden on a box near the Tank.
  • Inside the Church upper floor, on a pew.
  • Near Generator 6 on a box.
• Parts:
  1. Activate all generators and it will spawn in the chest by Generator 6.
  2. After round 3, a plane will fly above with a red aura around it, shoot it with any bullet weapon and the part will land near the Excavation Site.
  3. Kill the first Panzer that spawns around rounds 6-8 and he will drop it.

Once you have the CD and all 3 parts, head into the Fire Tunnel (between Spawn and Generator 3) and use the Gramophone to get into the Crazy Place. Grab the Fire element from the pedestal, then exit and build the staff inside the Excavation Site at the bottom.

Congrats, the setup is finally complete! Finally we can begin the Easter Egg!

Step 1: Secure the Keys.

For this step, you need to upgrade all the staffs to their ultimate forms. You can work on this step the moment you build any staff, and I highly recommend doing so because the staffs are extremely powerful. It also saves time to power them up while doing everything else beforehand so that you don’t have to be on a very high round before continuing.

There are 4 steps for each staff:
The first one always involves some type of puzzle/objective in the Crazy Place; The second involves a puzzle in the main map; The third step involves organizing coloured rings in the Excavation Site; The final step is to kill zombies around the staff to power it up in the Crazy Place.

A small note is that the Fire staff’s first step involves killing zombies in the Crazy Place, so to save time I recommend doing that step AFTER placing the other three staffs down there for their final steps. This way all the kills you get for the Fire puzzle will also power up the other three staffs, killing 2 birds with 1 stone!

Here are the steps to upgrade each staff:

Wind Staff

1. Go to the Crazy Place and look up at the ceiling above the Wind exit.
   
   You’ll see some symbols on the roof, you must shoot them with the Wind Staff to rotate them to look like this image (From CallofDuty Wikia)
   
   To tell the angle, this image is taken with the exit portal directly below the bottom set of numbers. In other words, if your back is to the centre of the area and you look up, it should look like this.
   
   If done correctly, the rings will spin and a sound will be made.
2. Exit the Wind Tunnel, and go clockwise behind the tunnel towards Juggernog. You’ll see a circular object spewing black smoke. Shoot it with the Wind Staff to make the smoke go towards the Excavation Site.
   Now head to the Church, and follow the tank path leading to Stamin-Up. You’ll see another smokestack on the right, shoot this as well to make the smoke travel to the Site.
   Finally, head to Stamin-Up and look towards the Excavation Site, you’ll see 1 more smokestack. Shoot this one and you should see a blue beam come down from the sky into the Excavation Site, this finishes the step.
3. Head inside the Excavation Site and down to the bottom. Along the outer edges of the area and below you are 4 switches that you can press on. They rotate the rings in the middle to change the colours on them. Your goal is to change all 4 to Yellow, then shoot the glowing orb below it to finish this step.
4. Head to the Crazy Place and place the staff inside the pedestal. Then kill around 20 zombies near it to power it up to become ultimate!

Lightning Staff

1. Go to the Crazy Place and look at the wall behind the Lightning exit. You’ll see a bunch of triangles on the wall. They are organized just like the keys on a piano, see the image below: (From CallofDuty Wikia):
   
   Look to the left, you’ll see 3 sets of musical notes. What you need to do is shoot the corresponding “notes” on the wall behind the exit using the Lightning Staff.
   The notes to shoot are in this order:
   • A C E
   • E G B
   • F A D
   Once done, you’ll hear a sound effect and you can exit the Crazy Place.
2. Exit via the Lightning Tunnel, and head to where Stamin-Up is. You’ll see an electrical box that has yellow sparks coming out of the knob near the bottom. What you need to do is press on the knob until the sparks stop. This step is a lot harder to tell compared to the PS3 version, as the visual enhancements to the map have made it harder to detect if you did it right.
   Once you turn off the first box, there are 6 more that you have to turn off, and they must be done in this order:
   1. The one near Stamin-Up (You just did this one).
   2. In the Church lower floor behind the Tank and stairway.
   3. In the Church upper floor, near the mystery box location.
   4. Between Juggernog and the Wind Tunnel.
   5. In Spawn, between the room you start in and the Generator.
   6. Tank Station, near the back exit.
   7. There are 2 possible electric boxes for the final one, and it is random which one you get:
      • On the top floor of the Bunker, right by the entrance to No Man’s Land.
      • By the far end of the Excavation Site, near the path that leads to the Church area.
   
   Once the final one is turned off, you should see a blue beam come down from the sky into the Excavation Site, this finishes the step.
3. Head inside the Excavation Site and down to the bottom. Along the outer edges of the area and below you are 4 switches that you can press on. They rotate the rings in the middle to change the colours on them. Your goal is to change all 4 to Purple, then shoot the glowing orb below it to finish this step.
4. Head to the Crazy Place and place the staff inside the pedestal. Then kill around 20 zombies near it to power it up to become ultimate!

Ice Staff

1. Go to the Crazy Place and look at the ceiling above the Ice exit. You’ll see a set of tablets with different icons on them. If you look to the right, you’ll see a randomized Ternary symbol (looks like circles), your goal is to use the Ice Staff to shoot the corresponding Cuneiform symbol on the roof.
   Use this image below to see which Ternary symbols correspond to which Cuneiform symbol (Taken from DudeinDistress’s Origins guide, but originally from talloby from the Activision forums):
   
   This image will also be needed for the Fire Staff later.
   
   Once done, you’ll hear a sound effect and you can exit the Crazy Place.
2. Exit via any tunnel (I prefer the Fire one for this step though), and head to the Tank Station. What you need to do is find 3 gravestones around the map, shoot them with the Ice Staff to freeze them, then use a bullet gun to destroy them.
   Here are the locations:
   • On the tank path behind the Tank Station, the gravestone is located near the dead robot on the left.
   • In the giant footprint behind Juggernog, it’s right near the edge in plain sight.
   • In the giant footprint between Juggernog and the Excavation Site, leaning against the hill that the Site stands on.
   
   Once the final one is shot, you should see a blue beam come down from the sky into the Excavation Site, this finishes the step.
3. Head inside the Excavation Site and down to the bottom. Along the outer edges of the area and below you are 4 switches that you can press on. They rotate the rings in the middle to change the colours on them. Your goal is to change all 4 to Blue, then shoot the glowing orb below it to finish this step.
4. Head to the Crazy Place and place the staff inside the pedestal. Then kill around 20 zombies near it to power it up to become ultimate!

Fire Staff

Before doing this staff, it is highly recommended that you have the other 3 staffs done up to the final step where you place them for the final kills.

1. Go to the Crazy Place and stand near the Fire area. You’ll see 4 stone buckets near you, and a fiery furnace below you. What you need to do is kill lots of zombies with the Fire Staff while they are standing on the furnace grating. Every 10 or so kills, you’ll see the stone baskets start to have fire inside them (the kills will also be powering up the other staffs at the same time too!).
   
   Once all 4 baskets are filled, you’ll hear a sound effect and you can exit the Crazy Place.
2. Exit via any tunnel (I prefer the Ice one for this step though), and head to the Church. What you need to do is go to the upper floor and look at the wall behind the pews. Up high you will see 4 different symbols lit up by the fire that you created in the Crazy Place the previous step.
   
   Use the image in the Ice Staff section to find out what numbers they correspond to (in the order from left to right), then head downstairs to where the tank is.
   You’ll see some torches that have numbers listed underneath them (except for the number “4” which has a bloodstain under the torch instead). You need to shoot the correct torches, with the staff, in order using the numbers from the floor above.
   
   Once the final one is shot, you should see a blue beam come down from the sky into the Excavation Site, this finishes the step.
3. Head inside the Excavation Site and down to the bottom. Along the outer edges of the area and below you are 4 switches that you can press on. They rotate the rings in the middle to change the colours on them. Your goal is to change all 4 to Red, then shoot the glowing orb below it to finish this step.
4. Head to the Crazy Place and place the staff inside the pedestal. Then kill around 20 zombies near it to power it up to become ultimate!

Once you have created all 4 Ultimate Staffs, you are ready for the next step! Also note that all generators must be active to begin the next step.

Step 2: Ascend From Darkness.

From now on the steps are relatively fast and easy, all the long stuff is done!

Now that you have all the Ultimate Staffs and have the generators all on, a new pedestal will appear at the bottom of the Excavation Site as well as pedestals appearing inside each of the giant robots. You need to place the correct staff in each pedestal to finish this step. Note that you will not be able to pick up your staff again until this step is done. If you're familar with the glitch often used in the PS3 version, it no longer works.

Here are the locations to place each staff:

• Fire – Goes in the pedestal at the bottom of the Excavation Site.
• Ice – Goes into the robot Freya, which patrols the Church.
• Wind – Goes into the robot Odin, which patrols No Man’s Land.
• Lightning – Goes into the robot Thor, which patrols the Spawn area (Generators 2 and 3).

Once all 4 staffs are placed, the pedestals will disappear and you can reclaim your staff from the bottom of the Excavation Site. Samantha will say a few words to tell you that you did it right as well.

Step 3: Rain Fire.

This step is very difficult solo, but is still possible. In co-op it’s pretty easy though. All 3 robots will patrol simultaneously until this step is done.

The person that obtained the Airstrike Grenades will need to stay near Stamin-Up, and look outside the map towards the right hand side. They should see what looks like a large white concrete square about the length of a grenade throw away from you. They will need to throw the Airstrike Grenade there shortly, but not just yet!

The other players will need to get inside one of the robots, but the tricky thing is that even though all 3 robots are patrolling, only one foot will be glowing.

Once someone manages to get inside a robot, there will be a red button on the desk that they can press. They must coordinate with the one using the Airstrike Grenades by pressing the button, then having the other player throw their grenade onto the white concrete at about the same time. It’s about a 10 second window I believe.

If done correctly, a bunch of lasers will fall from the sky and break open the concrete floor, ending this step. If you missed the concrete, you’ll hear demonic laughter and will have to try again.

If you used up all the Airstrike Grenades before this point, you’ll either need to repeat the tablet steps to get another set (not worth it), or have someone that did all the generators spawn their Max Ammo for you. Or wait until a zombie drops one for you.

Step 4: Unleash the Horde.

This step can be hard, but is made really easy using the Fire Staff. Whoever has the Maxis Drone needs to launch it towards the hole you blew open from the previous step.

It will fly into the hole, which then spawns a LOT of Panzer enemies. You just need to kill all of them. 1 charged shot with the Fire Staff is usually enough to take out most of them, but just keeping killing them until they stop spawning. The game supposedly spawns more Panzers depending on how many players there are. But I only did this EE with just two players, so it spawned 6 of them after us.

Once all the Panzers are dead, this step is done.

Step 5: Skewer the Winged Beast.

Note that this step was glitched in the PS3 version where you could kill a zombie without Zombie Blood and ruin the EE run. It has come to my attention that the glitch can still happen as well as the plane not spawning in general. The game will have to be restarted if this happens.

This step can be a pain. What you need to do is obtain a Zombie Blood powerup then look up at the sky. You will see a plane flying around with an orange/red aura around it, and you need to shoot it down with a PaP weapon while using Zombie Blood.

After that is done, the pilot will land and run clockwise around the Excavation Site, and you need to kill that one using Zombie Blood as well. It’s easiest to run counterclockwise around the site, so that you meet up with the zombie during his route.
If done correctly, he will drop the Maxis Drone when killed and that ends this step.

There should be a Zombie Blood in the chest at the Spawn if you left it there from before when you first did the generator at the start. You can use this to shoot down the plane, but probably won’t have enough time to also get the pilot with it.

You can also spawn in a Zombie Blood using the Ice Staff on any round when it’s not raining. You need to run around No Man’s Land and shoot 3 wagons that are on fire (One by Juggernog, another between Stamin-Up and the Site, and one by the MP40 wall buy). Once all 3 are shot, a Zombie Blood spawns by the PaP machine. Use this to do the step if need be.

A last resort is to dig up every dig spot around the map, there’s a small chance you can dig up a Zombie Blood to use as well.

Once you pick up the Maxis Drone the step is complete (make sure you also grab it from where you built it as well).

Step 6: Wield the Fist of Iron.

This step is pretty easy. Each player will need to go down into the Excavation Site to the very bottom. While down below, some Templar zombies will spawn with their arms glowing white. Each player will need to get around 20 melee kills on them with the Fist power.

Once a player reaches the amount, a tablet will appear in midair. Once collected the screen will flash white and the Fist will be powered up.

Repeat until all players have powered up.

It may be easier to do the melee kills separate, like have 1 player run a train of zombies around the map so that the ones doing the melee doesn’t get surrounded and killed.

Step 7: Raise Hell.

The final step! But there’s also the optional cutscene/step at the end, but it’s not needed for the trophy…

Every staff has to be placed back in their pedestals in the Crazy Place. Then you just need to get around 100 kills in the Crazy Place using any guns/melee/grenades to finish the EE!

Before you go about killing everything, make sure you place the staffs, then use the mystery box to get any weapons you’d like to use for the final fight! Get as many perks as you can, spend all your money if you’re going for the challenges as well, and make sure everyone has at least 1 PaP gun. Better to be over-prepared than underprepared!

It’s a pretty easy step I find, but can be annoying if you’re running around and have the walls fall down and block you from escaping. It’s easiest to just stay in one of the entry points instead of running the interior.

Once you have everything ready, go ahead and start killing! Make sure that you see the souls flying into the centre of the area to know that the kills are counting (Just in case someone may not have gotten their fist power without knowing).

Once you have got the 100 kills, the screen will flash white and the trophy will pop for all players!!

Note there is 1 more step if you want to see a neat cutscene:

Step 8: Freedom!

Simply let the Maxis Drone out while in the Crazy Place. He will fly into the portal in the middle.
Now stand in the middle and hold to watch the final cutscene and end the game! Note that the game will end after the cutscene, so if you don't want to lose any Gobblegums make sure you quit to XMB before it ends!