Ascension

"The risen dead have overtaken a Soviet Cosmodrome and all Hell has broken loose. The countdown to the zombie apocalypse has begun."

- Ascension level description

Ascension is the eighth Zombie map that appears in the Call of Duty series, part of the First Strike Map Pack, which was released on February 1, 2011 for Call of Duty Black Ops on the Xbox 360, March 3 on the PS3, and PC on March 25, 2011 for $14.99 but a release date has not been announced for the Wii. It takes place in an abandoned Soviet Cosmodrome. The map features Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, Takeo Masaki, and Edward Richtofen as playable characters and includes new Special Grenades, the Gersch Device and Matryoshka Dolls (replacing the Monkey Bombs), as well as new perks such as PhD Flopper and Stamin-Up (replacing Double Tap Root Beer). A new enemy, called Space monkeys, also appear in this map, replacing the Hellhounds or Pentagon Thief (in the case of "Five"). A new power-up, Random Perk Bottle is also available.

Off-Wall Weapons

 * M14 - Centrifuge Floor 1
 * Olympia - Centrifuge Floor 2
 * MPL- Stairway under the Jugger-Nog machine
 * PM63 - Stair way next to Jugger-Nog
 * MP5K - Lunar Lander D, left of the door to the courtyard
 * AK-74u - Outside Lunar Lander F in between a fire trap and Stamin-Up machine
 * Stakeout - downstairs from the Power Room
 * M16 - Lunar Lander B, by the Speed Cola machine
 * Claymore - in between Lunar Lander C and the Stamin-Up
 * Sickle (Replaces regular Knife and can be used with the ballistic knife) - Lunar Lander B
 * Grenades - Lunar lander D

Mystery Box Weapons

 * Dragunov
 * CZ75 (single or Dual Wield)
 * Python
 * Commando
 * SPAS-12
 * AUG (Swarovski Scope)
 * FAMAS
 * Galil
 * L96A1
 * China Lake
 * Ballistic Knife
 * Crossbow
 * Spectre
 * G11 (Low Power Scope)
 * FN FAL
 * HK21
 * HS10
 * RPK
 * M72 LAW
 * Ray Gun
 * Thundergun
 * Matryoshka Doll
 * Gersch Device

Power-Up Weapons

 * Death Machine
 * Grim Reaper (PC codes only)

Doors

 * Centrifuge Floor 1 - Door (750)
 * Centrifuge Floor 2 - Door (750)
 * Stairwell Floor 3 / Base Level - Door (1250)
 * Lunar Lander B [ Б ] Access Door (1250)
 * Lunar Lander D [ Д ] Access Gate (1250)
 * Lunar Lander F [ Ф ] Access Door (1250)
 * Pack-A-Punch Access Gate (1250)
 * Power Room Door (1000)
 * Power Room Gate (1250)
 * Pack-a-Punch Machine room
 * To gain entry to the Pack-a-Punch Machine, all lunar landers' landing pads must be used. Once a player has ridden all three back to the Centrifuge Room, the player can activate the rocket by pressing the button to the right of the power switch. After the rocket has taken off, the large door concealing the launch area will open and the Pack-a-Punch Machine will be to the right. It costs 5000 points as usual. Unlike Kino der Toten, players can stay in the Pack-a-Punch room for as long as they like. There are two barricades in here to make camping harder. Also, if you shoot at the rocket with the Thundergun and the Ray Gun you can blow it up and a double points power up will temporarily appear under its launch pad.

New Perks
Ascension features two new perks, both costing 2000 points. However, Double Tap Root Beer does not make an appearance. Each player can only have four perks at a time, with the exception of already having four and obtaining the bottle power up to obtain five perks at once. Therefore it is possible to obtain all five perks as viewed here.


 * PhD Flopper; located outside near the Lunar Lander launch pad that has the Fragmentation Grenades. This perk makes the player drop a small 'nuke' when diving to prone (almost anything above flat ground). The 'nuke' will only take effect if the dive-to-prone would normally hurt the player. In addition, landing directly on top of a zombie seems to neutralize the effect of the 'nuke'.The 'nuke' kills all nearby zombies. In addition, the player absorbs any explosive damage done to the player, including Ray Gun's splash damage, damage when a launcher is shot too close (such as the M72 LAW, or the China Lake), fragmentation grenades, and Matryoshka Dolls. The player can still take explosive damage after a space monkey tosses back a grenade.


 * Stamin-Up; located near the AK-74u, towards another Lunar Lander launch pad. This perk gives the player increased movement speed and sprint duration, similar to both Marathon and Lightweight. Since Ascension is a rather large map, it is more useful than one might think, especially during Space Monkey rounds where a player may have to get to a Perk-a-Cola machine that is being attacked.

Radios
See main page: Ascension/Radios

Kassimir Mechanism
The man speaking at the beginning is Gersch and is actually giving the players a mission to complete the node puzzle to repair the Kassimir Mechanism. Once the mechanism is repaired, the players will each get a Death Machine that lasts for 90 seconds.

Easter Eggs

 * Three teddy bears holding sickles are located around the map, "using" them all causes a song called "Abracadavre " by Elena Siegman to play. The locations of the teddy bears are:
 * 1) The Centrifuge Room. When the player goes up the stairs, turn right, and on the end of that walkway is the first bear.
 * 2) Near the Lunar Lander closest to the Stamin-Up is a gate. Under the red star is a teddy bear.
 * 3) Nearby the Lunar Lander past the Speed Cola, there is a teddy bear sitting on top of a wall.
 * There are Matryoshka Dolls of the characters scattered around the level. They will say something to the player when the "action" button is pressed, depending on who the player is. Each of the Matryoshka Dolls can be found in the locations below:
 * 1) Tank's doll is on top of the flaming barrels directly left to the Claymores.
 * 2) Nikolai's doll is on the top of the shelf directly to the left of the Speed Cola.
 * 3) Takeo's doll is on the shelf directly to the left of the PhD Flopper.
 * 4) Richtofen's doll is two floors below the power switch and one above the Jugger-Nog machine. It is on the table to the left of the door leading outside.
 * There are three red telephones similar to the ones in "Five" scattered around the map. When these telephones are answered, a line said by a character from "Five" can be heard. These telephones will not ring until a specific event occurs. Once they are answered they won't ring again. To answer, the player must "use" the ringing telephone. Treyarch has confirmed that "Five" and Ascension take place at the same time, meaning the characters in "Five" were somehow able to call the characters in Ascension while fighting off the zombies. The phones' locations are:
 * 1) To the left of the lunar lander in the centrifuge room, between multiple fuse boxes. To make this telephone ring, either the musical easter egg needs to be activated or the player must get ten kills (only in single-player). When answered, President Kennedy can heard saying "Need some beans for the chowder here". He said this in "Five" when he ran out of ammo.
 * 2) To the left of the power switch, through the chain link fence, down the stairs, turn right, to the left of the Mystery Box spawn point. It is confirmed that this telephone rings during a "Fire sale". When answered, the player can hear Nixon fire a weapon (FN FAL), and howl like a wolf. He did this in "Five" when he killed multiple zombies.
 * 3) Located just to the right of the PhD Flopper machine. This Phone rings when the player receives the Ray Gun from the Mystery Box. When answered, the player can hear Fidel Castro say "Come to me, the revolution dies without Fidel Castro". He says this in "Five" when he is downed.
 * A pair of car batteries found underneath a stairwell in the centrifuge/spawn room have a Cyrillic inscription "ЅРДЯКУ" written across the front. This is probably a reference to the 90 second Death Machines players get for completing the Kassimir Mechanism. (They have 'sparky' engraved into them)
 * It is strange how the "Ѕ" Cyrillic letter is used, when that letter is only in use in the Macedonian language. The batteries should say "ЗАРЯДКУ," since the "З" is equivalent to the "S". This translates to "charge" which makes sense since it is a battery.
 * The "Д" in sparky is similar to the "Д" that signifies lunar lander D.
 * When the rocket is launched, it is possible to destroy it by using a gun with high damage, such as the Ray Gun or the China Lake. It has been confirmed that the rocket can also be destroyed with two Crossbow bolts or two LAW rounds. If it is destroyed, a Double Points power-up will spawn below it.

Trivia

 * This is the first and only zombies map to feature a black and white filter. However, at the very beginning of the match and once the power is switched on, the game will return to its original full color scheme. However, when the Kassimer Mechanism has been completed, a child screams and the screen briefly reverts to black and white but then goes back to color when she stops.
 * Sometimes, a girl's voice can be heard saying "Help us".
 * There are televisions to tell the player where the box is, just like in "Five". Sometimes, they will show the Illuminati symbol.
 * This is the first Zombie map to not have its name in the (official) language where the map takes place.
 * Zombies appear to have acquired new abilities. For example, while running they will often perform a barrel roll or sometimes stumble to the right or left whilst walking towards you with you aiming at them. This could be a feature to make getting headshots harder, this may also occur more often when shooting a wonder weapon. Besides that, Zombies are also able to quickly climb the catwalks in the centrifuge room.
 * Zombies performing a barrel roll are actually using a Spetsnaz combat maneuver which makes sense as the map is set in Russia.
 * The Mystery Box's beginning location will always be in the power room. This is the first time since Der Riese in which the Mystery Box has an initial spawn point as opposed to the random spawn points in Kino der Toten, "Five", and Call of the Dead.
 * On the loading screen of Ascension, the shadows of the three rockets form the number 115, the element that allows the Zombies to come back to life.
 * If the players tries to buy a fifth perk, the character will groan.
 * If playing as Richtofen, it is possible to hear the voices in his head.
 * The calling stations for the lunar landers have a key with a key chain that has the picture of a monkey's face.Ascensionleak.png
 * Ascension was leaked approximately a month before the Xbox 360 release (see image, released on Jan. 6 2011).
 * Occasionally, when playing solo, all quotes and the song Abracadavre cannot be heard. This may be a glitch or a bug.
 * When a downed player is revived on the lander, the revived player may glitch through the floor of the lunar lander and will be downed.
 * Sometimes, when swapping weapons and picking up a Death Machine, the player will lose the gun he swapped and will not be able to buy anything.
 * When playing Ascension on Xbox Live, if you have a Death Machine powerup and someone leaves the game, you will lose the Death Machine and will only have 1 weapon, once the Death Machine duration ends, you will get the second weapon back, if this happens without a Death Machine, you will automatically switch weapons when a player leaves the game.
 * Outside the map, there are several storage tanks. On them, you can read "ЗАРАЖЕНО" and "КОНТРОЛЬНО-ДОЗИМЕТРИЧНИЙ ПУНКТ 'ДИТЯТКИ' ." In Ukrainian, this translates to "Infected" and "Control-Dosimetry item 'baby'." This can be seen at 0:57 of this video
 * A 'Control Dosimeter' is a device used to measure background radiation in a given area.
 * Sometimes as you open a door and quickly run through it you will die without the chance of being revived (Confirmed on Xbox 360 and PS3).

Videos
Video:Call of Duty: Black Ops - Ascension Trailer|Official Ascension trailer Video:Abracadavre Elena Siegman Call of Duty: Black Ops - Ascension Easter Egg song Kevin Sherwood|Abracadavre, the Ascension music easter egg Video:COD: Black Ops Zombies- Ascension- Glitches, Easter Eggs, and Silly Stuff|Easter eggs in Ascension Video:Ascension Game Over Song|Game Over song in Ascension & Call of The Dead Video:Call of Duty Black Ops Zombies PhD Flopper Song|The jingle of PhD Flopper Video:Call of Duty Black Ops Zombies Stamin-Up Song|The jingle of Stamin-Up