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, which was released on February 1, 2011 for Call of Duty Black Ops on the Xbox 360, March 3rd on the PS3, and PC on March 25, 2011 for $14.99 but a release date is unannounced for the Wii. It takes place in an abandoned Soviet Cosmodrome. The map includes Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, Takeo Masaki, and Edward Richtofen and includes new weapons like the Gersch Device and Matryoshka Dolls, as well as new perks such as PhD Flopper and Stamin-Up. A new enemy, called Space monkeys, also appears in this map, replacing the Hellhounds or Pentagon Thief (in the case of "Five"). A new power-up is also available.



Off-Wall Weapons

 * M14 - Centrifuge Floor 1
 * Olympia - Centrifuge Floor 2
 * MPL- Stair way
 * PM63 - Stair way
 * MP5K - Lunar Lander D
 * AK-74u - Outside Lunar Lander F
 * Stakeout - Outside Power Room
 * M16 - Lunar Lander B
 * Claymore - Lunar Lander F
 * Sickle (Replaces regular Knife and can used with the ballistic knife) - Lunar Lander B
 * Grenades - Lunar lander D

Mystery Box Weapons

 * wunderwaffe
 * 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.

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' kills all nearby zombies. In addition, the player absorbs any explosive damage done to the player, including Ray Gun's splash damage, fragmentation grenades and Matryoshka Dolls.


 * 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 Marathon or 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 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 Death Machines that last for 90 seconds.

Strategies
See: Ascension/Strategies

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 in the lander room beside the Stamin-Up. Where the player walks through the door they is on the flaming barrels on the left, right next 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 on the floor below the power switch. It is on the table to the left of the door leading outside.
 * There are 3 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 meaningless inscription in Cyrillic "ЅРДЯКУ" written across the front. In Russian it will be read: Grdyakch.
 * It is strange how the "Ѕ" cryillic letter is used, when that letter is only in use in the Macedonian language. The batteries should say "ЗАРЯДКУ," since the "З" is equivellant 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 A.
 * 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 2 Crossbow bolts or 2 LAW rounds. If it is destroyed, a Double Points power-up will spawn below it.

Quotes
See: Ascension/Quotes

Trivia

 * This is the first zombies map to start off in a black and white filter. However, once the power is switched on, the game will return to its original full color scheme.
 * Sometimes, a girl's voice can be heard saying "Help us" (this may be Samantha).
 * There are televisions to tell the player where the box is, just like in "Five". Sometimes, they will show the Illuminati symbol.
 * It is currently unknown where the Lunar Lander in the beginning of the game comes from.
 * Zombies appear to have acquired new acrobatic capabilities. For example, runners will often perform a special ops-like side 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 (as many players prefer to headshot zombies to conserve ammunition and score more points).
 * Besides that, Zombies are also able to quickly climb the catwalks in the centrifuge room.
 * 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 a set initial spawn point as opposed to the random spawn points in Kino der Toten and "Five".
 * When a Ray Gun is recieved in Ascension, what sounds like a guitar chord is played, alerting all members of the game to the fact a player has received the Ray Gun.
 * On the loading screen of Ascension, the shadows of the three rockets form the number 115, the element of which the zombies came 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 station for the lunar landers have a key, with a keychain that has the picture of a monkey's face.
 * Occasionally, when playing solo, all quotes and the song Abracadavre cannot be heard. This may be a glitch or a bug.
 * This map could be a reference to the zombie menu television since there are people wearing gas masks.
 * 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, this can be stressful to a game of two players.
 * 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.
 * 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 dosimeter measures background radiation in an area.
 * The loading music for Ascension sounds similar to the song Deep and Hard by Mark Grigsby, which is heard during the credits of Modern Warfare.

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 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