Dust To Dust

For the campaign level in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, see Dust to Dust.

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Dust To Dust
Description	Complete the Main Quest in Ashes Of The Damned
Gamer Score	30
Trophy Type	Silver

Dust To Dust is the Main Quest and associated achievement for the map Ashes of the Damned in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. It follows "Tank" Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, Takeo Masaki, Edward Richtofen, Grigori Weaver, Elizabeth Grey, Mackenzie Carver, and Maya Aguinaldo as they attempt to save their souls and confront the primordial power of an ancient guardian.

In order to complete the quest, players will need to have fully upgraded Ol' Tessie and obtained the Necrofluid Gauntlet. While the steps below are listed in a numbered order, it is worth noting that many of them can be completed simultaneously.

Step 1: Activate Klaus

1. Starting at Round 8, go to Janus Towers Plaza, and check the wreckage opposite of the Warden 308 Wall Buy. An Uber Klaus will spawn. Killing it will drop the Stabilizer Chip.
2. Bring the Stabilizer Chip to Sheriff's Office at Ashwood and place it on the cell panel. It will say "Update requires restart".
3. Inside the cell, Klaus will be sitting in a chair. Rapidly throw several Stun Grenades at Klaus to bring him back online. Klaus will break free, and players will be granted the Klaus Remote Control to direct him.

Step 2: Acquire the Necrofluid Gauntlet

1. Bring Klaus to the Zarya Cosmodrome and send him in front of the panel in Support Systems, next to one of the purchasable doors. Klaus will reactivate the panel. Interact with the panel which will trigger a scanner next to it. Stay inside the scanner and survive until it is completed. If done correctly, the Aether Barrel will be available to be picked up.
2. Bring the Aether Barrel to the Power Pump at Ashwood and place it inside. You may drive or ride Ol' Tessie, but using a Jump Pad will cause you to drop the aether barrel. The barrel will be charged with Refined Energy. Once it is charged, pick the barrel up again and bring it to the Power Pump at Blackwater Lake and then at the Power Pump in Vandorn Farm. You will have a limited time to do this.
   • It's worth nothing that a player can bring the barrel to the three pumps in any order, but since players have to end at Vandorn Farm and you will more than likely travel to Ashwood first its best to follow the above route.
3. Place the Aether Barrel next to the cube in the Cellar of Vandorn Farm to make it absorb the aether energy.
4. Use a Jump Pad between Janus Towers Plaza and Vandorn Farm to see three alchemical symbols on the rooftops of Vandorn Farms Barn, Shed, and Farmhouse. Input the symbols on each side of cube then interact with the red eye on the fourth side of the cube to receive the Necrofluid Gauntlet. This will trigger a short lockdown where you need to shoot the green orbs around you and reload the wonder weapon to acquire them.
5. Once all the orbs are collected, the Necrofluid Gauntlet is fully usable.

Step 3: Ol' Tessie's First Three Upgrades

Part	Location
T.E.D.D.'s Head	T.E.D.D.'s Head can be found in the Janus Towers Plaza, in the building directly across from the entrance to the towers themselves. It is hidden under a metal plate on the floor that must be melee'd to remove. In Standard mode, quest objectives guide the player to this step.
Pack-a-Punch Machine	The Pack-a-Punch Machine is located in the garage in Ashwood. Players need to first restore power to Ashwood via the Power Pump in Ashwood. Doing so will open the garage door. Ol' Tessie must then be driven into the Garage, afterwards players may walk up to the workbench with the Pack-a-Punch machine and install it. In Standard mode, quest objectives guide the player to this step.
Abomination Heads	At Exit 115, enter the diner and kill a Zombie dressed as a Cook. He will drop a key for the freezer. If in the dining area, the Freezer is in the right side hallway near the back right door, against the right hand wall. Use the key on the freezer and it will open to reveal the Abomination Carcass. Collect it, and it will appear at the Workbench in the Ashwood Garage.

Step 4: Concoct the Serum

Acquire Several Ingredients

Players will have to find a variety of materials around the map. It is important to note that certain steps require waiting multiple rounds, so it is best to begin this sooner rather than later.

While the Powder of the Forgotten must be collected every time, only three of the other ingredients need to be collected to progress the quest, potentially allowing players to skip acquisition of certain materials based on which ciphers they get. This can save time on completion, since players could potentially skip the three round wait for the Widows Lantern or not have to wait until round 16 to spawn a Zursa.

Icon	Location
	The Hoard Hunk Chunks can be found after destroying an Aether Flaura with Ol' Tessie's Abomination Beam. The Aether Flaura are big, purple husks that can be found on the side of any road within the Fog, and have a chance to drop extra Salvage, Essence, Weapons, Wonder Weapons and Aetherium Crystals, besides the intended part.
	The Widow's Lantern can be obtained after picking up the Jar of Spores from under Cabin's kitchen cabinet at Blackwater Lake. Take the Jar of Spores to Vandorn Farm and interact with the horse corpse covered with mushrooms in the road near the gate that leads to Ashwood. Wait 3 rounds then interact again.
	The Powder of the Forgotten can be obtained in Ashwood, inside the Tailor Shop. The player must buy Wisp Tea and have the Necrofluid Gauntlet equipped beforehand. Once both items are in the player's possession, they must activate the Wisp Tea's spirit within the Tailor Shop - which will make it go inside the mirror, revealing the Seal of Sorrow. Shoot the mirror with the Necrofuild Gauntlet and the Powder will drop to the floor.
	The Ravager Eyes can be obtained after killing a Ravager with a Saw Trap. The Ravager will drop the item, easily available to be picked up.
	The Human Bones can be found within the Barn in Vandorn Farm. Throw a Combat Axe at the foot of the hanging corpse dripping blood in the middle of the Barn. If done correctly, the foot will drop right beside the haystack. Then, throw a Molotov Cocktail to burn it. The Molotov will burn the flesh of the foot, which will then be available to be picked up. ***Note***: A free Combat Axe can be acquired at the diner in Exit 115, or by activating the trophy in the Toolshed at Blackwater Lake. A free Molotov Cocktail can be acquired on a barrel next to the Garage in Ashwood.
	The Mysterious Limb can be found after killing a Zursa with Ol' Tessie's Abomination Beam. The killing blow must come from the Beam, for if any other source does so then the Mysterious Limb will not drop.

Solve the Cipher

FUNGI	Widow's Lantern
LIMBS	Mysterious Limb
OCULI	Ravager Eyes
CONCH	Hoard Hunk Chucks
TALUS	Human Bones

1. Travel to the Zarya Cosmodrome and open the door to Yuri's Lab. If everything was done correctly, all the ingredients should be found inside the plates on the table.
2. Interact with the powder to reveal three pigpen ciphers on the chalkboard above the table. The ciphers indicate which ingredient will need to be interacted with, and in what order (from top to bottom). Use this website to solve the ciphers: https://crypto.interactive-maths.com/pigpen-cipher.html
3. Interact with each corresponding ingredient. If done correctly, red smoke will emit from the equipment; otherwise, black smoke will emit, and players will have to wait until the next round to retry.
4. Interact with the central equipment to add your Blood. This will trigger a lockdown.
   • Your health will be reduced and you can only heal yourself with kills using the Necrofluid Gauntlet.
5. Kill the zombies to gather their souls inside the Serum. If done correctly, the room will be filled with a purple gas and the lockdown will end.

Step 5: Open the Seal of Sorrow

Three keys are hidden in various locations in the Fog. To obtain the keys, fire the Necrofluid Gauntlet at them and then recall the spike to pull them out. They will drop to the ground as loot to be picked up.

Holding a key will apply some sort of temporary debuff to the player. All three keys are found in Fog portions of the map, and glow their respective color to help players identify them. The keys all have multiple spawns.

Icon	Location
	The Bruin Key (Yellow) will force the player to use a melee weapon while holding it. It can be found on the road between Ashwood and Zarya Cosmodrome: Directly at the top of the fallen Radio Tower, laying on a beam. Directly as you exit Cosmodrome, atop of the Building to the player's left hand side, right near the Radar. Right next to the gate that leads from Ashwood into the Crashed Rocket area, high up and to the left onto the rocks. This key can be seen from Ashwoods gate.
	The Nightbird Key (Red) will disable the player's health regeneration while holding it. It can be found on the road between Ashwood and Exit 115: In the Orda Graveyard, in the mouth of a T-Rex Skull under the dead Orda. In the Orda Graveyard, in the mouth of a T-Rex Skull hanging over the road from a cliff edge. In front of the Exit 115 gate that leads to Ashwood, behind the right-side of the Project Janus vehicle.
	The Terrapin Key (Green) will slow the player down significantly while holding it. It can be found on the road between Ashwood and Vandorn Farm: On the Ship, hidden neatly inside a slightly open blue container. Behind a window that is close to the blue container, on the boats deck. Under the boat, to the left of two silver barrels.

Bring each key to the Seal of Sorrow in Ruby Alley to remove the chains. If done correctly, a cinematic will play and the DG-2 Turret Barrel will be available afterwards.

Step 6: Gauntlet Challenges

1. Using the Ol' Tessie DG-2 Turret, shoot at the clock tower floating above Ashwood. Doing so will freeze 3 of the 4 clock faces on the tower.
2. With the Necrofluid Gauntlet, shoot at any of the frozen clock faces and then reload, pulling the thorn back. This will turn the Gauntlet and the player purple and transparent.
   • The effect is limited in time, and will be removed if players wait too long.
   • You can have three purple charges per round, 1 for each side with a frozen clock. However, you may only hold one charge at a time and shooting the Gauntlet will remove the effect.
   • If the clock tower is frozen, that is an indication that it has a charge the player can use. If they use three, or wait too long and the clock face is moving normally, they will have to advance to the next round to shoot the clock tower again.

Vandorn Farm

1. Travel to the Farmhouse at Vandorn Farm and check the clock on the wall behind the dining room table. Take note of the time.
2. On the ground, all around the dining table, there will be roman numerals scratched on the floor.
3. Stand above the numeral corresponding to the one on the clock then look at Pa at the end of the table. If done correctly, Pa's head will turn towards the player with his eyes turning red. Shoot his head with the purple Gauntlet to spawn four energy orbs that will fly away.
4. Find four ritual items around Vandorn Farm:
   1. Tasty-Face: On the bottom bunk of the bunk bed in the bedroom, near Stamin-Up in Farmhouse
   2. Junior's Fun-Face: Upstairs at the Barn on the left side, opposite of Death Perception
   3. Pa's Pigsticker: In the Garage, to the right of the main door.
   4. Ma's Chalice: In the bathtub in the Cellar.
5. Place the ritual items on the corresponding glowing circles around the farm, then interact with the last item placed to trigger a lockdown.
6. The items will slowly rise up while Zombies rush to attack them. Players have to defend the items from getting damaged until the end of the lockdown. All the items share a health bar, so it is best to defend them all as much as possible.

Zarya Cosmodrome

1. Shoot the two spinning radar dishes with the purple Gauntlet, this requires two charges.
   • Players have a limited time to do so, and you need to shoot the radar dishes again if you fail.
2. If done correctly, the monitors inside the Control Room will light up and three souls will float above the chairs.
3. The first two monitors will spell a word using the pigpen characters, two letters at a time. The possible words are: LAUNCH, WEAPON, ENGINE, ROCKET.
4. The other six monitors will cycle through several numbers, shoot the red button to lock a number in place. Each pigpen word has corresponding numbers, from left to right:
   1. LAUNCH: 11 - 00 - 20 - 13 - 02 - 07
   2. WEAPON: 22 - 04 - 00 - 15 - 14 - 13
   3. ENGINE: 04 - 13 - 06 - 08 - 13 - 04
   4. ROCKET: 17 - 14 - 02 - 10 - 04 - 19
5. If done correctly, the souls will disappear and the Soyuz rocket will launch.

Exit 115

1. Travel to Exit 115 with Ol' Tessie and wait for the colored lightning strikes to appear.
   • Alternatively, you can manually trigger the lightning strikes by finding a lamp post that has blue sparks underneath it. There are three lamp posts to look for: at the Diner opposite the trucker, or at either entrances of the area. Once found, shoot at the sparking lamp post with the DG-2 Turret, then move on to the next sparking lamp post and repeat the process for all three.
2. Go to McDougal's Service Station and summon Klaus. Once Klaus has arrived, shoot at the clock with the purple Gauntlet to freeze time for one minute.
3. You will need to revive three corpses:
   1. Using Ol' Tessie, ram into the red truck trailer opposite of the service station, along the side of the diner. It's back will open, reviving the zombie slumped against the diner wall. It will begin glowing red.
   2. In the garage, underneath the car that has been raised up, is a dead mechanic. Send Klaus to revive the mechanic. He will begin glowing yellow.
   3. In the diner, open the cash register by meleeing it to revive the cashier (Melee Macchiato speeds up the process, but is not required). She will begin glowing blue.
4. Lead the glowing Zombies into the lightning strikes that match their respective colors.
   • If the time has run out, the glowing zombies will not disappear, and they will prevent the round ending. They have high health compared to other zombies, but can be killed if necessary. If killed, they will respawn in their initial locations and players will simply need to stand near them again to revive them.
5. If done correctly, the Zombies will be stunned and remain in the lightning strike until the time goes back to normal. Any Zombies in their lightning will disappear when time resumes and will not have to be repeated on another attempt.

Blackwater Lake

1. Travel to Blackwater Lake and reach the pier. A soul will be floating around, interact with it to make it fly away.
2. Go inside the Cabin and shoot the projector with the purple Gauntlet. The projector will show four images corresponding to locations inside Blackwater Lake and in the order in which you will need to shoot film reels with the regular Necrofluid Gauntlet:
   1. Toolshed: On a shelf near the Sprayer spawn location.
   2. Front of Cabin: Upstairs near the gramophone.
   3. Back of Cabin: Beneath the stairs next to the Ammo Box.
   4. Boat house: On a wood beam when looking above.
3. If done correctly, the soul will appear inside the room with Speed Cola, on top of a box. Interact with the box to open it and the soul will fly away.
   • If players fail, they will trigger a jumpscare and have to wait until the next round to retry. Note that the order of the reels does not change, and the projector does not require to be shot again with the purple Gauntlet in order to retry.
4. Summon Klaus and send it in front of the box. Klaus will take the Hellion Horn inside the box and travel to the back of the Cabin and stand next to the Ammo Box while inspecting the horn.

Step 7: Ol' Tessie Rally

1. Interact with Klaus to start the final encounter. This will lock players into the encounter and proceeding boss fight until it is completed. Ensure that Ol' Tessie is at Blackwater Lake.
2. Klaus will blow on the horn and summon several red orbs with white mist, appearing at four locations within the Fog. Drive Ol' Tessie and collect three orbs at each of the listed areas by driving over them.
   • The step fails if the orbs are collected out of order, in which case players need only speak to Klaus again to retry the step. The areas with the orbs to collect are as follows:
   1. Monolith Forest (Blackwater Lake -> Janus Towers Plaza)
   2. Collapsed Tower (Janus Towers Plaza -> Vandorn Farm)
   3. Grounded Ship (Vandorn Farm -> Ashwood)
   4. Lost Cabins (Ashwood -> Blackwater Lake)
3. If done correctly and all the orbs are collected, you will be teleported (with Ol' Tessie) inside the Veytharion's Sepulcher pyramid for the fight against Veytharion.

Step 8: Veytharion Boss Fight

To damage Veytharion, ram Ol' Tessie into it to reveal weak spots and do critical damage.

• Veytharion
  • Veytharion's primary attack is to launch missiles ahead of your path. Sometimes, he will summon a missile barrage covering a wide area.
  • After enough damage is dealt to him, Veytharion will enter an immune phase and do a spin attack around the arena. Use the DG-2 Turret to shoot at him, and the shot will deflect to the ground, creating a power beam that Ol' Tessie can drive through to charge itself up (In Solo, the Turret is automated). Drive the charged Tessie into Veytharion to disable the immunity.
    • After doing so, a large, yellow, critical spot will appear on Veytharion's underside. Shoot at this spot until enough damage is dealt, which will stun Veytharion.
  • In the second phase, Veytharion will use the missile barrage attack more often. In the third phase, Veytharion will move around shooting a powerful laser beam directed at a single player. This beam takes a moment to charge, and can be hidden from behind cover. The player operating Ol' Tessie can boost and ram at Veytharion during the charge process to prevent him from using the attack.
  • Similar to the first phase, after enough damage is dealt, Veytharion will enter the immune phase, and players will have to
  • If Tessie is inoperable, Veytharion will throw the truck at players. While this can damage a player, it also gets Tessie to them much quicker than running.
• Enemies
  • Zombies and Ravagers will spawn throughout the fight
  • In Co-Op only, Zursa will spawn during the final phase of the battle. If killed, they will not respawn.
• Resources
  • 2 Max Ammo and 2 Max Armor Power-Ups are available when the boss fight begins and are respawned after completing each damage phase. Many of the Power Ups are high off the ground, and require players to use the Necrofluid Gauntlet to retrieve them.
  • Green barnacles to heal Tessie will spawn around the room at the beginning of the battle and will respawn frequently after use.
• Restrictions
  • The Time Out GobbleGum cannot be used once the boss fight begins.

Once Veytharion is defeated, the final cinematic will play.

Post Main Quest

If players choose to continue playing, they will be teleported back to Blackwater Lake with all Perks, and Bonus Points Power-Ups, Aether Tools, Aetherium Crystals, Legendary tier weaponry, Salvage and a random Wonder Weapon from the map pool are all spawned around them.

Completion Rewards

Depending on the mode in which the Main Quest was completed, several different rewards are guaranteed.

Name	How to obtain	Item
Ashes of the Damned - Early Completion Calling Card	Complete the Main Quest before the Directed Mode (December 4th, 2025)
Ashes of the Damned - Standard Quest Complete Calling Card	Complete the Main Quest in the Standard Mode
Ashes of the Damned Complete (Directed) Calling Card	Complete the Main Quest in the Directed Mode
Ashes of the Damned Relic Calling Card	Complete the Main Quest in Cursed Tier III
Oorah! Dempsey Skin	Complete the Main Quest in the Standard Mode
Bushwalker Maya Skin	Complete the Main Quest in the Directed Mode
Caustic Ash Pack-a-Punch Weapon Camouflage	Complete the Main Quest in Cursed Tier I
Molten Ash Pack-a-Punch Weapon Camouflage	Complete the Main Quest in Cursed Tier II
Putrid Ash Pack-a-Punch Weapon Camouflage	Complete the Main Quest in Cursed Tier III
XP	Complete the Main Quest in the Standard Mode	10,000 XP
XP	Complete the Main Quest in the Directed Mode	5,000 XP

Additionally, the Veytharion's Blessing Power-Up will become available during the final phase of the boss fight with Caltheris in the following map, Astra Malorum.

Videos

"ASHES OF THE DAMNED" EASTER EGG ENDING CUTSCENE (Black Ops 7 Zombies Ending)

Trivia

• The Worlds First completion for Dust To Dust unlocked Cursed game mode for all players.
• After inserting the Stabilizer Chip into the digital reader on Klaus' cell, a prompt on its screen will appear, saying "UPDATE REQUIRES RESTART" - a cheeky metahumor nod to the message that appears on the Call of Duty games screen when there is an update to the game.