- "Where are the wipers on this sack of crap?!"
- — "Tank" Dempsey after running over zombies with Ol' Tessie.
Ol' Tessie, casually referred to as the Wonder Vehicle, is a driveable utility featured in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Zombies in the map Ashes of the Damned and a stationary turret in Astra Malorum. In Ashes it prominently serves as the player's primary means of transportation. Ol' Tessie can be upgraded with several weapons as well as the Pack-a-Punch Machine.
Overview[]
Ol' Tessie is an old, fairly beat up pick-up truck that players discover when first exploring Ashes of the Damned. Initially inoperable, Ol' Tessie is imperative to the player traversing The Fog and must be repaired. Ol' Tessie is powered by finding T.E.D.D.'s head and installing it. T.E.D.D. himself is the first of many upgrades for Ol' Tessie, and will spend the rest of the game commenting on the players actions as they drive around.
Ol' Tessie can be used to traverse Ashes of the Damned and is required for accessing most of its major points of interest, as only it can slam through the wooden gates separating them. Ol' Tessie can be entered and exited at will and players do not have to bring it with them every time they leave a location. Ol' Tessie is required to complete the Ashes of the Damned main quest.
Ol' Tessie reappears in the intro cinematic for the following map, Astra Malorum. Ol' Tessie flies out of the mouth of Entity, having been outfitted with rocket boosters granting it flight. Driven by Richtofen while the rest of the crew fend off pursuing Ravagers, Ol' Tessie's rocket boosters are ejected and fired like missles before crashing into the asteroid where Astra Malorum is set, cratering into the ground.
Gameplay[]
Ashes of the Damned[]
Ol' Tessie can be driven freely and can carry the entire 4 player party. Whether or not Ol' Tessie has received any upgrades, all four players can sit in the car or can ride on top of it, anywhere from the hood of the truck to it's bed. A Gunner seat additionally becomes available after installing the DG-2 Turret on to the truck. Should players lose or be separated from Ol' Tessie, it can be summoned to the garage in Ashwood. Alternatively, players can also utilize the teleporter in the Garage to instantly warp to Ol' Tessie instead.
Ol' Tessie is not invincible, and can be damaged and rendered inoperable should it take too much damage. Ravagers specifically are dangerous, as they will jump onto Ol' Tessie and tear it apart if they are not killed or shaken off the truck by using it's boost. Ol' Tessie can be repaired in a number of ways. Players can use Salvage to repair her while on the road, T.E.D.D. will also repair Ol' Tessie slowly if it is left idle for long enough, players can park Ol' Tessie in the Garage in Ashwood to quickly repair it, or players can run over green spores on the roadways in the fog to incrementally repair Ol' Tessie while also earning some essence or salvage.
Ol' Tessie can be used offensively even without its turret or the abomination heads by running over zombies and other enemies. In locations free of the fog, any Zombies hit by Ol' Tessie will earn the player essence. Zombies killed in the Fog provide no essence. As previously mentioned, Ol' Tessie can also break down the wooden gates along the road to the places of interest, though it can not break the metal gates.
Ol' Tessie's abomination heads can be used to kill Zombies en masse, but also to destroy the glowing purple flowers along the road in the fog. Doing so will grant the player with a large supply of salvage, as well as the occasional Perk-a-Cola can. The Abomination Heads will also bite and kill zombies and other enemies that walk to close to them, even if there is no one currently in the truck.
The DG-2 turret shocks Zombies on hit, but also auto target and fires without need of player assistance. It will not only target enemies, but also the red, destructive spores in the players path. Like the traditional Wunderwaffe, the DG-2 Turrets lightning spreads from one target to others close by.
Astra Malorum[]
Ol' Tessie returns in Astra Malorum, but has been crashed and cratered into the ground rendering it mostly inoperable. Interacting with it is a minor part of the quest to unlock the Little Green Menace-1, and it's DG-2 Turret can be repaired and made usable again. The DG-2 Turret is functionally identical to it's behavior in Ashes of the Damned, only now being stationary.
Upgrading Ol' Tessie[]
In Ashes of the Damned, there are four upgrades for Ol' Tessie:
- T.E.D.D.'s Head must be installed into Ol' Tessie to allow it to drive at all. T.E.D.D. will then make comments on the players gameplay and repair the vehicle during downtime.
- Finally, the Pack-a-Punch Machine can be installed on the truck's back bumper, allowing players to upgrade their weapons on the go. Additionally, the Pack-A-Punch grants the truck a jet-assisted speed boost, as it is built with a jet turbine.
- A mounted Wunderwaffe DG-2 Turret can be installed on the roof and can be used when the truck is both driving and stationary.
- Three Abomination heads can be mounted to the front of the truck, granting the truck higher durability and also allowing players to fire streams of lightning out at anything in front of them.
While T.E.D.D.'s Head must be brought directly to Ol' Tessie itself, the other three upgrades will spawn at the Ashwood Garages Workbench when collected and can be built by any player once Ol' Tessie is brought there. The Pack-a-Punch spawns initially on said work bench.
| 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. |
 DG-2 Turret Barrel |
See instructions below. |
DG-2 Turret Barrel[]
In comparison to the other three upgrades, the DG-2 barrel is significantly more difficult to acquire, as it is effectively the reward for completing the first step of the main quest, Dust to Dust.
Ol' Tessie's final upgrade, the DG-2 Turret, can only be unlocked by completing the first step of Dust to Dust, Ashes of the Damned's main quest. It is important to note that the Necrofluid Gauntlet is required to complete the upgrade.
The DG-2 Turret Barrel returns in Astra Malorum as Ol' Tessie's only upgrade.
- Ashes of the Damned
- Astra Malorum
Step 1: 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.
- Hoard Hunk Chucks: Destroy a purple Aether Flaura with Ol' Tessie's Abomination Beam.
- Widow's Lantern: Get the Jar of Spores from under Cabin's kitchen cabinet at Blackwater Lake. Interact with the horse corpse covered with mushrooms in the road just outside the gate of Vandorn Farm. Wait 3 rounds then interact again.
- Powder of the Forgotten: Buy Wisp Tea and travel to the Tailor Shop at Ashwood. Activate the Wisp Tea's spirit and it will go inside the mirror, revealing an octahedron. Shoot the mirror with the Necrofuild Gauntlet to drop the powder.
- Ravager Eyes: Kill a Ravager with a Saw Trap.
- Human Bones: Throw a Tomahawk at the foot of the hanging corpse dripping blood in the middle of the Barn at Vandorn Farm. If done correctly the foot will drop. Throw a Molotov Cocktail to burn it.
- You can get a free Tomahawk next to the toolshed in Blackwater Lake and a free Molotov Cocktail on a barrel next to the Ashwood garage.
- Mysterious Limb: Kill a Zursa with the Ol' Tessie Abomination Beam.
Step 2: Combine the Ingredients
- 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.
- 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
Step 3: Solve the Cipher
- FUNGI
- Widow's Lantern
- LIMBS
- Mysterious Limb
- OCULI
- Ravager Eyes
- CONCH
- Hoard Hunk Chucks
- TALUS
- Human Bones
- Interact with each corresponding ingredient.
- 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 with the Necrofluid Gauntlet.
- 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 4: Find the Keys and Acquire the DG-2 Turret
Three keys are hidden in various locations in the Fog. To obtain the keys, use the Necrofluid Gauntlet to pull them out to the ground 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. The keys all have multiple spawns.
- Bruin Key (Crashed Rocket, Yellow) - This key will force you to use a Knife while holding it.
- Between Ashwood and Cosmodrome, look up at the top of the fallen Radio Tower
- Directly as you exit Cosmodrome, look at the Building to your left hand side and it is right near the Radar
- Enter from Ashwood into the Crashed Rocket area (same as last step) look high up and left onto the rocks
- Nightbird Key (Orda Graveyard, Red) - This key will put you at extremely low health while holding it.
- In the mouth a T-Rex Skull under the dead Orda.
- In the mouth of a T-Rex Skull hanging over the road from a cliff edge.
- Walk from Diner to Orda Graveyard, hug the right hand side, and look behind the right Project Janus vehicle.
- Terrapin Key (Grounded Ship, Green) - This key will slow you down significantly while holding it.
- On the Ship inside a slightly open blue container.
- In the window on the boats deck.
- Under the boat, to the left of two silver barrels.
Bring each key to the octahedron in Ruby Alley to remove the chains. If done correctly, a cinematic will play and the DG-2 Turret barrel will be available afterwards.
- Throw an explosive near the floating asteroid next to Wisp Tea. Hop onto the asteroid and you'll float out into space.
- As you float through space you will see the DG-2 Turret is also floating in space. Pick it up as you pass it.
- Interact with the back of Ol' Tessie to add it to the truck.
Development[]
When developing Ashes of the Damned, Treyarch was particularly inspired by the Call of Duty: Black Ops II map TranZit, and chose to make Black Ops 7's launch map a spiritual successor. One of the first choices the team made was the instead of "the Bus driving the players, players drive the bus". This decision greatly shaped how Ashes was designed, and how significantly Ol' Tessie was integrated into it's gameplay loop.
Ol' Tessie was originally envisioned as a "junker style pick-up truck from the '70s... real beat up". Treyarch's Kevin Drew wanted to emphasize that Ol' Tessie was the "fifth member of your squad" by insuring that it was useful, such as being able to carry all four players. Installing T.E.D.D. into Ol' Tessie was inspired by the talking car K.I.T.T. from 1980's tv series Knight Rider. Attaching the heads of an Abomination to a drivable vehicle had been an idea the developers had been sitting on for awhile before finally having the chance to use it.[1]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The real life replica of Ol' Tessie was built by West Coast Customs. It was displayed at Call of Duty NEXT 2025.[2]
- In Astra Malorums intro cutscene, Ol' Tessie no longer has T.E.D.D.s head, the abomination carcass, or the Pack-a-Punch Machine attached to it. Only the DG-2 Turret is still attached, and is operated by Dempsey throughout the cinematic.
- In Astra Malorums intro, Ol' Tessie is shown to have a button that ejects its rocket booster to use as offensive missiles. This button is labelled "Eco Mode", a joke about decreasing the fuel consumption of the vehicle given the lack of literal rockets, and a feature of many real world cars.
References[]
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