How to get all endings in CoD: Black Ops Cold War campaign

Andrew Highton
cod bocw campaign endings adler

In CoD: Black Ops Cold War’s campaign, there are three very different endings that players can achieve, and our guide will ensure that you get to see all three of them.

Call of Duty campaigns perhaps don’t resonate quite as much as they did in the early days of the series as Multiplayer has slowly taken over to become the dominant feature. Nevertheless, since the negative reception towards Black Ops 4’s total omission of a campaign, each subsequent game has sought to include one.

It’s the first campaign to feature on the next generation of consoles offering players very customizable FPS settings, and top-end aim assist settings on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Black Ops Cold War does well to carry on the history of deep, intriguing stories that slowly unravel into something weird and wonderful. This time around, you’re in the boots of “Bell”, a CIA Operative, and needless to that you go on a surprising journey during the Cold War era.

Your actions can ultimately leave you with one of three different fates, we’ll detail each one below, and tell you how you can see them with your own eyes in Treyarch’s new campaign.

Spoiler Alert: The following contains details about the endings of the Black Ops Cold War campaign.

Black Ops Cold War – Good ending

adler interrogation cod bocw

In order to properly set up for the endings, you’ll have to trigger an outcome from a certain dialogue prompt during the “Identity Crisis” mission. After you discover you’ve been brainwashed by the CIA, Adler will ask you where Perseus is.

From here, you can choose to either lie or tell the truth to Adler on the location of Perseus. This choice will dictate if you get the “good” or “bad” ending.

For the good ending, you’re going to want to go ahead and pick the “TRUTH” option and reveal the correct location.

By deciding to tell Adler the truth, you’ll trigger the mission “The Final Countdown”, where you’ll stop Perseus’s attempt to trigger all the Greenlight nukes across Europe. After succeeding, Adler will talk to you on a cliffside overlooking the island shore. At the end of this conversation, Adler will tell you things were “never personal”, then you will both draw your weapons at one another.

Two shots are fired and then the credits roll. It is unclear if both characters die or only Bell.

Black Ops Cold War – Bad ending #1

adler dying in black ops cold war

To finish the campaign with the first of two bad endings, you’ll simply need to follow the initial steps of the good ending. Only this time, when posed the big question by Adler, you will select the “LIE” response, thus setting up the squad to be ambushed in Duga.

In selecting this option, Bell betrays the CIA and essentially sentences the team to be executed.

Once you arrive, signal the attack, and a rocket will be launched at the squad. You will be helped up by an unknown comrade and from here you have to kill Adler, Woods, Mason, and whichever character you chose to save earlier.

In the end, you personally send the order to detonate the Greenlight nukes, and the man who assisted you earlier reveals Perseus is in fact a group of people instead of a single man, and you have been part of that group the entire time.

Black Ops Cold War – Bad ending #2

adler woods bell ending cold war cod

In all honesty, there’s not too much difference with this variation of the bad ending, but it does end up with a slightly grimmer fate for Bell.

Once you arrive in Duga for the ambush, you can simply opt to not inform Perseus about your arrival, resulting in Adler and the team learning of Bell’s deception and killing him.

But it still ends up with Perseus detonating the nukes and striking a significant blow in human history.

So there you have it, three different endings and all which are very accessible in the grand scheme of things. The question is, which one will you choose to see first?

Image credits: Treyarch

About The Author

A content creator for Charlie INTEL / Dexerto that earned a degree, wrote for PlusXP, Twinfinite, and Keengamer, before finally securing his dream job of being a professional video game writer. When not writing about games, he's very busy playing every game in existence and adding to his 11,000+ PlayStation Trophies and 150+ Platinums. You can contact him at [email protected].