What to expect in next week’s major Black Ops 4 Zombies update

From Factions to splitscreen pausing, here are our expectations for the big Zombies update next week.

Ever since the Black Ops 4 Beta earlier this year, Treyarch has been pretty on-the-money when it comes to updating the Call of Duty community on the state of the game. During Black Ops 4’s launch month, an official Treyarch Reddit account would post to the Blackops4 subreddit almost every couple of days. It would update players on patch notes, as well as new features and events coming to the game.

Whenever these posts would surface, the Zombies community would pour diligently over every word looking for an ounce of new content. While updates like stability improvements and the return of ‘Speed Cola’ definitely make for a better experience, players are still left wanting more.

In the December 3 update by Treyarch, they have finally specified that next week we will get new information for Zombies, and hopefully some new content as well.

• MORE: Daily Callings in Black Ops 4 Zombies showing up in PC version

Here is a list of all the things we should expect Treyarch to update us on in that update(note: this is all speculation and none of this is confirmed.)

Callings

During the May 17 Black Ops 4 reveal event Zombies lead, Jason Blundell, brought up Callings. He described them as “limited time curated challenges.” Our first glimpse at Callings came on October 19 and lasted for a couple of days. Players had four challenges to complete which would reward them with four themed face paints.

Since then, we haven’t heard anything on Callings outside of a small mention of Daily Callings on a November 13 update post and there inclusion in the PC version earlier today.

It would come as no surprise to see the same Daily Calling that is live on PC right now to make its way to consoles by next week.

Spiltscreen Pausing, Host Migration, and Nebulium Plasma

These three issues are bundled together because since they have been acknowledged, they still haven’t been resolved despite several promises for upcoming fixes.

Currently, when two players are playing splitscreen in a private match, pausing doesn’t pause the game as it would in a solo match.

Treyarch first stated they are working on an update in an October 26 post, and reiterated their intent to update the community on a fix on November 13. Expect an update on this next week if not a full on fix.

Host Migration in Zombies does not work properly right now. Whether in a public or private match, if the host leaves, the game is almost certain to end. This issue has been acknowledged as far back as October 19, and mentioned again on October 26 and November 13. While updates have been promised, players are still left wanting a clearer picture on the matter. 

On October 26, Treyarch wrote “The Zombies team is planning to increase the earn rate for Nebulium Plasma across the board in an upcoming game update. Keep an eye on the patch notes soon!”

Over a month now, there has not been any other mention of Plasma rates increasing causing players to think up their own solutions. Many community members have suggested rewarding Main Quest completions with large amounts of Plasma as a simple and quick fix to this issue.

Mastery Camos

This is another thing that Treyarch has promised updates early on and has not yet fulfilled. Mentioned only in the October 19 and 26 updates, Treyarch has said that Mastery camos such as Gold, Diamond, and Dark Matter, will be coming to Zombies. Players who unlock those camos in Multiplayer, will be able to apply them to weapons in Zombies.

The camos omission from Zombies is significant because the mode still doesn’t have any Mastery camos of its own.

• MORE: Full gallery of all Black Ops 4 Zombies weapon camos

While allowing players who earned these camos in Multiplayer to bring them over to Zombies is a nice improvement, die-hard Zombies players who don’t play Multiplayer would still want the ability to earn them.

Whether that means a new set of Mastery camos for Zombies, or the regular ol’ Gold, Diamond, and Dark Matter, this is definitely something we should see an update on next week.

Black Ops Authenticity Stamp System

When Custom Mutations were talked about at the Black Ops 4 reveal event, they were immediately followed up with the Black Ops Authenticity Stamp system, or BOAS for short.

Blundell explained that they would allow for more competition because players would be able to share “exactly what was achieved and with what options.”

While BOAS is still absent in Black Ops 4, they were last mentioned in any official capacity while listing off a handful of upcoming features on the November 13 update.

Currently, not many players are using Custom Mutations that much. They disable easter eggs, there are no ways to select preset mutations or share ones you created, and there are really no incentives to attempt any specific challenges.

Imagine being the top on the leaderboards for a pistols only, no perks run on IX. That would be something worth chasing after.

With the BOAS system in place, Custom Mutations would gain some new life and be a great mainstay for Zombies.

Factions

Out of all the features announced for Black Ops 4 Zombies that have yet to be added to the mode, Factions is the only one that has never been mentioned in any update by Treyarch on Reddit.

The only information Factions comes from a July 21 blog post following the Call of Duty Zombies San Diego Comic-Con 2018 panel.

While this sounds amazing, it looks like Factions still needs a little more time to cook before we get hands on it. Everything else on this list has been promised to come in a future update, so it wouldn’t shock me to see Treyarch gloss over Factions in next week’s update.

However, if they even give the slightest bit of info as to when we will see it come to Black Ops 4, fans will surely be pleased.

No DLC 1

Temper your expectations, folks. As much as I’d LOVE to see a trailer, mention, date, anything for the next Zombies map, I don’t think this is the time.

It’s clear Treyarch has been prioritizing stability and performance over the past month and a half, more than they ever had to, so it would make sense for them to take longer to release the first new map.

While rumors point to a Nuketown Zombies remake coming in the future, next week’s focus seems to be on finalizing and releasing all previously mentioned facets of the game.

• MORE: RUMOR: Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 DLC1 Zombies Characters Leaked

What do you expect to see in the next week’s Zombies update? Agree or disagree with any of my claims? Let us know in the comments below!