Cold War Outbreak Easter Egg Guide: Operation Excision (2024)

Cold War Season 4 is here, and players are chomping at the bit to get their hands on the next map: Mauer der Toten. However, it appears that Treyarch is saving the next map for their midseason update, giving players a taste of the prologue to the next map, which takes the form of a new main quest in the Outbreak game mode.

Players will be fighting against the undead once more on a new Outbreak map, Zoo, as well as completing challenges for Ravenov, a character that’s been a key player in telling the story between Requiem and Omega Group. With the new map coming soon, this Easter egg sees the characters working together once more.

Here’s how to complete the Cold War Operation Excision main quest to prepare you and your squad for the upcoming map.

The Steps for Operation Excision

The main quest for Cold War Operation Excision is significantly easier thanthe previous Outbreak quest. However, the methods to finish it make it a significantly shorter quest by comparison, with less waiting between levels and the fact that players in the community couldfinish this quest in a few hours after it went live.

Step 1: Play Until Level 3

Like the previous map, the player will have to complete the main objective in each map. Players will have to work their way to theAnomalyand use the Beacon to summon the next portal to put players into the next level. Doing this three times will bring the players to round 3, where the next step can begin.

Step 2: Find the Red Rifts Around the Map

This next step diverts from the previous map, with the players changing to what Easter egg they want to do. In the first Easter egg, Samantha contacts the player through a radio. The player has to find the signal booster to spawn the Beacon Listening Device. Players will instead be looking for red rifts. There’s a lot of locations that they can spawn on each map. While they’re more or less hidden, they’re very easy to find and eliminate a sound, as well as some particle effects that the player will be able to see emerging from walls if it’s in an enclosed space. However, the locations for the red rifts are as follows:

• Duga: Northern section of the map, upstairs from the crafting table
• Ruka: Leftmost section of the map, in the farm
• Golova: In a door on the top of the church
• Sanatorium: In the pool of the big building in the middle of the map
• Alpine: Off the cliff near the Anomaly, under a zipline
• Zoo: In a cave, inside the wolf exhibit

Finding the red rift is a start. However, jumping through the portal is dangerous. Players should prepare at least Stamin-up Tier V, as the rift will send players into the sky in the same manner as the jump pads or the rifts on the side of the map’s boundaries. Stamin-up Tier V mitigates fall damage, making this step less dangerous than the others.

Jumping through the portal will send the player into the air. When in the air, players should keep a lookout within the field of view that the game sets them at when coming out of the portal. After going through the first portal, players will notice that another portal has opened in front of them. Usually, the red rifts spawn directly in front of the player, but they may be to the side either way.

Regardless, the player must enter them without falling to the ground; doing so will remove the portal from play, forcing the player to move from the level and progress once more to attempt it again. Doing this sequence of events three times in a row will send the player into one final portal. Once the player lands in the last red rift, an item will exit with them, and the player will have to follow the trail it makes and land right at the landing zone of the item. It’s easy for the player to take little damage while falling. Once the player lands where the item fell, they’ll pick up another Beacon Listening Device. Complete the main objective for the map, and then return to the Anomaly, where the option to call Ravenov back will be in the menu. Doing so will initiate a conversation between Weaver and Ravenov. Then Ravenov will tell the players that he needs their help and that they need to head to the Sanatorium.

Activating the call between Weaver and Ravenov will lock the player into the Cold War Operation Excision Easter egg. The rest of the quest will take place in Sanatorium. Players should be wary to fully upgrade what they have and continue onward into the quest.

Step 3: Find the Omega Scientists

When the players spawn into Sanatorium, Ravenov will contact them again, telling them that the help he requires is to find and secure some Omega scientists who want to defect to Requiem. However, while they were planning on rendezvousing with the players in Sanatorium, they never arrived. So, thinking they’ve been in a crash, it’s up to the players to find the crashed helicopter and save the scientists before Omega can get to them.

Players must find their way to the helicopter, which is always in the same location, near the bottom left of the map. Players can see it if they take a bounce pad or a fast travel rift. This is because the helicopter is smoking into the sky at the crash site. Players who land should be prepared, as there will be many zombies taking over where the helicopter crashed. With the right firepower, the player should be able to clean out the zombies without an issue. However, boss zombies will spawn, so players should be prepared to take on the undead horde. After cleaning out the zombies, players should interact with the radio hanging from the hand of one of the scientists who didn’t make it.

The radio will explain that the scientists are making their way to Monument Island, which is beyond the phase. The scientists have found a way to travel through the phase without being injured. However, there is only one prototype, which is missing a key component, an Aethereal Orb. This means that it’s up to the player to find the orb and bring it to the prototype.

Step 4: Guiding the Aethereal Orb

The orb will spawn on the top of the building in the middle, the large bathhouse at the top, or the large house at the bottom middle. This orb functions differently from the regular Aethereal Orb that players can find in the game. The normal Aethereal Orb will put out essence for the player to collect and then travel down a predetermined path, with the player chasing it to the end, where the orb will explode.

This orb will move in the direction players shoot it. This step aims to find the orb and guide it to the bridge at the right end of the map, where there sits an escort rover. To work, players need to stand behind the orb facing the direction they want the orb to move. Players don’t have to be right in front of the orb, but it’ll move away, being pushed by the bullets used to shoot it. It’ll move in a set direction. Finally, players have to guide the orb to the escort device, in which it’ll sit on top of the escort rover.

To make this step easier, players should bring along monkey bombs or decoy grenades to keep the zombies that spawn at bay while shooting the orb. The orb moving will cause more zombies to spawn and bother the player while they’re doing the quest. Once the orb reaches the bridge, it’ll rest on top of a statue. Players will have to shoot it again to the end of the bridge, in which it will make its way to the escort device.

Step 5: Finding the Rabbit Doll

Once the orb has made it to the escort rover, it won’t enter the device, keeping the rover from moving to monument island, where the scientists are. Ravenov pitches the idea that the characters should find a doll of sorts to put into the rover to convince the orb to enter the machine. For this step, players need to make their way to one of the two unused mystery box locations. They reside at the top of the building in the middle, at the end of the road in the parking lot, and near the top, where the roundabout is. Going to one of these locations, the player will find a broken mystery box, with the rabbit appears when the box moves, sitting in the debris.

Interacting with the rabbit doll will make it float into the air and start dancing with a massive horde of zombies that fight against the player. This holdout isn’t time-based, so players will have to dispatch the undead to progress. The rabbit doll will then drop loot as if the player has finished one of the gold chest challenges, netting one of the players a free perk. The player can now pick up the rabbit. Doing so will treat it like an Aetherium canister similar to the objective from previous levels, where the player has to collect canisters to fuel a rocket. The rabbit can also be used to explode any nearby zombies once. To progress, the players must take the rabbit back to the prototype device and insert it into the escort machine.

Step 6: Taking the Rover to Monument Island

Inserting the rabbit will have the rover drop another recording from the scientists. This will be the final call before the final moments of the Cold War Operation ExcisionEaster egg, activating the radio locks the players in with whatever loadouts they have. Players will have to be fully prepared before continuing forth. Upon activating the recording, the scientists mention that the playing of this recording means that the rover, called the Aetherium neutralizer, is activated and ready to move. The scientists bid their newfound friends good luck, and the rover starts moving, bringing the player with it. A ring will form around the rover. The player will be unable to exit the ring without taking damage. Players will have to move through the phase, letting the rover guide them to Monument Island. Special abilities are advised to be used during this mission. Once the rover reaches the stars to Monument Island, players can move freely throughout the new section of the map. However, the game advises the players to head up to the top to save the scientists.

Step 7: Survive the Final Exfil

Once the players reach the top, they’ll find the scientists. Unfortunately, the players were too late, as the scientists have been reduced to mush, with a message scrawled in blood: “No One Walks Away From Omega.” Next to one of the corpses is a radio. Activating it will show that all of this was a trap from Omega. Unfortunately, while Ravenov was on the player’s side, he didn’t see that a traitor had infiltrated the scientists and lured them to Monument Island via orders from Kravchenko.

Kravchenko found out about the defecting scientists. He ordered the man who players have been listening to this whole time to kill them. The man did kill the scientists. But this was only phase one of their plans, as their second phase was to lure Requiem to an isolated area and finish them off. Players are then forced into a final exfil sequence. Instead of killing zombies to survive, the player has to eliminate every zombie.

To make matters worse for the team, this includes the Orda, who spawns in with boss zombies as well, cranking the difficulty up. Players are now forced to finish off every zombie, including the Orda. It’s recommended that players equip items like a chopper gunner or a death machine before crossing the bridge to Monument Island. Fighting off the Orda and zombies will finish the Easter egg. The players will then board the helicopter, only to be blown up by Omega, in which they’ll crash in their exfil chopper and come face-to-face with Kravchenko, who claims that Requiem now belongs to him.

Thus ends the Easter egg for Cold War Operation Excision, marking the prologue to the next map: Mauer der Toten. This new map returns to the traditional form of round-based maps, letting players enjoy the mode that zombies are known for. However, the story implications of the map may be different than previous maps. Requiem is now out of the picture, so someone will have to travel to Berlin and save them. A certain possibility is that players might see a return of a staple design—a fully-voiced four-character team. The few characters who have yet to step onto the field that remain true to the values of Requiem are Samantha, Weaver, and Ravenov. And while there are only three, there’s a handful of characters that Treyarch could pick from to make the dream team of soldiers take the reigns of Requiem’s saviors. With the map coming sometime in July, players will have to wait just a bit longer to see what happens next in the Dark Aether storyline, as things are starting to get serious with the capture of Requiem.