How to Claim and Upgrade the Ice Staff on Origins in Zombies Chronicles

Zombies Chronicles is the fifth DLC map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops III that features a total of eight different zombie maps from previous titles including Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II. However, arguably the most iconic map in the game is Origins, or Excavation Site 64 and Dig Site. It hosts four incredibly powerful Elemental Staffs, one of which is the Staff of Ice. 

In this guide, we will explore how to claim and upgrade the ice staff on Origins in Zombies Chronicles.

How to Claim and Upgrade the Ice Staff on Origins in Zombies Chronicles

The ice staff (or the Staff of Water) is one of four buildable Elemental Staffs in Origins. It shoots out blasts of ice when fired and slows down zombies as well by freezing them. It can also be upgraded to the Ull’s Arrow, which provides a greater blast radius and creates a blizzard affect that attracts nearby zombies towards it before instantly freezing and killing them. The ice staff also gains a secondary attachment called Sekhmet’s Vigor, which causes the player to flip the staff and use the bottom end.

Related: How to Claim and Upgrade the Fire Staff on Origins in Zombies Chronicles

To get the Staff of Ice, you will need to gather three parts of the staff and the elemental crystal. You will also have to obtain the gramophone and the correct records to access the Crazy Place and lower levels of the Excavation Site. Here are the locations for each;

• The three parts of the ice staff can be found in the ground and can be dug up from dig spots when it’s snowing. It generally snows around rounds 2 to 4, as well as round 10 and randomly from then on. The first part can be found in the starting area (from spawn to workshop). The second can be found in the middle area of the map and the third will be near the church.
• The blue record can be found near Generator 2, inside the tank station on one of the shelves. While the gramophone always spawns on the floor inside the Excavation Site. The record needed to access the lower levels can be found around the Excavation Site.
• The elemental gem can be found inside the Crazy Place, but you’ll need the blue record as well as the gramophone to access it. The entrance to the Ice tunnel is near the church. Once you’re in the Crazy Place, there will be a pedestal that’ll open up with a blue glow, the elemental gem will be inside.

Once you’ve collected all of the parts for the ice staff, you can then build it on the lowest level of the Excavation Site, in the blue pedestal. Once built, it can be picked up by any player and upgraded to improve performance. The ice staff upgrade (Ull’s Arrow) can be built if you;

1. Solve the riddle located in the Ice part of the Crazy Place. Above the portal, you will see six panels of stone and ice floating, with symbols of base-4 representations of numbers. On the wall, there will be a blue panel with dots in various patterns which are base-3 representations of numbers. You will then need to use the pattern shown on the ice panel to determine which stone panel to shoot with the ice staff. To complete the riddle, all six stone panels will need to be flipped over using the ice staff.
2. Once you’ve solved the riddle, another will appear in the original realm. There will be three gravestones with water flowing out of them, which also will need to be shot with the ice staff in order to freeze and destroy them. The first gravestone will be to the right of the KN-44 near Generator 4. The second gravestone will be between the Excavation Site and a giant footprint, close to Generator 4. While the third gravestone is on top of the small hill to the right of the back exit of the bunker next to Generator 2 and the downed mech’s hand.
3. Next, you will have to order the floating rings inside of the lower levels of the Excavation Site so that they light up blue. Once all of the rings’ lights are blue, the blue orb inside will need to be shot using the ice staff. At which point it should glow blue and shoot up in the air.
4. Finally, you will need to place the staff inside the blue pedestal in the Crazy Place and kill around 20 zombies to collect their souls into the staff. Once this is done, Samantha may talk to you about the “power of ice being available” and the staff icon on the HUD should now have a red outline. This means that the Ull’s Arrow can now be picked up from the pedestal.

That’s everything you need to know about how to claim and upgrade the ice staff on Origins in Zombies Chronicles. If you’re interested in more Call of Duty content, be sure to check out our guides section here at Gamer Journalist. Where you can find helpful information like how to fix Error Code 38 in Warzone or how to fly a Jackal in Call of Duty: Mobile.