In Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Treyarch has released a mode called Endgame, which is very different from anything seen before. Rather than finishing the campaign and moving on, Endgame allows you to continue playing in a sandbox-style PvE environment with 32 players. You continue to increase your “Combat Rating,” explore regions, and complete various missions. This article provides some insight into effective methods for leveling up quickly through Endgame.
Understanding Progression in Endgame
Image via: Activision
What Is Combat Rating?
Combat Rating, in essence, represents your “level” in Endgame, and is important as it governs how far into Avalon’s zones you can venture and the intensity of enemies.
Treyarch has indicated that your objective is to elevate this Combat Rating to a high level, and you can actually attain level 60.
The zones unlock at certain Combat Rating thresholds: Zone 1 at CR 0, Zone 2 at CR 10, Zone 3 at CR 30, and Zone 4 at CR 45.
Upon hitting CR 60, you are effectively at the peak of the current ladder of progression.
Unified Progression Across Modes
The experience points (XP) you earn in the Endgame not only pertain to Endgame: they contribute toward a collective progression system that applies to campaign, multiplayer and other modes.
Therefore, when you play Endgame, you’re also advancing your global account progression system, even if you aren’t only interested in playing Endgame, making it something worth playing.
How to Level Up Quickly
Image via: Activision
Here are some effective ways to boost your Combat Rating efficiently:
1. Chain Missions (“String Missions Together”)
The amount of XP you will receive for every run is significantly dependent on what activities you are doing.
Rather than do random activities, try to chain missions together so that you finish more activities in the limited time you have per run.
2. Land Strategically
In an Endgame run, you will only be given 30 minutes to explore, before having to complete extraction.
Thus, it is beneficial to choose a drop spot wisely: open your tactical map, select a good point of interest (POI), and glide in directly. Overall, this will save you time and not leave you running around.
3. Prioritize High-XP Tasks
As you play, it is good to learn (or notice) what actions give you the most XP for the time spent doing them.
It has been reported that recovering a cache/lockbox is particularly effective, it often gives good loot along with a good XP reward.
4. Collect Power Cubes
Throughout the world are small blue “power cubes” and it would be best to pick them up whenever you can, as they help your Power Level, which works similar to bonus XP.
If you see them after fights, consider picking them up even if they may take a little effort to get to.
5. Advance Zones When You Can
Upon advancement to Combat Rating 10, Zone 2 will become available.
When you reach CR 30 → you can venture into Zone 3, and when you reach CR 45 → you can proceed to Zone 4.
Raising your CR will allow your tasks to become significantly more rewarding, and you should make an effort to advance as you can survive in that zone.
6. Play Safely to Avoid Losing Progress
There is a risk: if you die without extracting, you do not only lose your gear, but also the Combat Rating gained during that run.
To lower this risk, you can use the Crash Cart major ability, which in addition to reviving downed teammates, will also revive you while bleeding out.
Also use self-revival medkits that are scattered across Avalon. When you have both Crash Cart and medkits, you essentially have 2 “lives” during a dangerous run.
Read More: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Reveals Every Operator Available at Launch
Risks & Trade-offs
Image via: Activision
The higher-yield activities are riskier by nature, which will lead to increased deaths if pursued aggressively.
Two significant factors will mitigate how much xp is gained in each play session: the 30-minute run time, and unexpected events will overload the run.
If you pursue too aggressively without any revival tools (Crash Cart, medkits) and suffer a single death, that one death can eliminate the xp gained for the entire session.
At a higher combat rating, the grind gets worse due to a combination of tougher tasks, increased wipes, and bad runs wasting time.
Conclusion
If you want to level quickly in Black Ops 7 Endgame, the most essential part is planning, controlling risk, and playing consistently. Everything revolves around your Combat Rating, which opens up more of Avalon’s map and the tougher zones.
You will level quicker when you chain high-XP mission types, especially cache recovery missions, deploy smartly, acquire power cubes, and be careful about the extraction opportunities you take. You must also pay attention to risk – risk more without an additional safety net, and you could lose progress.
