Each member of your squad is bringing a piece of specialized equipment known as Field Upgrades, a powerful device that offers a chargeable, impressive elemental ability, followed by a cooldown period when the Field Upgrade recharges and is ready to be used again. You’ll earn more charges simply by eliminating enemies, not with the passage of time.
Existing Field Upgrades
- Aether Shroud: Phase into the Dark Aether, becoming hidden from enemy detection.
- Frenzied Guard: Repair armor and force all enemies in the area to target you. During this time, kills repair a portion of your armor.
- Healing Aura: Summons beams of energy down on yourself and allies to instantly revive and heal to full health.
- Energy Mine: Create a mine of pure energy that detonates in rapid succession, dealing lethal electric damage.
New Field Upgrades
- Dark Flare: You generate a massive energy beam that deals lethal shadow damage. The beam penetrates everything in its path.
Additional Mechanics
- Field Upgrades can be made even more powerful with the use of Augments.
- Field Upgrades cannot be dropped, but now for the first time in Zombies, you can swap to a different Field Upgrade at any time during a match by using the in-game menu. Note that your cooldown will reset upon switching to a different Field Upgrade.
Gameplay Example
With some promising mass takedowns during previous matches, you begin focusing on researching the Dark Flare Field Upgrade between matches, and start to unlock the Minor and Major Augments, adding yet more power to future uses of this Field Upgrade. Once fully researched, you have the following three Minor Augments, and three Major Augments to choose from.
Before your next match, you simply choose one Minor, and one Major Augment, depending on your specific needs, and can swap between other Augments between Matches. We went with these:
Minor Augment:
- Heavy Shadow: Zombies impacted by the beam are slowed.
Major Augment:
- Shadow Ball: The beam is replaced with a sphere that damages enemies as it travels and detonates at the end of the duration.