How To Upgrade The DIE Shockwave In Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's Zombies Outbreak

With the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's' Season 3, you can now apply elemental upgrades to the D.I.E. Shockwave Wonder Weapon in Zombies Outbreak mode. These elemental gun effects are just like the ones used to upgrade the D.I.E. Shockwave in the Die Machine Easter egg, but they're actually way easier to obtain in Outbreak. You simply need to know where to look.

How To Get The D.I.E. Shockwave Wonder Weapon

Obviously, the first step is to obtain the Wonder Weapon itself. There's no guaranteed way to get your hands on this specific weapon. There are multiple ways you can score a D.I.E. Shockwave, but everything is luck-based and random.

The odds are probably best in your favor with earning the gun through Outbreak's Trials feature. Simply locate and activate the Trials computer terminal on the map, and keep activating and completing trials until your reward has reached the "legendary" rarity status. This isn't a guaranteed method because you might end up getting a different high-end gun or a perk as your reward.

You can also try your luck with Outbreak's Mystery Box, but weapons are given out randomly, and the huge weapon pool in Zombies mode makes your odds much worse than doing the Trials. I'd suggest only trying to pull the weapon from the Mystery Box if you were planning on spending your money there anyway.

Even if you're getting unlucky in the early rounds with both the Trials machine and Mystery Box, there's a slight chance an "elite" zombie will drop a D.I.E. Shockwave in later rounds. I've had an elite Mangler enemy drop the weapon at about 6-7 rounds into a match, so don't assume all hope is lost.

How D.I.E. Shockwave Elemental Upgrades Work

Once you actually have the powerful D.I.E. Shockwave, you can decide what elemental effect you want to use. This isn't like a standard weapon that you can just shove into the Pack-A-Punch machine to upgrade: The D.I.E. Shockwave is upgraded by acquiring elemental effects from special crates. Each element crate type is located on a different Outbreak map, and you'll always find them in the same location.

The elemental upgrade crates can be found as follows:

The Electrobolt upgrade crate is located at the top of Duga's Primary Array tower. It's that massive tower on the map, so you can't miss it. Rappel up to the very top level of the tower, which is also where you'll find the Pack-A-Punch machine. Each section of the array is numbered in bold white text, and this upgrade is found at section 9.

Suitably enough, the icy Cryo-Emitter upgrade is found on the snowy Alpine map. The crate is sitting in the middle of a small, frozen pond at the bottom-right portion of the map just off the Upper Highway.

The Nova-5 gas upgrade comes from Golova. The crate can be found on top of one of the large cylinders at the "Train Loading" location on the far-left side of the map.

The fiery Thermophasic upgrade can be obtained from Ruka. Simply go to the Burned Forest location on the map. At the bottom-right, there will be an upgrade box next to a lone tree. This one felt a little tricky at first, but just start at the bottom of the Burned Forest, and keep the map's purple border close on your left.

Interact with the upgrade variant of your choice and all that elemental power is yours to wield. Just remember, you can only equip one elemental upgrade at a time, but you can always progress in the rounds and switch to another elemental type, so you don't have to worry about being stuck with one elemental effect for the entirety of the match. And honestly, the D.I.E Shockwave is powerful no matter which upgrade you choose.