Here’s what Meta Upgrades are, how to farm Refined and Flawless Aetherium Crystals, and how to elevate your gameplay to the next level with Tier 4 and 5 upgrades.
What are Meta Upgrades?
Meta Upgrades are the umbrella term that Treyarch uses to refer to the Tier IV and V upgrades in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Zombies. At launch, Requiem operators had access to three tiers of upgrades spread out across perks, field upgrades, ammo mods and weapon classes, which increased their effectiveness and augmented their function. With the introduction of the new tiers, your equipment and abilities will pack even more of a punch. In some cases Tier IV is just another numerical stat increase for an aspect of the weapon or ability in question that already benefits from a previous tier, but when it comes to Tier V, it’s a real gamechanger in pretty much every instance.
How to get Refined and Flawless Aetherium Crystals
As powerful as the new upgrade tiers are, it makes sense that earning them should be a challenge. You will need to farm Refined Aetherium Crystals for Tier IV upgrades, and when gunning for the even stronger Tier V, Flawless - and thus even rarer - variants will also be needed. The way to get these crystals isn’t much different than the method of farming Raw Aetherium Crystals, except the stakes are higher this time. It is possible to earn the new crystal variants in both regular rounds of Zombies matches, and the new Outbreak mode - though the specific requirements are different. In Zombies, crystals are awarded based on how far you get before dying or exfil. You need to reach at least Round 20 before you get Refined Aetherium Crystals, and Round 35 for the Flawless variant. In Outbreak, there is no round system - instead the rewards you earn are determined by the number of objectives you complete. It takes 3 objectives to get Refined and 4 to get Flawless Aetherium Crystals. Since these thresholds are set pretty high up, it’ll require a great deal of coordination and teamwork to earn them, and no small measure of skill.
Meta Upgrades - Tier IV and V
So what are we doing all this grinding for, anyway? Just like regular upgrades, the Tier IV and V meta upgrades vary from category to category, so let’s take a look at all the benefits you’ll incur from investing in these new improvements.
Perks
Perks are the first and foremost way of augmenting your playstyle whenever a Zombies match kicks off, and with these new upgrade tiers your favorite perks take on entirely new dimensions.
Deadshot Daquiri Tier IV: 10% crit rate boost Tier V: consecutive hit damage increase Elemental Pop Tier IV: elemental damage increase Tier V: damage increase when reloading on empty Stamin-Up Tier IV: enables use of Equipment when sprinting Tier V: sprint slowdown reduced to 0% Quick Revive Tier IV: 5 second speed boost for both reviver and revived player Tier V: revives you if you score a kill while down Speed Cola Tier IV: speed boost to barricade repairs and Mystery Box rolls Tier V: hip-fire and reload enabled when sprinting Jugger-nog Tier IV: reduction to armor-damage Tier V: killing blows reduce HP to 1 instead of 0 Tombstone Soda Tier IV: increases revival speed Tier V: eliminates perk decay
Field Upgrades
The brand-new Frenzied Guard Field Upgrade joined the fray with Season 2 as well, and gets the new upgrade tiers alongside the older options as well.
Ring of Fire Tier IV: chance to instakill affected enemies Tier V: increases player buff Healing Aura Tier IV: perks of revived players stay on decay meter Tier V: healing beams persist for 10 seconds Aether Shroud Tier IV: increased movement speed Tier V: additional charges Energy Mine Tier IV: additional mine Tier V: each mine triggers 3 stuns Frost Blast Tier IV: additional charge Tier V: makes enemies brittle, allowing for one-hit kills Frenzied Guard Tier IV: duration increase Tier V: reduces enemy movement speed
Ammo Mods
Field Upgrades weren’t the only category to welcome a new arrival in Season 2 - Shatter Blast is a powerful new ammo mod that debuted at the same time, bringing explosive ammo to a whole new level.
Shatter Blast Tier IV: 100% explosion range increase Tier V: chance to trigger explosive barrage, removing enemy armor and knocking them back Brain Rot Tier IV: affects special enemies Tier V: affects 3 enemies Cryofreeze Tier IV: affects special enemies Tier V: slow effect can spread to 5 enemies Dead Wire Tier IV: affects special enemies Tier V: stun effect can spread Napalm Burst Tier IV: affects special enemies Tier V: burn effect can spread to 5 enemies
Weapon Classes
Weapon class upgrades infer permanent boosts to certain stats for all weapons in a given class, regardless of how you acquire them when in a game of Zombies. The new upgrade tiers work a little differently with Weapon Classes than the other categories, in so far as every class except Melee gets the exact same Meta Upgrades. At Tier IV, they all get the same bonus as at Tier I but amplified, and at Tier V they get an amplified version of the upgrade at Tier II. The odd one out here is Melee, where the Tier IV upgrade is an increased mirror of Tier II, and Tier V gives you a chance to get healed on each hit. This just might be the most significant upgrade of them all to be introduced in Season 2. Now that you’re armed with all there is to know about Tier IV and V upgrades, check out our guide covering Season 2’s Prestige levels.
