Best Augments for All Perks, Field Upgrades, & Ammo Mods in Black Ops 6 Zombies

Here are our picks for the best Augments in Black Ops 6 Zombies, helping you find out what to research when grinding the undead survival mode.

Augment research is one of the hardest things to grind in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Activision hasn’t revealed exactly how much XP it takes to unlock each Augment level, nor does the game offer you any way to speed up the process.

For the most part, researching Augments in Black Ops 6 Zombies is just something you’ll have to gradually do in the background.

But when it comes to completing the hardest Easter Egg quests in the game, you’ll definitely want to have the strongest Augments on your side.

Best Augments to Research in Black Ops 6 Zombies

All Perks

Jugger-Nog

• Best Major Augment: Reactive Armor
• Best Minor Augment: Durable Plates

Jugger-Nog gets a serious upgrade when equipping Augments, with some of the best options in the game!

Reactive Armor will stun all nearby enemies whenever a single Armor Plate is broken, giving you an easy way out when cornered. We personally believe that this makes it even better than Probiotic, which boosts its user’s health from 250 to 300 HP.

After all, Durable Plates will give each Armor Plate more HP, keeping you protected for longer in the first place.

Stamin-Up

• Best Major Augment: Stalker
• Best Minor Augment: Hot Foot

While most Stamin-Up upgrades aren’t that impressive, being able to walk faster while aiming makes Stalker the best option for a Major Augment.

Where Minor Augments are concerned, Hot Foot will give you a significant boost when using equipment to kill an enemy. Simply drop a grenade and you’ll zip away from enemies in a flash!

Speed Cola

• Best Major Augment: Classic Formula
• Best Minor Augment: Quick Swap

Speed Cola’s Major Upgrades aren’t too interesting, but Classic Formula will allow your already boosted reload speed to be even faster!

While Speedy Roulette (which makes the Mystery Box settle much faster) is great for Essence gamblers, we personally prefer Quick Swap for those clutch moments when you need your secondary weapon out in a hurry.

Deadshot Daiquiri

• Best Major Augment: Dead First
• Best Minor Augment: Dead Break

Deadshot Daiquiri is one of the best Perks in Black Ops 6 Zombies, with some even better upgrades! We recommend using Dead First, particularly when using high-damage weaponry, to deal double the critical damage to full-health enemies.

Another good option is Dead Head, which simply increases critical damage a little more, but generally, you’ll see better results with Dead First.

Meanwhile, for Minor Augments, Dead Break will help you shatter enemy armor, making Manglers and Armored Zombies a little easier to take down.

Quick Revive

• Best Major Augment: Dying Wish (Solo), EMT (Squad)
• Best Minor Augment: Slow Death (Solo), Karmic Return (Squad)

Quick Revive is another Perk that you need to get researching immediately, as it has some of the best Augments in the game. Dying Wish is easily the best Major Augment to bring into a Solo game, as it’ll keep you alive on 1 HP if you were about to die – at the cost of removing Quick Revive.

In a game with friends, you may prefer EMT to help your friends keep all their Perks when they’re downed. But if every player has Dying Wish, there’ll be little need for revives altogether!

If you’re playing Solo, Slow Death will allow you more time in last stand. But when you’re playing in a group, Karmic Return makes your revives even more potent, immediately giving both you and your target full health.

Elemental Pop

• Best Major Augment: Citrus Focus
• Best Minor Augment: Chill Berry

Elemental Pop is the most random of the Perks in Black Ops 6, and it can be frustrating when you’re attempting to use a certain Ammo Mod for challenges.

Citrus Focus will help ensure that you’re always able to trigger the elemental damage you’re looking for, making it a must-have Augment.

Partner it up with Chill Berry, which reduces all Ammo Mod cooldowns, and you’ll dish out more elemental damage than ever!

PHD Flopper

• Best Major Augment: Dr Ram
• Best Minor Augment: Tribologist

PHD Flopper may not be the most useful Perk in the game, but it certainly has some of the funniest Augments in Black Ops 6 Zombies. For example, taking the Dr Ram Major Augment will let you literally run down zombies with your Tactical Sprint.

Alternatively, you could take PHD Slider, which partners up well with our Minor Augment choice!

Tribologist increases your sliding distance and speed significantly, making you incredibly slippery and evasive. And if you have PHD Slider on deck too, you’ll be able to damage enemies you slide into.

Melee Macchiato

• Best Major Augment: Expresso
• Best Minor Augment: Strength Training

While Melee Macchiato is an exciting new addition to the COD Zombies Perk roster, it’s certainly a little lacking. Using the Expresso Major Augment will help mitigate one of the Perk’s biggest issues, by boosting your melee speed significantly.

Partnered up with Strength Training, which boosts your punch’s power even more, and you’ll be able quickly one-shot enemies for more Rounds.

Vulture Aid

• Best Major Augment: Smell of Death
• Best Minor Augment: Carrion Luggage

Vulture Aid arrived in Season 1 Reloaded, and it brings with it some interesting new Augments to take advantage of. Our personal favorite is Smell of Death, which conceals the player from undead while inside gas clouds that are left behind by defeated zombies.

After increasing your survivability, we recommend taking Carrion Luggage to receive additional Salvage and get your equipment upgraded in no time.

Death Perception

• Best Major Augment: Critical Eye
• Best Minor Augment: Bird’s Eye View

Death Perception is the new Perk-a-Cola for Season 2 and it’s certainly a top contender for the most useless Perk in Zombies’ history.

Its Augments are even more underwhelming, but we’d say Critical Eye is the best of the Majors for a slight boost to your overall DPS.

Meanwhile, although the additional range added by Further Insight is an okay option, players who pay close attention to red dots on their minimap will likely prefer Bird’s Eye View for an increased radar scan rate.

All Field Upgrades

Energy Mine

• Best Major Augment: Scatter
• Best Minor Augment: Extra Charge

When it comes to Energy Mine, there are a few options worth exploring. The Turret Major Augment, for example, lets you turn this Field Upgrade into a turret that blasts enemies and helps you lock down a position.

However, we think Energy Mine is best used to help you escape being swarmed.

If you agree, we recommend taking Scatter alongside Extra Charge which let you drop multiple mines at once on a regular basis!

Frenzied Guard

• Best Major Augment: Frenzy Fire
• Best Minor Augment: Repair Boost (Solo), Rally (Squad)

Frenzied Guard is a solid Field Upgrade to deploy when your Armor is low, which makes it a good option for use in desperate circumstances. As such, we think Frenzy Fire, which allows you to use ammo from your stock without reloading, is the best option.

When playing Solo, Repair Boost will allow you to repair more armor per kill.

But if you’re in a group taking on a difficult fight such as the Terminus Easter Egg final boss, Rally will allow you to repair all allies armor to full instantly.

Dark Flare

• Best Major Augment: Extension (Solo), Dark Pact (Squad)
• Best Minor Augment: Broad Beam (Solo), Extra Charge (Squad)

Dark Flare is probably the weakest Field Upgrade in Black Ops 6 Zombies, which is why using these Augments to give it a boost are a must.

Extension can be used to increase the Field Upgrade’s duration, but Dark Pact will let you use the beam to heal (and even revive) other players from range in key moments.

For Minor Augments, Broad Beam will significantly increase the size of the beam fired out, but having an Extra Charge is a great option for those wishing to use Dark Pact to heal their allies.

Healing Aura

• Best Major Augment: Enduring Radiance (Solo), Persistence (Squad)
• Best Minor Augment: Stoic Presence

Healing Aura is a useful instant heal, but if you’re using it, chances are you’re in a tricky situation. Therefore, Enduring Radiance allowing you to leave the area of effect and still receive heals is very useful.

But if you’re playing with friends, Persistence is a must-have, as it’ll revive all nearby players with all their Perks.

Either way, make sure you have Stoic Presence equipped as a Minor Augment, to knock down all nearby enemies and stun bosses.

Aether Shroud

• Best Major Augment: Void Sheath (Solo), Group Shroud (Squad)
• Best Minor Augment: Extra Charge

Aether Shroud is a useful Field Upgrade, but one with some relatively disappointing Augments. Group Shroud will allow you to make all nearby players invisible, but it’s completely useless when Solo.

If you’re doing a single-player game, we instead recommend taking Void Sheath to allow you to stay invisible for longer while thinning out the undead.

Since you’ll only be using Aether Shroud in moments when you’re in danger, Extra Charge will ensure you have the Field Upgrade up more consistently.

Tesla Storm

• Best Major Augment: Static Discharge
• Best Minor Augment: Lithium Charged

Tesla Storm arrived in Season 1 Reloaded, but Cold War Zombies fans will recognize this electrically-charged Field Upgrade. Regardless of whether you’re playing Solo or as part of a squad, Static Discharge is a great option for a get-out-of-jail free card.

When it comes to Minor Augments, Lithium Charged will increase the duration of the Field Upgrade, making it the clear choice when the alternatives are increased range or faster movement speed.

All Ammo Mods

Brain Rot

• Best Major Augment: Pheromone
• Best Minor Augment: Explosive

Brain Rot has a few great Augment options for players to explore. Personally, we recommend this combo, which lures enemies in before detonating them for big damage.

Pheromone will cause Brain Rotted enemies to draw in other undead, taking the pressure off you. And with Explosive, those enemies will explode and deal toxic damage in an area around them.

We also like Plague, which allows Brain Rot to spread to other enemies. But ultimately, the potency of the combination above cannot be ignored.

Cryo Freeze

• Best Major Augment: Ice Cloud
• Best Minor Augment: Liquid Nitrogen

Cryo Freeze might just be the best Ammo Mod in the game, particularly with these Augments boosting its effects. Ice Cloud will cause all frozen enemies to leave behind a slowing cloud of frost.

Partnered with Liquid Nitrogen, you’ll be able to freeze more foes, and leave behind even more frost clouds as a result! Alternatively, Freezer Burn will help you deal more damage to frozen enemies, making it another excellent option.

Dead Wire

• Best Major Augment: Lightning Strike
• Best Minor Augment: Haste

Dead Wire is absolutely necessary when completing the Terminus Main Quest, but it’s also a handy Ammo Mod to use in most games.

While Chain Lightning allows you to spread the stun effect to other zombies, Lightning Strike is even better when it comes to stunning a large group of undead.

We’d personally partner this up with Haste, causing more lightning bolts to hit the ground, resulting in even more stuns.

Napalm Burst

• Best Major Augment: Firebomb
• Best Minor Augment: Incendiary

Napalm Burst is an incredible Ammo Mod, not only because of its exceptional damage against Manglers and Abominations.

By combining Firebomb (which causes enemies to explode and spread the fire effect on death) with Incendiary (which can cause fire to spread with each damage tick), you’ll be able to ignite whole hordes in seconds!

Shadow Rift

• Best Major Augment: Big Game
• Best Minor Augment: Supermassive

As fun as Shadow Rift is to use, it’s a little lacking until you get these Augments in your loadout.

Big Game will allow Shadow Rift to apply to boss enemies such as the Amalgam, instantly killing elites with a single use!

However, since the Ammo Mod has a long cooldown, using Supermassive to increase the odds of hitting an elite with the rift is a must.

Light Mend

• Best Major Augment: Dual Action
• Best Minor Augment: Extra Strength

When it comes to Light Mend, you’ll want to focus on Augments that boost your overall healing. Therefore, Dual Action is the best Major Augment, for its faster rate of healing.

Combined with the Extra Strength Augment to increase the amount of HP restored, you’ll see a huge boost to your overall survivability!

Black Ops 6 Zombies is set to introduce more Perks, Field Upgrades, and Ammo Mods in upcoming seasons, so check back soon to see their best upgrades!