Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies’ new Directed Mode will start forcing players to Exfil after a set time limit is reached, likely as a response to the new assortment of XP farms the mode enables.
In Black Ops 6 Season 1, Treyarch added Directed Mode to the game’s Zombies experience.
In the new, guided mode, players are taken step-by-step through each map’s Easter Egg Main Quest, while the game caps the active round to ensure that things never get too challenging.
But after fans found several methods to use this round cap to create XP farm exploits in Black Ops 6 Zombies, it seems that the developer is beginning to take action.
Directed Mode Receives Forced Exfils in Black Ops 6 Zombies
As of the November 19 patch, when players reach the five-hour mark in Black Ops 6 Zombies’ Directed Mode, an Exfil will automatically be initiated.
Unlike in MW3 Zombies, Black Ops 6 Exfils are mandatory once initiated. Failing to reach and clear the Exfil site in time will result in the game coming to an end and the player dying.
This new change prevents players from remaining in a game of Zombies for too long, and likely comes as a response to the prevalence of XP farming methods made possible by Directed Mode.
According to developer Treyarch, this change was made ‘due to a performance issue’ that stems from extended games of Zombies. However, we imagine that this is just the first of many steps that the studio will take to prevent players from exploiting the round cap mechanic in the near future.
Of course, there’s nothing stopping a player from immediately hopping back into Directed Mode right after extracting. And if you’ve been slaying undead for five hours already, you probably won’t have much issue with taking a brief break.
But this will at least prevent AFK XP and camo farming strategies which have players leaving their games eliminating the undead overnight.
And since Black Ops 6 is never offline, it also likely benefits Treyarch by freeing up server space too. Lately, fans have started to suspect that the developer wants players to end Zombies games early to free up server capacity, which could be why the game gets so challenging after Round 30.