Origins — Black Ops 2 Zombies Easter Egg Guide

In this guide: full main-quest walkthrough, recommended loadout, interactive solvers, side Easter eggs & songs, boss strategy · Very Hard, ~60–100 min.

Open the interactive guide →
Black Ops 2 · 2012

Origins

WWI Dieselpunk trenches with giant robots. The Primis crew build four Elemental Staves to free Samantha from Agartha. The blueprint for every big EE that followed.

Released 27 Aug 2013 Little Lost GirlSolo-ableElemental Staves
Very HardEst. time60–100 minPlayers1–4 (solo-capable)Updated8 Sep 2026
Documented here11 walkthrough steps · 7 side Easter eggs (incl. 3 songs, 1 free perk) · 1 interactive solver · 3 weapon builds · 9 named areas · 2 sources cross-checkedCounted from this page, not estimated. We publish what is documented rather than a percentage of what might exist — nobody can honestly claim to know the full list.

Quick answers

How do you complete the Origins Easter egg?

It is rated Very Hard and takes about 60–100 min. The run breaks down like this:
  1. Activate all 6 generators + open the Crazy Place
  2. Build the 4 Elemental Staves
  3. Upgrade all 4 to Ultimate Staves
  4. Fill the 4 soul chests → One Inch Punch (each player)
  5. Get the G-Strike + build the Maxis Drone
  6. Ascend from Darkness — place the staves in the robots
  7. Rain Fire — Odin button + G-Strike the seal
  8. Unleash the Horde — Drone into the seal, kill the Panzers
Each stage is written out in full — with the exact locations, the order things must be done in and what to do when a step refuses to trigger — in the walkthrough below.

How long does the Origins Easter egg take?

About 60–100 min for a run that already knows the steps, and we rate it Very Hard. A first attempt takes considerably longer — almost all of the time goes on setup rather than the finale, so knowing the order in advance is what shortens a run.

Can you do the Origins Easter egg solo?

Players: 1–4 (solo-capable). It is solo-capable. Co-op mainly helps with the timed steps, where a second player can hold a zombie or cover a second position, and it makes the ending far more forgiving.

Is there a song Easter egg on Origins?

Yes — 3: “Archangel”, “Shepherd of Fire” and “Aether”. Kevin Sherwood ft. Elena Siegman & Malukah. Hold interact on the 3 green 115 rocks: lower spawn by the bunks, the Workshop upper floor, and the Excavation scaffolding (spawn-facing side). Full trigger steps for each one are in the side Easter eggs section.

What are the main areas on Origins?

9 are documented: Spawn / Trenches (Generator 1), Generator stations 2–6, Tank Station (Gen 2), Excavation Site (Dig Site), The Church (Gen 6 side), Workshop / Bunker (Wind side), Elemental tunnels & the Crazy Place, No Man's Land & robot lanes and Giant footprint. Knowing the names matters more than it sounds — most guides, including this one, describe locations by area name rather than by direction.

How many side Easter eggs are on Origins?

7 are documented here — song, side quest, free perk and mechanic. Each one has its own steps rather than a one-line mention, so they can be followed mid-game.

Are there solvers for the Origins puzzles?

Yes. Origins has randomised puzzles whose answer changes every match, so there is nothing to look up — this guide ships 1 interactive solver that take what your own game is showing you and return the answer for that run. They are embedded at the step that needs them and listed together in the solvers section.

When was Origins released?

27 Aug 2013.

Key areas

Spawn / Trenches (Generator 1)

Opening trench with Gen 1, two shovels, Rituals of the Ancients chest, Dig Site door.

Generator stations 2–6

Each generator powers its surrounding utilities and usually a perk + Wunderfizz spawn; community shorthand is 'Gen 2 … Gen 6'.

Tank Station (Gen 2)

Mark IV Tank garage — tank rides gather Lightning Staff parts; blue (ice) record on the shelves.

Excavation Site (Dig Site)

Central mound: PaP at the top once all six generators run; staff-building chambers and the ring puzzle in the lower levels.

The Church (Gen 6 side)

Burning church — Fire Staff territory; sniper-scope jumpscare; ice tunnel entrance nearby.

Workshop / Bunker (Wind side)

The work station building with staff part spawns and the Thompson; musical Divinium block under a bed.

Elemental tunnels & the Crazy Place

Four tunnels (fire/ice/wind/lightning) with Templar spawns teleporting to the Crazy Place, where gems and staff upgrades happen.

No Man's Land & robot lanes

Open centre crossed by Freya, Odin and Thor in fixed lanes — glowing foot to enter; Panzers only start spawning once the NML door is open.

Giant footprint

Landmark by Gen 5/VMP fence used as a reference point for quest items.

Steps at a glance

  1. Activate all 6 generators + open the Crazy Place
  2. Build the 4 Elemental Staves
  3. Upgrade all 4 to Ultimate Staves
  4. Fill the 4 soul chests → One Inch Punch (each player)
  5. Get the G-Strike + build the Maxis Drone
  6. Ascend from Darkness — place the staves in the robots
  7. Rain Fire — Odin button + G-Strike the seal
  8. Unleash the Horde — Drone into the seal, kill the Panzers
  9. Skewer the Winged Beast (Zombie Blood plane + pilot)
  10. Wield a Fist of Iron — punch 20 glowing arms each
  11. Raise Hell — staves to the Crazy Place → free Samantha
  12. (Bonus) Drone into the portal for the cutscene
Solo-able, but not on Easy. Keep all six generators on at once at least once after building the staves, or the finale won't trigger. Expect a long run.

Before you start

What to have in hand before step 1 — from the loadout notes, from the walkthrough itself, and from the map's own quest documentation where the gate is never stated in a step.

Gates on this quest
  • Little Lost Girl cannot be completed on Easy.
  • Step 1 only completes once all six 115 generators have been on at the same time at least once, after the staffs were built.
  • The ending is blocked the same way — if the generators lapse after step 5, it will not finish.

Set aside 60–100 min · 1–4 (solo-capable)

Where your run will differ

Gathered here so you meet them before they cost you a run rather than after — quoted word for word from the guide below, or researched from the map's own quest documentation.

Which version you're playing

This map exists in more than one release, and these are the points where they differ. Everything else in this guide applies to both.

  • Black Ops 3 replaces PhD Flopper with Widow's Wine in the Wunderfizz pool.
  • The Black Ops 2 step-2 pedestal glitch, which tricked the game into thinking all four staffs had been placed, does not exist in Black Ops 3.
  • Distant crawlers respawn as fresh zombies in Black Ops 3, so keeping one alive across the map does not work the way it does in Black Ops 2.
Solo or co-op

What changes with your player count. The rest of the guide is the same either way.

  • The whole quest is soloable. The G-Strike step splits naturally in co-op — one player presses, another throws — and alone it is the Odin call, the button, then a sprint to make the throw.

Full walkthrough

0% complete

The quest in the order this guide runs it — tap any step to jump to it, and it fills in as you tick steps off.

1
Setup

Generators, shovel & dig site

+

Activate all 6 generators (stand in the ring, kill the Templars) — all six on enables Pack-a-Punch and the robot pedestals. Grab a shovel and dig piles (Ice Staff parts only drop from digs while it's snowing). Collect the Gramophone + black record and play them on the lower Excavation table to open the Crazy Place staff chamber.

2
Excavation staff chamber

Build the 4 staves

+

For each element, collect its coloured record and three parts, take the Gramophone to that element's tunnel for the crystal from the Crazy Place, and build at the matching pedestal.

  • Ice (blue) — 3 parts dug in snow (it snows around rounds 2–4 and round 10, then randomly, so dig early or expect a wait), one per region: Gens 2–3 area, Gens 4–5 area, and the Church/Gen 6 area
  • Wind (yellow) — one part inside each of the 3 Giant Robots; only a foot showing YELLOW LIGHTS underneath can be opened — shoot it with a BULLET weapon (Ray Gun, Mark II and Boomhilda do NOT register) and stand in the footprint to be stomped inside. Routes: Thor (Gens 2–3), Odin (Gens 4–5, centre), Freya (Gen 6/Church)
  • Lightning (purple) — 3 parts by tank-jumping to the ledges
  • Fire (red) — the Gen-6 Rituals chest, the orange biplane, and the round-8 Panzer
3
Crazy Place + map

Upgrade to Ultimate Staves

+

Each staff has a Crazy Place puzzle plus map targets, then a ring-alignment and a soul-charge. The full per-staff steps are in the Side Easter Eggs below.

Note: the Ice cipher and some sequences are randomised each match — read them live. The Ice Staff Cipher Solver below turns the wall panel's dots into the stone to shoot.

Coloured discs / targets cluster by zone: yellow around Generator 5, blue around Generator 2, purple around Generator 4, red around the Church / Generator 6 — check those areas first to cut the grind.

Ice Staff Cipher Solver

Origins — the Crazy Place, above the ice portal

Six floating stones above the portal carry symbols in one number system; the blue panel on the wall shows a number in another. They match by value, and the values are randomised per game — six of twelve wall patterns appear in each match. Read the wall panel's dots into the three columns here and it names the stone to shoot; tick the six off as they flip, because a wrong shot flips every solved stone back.

What this is based onBuilt from the sources listed on this page · 2 sources cross-checked · guide last reviewed 8 Sep 2026.Not matching your game? This puzzle is randomised per match — read the values your own game is showing you, then see the walkthrough step.
4
Robot footprints

Soul chests → One Inch Punch

+

Fill the four soul chests in the robot footprints (~30 close kills each; a robot stomp resets an unfinished chest). Then claim the One Inch Punch from a Rituals of the Ancients chest — every player needs their own.

5
Tank Station · Church

G-Strike & Maxis Drone

+

G-Strike (personal): take a stone tablet from the Tank Station table, place it in the upper-Church holy-water basin and do 20 melee kills, then carry it back to the Tank Station without touching mud and do 20 more melee kills for the G-Strike. Also build the Maxis Drone (brain on the lower-spawn table + frame + rotor) and the Zombie Shield.

6
The three robots

Ascend from Darkness

+

With all four staves upgraded, place each in its robot pedestal — Ice in Freya (Church), Wind in Odin (centre), Lightning in Thor (Gens 2-3) — and the Fire staff in the new fifth pedestal below Excavation. Samantha then returns all four staves to their build pedestals.

7
Odin · Gen-5 seal

Rain Fire

+

When the three robots march together, shoot Odin's glowing foot and enter — one player presses the red button while a teammate throws a G-Strike onto the cracked concrete seal by Generator 5 within the few-second window. A missile barrage opens the seal.

8
The opened seal

Unleash the Horde

+

Deploy the Maxis Drone into the seal, then move to open ground and kill the Panzer Soldat horde (~two per player). The Drone is gone until the next stage.

9
Excavation mound

Skewer the Winged Beast

+

Get Zombie Blood (a drop, a red dig site, or douse the flaming carts with the Ice Staff). While in it, shoot down the glowing red biplane with a bullet weapon, then chase the invisible pilot clockwise around the mound and kill it — it drops the upgraded Maxis Drone.

10
Staff chamber

Wield a Fist of Iron

+

Every player must hold the One Inch Punch. In the lower Excavation staff chamber, punch ~20 glowing-arm Templars (each player does their own count) and claim the Iron Fist reward — the stage won't advance until everyone finishes.

11
Crazy Place

Raise Hell & Freedom (finale)

+

Carry all four upgraded staves to the Crazy Place and seat each in its elemental pedestal, then kill zombies around the centre (~100 souls) until the ceiling portal opens → Samantha freed + Little Lost Girl.

Bonus: deploy the upgraded Maxis Drone into the light and hold interact at the centre for the ending cutscene (ends the match).

Side Easter Eggs & extras

Everything beyond the main quest. Tap any entry to open the full how-and-where breakdown.

Song

“Archangel”

+

Kevin Sherwood ft. Elena Siegman & Malukah. Hold interact on the 3 green 115 rocks: lower spawn by the bunks, the Workshop upper floor, and the Excavation scaffolding (spawn-facing side).

  1. Hold Use on 3 green meteorite fragments, in any order
  2. Spawn room — right of the ancient chest, on the far side of the bunk bed
  3. Workshop second floor — opposite the stairway, under a bed
  4. Scaffolding left of the Excavation Site entrance (facing spawn), next to a crate
  5. 'Archangel' by Malukah plays. Bonus: 'Shepherd of Fire' (3 red radios) and 'Aether' (prone on the '1's by Generator 1, then a '5' by Generator 5 = 115)
Song

“Shepherd of Fire”

+

Avenged Sevenfold. Hold interact on the 3 red radios: the secret lower-Excavation walkway, the Crazy Place passage between the Fire and Lightning sections, and inside Freya's head.

Song

“Aether”

+

Activate Generators 1 and 5, then interact with the two floor panels marked 1 at Generator 1 and the panel marked 5 at Generator 5.

Side quest

The four Elemental Staves

+

Each staff is built (record + 3 parts + crystal), then upgraded via a Crazy Place puzzle, map targets, a ring-alignment and a soul-charge. Full per-staff steps below.

  1. Ice → Ull's Arrow: solve the randomised Crazy Place dot-cipher (shoot the ceiling glyph matching each wall value); freeze and bullet-shatter the 3 gravestones (by Jugg/Gen 4, the Excavation–Gen 4 lane, and behind Tank Station); align the Excavation rings blue and shoot the blue orb; soul-charge in the blue pedestal.
  2. Wind → Boreas' Fury: rotate the 4 Crazy Place rings until the glyphs read F-I-L-L; redirect the 3 smoke spheres (Gen 4, the Church tank-track, and Gen 5) to point at Excavation; align the rings yellow and shoot the yellow orb; soul-charge in the yellow pedestal.
  3. Lightning → Kimat's Bite: play the Crazy Place piano notes on the bottom-row triangles 1-3-6, then 3-5-7, then 2-4-6 (wait for the sparks to fade between each code; if you misfire, shoot three random TOP-row triangles to reset, then start the code again); turn the 7 sparking panels until none spark (Gen 5 down · Church basement right · Church upper up · Wind tunnel up · lower-spawn stairs left · Tank Station back-door down · Excavation-to-Church up); align the rings purple and shoot the purple orb; soul-charge.
  4. Fire → Kagutsuchi's Blood: light the 4 Crazy Place cauldrons with kills; read the 4 lit Church symbols and convert them with the fixed right-to-left values 11, 5, 9, 7, 6, 3, 4 (the blood-stain symbol is always 4); shoot the matching basement torches with the Fire Staff; align the rings red and shoot the red orb; soul-charge.
Free perk

Der Wunderfizz & rewards

+

The Wunderfizz machine sells a random perk beyond the normal limit; the Rituals of the Ancients board pays out Double Tap, a random PaP'd rifle, Max Ammo and the One Inch Punch as you meet its challenges.

  1. Der Wunderfizz dispenses one random perk — including perks not otherwise on the map — for 1,500 points
  2. It works like the box: after a few uses a teddy bear appears and relocates it
  3. A lightning bolt strikes its current location so you can find it
  4. Combined with Empty Perk Bottles (from the Golden Shovel dig spots), you can exceed the 4-perk cap up to 8
Side quest

Golden Shovel & Helmet

+

Dig ~30 piles to upgrade to the Golden Shovel (better dig loot + red dig sites in Zombie Blood for an extra perk slot), then keep digging for the Golden Helmet — it blocks the giant robots' foot stomps entirely.

  1. Pick up a shovel (four spawns by the generators) and dig every pile you pass
  2. Roughly 30 digs upgrades it to the Golden Shovel — digs now yield better loot
  3. Grab a Zombie Blood power-up, then dig piles while it's active
  4. The Golden Helmet drops — giant robot foot stomps no longer damage you
Mechanic

Zombie Blood

+

A map-exclusive power-up that turns you invisible to zombies and reveals hidden glowing items — essential for Skewer the Winged Beast and for safely crossing robot paths.

  1. Zombie Blood cloaks you in red fog so the undead ignore you temporarily
  2. Get it as a random drop, or free once per round (unless it's raining) by shooting the three flaming carts at the Excavation Site with the Staff of Ice — it then appears by the Pack-a-Punch scaffolding
  3. Use it to move through crowds, revive, and do Easter-egg steps safely
  4. With the Golden Shovel it reveals orange glowing dig spots
  5. Dig those spots in Zombie Blood for an Empty Perk Bottle (an extra perk slot, up to 8)

Interactive solvers

Every solver for Origins, in the order you meet them. Each also appears inside its step in the walkthrough above — use whichever is handier. Browse every Zombies solver →

Ice Staff Cipher Solver

Origins — the Crazy Place, above the ice portal

Six floating stones above the portal carry symbols in one number system; the blue panel on the wall shows a number in another. They match by value, and the values are randomised per game — six of twelve wall patterns appear in each match. Read the wall panel's dots into the three columns here and it names the stone to shoot; tick the six off as they flip, because a wrong shot flips every solved stone back.

What this is based onBuilt from the sources listed on this page · 2 sources cross-checked · guide last reviewed 8 Sep 2026.Not matching your game? This puzzle is randomised per match — read the values your own game is showing you, then see the walkthrough step.

When it isn't working

The stalls that actually cost people runs on this map, and what to do about each.

TroubleshootingEach of these is quoted from the step it belongs to, derived from a gate the guide already states, or researched from the map's own quest documentation — nothing here is guesswork about what might be going wrong.

Copied an answer from another guide and it did not work?

Some of this map is randomised per match — the answer you were given was correct for somebody else's game and cannot be correct for yours. Read the value your own game is showing you, then use the solver on this page: Ice Staff Cipher Solver.

Built and upgraded everything, but Step 2 pedestals won't complete / staffs stuck

The step only completes if all 115 generators are active — otherwise the staff pedestals never despawn — and the quest itself only starts if all six generators have been on at the same time at least once after building all four staffs. Re-power any generator zombies took down.

G-Strike on the seal keeps vanishing

The beacon must land on the cracked stone circle behind/right of Generator 5 within a short window after the robot button press: 'If the G-Strike is thrown inaccurately, it will disappear and the Demonic Announcer can be heard laughing.' Solo: press the button as Maxis says 'one', take the purge, sprint and throw immediately — and only one robot foot is lit each pass.

The game won't end at the final teleporter

If the generators were never all on simultaneously before step 5, and have not been since, 'attempting to access the teleporter will not end the game' until all six run again.

Iron Fist tablet dropped where I can't reach it

Upgrade hits must land on glowing-arm Crusader zombies inside the Excavation Site; do not hit ones still climbing in at the walls — 'the tablet can drop out of the player's reach, making the rest of the easter egg impossible to complete.' Every player in the game needs their own Iron Fist.

Ice staff parts never spawn in dig piles

Ice staff parts only come from dig spots on rounds when it is snowing — typically it snows on rounds 2–4, round 10, and randomly after that. If it's not snowing, dig piles cannot give parts — wait for a snow round rather than re-digging.

Panzer never spawns so I can't get its part

Panzersoldat 'will also never spawn if the door leading to No Man's Land remains closed'. Open the NML door; first spawn is round 8, then every 3–5 rounds.

Common Origins questions

Direct answers to the specific things players look up mid-game — part locations, puzzle steps and more.

Where is Pack-a-Punch on Origins?

At the top of the Excavation Site mound, and it only opens once all six generators are running. That is the same condition the robot pedestals need, so getting the generators up is the real gate on this map.

Why do Ice Staff parts never spawn in my dig piles?

Because they only drop while it is snowing. If the weather is not right you can dig all day and never see one — wait for the snow rather than burning shovel time.

How do I get a shovel, and why do I want the golden one?

Two shovels are in the spawn trench. Dig around 30 piles and yours upgrades to the Golden Shovel, which pulls better loot and opens red dig sites in Zombie Blood for an extra perk slot. Keep digging past that and you get the Golden Helmet, which blocks the giant robots' foot stomps outright.

What is Zombie Blood for?

It turns you invisible to zombies and reveals hidden glowing items. It is mandatory for Skewer the Winged Beast and it is the safe way to cross the robot lanes. You get it as a drop, from a red dig site, or by dousing the flaming carts with the Ice Staff.

Where do the coloured discs and targets cluster?

By zone, which cuts the grind considerably: yellow around Generator 5, blue around Generator 2, purple around Generator 4, and red around the Church and Generator 6. Check those areas first.

How do the soul chests work?

Four of them, sitting in the robot footprints, needing about 30 close kills each. A robot stomp resets an unfinished chest, so do not try to fill one under a robot that is about to walk over it.

Does every player need the One Inch Punch?

Yes. Each player claims their own from a Rituals of the Ancients chest, and the Iron Fist stage will not advance until every player has punched their own twenty glowing-arm Templars.

What is Der Wunderfizz?

A machine that sells a random perk beyond the normal limit, debuting on this map. Alongside it, the Rituals of the Ancients board pays out Double Tap, a random Pack-a-Punched rifle, a Max Ammo and the One Inch Punch as you meet its challenges.

When do Panzers start spawning?

Only once the No Man's Land door is open. If you have not opened it, a Panzer will never appear at all — which matters, because you need one for a staff part.

How do I get the G-Strike?

It is per player. Take a stone tablet from the Tank Station table, place it in the upper-Church holy-water basin and get 20 melee kills, then carry it back to the Tank Station without touching mud and get 20 more.

Visual guides & sources

Screenshots and exact part locations live in these — open one on a second screen.

CoD Wiki — Little Lost Girl
Full reference
GameFront — Origins guide
Numbered walkthrough

Map discussion

A shared community board for Origins — posts are public, saved on the server and visible to everyone across devices. Handy for strategies, spawn variations you've noticed, or steps to double-check. Please keep it civil and on-topic.

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Part of the Zombies Easter Egg Codex — step-by-step Call of Duty Zombies Easter egg guides for every map. Open Origins in the interactive codex for the solvers and map discussion.