Shangri-La — Black Ops Zombies Easter Egg Guide

In this guide: full main-quest walkthrough, recommended loadout, side Easter eggs & songs, boss strategy · Hard, ~45–75 min.

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Black Ops · 2010

Shangri-La

A lost jungle temple. Free two explorers, Brock & Gary, stuck in a time loop. The whole quest runs on Eclipse Mode. Rewards the Focusing Stone — needed for Moon.

Released 28 Jun 2011 Time Travel Will Tell4 players (BO1)Focusing Stone
HardEst. time45–75 minPlayers4 in BO1 · 2–4 in BO3 (co-op required)Updated7 Sep 2026
Documented here10 walkthrough steps · 4 side Easter eggs (incl. 1 song) · 3 weapon builds · 8 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

Shangri-La is a Black Ops Zombies map set in a lost jungle temple where two explorers, Brock and Gary, are stuck in a time loop. The quest, Time Travel Will Tell, runs almost entirely inside Eclipse Mode and rewards the Focusing Stone — a component Richtofen needs on Moon, and every perk permanently for whoever picks it up. Rated Hard, 45–75 minutes, and it is co-op only — the original Black Ops version needs four players.

How do you complete the Shangri-La Easter egg?

It is rated Hard and takes about 45–75 min. The run breaks down like this:
  1. Power on (two switches, underground)
  2. Enter Eclipse Mode (4 buttons by Quick Revive)
  3. Match the stone tiles
  4. Waterslide pressure plate
  5. Shrink the crystal ball with the baby gun
  6. Ignite gas leaks with a Napalm zombie
  7. Plug the tunnel holes with mines
  8. Melee 12 symbols + blow the tent
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 Shangri-La Easter egg take?

About 45–75 min for a run that already knows the steps, and we rate it 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 Shangri-La Easter egg solo?

Players: 4 in BO1 · 2–4 in BO3 (co-op required). This one genuinely cannot be finished alone — at least one step needs two players in different places at the same time.

Is there a song Easter egg on Shangri-La?

Yes — “Pareidolia”. Hold interact on the 3 meteor fragments (any order): spawn, behind/left of Quick Revive by the wall and vegetation · just after the mud maze, near the left side of the wooden bridge · the Semtex/grenade room, on the outer wooden platform. O Full trigger steps for it are in the side Easter eggs section.

What are the main areas on Shangri-La?

8 are documented: Spawn / Temple steps, Waterfall / Water Slide, Mud-Pit Maze, Mine tunnels / Mine Cart, Power Room (water levers), Underground perk caves, Geysers and Pack-a-Punch temple (top). 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 Shangri-La?

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

When was Shangri-La released?

28 Jun 2011.

Key areas

Spawn / Temple steps

Start in front of the temple: Quick Revive, M14/Olympia; the four Eclipse-switch dials for the quest; two debris routes out.

Waterfall / Water Slide

Waterfall side route with the Water Slide down; Mule Kick always at the bottom of the waterfall.

Mud-Pit Maze

Pressure-plate maze — 'walls will come down deciding where the player will go'; Juggernog/Speed Cola can spawn beside it.

Mine tunnels / Mine Cart

Underground tunnels with the Mine Cart ride and box spawns; cave route to power.

Power Room (water levers)

Two water levers drive the water-powered generators to turn on power.

Underground perk caves

Rotating underground perk spawns: Stamin-Up, PhD Flopper/Widow's Wine, Deadshot, Double Tap 'randomly spawn underground'; geyser room by Mule Kick.

Geysers

Two geysers that launch players between levels via pressure plates.

Pack-a-Punch temple (top)

PaP behind the spike traps at the top of the main stairs; Zombie Monkeys lurk here and steal power-ups.

Steps at a glance

  1. Power on (two switches, underground)
  2. Enter Eclipse Mode (4 buttons by Quick Revive)
  3. Match the stone tiles
  4. Waterslide pressure plate
  5. Shrink the crystal ball with the baby gun
  6. Ignite gas leaks with a Napalm zombie
  7. Plug the tunnel holes with mines
  8. Melee 12 symbols + blow the tent
  9. Solve the mud-room dials
  10. PaP the shrink ray + get the dynamite
  11. Finale — shrink the meteor & free the Focusing Stone
Needs 4 players in original BO1 — the four eclipse buttons, four Pack-a-Punch plates and paired-tile puzzle can't be done short-handed. The longest BO1 Easter Egg: eight stages, each done inside a ~3–5 minute eclipse (finishing a stage ends the eclipse). Keep a crawler before every eclipse and prepare the 31-79 JGb215 (Baby Gun), its Pack-a-Punched Fractalizer, Spikemores, an explosive and a controlled Napalm Zombie. Reward: everyone earns the achievement and claims the Focusing Stone (carried into Moon). The permanent all-perks bonus is Black Ops 3 / Zombies Chronicles only — there, whoever collects the Focusing Stone keeps all seven perks for the rest of the match (even through downs), and each player must repeat the quest with a different collector to share it. In original BO1 the payoff is the Focusing Stone and the achievement, not perma-perks.

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
  • Time Travel Will Tell needs four players in the original Black Ops.
  • Have all of this ready before the late stages: a Napalm Zombie kept alive, Spikemores (Trip Mines in Black Ops 3), an explosive weapon, and a Pack-a-Punched 31-79 JGb215.

Set aside 45–75 min · 4 in BO1 · 2–4 in BO3 (co-op required)

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.

  • Spikemores in Black Ops become Trip Mines in Black Ops 3 for the hole-plugging step.
Solo or co-op

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

  • Four players is a hard gate at the very first stage — the four eclipse dials have to be pressed together.

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
Underground · temple plates

Power, Pack-a-Punch & gear

+

Pull both power switches in the underground power room (opposite sides of the central machinery — one player each). Pack-a-Punch is plate-gated: all four players stand on the four glowing pressure plates — spawn/temple by Quick Revive · the minecart-side path · the power room between the switches · the mud/bridge side — to raise the temple stairs, then climb and upgrade before they retract. Gear up: the 31-79 JGb215 (Baby Gun) from the box, its Pack-a-Punched Fractalizer (for the gongs and finale), Spikemores (tunnel wall-buy) and a reliable explosive.

2
Spawn · minecart · mud sides

Stage 1 — eclipse, wake Brock & Gary, 12 tile pairs

+

At spawn, all four players hold the four small circular eclipse buttons around Quick Revive at once to shift into the past. In the eclipse, press the button by the blocked explorers in the minecart/MPL room to wake Brock and Gary — 24 floor tiles rise, 12 on the minecart side and 12 on the mud/bridge side. Split into two pairs; one reveals a symbol, the other finds its match in the opposite field, then both stand on the matching pair at the same time. Sink all 12 pairs to spawn a crystal above the minecart.

A wrong simultaneous pair resets progress; symbols are random, so compare the two in-game shapes directly rather than any redrawn alphabet.

3
Water slide

Stage 2 — the water-slide switch

+

New eclipse: send three players down the water slide to stand together on the metal grate at the bottom. The fourth rides last, holding interact the whole way down to hit the hidden switch on the chute's side wall. Done together, dialogue plays and the eclipse ends.

4
Slide top → geyser

Stage 3 — the crystal relay

+

New eclipse: at the top of the slide, knock the mounted crystal sphere down with an explosive (don't waste Fractalizer ammo on it), shoot the fallen crystal once with the regular Baby Gun to shrink it, then melee it into the slide. It rolls to the lower pool — stand on the geyser as it arrives to launch it onto its spawn pedestal. A second crystal appears above the mud room.

5
MPL underground tunnel

Stage 4 — four gas leaks & the Napalm Zombie

+

New eclipse: in the MPL-side underground tunnel, turn the red gas valve four times to open four leaks, then lead a calm Napalm Zombie past each to ignite it (keep your distance so it doesn't detonate): leak 1 right by the valve · leak 2 on the geyser route back toward spawn · leak 3 just left of the M16 wall-buy · leak 4 above the stairs to the right of the M16. With all four burning, pull the lever by the valve to end the stage.

Two failure cases: if the Napalm Zombie explodes you'll wait a couple of rounds for another to spawn (a real time cost — herd it carefully), and the whole gas step must be finished within a single eclipse — if the eclipse ends first, retrigger it and redo all four leaks.

6
Waterfall tunnel · boulder

Stage 5 — Spikemore holes & the forbidden brick

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New eclipse: in the tunnel between the wooden bridge and the waterfall, find the four wall holes (three lit blue, one dark) and lure zombies through a Spikemore aimed at the wall until a spike lodges in each. Then at the bottom of the waterfall, hold interact on the protruding brick on the side of the central boulder — ignore the prompt telling you not to.

7
Map-wide

Stage 6 — twelve wall panels & the snare

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New eclipse: knife each of the twelve wall panels once (each changes appearance when it registers), then destroy the suspended minecart snare trap (outside the boundary by the minecart) with an explosive. The twelve: left of the PaP staircase · the spawn wall facing the mud passage · the spawn→mud passage wall · the spawn→minecart passage wall · the spawn wall facing the minecart room · the minecart-room wall facing spawn · beside the gong at the minecart entrance · left of the left-hand power switch · the stakeout room (power-room side) · the stakeout room (waterfall side) · the mud-room right wall toward the bridge · the mud-room right wall toward the water slide.

8
Mud room

Stage 7 — the mud-room wheel code

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New eclipse: a radio by the base of the PaP stairs / minecart crate gives the clue (usually read as 16-1-3-4). Facing into the mud room from the spawn entrance, set the four corner wheels: near-left = 4 dots · near-right = 1 dot · far-left = 3 dots · far-right = the C/open-bracket glyph with a vertical stroke and short dash (match the in-game paint, not a redrawn chart). Correct settings end the eclipse.

This stage is effectively timed by the eclipse — if it ends while you're still setting the wheels, retrigger the eclipse and re-enter the code.

9
Eight gongs · spawn crystal

Stage 8 — four gongs & catch the dynamite

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New eclipse (Fractalizer ready): there are eight gongs, four of them correct for your match. Knife them one at a time — a correct gong resonates and leaves the crystal yellow, a wrong one turns it red. The eight — minecart side: left of the MPL wall-buy · in front of the tunnel entrance · left of the minecart entrance · left of the passage back to spawn; mud side: left entering the mud room · right leaving toward the bridge · beside the window by the bridge · just right after crossing the bridge. Each gong also draws a character voice line — a positive reaction on a correct gong, a negative one on a wrong gong — as a second per-gong cue alongside the crystal colour. When all four correct gongs are struck the crystals glow yellow with a rotating Treyarch symbol, the full-success confirmation. Then a player fires the Fractalizer at a focusing crystal to knock a bundle of dynamite toward the spawn crystal — a waiting player under it catches it before it lands. Drop the catch and you just need a fresh eclipse to try the throw again.

10
Temple

Final — shrink the meteor, free the Focusing Stone

+

New eclipse with the dynamite holder alive: shoot the focusing crystal above the mud-room temple with the Fractalizer — the beam chains through the crystal network and shrinks the giant Element 115 meteor into the temple. Raise the PaP stairs (four plates) and climb: Pack-a-Punch is now a brick wall with an opening (the intended finale state) — the dynamite holder feeds the charge to Brock. After the blast, return to the present, raise the stairs again and take the floating Focusing Stone from the altar.

Reward: everyone earns Time Travel Will Tell; the collector keeps all eight perks for the rest of the match (even through downs). A new radio at the base of the PaP temple pops the eclipse buttons back out so the quest can be repeated for a different collector (up to four times). The Focusing Stone is needed for the Moon quest.

Side Easter Eggs & extras

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

Song

“Pareidolia”

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Hold interact on the 3 meteor fragments (any order): spawn, behind/left of Quick Revive by the wall and vegetation · just after the mud maze, near the left side of the wooden bridge · the Semtex/grenade room, on the outer wooden platform. Once per match.

  1. Hold Use on 3 meteorites, in any order
  2. Starting room — near Quick Revive
  3. By the bridge — near the moving walls
  4. Mining / pad area — the room past the AK-74u, in the broken wall across from the Semtex outline
  5. 'Pareidolia' by Elena Siegman plays
Side quest

Monkey stealing

+

Shrieker-summoned monkeys grab power-ups and transform them as they run — kill the monkey to get the (possibly upgraded) drop back, or lose it if it escapes. Grabbing a transformed drop earns Monkey See, Monkey Don't.

Reward

Map achievements

+

Zomb Disposal — kill a Napalm Zombie without letting it damage a player. Small Consolation — use the 31-79 JGb215 on a normal zombie, a Shrieker, a Napalm Zombie and a zombie monkey. Blinded by the Fright — kill a Shrieker while blinded by its scream.

Mechanic

Worth knowing

+

Napalm and Shrieker zombies debut; the minecart is a fast escape; the water slide and geysers are traversal tools. The Focusing Stone grants its holder every perk permanently.

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.

We can't start the eclipse steps

Time Travel Will Tell REQUIRES four players — all four press the spawn-room dials simultaneously to trigger the eclipse. With fewer than four, the quest cannot begin. Also needed across the quest: a calm Napalm Zombie, Spikemores/Trip Mines, an explosive weapon and the Pack-a-Punched 31-79 JGb215.

Matching-plates step keeps resetting

Wrong pair = all plates reappear; a player standing on a plate while another checks shuffles the symbols; and the whole step is timed — 'must be completed in 4–5 minutes or players will return to the present and will have to start over'.

Gongs rung but crystals aren't charged

If the crystals glow red and fade, you're on the wrong gongs (four of them share one resonating sound). And the charge decays: if the resonance stops before the Fractalizer shot, 'the players will need to repeat Step 11'.

Dynamite fell and vanished

Someone must stand directly under it: 'If the player misses the Dynamite, Step 11 will need to be repeated, beginning with striking the gongs.' The radio by the PaP stairs must be interacted with first or the dynamite never appears.

Common Shangri-La questions

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

Can two or three players finish the Shangri-La Easter egg?

No. The first stage needs four players holding the four eclipse buttons around Quick Revive at the same moment, and the tile-matching and water-slide steps both need people in two places at once.

Which perks move around on Shangri-La?

Jugger-Nog and Speed Cola swap between two above-ground spots, and Stamin-Up, PhD Flopper (Widow's Wine in Black Ops 3), Deadshot Daiquiri and Double Tap rotate underground. Quick Revive is fixed at spawn and Mule Kick sits at the bottom of the waterfall.

What are the special zombies on Shangri-La?

Napalm Zombies and Shriekers, both debuting here. A Napalm Zombie burns, explodes when killed and leaves a pool of fire that will kill you if you stand in it. A Shrieker sprints and screams, blinding you for several seconds. Zombie Monkeys are the third nuisance — they steal power-ups.

How do the geysers and the mine cart work?

The geysers launch you between the map's levels and are the fastest way up; the quest uses one directly. The mine cart is a paid ride that kills anything on the track, which makes it a reliable escape when a training loop collapses.

What is at the bottom of the water slide?

A pressure plate the quest needs: three players stand on the grate at the bottom to weigh it down while a fourth rides the slide into the switch. Outside the quest the slide is simply a quick route down to the caves.

Why can I not buy PhD Flopper on Shangri-La in Black Ops 3?

Zombies Chronicles swaps PhD Flopper for Widow's Wine across the map, as it does elsewhere in that collection.

What is the reward for the Shangri-La Easter egg?

The Focusing Stone. Whoever takes it keeps every perk for the rest of the match, and the team earns Time Travel Will Tell. In the story, it hands Richtofen another of the components he needs on Moon.

Visual guides & sources

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

Map discussion

A shared community board for Shangri-La — 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 Shangri-La in the interactive codex for the solvers and map discussion.