Buried Trivia Quiz

Answer: Richtofen

The color of the zombies' eyes matches who their controller is. In Mob of the Dead, it is red, showcasing Ferguson's control over the undead. In Nuketown Zombies, the eye color starts off white before transitioning to blue on round 25, showcasing the exact moment in lore when Richtofen takes control.

When the color is white, it means the zombies are either under Samantha Maxis' control (in maps which came out prior to the Origins map) or Doctor Monty's (maps which came out after Origins).

Answer: Jailhouse

Arthur is found, locked inside of a cell in the jailhouse. When first finding him, the key to open his cell is right in plain sight, so freeing him is very easy. If he ends up in this cell later in the game, however, the key will spawn somewhere else randomly, so releasing him in the future can be a tedious affair.

Answer: Knock down debris

In order to progress through the map, the player will find several piles of debris walling them off from certain parts. To knock down this debris, the player must find moonshine, lure Arthur over to debris they want destroyed, face the debris directly, then give him the moonshine.

This will send him into a brief rage, where he will rush right into and collide with the debris, knocking it down and clearing the way.

Answer: Prevent the Mystery Box from ever warping away

While feeding him moonshine unlocks his destructive potential, going to the Candy Shop to fetch Arthur some candy unlocks his more utility laden side. If the player approaches the Mystery Box, waits for Arthur to get close, then feeds him candy, he will walk to the box and slam on it with one fist.

Though nothing appears to visually happen, what Arthur just did is make it impossible for the Mystery Box to ever warp away. Without Arthur doing this, spinning the box gives a chance for a Teddy Bear, which will cause the Mystery Box to de-spawn and appear somewhere else random, likely to the player's detriment.

As such, by simply feeding Arthur candy one time by the box, his fist slamming will save players a ton of annoyance and irritation down the road. Nothing absolutely mandatory by any means, but as the question stated, very helpful quality of life.

Answer: Candy

Feeding him moonshine instead will anger him, causing him to instead fly into a frenzy where he will kill any zombie that gets close to him. Candy, on the other hand, will once again save the player a ton of grief. Arthur will, without fail, construct any device the player tasks him to build, by feeding him candy while standing right next to the workbench for a given utility.

Answer: Create wall buy weapons

It's pleasingly simple: an array of chalk drawings depicting numerous different weapons can be seen inside of a building behind the bank. The player can choose their favorite wall weapon, locate a space marked by a "?", and draw the wall buy weapon into existence just like that.

It is permanent, so players should be careful as to which weapons go where, but they otherwise get complete creative freedom. If, hypothetically, your strategy was to camp with the AN94 by Juggernog like everyone in this community has done at least once, you would simply fetch the AN94 wall buy chalk, go to the jailhouse, draw the AN94 there, then have the loftiest ride to round 40 imaginable.

Answer: Infinite

The Paralyzer is limited not by an ammo count, but by an overheat system. By holding down the fire button, the Paralyzer will get going and will work to freeze and eventually kill zombies standing in front of the player. The overheat mechanic prompts a number to gradually grow as the player fires the Paralyzer. It starts from a heat of 0 and, when it reaches 100, the weapon overheats and must spend time cooling down.

The Paralyzer's other well known function, apart from slaying undead, is being used as a platforming tool, of all things. By aiming it directly at the ground beneath the player, firing and jumping, the player can briefly hover in the air for as long as their Paralyzer will fire for.

When Pack-a-Punched, the Paralyzer becomes the Petrifier. This is basically the exact same thing only much, much stronger. Hard to complain about that.

Answer: Rewind the entire match itself

The Time Bomb was, unfortunately, yet another "Black Ops 2" innovation that was ripe full of charm and potential, that sadly did not achieve anything near what the developers were hoping for. This 'utility' is well known for leading to the most toxic, troll-y moments in all of Zombies, and it actually resulted in Buried becoming the least played Public Match map in the entire game, despite the rest of the map being extremely well received in general.

The way the Time Bomb works, the player deploys it by throwing it somewhere. Doing this marks that exact moment in time, essentially bookmarking it. By activating the Time Bomb again, the entire match will rewind completely back to that exact moment.

Players who have nothing better to do but ruin gaming experiences for others will throw a Time Bomb, wait for the rest of their 'team' to get set up, acquiring their inventory, perks and so on, then they will activate the Time Bomb to totally undo all progress that was made. The Time Bomb will reset any progress Arthur made doing anything as well.

The intention of this tool was almost certainly to act as an insurance policy. If the player takes an untimely death, they could use the Time Bomb to undo the death by sending them back to a point before the death happened. Likewise, if a team is trying to do the Easter Egg Main Quest, but makes a mistake and errantly progresses to the next round, the Time Bomb could helpfully undo that mistake.

Sadly, because people are people, the Time Bomb was an utter disaster and was easily the worst part about Buried in general. The map could very well have been the most played map on the entire game, but its usage statistics tanked seriously hard due to how difficult it was to find a Public Match and not encounter a bad faith actor using the Time Bomb.

Answer: Hide the player from zombies

Vulture Aid is an absolute life saver for those seeking high round pushes. It has impeccable synergy with the Paralyzer wonder weapon; when it overheats and must cool down, the player can find a small patch of green gas spawned by Vulture Aid, step into it, and temporarily be hidden from zombies entirely. This down time would let the Paralyzer properly cooldown, as well as let the player reload their other guns if needed.

In addition, Vulture Aid can cause zombies to randomly drop loot on death. The loot will either be a very small quantity of points, or a very small quantity of ammunition for the gun the player is holding out. This makes Vulture Aid excellent at helping out Mystery Box weapons, since the player cannot directly buy ammunition for them like with wall buy guns.

The only thing truly disappointing about Vulture Aid is the fact that, inexplicably, it appeared on Buried, then didn't appear on another Zombies map for more than a decade. The next time it would be on a map wouldn't be until Citadelle De Morts on "Black Ops 6", which came out in 2025. For reference, Buried launched in 2012.

Answer: Ballistic Knife

The Ballistic Knife, unfortunately, cannot be acquired outside of the Mystery Box, so this quirky sequence is sadly subject to RNG.

Once the player gets the Ballistic Knife, they must ensure they are standing behind a chalk drawing in the floor, then shoot a knife right at the bullseye. Afterward, the player must go to the Witch's House through the front door, emerge from the back door, then enter the house again through a destroyed partition to the side of the exit. Once done, if the bullseye was hit, a Witch will be found calmly playing the piano. The player will have the option to 'tip' her 10 points, and if they do, they will receive a free perk.

Answer: Richtofen

Richtofen's side mainly contrasts to Maxis in that they both ask the player to construct a device intended to execute people. Richtofen wants a guillotine, Maxis wants a set of gallows. Both journeys, predictably, require different steps to achieve. For Richtofen's side, the players will essentially craft the entire thing minus a switch which apparently can only be found going into the future. By placing a Time Bomb atop the mostly finished guillotine and activating it, it will send players into the future, where it is round infinite, and they have 60 seconds to locate the switch inside of this world before being sent back to the present.

Needless to say, trying to kill zombies on round infinite is a completely pointless endeavor. It is actually possible to do, and people have done it, but it's clearly not the focus of this step. The zombies themselves may as well have infinite health, especially given the time sensitivity of the task at hand.

Answer: 84

This is an extremely fast-paced step which strictly requires a full team of four in order to beat. Naturally, each players will have to hit their portion of targets. If one player misses even one target, it fails the step for everyone involved and forces the team to try again, so the team truly must go 84/84 within that very strict time frame.

This step is infamous because it serves as a true 'skill check' for an entire team. It is possible in most cases for entire Easter Eggs to be conquered, where one knowledgeable player can guide three totally brand new players from start to finish. This single step throws a wrench into the plans of teams like that, forcing everyone to carry their own weight.

In any case, a total of 20 targets will appear between the candy store and court room. 23 will pop up at the windows of the Witch's House. 19 will be inside of the saloon, whule 22 will be near the jailhouse. All four of these locations are very far from one another, making it impossible to succeed with any less than a full team of four players.

Despite the varying quantities of targets, it is balanced out by the location they appear in. For example, the Witch's House having the most amount at 23 targets may make it seem the most difficult, but this is offset by the fact that the player responsible does not even have to turn their character's body to hit all 23, they just need to shoot various windows or other parts of the house.

That said, regardless of who mans which location, all four players are in for roughly the same challenge. No one side or the other offers a tangible advantage or reduction in difficulty.

Answer: Reunite with Samantha Maxis

Dr. Maxis and Samantha, his daughter, were forcibly separated way back in "World at War", which was two whole games before "Black Ops 2" and launched five real-world years prior. Maxis' goal has been to reunite with Samantha. To do that, acquiring the Aether has been a necessity for him to reach Agartha, where her soul lays.

Answer: Play God

Richtofen's goal, on paper, is a lot less noble and heartwarming than Dr. Maxis' goal. Richtofen very simply wants to, in his own words, use the world as his "personal plaything". Richtofen reveals that gaining access to the Aether allows him to directly tamper with the physical realm in anyway he wishes.

Richtofen shows his newfound power off by erasing Dr. Maxis from existence, then infusing his own soul into Samuel Stuhlinger's body.

For the remainder of the match from that point on, whoever is playing as Stuhlinger will frequently hear Richtofen's voice. It is here where, perhaps, some cracks in the armor are revealed: Richtofen planned to fully take over Stuhlinger's body, but he wasn't able to physically take control for some reason, only partially mentally. There is never a resolution for this or explanation.

Answer: Earth is destroyed

Richtofen's side leading to the Earth's destruction is fairly straightforward, as he explictly states that he intends to do this. However, while Dr. Maxis' goal may seem honorable and noble, it actually carries the exact same consequences of resulting in the Earth's destruction.

While Dr. Maxis is celebrating his acquisition of the Aether, he thanks the Victis crew but then tells them "Regretfully, I must inform you that neither the Earth, nor its people will survive."

The reason for this is that Maxis would eventually go on to use the Aether to reach Agartha, as he had stated he would do. His intention when arriving, however, is to access Samantha Maxis, who is in a corporeal state in Agartha. Dr. Maxis' goal is to resurrect her, something he actually succeeded in doing, but which also has the consequence of exacting the wrath of the Apothicons onto him and, by extension, the Earth.

The story is extremely complicated, but the gist of it is that Maxis tampered with the dead to get his long lost daughter back, angered cosmic forces beyond comprehension, and got the planet destroyed in the process.