IX Trivia Quiz

Answer: Get out alive

No joke, the entire premise of this map is a giant hallucination that the Chaos Crew experiences from vaping a lot in a random cave. To say the phrase "what were they on when they imagined this map?" would actually have a serious answer in response.

That said, our four protagonists are clearly under the influence, so they don't know that the hallucination is a hallucination. As such, the goal on this map is to escape the "coliseum" alive.

Answer: Avenged Sevenfold

Siegman and Sherwood have combined to make numerous memorable, even legendary pieces for Zombies maps in the past. But, they gave way to the talented rock/ metal band Avenged Sevenfold here, who produced "Mad Hatter" for this map.

Answer: Tigers

Zombie Tigers are, in essence, re-skinned versions of the Hellhound. They have the exact same health, same health scaling, they have a dedicated round giving players a Max Ammo powerup at the end, and they'll eventually join in regular zombie rounds as the game progresses.

They do have one nasty difference distinguishing them slightly, as they are capable of quickly attacking a player a second consecutive time if the player remains in place while being hit by them. This aspect actually had to be nerfed into the ground not long after this game launched, as players were being immediately downed on instances where two or more Tigers attacked them at once. Since being nerfed, it is no longer possible for a player to be hit by a Tiger more than twice at a time, even if three or more Tigers are at their position. Still, even this can still be really threatening, as players can only survive three quick hits before the fourth will put them down.

Answer: Ten

Each trial prompts the player to complete a conceptually straightforward challenge. Challenges are random, but can include things like killing a certain number of zombies with melee attacks, equipment, or traps, activating the Blade or Acid trap and then quickly moving through them without taking damage, or killing a certain number of Tigers, Destroyers, Marauders, Catalysts or Blightfathers.

Rewards for these trials are actually decent, making them worth interacting with even amidst a casual run that does not intend to do the Easter Egg Main Quest. Players can obtain the Pack-a-Punched Strife pistol, Hades LMG, free power ups and a craftable that is actually needed to craft the Acid Trap.

Answer: Destroyers

Destroyers are big, bulky zombies donning heavy armor and wielding two axes. They will throw one of the axes at the player when in range, then use the other to strike them with up close. When breaking their armor, they will go from slowly walking to sprinting at the player.

Marauders do not wear very heavy armor, but they are big, beefy zombies the size of the Destroyer. They will spawn in and rush right at the player. When they get close, they will snarl at them before quickly leaping to their position to throw several punches at them. After leaping once, they will be able to punch immediately once getting back into melee range.

Answer: Killing things

Simply put, this is a gladiator coliseum, so it stands to reason the crowd came to witness bloodshed. Killing zombies is a straightforward way to achieve this. Additionally, if the player manages to kill a Blightfather in under ten seconds, or a Marauder or Destroyer in five, Crowd Affinity will increase greatly.

Answer: Getting hit

Getting hit by anything at all will cause very minor degradation of Crowd Affinity, albeit less than is gained for killing things, making it easy to correct.

Crowd Affinity will predictably take a large dive if the player gets downed in anyway. It will also be reduced if the player manages to break their Brazen Bull shield. Other than that, Crowd Affinity will take a surprisingly sharp decline if the player takes damage specifically from fire.

Humorously, the player can essentially annihilate their Crowd Affinity in one fell swoop by either firing a rocket from the Helion Salvo into the crowd, or throwing a grenade into the crowd. On rare occasion, if throwing a grenade into the crowd, the crowd could throw the grenade right back at the player.

Answer: Scorpion

A huge Scorpion rests in the character's hand whenever pulling it out. This is no ordinary scorpion though, as when fired, it will shoot an electric bolt from its mouth. The trigger can be held and charged for the bolt to grow larger and expend more ammunition. At its most powerful, this is essentially a very, very poor man's Wunderwaffe DG2, as it will create a streak of lightning that courses through a swarm of zombies. Depending on the round, it will either appear to basically hold them for awhile, or it will hold and eventually kill them.

Sadly, this is a pretty terrible weapon as far as Wonder Weapons go, as it will fail to one-shot a zombie even with a fully charged shot as early as round 20. From there, its main use is as a source of crowd control. The ability to hold a zombie still thankfully never dissipates regardless of the round, but the damage output is severely lacking.

That said, it can be rather funny to hold a Blightfather in place for a significant period of time. If intending to maximize this value, it is recommended for players to equip the Viper & Dragon specialist, as this is best suited to take advantage of the Blightfather being forcibly idle.

Answer: Acid Trap

The Brazen Bull is this map's shield and, while not required for any part of this map in particular, it naturally makes just about anything the player could want to do easier.

The Blade Trap is, similarly, not mandatory for anything, but can make getting the Death of Orion easier since players need to operate directly next to where the trap would be positioned to get the weapon.

Finally, the Acid Trap is required to obtain a free Death of Orion. Players will eventually locate the head of a statue, which would need to be taken and placed inside an opening within a metal drain right under the trap. Once positioned, the player must activate the trap to douse the statue head in acid.

After doing a bit more work and interacting with the Mystery Box, using the box will yield the Death of Orion guaranteed on the next hit. This is a grander journey to craft a Wonder Weapon than any other Wonder Weapon in franchise history, just for it to be a utility toy at absolute best.

Answer: Acquire their severed heads

Once a particular Champion (or Champions) has been overcome, their severed head will drop at the spot they were killed. Players must pick it up, get the severed heads of all Champions, then deliver them onto four separate pikes in front of the Pack-a-Punch machine. Doing this permanently activates the machine for use. Unlike other maps, this PaP machine will never move, turn itself off, or restrict player access in any way once it is turned on.

Answer: Poo

When Crowd Affinity has been reduced to absolute zero, there is a chance the crowd will begin to literally throw their poo at the player. When touched, players will take a minor amount of damage and lose 250 points.

This poo is actually needed for the Easter Egg Main Quest. It is needed to craft fertilizer which will, in turn, be necessary to advance the quest.

Answer: Fire Bomb

Once players have the fertilizer, they need to take it to the Arboretum in the Danu Tower, and leave it there for two full rounds. Afterward, the fertilizer will be found lit up green. This is where Fire Bomb comes in, as the player must wait for an enemy to be standing atop the fertilizer, and they must then kill the enemy with the Fire Bomb effect. This is most easily done with a regular zombie, as tigers will likely die to gunfire first, and Destroyers, Marauders and the Blightfather are simply too tanky to reliably kill with Fire Bomb. It is most easily done with a weapon that does not deal a ton of damage in one shot, so SMGs or pistols, perhaps some assault rifles, would be ideal for this in lieu of shotguns or sniper rifles.

If done correctly, it will create cracks in the ground around the Arboretum, which will be interacted with to continue the quest.

Answer: The Brazen Bull

The Red Fiend Bull is the Pack-a-Punched version of the Maddox RFB assault rifle. A fine weapon which could certainly be used during this quest, but not mandatory.

The Brazen Bull is the map's unique shield, which will be needed for this step. Players must locate four bull-like symbols found on the ground, and they must use the Brazen Bull's machine gun attachment to shoot these symbols.

This triggers a relatively annoying sequence, where players will kill more Champions, then must kill Catalyst zombies in a random, very specific order to proceed.

Answer: Kill-o-Watt

A series of four, in essence, rods will spawn in four locations: Danu and Odin tunnels, the Cursed Room and the Cursed Tunnel. Players must lure an enemy to these rods, use the Kill-o-Watt effect to stun them, then kill the enemy while the stun effect is taking place. This must be done multiple times at each rod to proceed, and will likely take some time.

Just like before, a weapon with low damage per bullet makes this considerably more straightforward. It would be best for the Kill-o-Watt weapon to be the low damager, while the player has a high source of damage they can pull out to quickly kill the stunned enemy.

Sadly, even though the Death of Orion does electrocute enemies and hold them in place, similar to Kill-o-Watt, it will not work for this step. Kill-o-Watt is mandatory to proceed. In fact, because the Death of Orion's damage is very poor and because it cannot have an AAT attached to it, it would actually be best to discard the weapon for something more damaging. What a heck of a Wonder Weapon, players being recommended to discard it in the middle of the map's quest...

Answer: Forever; until the step is finished

If, like me, you are a Viper & Dragon enjoyer who loves the idea of blasting zombies with a dragon-themed hand cannon, you love this step. Then again, using the Hammer of Valhalla, Scepter of Ra or Chakrams of Vengeance forever is a fun time too. These Specialist Weapons are all epic in their own way, they each do infinite damage, and they're typically on a pretty tight timer to enjoy these benefits. So when that timer is taken away and the player is told to fire and forget, it leads to a pretty entertaining sequence.

That said, Gladiator zombies are fairly tanky, and a swarm of them appear during this step. While the player is supremely armed, the resistance they face is quite intimidating. Permanent Specialist is well suited to the sudden, enormous spike in difficulty.

Answer: Blightfather

Each player will need to deal with several Blightfathers during this sequence. The catch is, the step is immediately failed for all players if any player goes down at all, so there is a need for players to be pretty self efficate here.

Depending on the quantity of players, players will be sent to The Pit, The Arena, The Cursed Tunnel and the Cursed Room to do this. Whoever ends up in The Arena has by far the easiest time compared to the other three, while whoever ends up in the Cursed Tunnel will have by far the hardest time of the four. If playing solo, the player will always end up in The Arena, otherwise it is randomized.

While no particular gear is required to overcome this step, the Brazen Bull shield is nearly mandatory for all but the best players. Blightfathers are tough by themselves, but dealing with multiple of them at once will quickly create a chaotic situation which is greatly aided with a shield. The shield can protect the player from the Blightfather's ranged grab attack, among other things. The ranged grab is the Blightfather's most deadly attack. This attack can easily get players killed when it is just one Blightfather, but it is essentially a death sentence to get hit by when there are multiple around at once.

The Viper & Dragon would be the best Specialist for tackling this step, but even then, players cannot use it as aggressively here as they otherwise would if dealing with one Blightfather at a time. If players want to take a more defensive approach, the Chakrams of Vengeance do offer the highest effective range, though their damage output compared to the V&D is considerably less towards Blightfathers.

Funny enough, the Death of Orion can actually put in some really strong work here. It can be used to suspend the Blightfather, or multiple Blightfathers, and allow the player to more safely damage them. That said, the Blightfather gains temporary immunity to the holding effects of the Death of Orion once the hold wears off, so players cannot just suspend them midair forever and ever.

Answer: Survive waves of tough enemies

Crowd Affinity is still a factor, but it interestingly cannot raise or decline during the boss fight; whatever it was at prior to entering the boss room, it will become fixed to. If entering the boss fight room with maxed Crowd Affinity, the crowd can throw helpful items at the player just like before entering the boss room. Clearly then, players would be best suited maximizing their Crowd Affinity before starting the boss fight.

When initially entering the boss fight room, players will have to work together to survive a few waves filled to the brim with Gladiator zombies, Tigers and regular zombies. The arena they'll be in, however, is so unbelievably wide open that this step is pretty much a total joke. Players will never, ever die or be defeated entirely by this step so long as they have more than one functioning brain cell between the entire team.

Answer: Elephants

Two huge zombified elephants make up the boss for this Easter Egg Main Quest. These animals are truly fearsome to look at, and it's clear a lot of budgeting, time and effort went into making them truly look the part of a menacing boss fight.

Sadly, the same budgeting, time and effort did not go into the mechanics of the boss fight. Unfortunately, these elephants are very easy to ultimately slay. They are even easier if someone happens to have Pack-a-Punched versions of the Helion Salvo, M1897 Trebuchet or Welling, as explosives will quickly destroy the elephants' armor, expose their entire underbelly area, and make their large frames very easy for players to hit.

On top of all of this, the arena the fight takes place in is massive and wide open. Players have near endless amounts of space to retreat to and distance themselves from the elephants if they ever end up in trouble.

As such, this is unquestionably the easiest boss fight in this entire game. At the very least, it definitely looks really cool, and the overall atmosphere and aesthetic of the fight is very, very memorable. So it's definitely at least a fun experience, albeit not a challenging one in the slightest.

Answer: Novum Ignotum Proclamation

This is a fictitious law, of which its effect is never actually clarified. It literally translates into "the nine unknown", which clearly fits the theme of the map named "IX", roman numerals for nine. Its exactly effect or purpose is never revealed, but Scarlett mentions it to the High Priest as a means to try and prevent him from ordering their execution.

The High Priest is surprised at this, before telling Scarlett that she should not know about the Novum Ignotum Proclamation.

Answer: Diego

Of course, this entire journey is quite literally a giant trip had from a really powerful vapor, so Diego doesn't actually get killed in anything other than a wild figment of his imagination. Still, if you did not pay attention to the opening cutscene for this map (which does not play if loading into a co-op match!) then you would probably be surprised at this sequence.