15 November 2025

Best Zombies Field Upgrades in BO7

By newsgame

Black Ops 7 Zombies holds 6 Field Upgrades, with 5 of them being familiar to players of previous entries, and one entirely new one with Toxic Growth! With all the new Augments, buffs, and nerfs to greet the launch of Black Ops 7 Zombies, players might want to know what Field Upgrade is worth using. After all, the best Field Upgrade in BO7 Zombies might just save your life, and even the life of your teammates. Look below to see how we’ve ranked every Field Upgrade, and why it deserves the spot that we gave it!

Dark Flare

A Powerful Energy Beam to Turn Zombies into Ash

Unlock Level: Level 1
Research Unlock Level: 9 total Augments
Description: Generate an energy beam that deals lethal Shadow damage and penetrates enemies in its path.

Dark Flare will see you raise your Field Upgrade and use it as a weapon, which will send forth crackling energy to deal lethal Shadow damage to enemies. It penetrates through them to ensure all zombies share the love of death from this Field Upgrade, and just a quick touch will mark them for their second death. However, it’s a weapon that you won’t need so long as you have competent weapons, and it’s not going to be able to save you from certain death unless you really need a quick surge of damage.

Dark Flare can be made slightly better for solo players thanks to Major Augments like Supernova, which replaces the beam with a sphere to damage nearby enemies as it travels alone, meaning you don’t have to hold it for a duration. For co-op players, Dark Pact is also nice as it can actually heal allies and revive them if you shoot them with it! For Minor Augments, focus on Heavy Gloom, as it will slow enemies hit by the beam to give you more breathing room.

Energy Mine

Make Your Zombie Trains Go Boom

Unlock Level: Level 1
Research Unlock Level: Available immediately.
Description: Create a mine of pure energy that detonates three times.

Energy Mine is pretty okay, but it won’t see much use outside of solo games and for players who are just trying to farm kills. It’s not going to carry you to any main easter egg hunt, but it will deal immense damage deep into high rounds to ensure that you always have an explosive way of killing zombies without relying on weapons and scorestreaks, as it will create a pure energy mine that detonates three times. Therefore, lure zombies into the active Field Upgrade and see them explode.

Energy Mine has decent Augments associated with it, like the Major Augment of Turret to enable the Energy Mine to become a turret that shoots individual targets, or even Scatter to split the detonation into three separate mines. The Minor Augments are also good at increasing the detonation count and duration, like Frequency Boost, or by becoming like Decoys with Siren to distract Normal zombies.

Toxic Growth

Block Pathways to Allow You to Hold Your Ground

Unlock Level: Level 29
Research Unlock Level: 12 total Augments
Description: Summon a deadly growth of thorns in front of you. Enemies moving through it are slowed and take Toxic damage.

Toxic Growth is there to support the defensive players, for those who want to group up with their allies and block certain areas from being accessed by zombies, so that you can manipulate their spawns and pathways to come directly towards you. It’s for the classic players who don’t like to train and just want to hold their ground. However, this is effective in the early rounds for slowing and blocking zombies, but in the later rounds, it’s easily destroyed, and the more you use the Field Upgrade, the more damage and kills you need to activate it.

To help make Toxic Growth somewhat better, you can use Major Augments like Urticant to make the Toxic Growth wider and to slow zombies that dare to enter it. There are also Minor Augments like Extra Charge to allow a second Toxic Growth, or Green Thumb to ensure it sticks around with more health.

Healing Aura

The Ultimate Support Field Upgrade Heals Faster Than Zombies Can Hurt

Unlock Level: Level 17
Research Unlock Level: 15 total Augments
Description: Summon beams of energy down on yourself and allies to instantly revive and heal to full health.

Healing Aura is a Field Upgrade that will allow you to heal all nearby players immediately. This is great for when you’re in a pinch and need to assemble some health faster than your natural regeneration, or that of Quick Revive, or even that of a Stim. However, because healing does come in many forms, some might not elect to use Healing Aura, especially when it rewards co-op gameplay more than solo gameplay. Either way, Healing Aura has a great field of healing to ensure that your time to die has not yet come, especially with its abundance of Augments. If you’ve got a teammate who’s downed, just pop Healing Aura and see them instantly rejoiced and revived!

Players can run Major Augments like Enduring Radiance to ensure the beam and the healing effects remain around for a little while longer, or for players in the midst of high rounds and easter eggs, you can run Persistence to ensure a revived player comes back with the perks on their bleed-out bar. Even the Minor Augments can be beneficial, with Stoic Presence stunning and knocking down Special, Elite, and Normal enemies so that even when cornered, you can escape with your health intact.

Frenzied Guard

Summon the Horde With Temporary Immunity to Health in Exchange for Armor

Unlock Level: Level 8
Research Unlock Level: 3 total Augments
Description: Repair armor to full and force all enemies in the area to temporarily target you. Armor takes all damage during this time and kills repair armor.

The ultimate offensive Field Upgrade is Frenzied Guard, which will see you repair all your armor instantly, and temporarily enter a phase where all enemies will target only you, and during that time, armor takes all of the damage, while additional kills will repair your armor. With Frenzied Guard, you may be fighting aggressive hordes of the undead, but you’re also ensuring that your health is protected so long as you have armor, which isn’t exactly hard to get, considering that with Tier 3 Armor, you’re already pretty strong and durable, and more zombie kills will continue to heal armor. This is perfect for solo players who want to fight to survive, but getting trapped in a corner will still result in you being overwhelmed, unless you’re using immense explosives to free yourself before all of your armor collapses.

With Frenzied Guard, you can enhance it even more with Augments. There are some great Major Augment options, like Retribution, to make sure that normal enemies that hit you during the active period are damaged and knocked down, so you won’t get trapped. Or, there’s Frenzy Fire to ensure you use ammo from stock to hold the trigger and hope for the best. As for Minor Augments, you can’t go wrong with Extension to give yourself more time with the active Field Upgrade.

Aether Shroud

Become Invisible and Invincible from Undead Eyes

Unlock Level: Level 48
Research Unlock Level: 21 total Augments
Description: Phase into the Dark Aether and become temporarily hidden from enemy detection.

Aether Shroud is the best Field Upgrade in BO7 Zombies for defensive reasons, as you can activate it and immediately all zombies will ignore you as if you never existed. Whether you’re low on health, stuck in a corner, or just need time to breathe, Aether Shroud comes in clutch every single time. Of course, if you’re getting damaged by splash damage, you still need to try and get out of the way, but otherwise, nothing will damage you, not even the boss. This provides you with a perfect duration of invisibility where you can do what you need to do without fear of being killed, as you can stand still and kill zombies while they have no idea where they’re getting killed from.

Whether you’re playing solo or with other players, Aether Shroud excels. Major Augments like Group Shroud ensure your teammates can be cloaked alongside you, but Major Augments like Afterimage allow you to distract enemies with a Dark Aether clone of yourself so that they don’t disperse too much. Minor Augments are where Aether Shroud excels, as you can increase the maximum charge by one with Extra Charge to constantly use it when in duress, and even increase the time with Extension, or your movement with Impulse.

Released: November 14, 2025
ESRB: Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs