Call of Duty: Vanguard has finally introduced some new Zombies content in its Season 2 update. How do you complete the Season 2 easter egg, and is it even worth bothering with?
After three months of very little content in Call of Duty: Vanguard's multiplayer portion, the idea of anything substantial gets us all pretty excited. When the game launched back in November, its Zombies component was a complete joke. We felt a bit optimistic, though, seeing as Treyarch were developing the mode and Black Ops Cold War had been absolutely fantastic (seriously, Outbreak was amazing). The Dark Aether Story was pretty cool, the Forsaken had given us a reasonable chapter-change, and we were expecting big things from Vanguard Season One.
Then, in December, Season One dropped. It was a disaster, and brought basically nothing to the game's Zombies mode. It was beyond comprehension that Treyarch would under-deliver like this – this is something we'd expect from Sledgehammer Games but not from Treyarch. We gave a big sigh, though, and went on thinking "Hey, they'll pull through eventually, Treyarch are now working on their new game, only just finished supporting Black Ops Cold War, and it's not their fault that Sledgehammer Games have been such a disaster." It seems that we were wrong...
After a month or so, Season One Reloaded dropped and brought a sort-of "Prologue" to Der Anfang's Zombies story. That might have seemed a bit weird, but it was appreciated, and we were waiting anxiously for Season Two to come along and knock our socks off. The problem is that this day never came. Season Two introduces a new map to Vanguard's Zombies mode, Terra Maledicta, Wonder Weapons and a ton of minor additions such as a new Covenant, two new Entities and – of course – a brand new easter egg.
There is a catch, though: it's not a very big or interesting easter egg, it's in Terra Maledicta. so it's not the long-promised Der Anfang Story easter egg, it was completed four days before the new season's Zombies content dropped, and it only takes ten minutes to finish.
Four days before the game's second season of Zombies content officially dropped, one Twitter user managed to get into the new map and solve the new easter egg. The content was broadcast on their Twitch channel, showing a full playthrough of Terra Maledicta, and led to a swift removal and Real1tyUK's Twitter Channel being taken down.
How To Beat The "Terra Maledicta" Easter Egg In Vanguard Season Two
It takes ten minutes to finish the new Easter Egg and to double-down on the embarrassment, we're going to take you through exactly how to beat "Terra Maledicta's" Easter Egg. Yes, it's just as disappointing as you'd expect:
Locate the Decimator Shield
To locate the Decimator Shield, you first need to activate the objective in the Temple area. This will teleport you to Vercanna's home soil, where you need to complete the Runestones.
Once this has been completed you need to go to Merchant Road, which is where the Decimator Shield can be found. From here you need to open all areas of the map and then go to the portal to the left of the spawn room.
Once the following objective is completed, Vercanna will tell you where the Speaking Stone is.
Unlock the Decimator Shield
The speaking stone is across from the Speed Cola machine, you need to enter the portal that spawns once the dialogue has ended. Complete the objective and return to the Temple, where you will find the Decimator Shield.
Now you need to destroy the four yellow crystals and interact with the speaking stone in the Bazaar area, entering the green portal that spawns.
Charge the Decimator Shield
After you have entered the portal, you need to complete the Syphonecores objective whilst waiting for the Decimator Shield to charge. You then need to defeat Zaballa the Deceiver and return to the Temple, picking up the Decimator Shield now that it has charged.
Complete Vercanna's next objective and then locate the Blue Perk in the Debris Field. You'll find another speaking stone. Let it talk, then enter the next portal.
Destroy the Tome of Rituals Anchors with the Decimator Shield
Now you need to complete the void objective and then use the Decimator Shield's left-trigger ability to destroy the Tome of Rituals' anchors. This can only be done every one and a half minutes.
Once you have finished the fight, collect the Tome of Rituals page and escape through the portal. This will now award you with the "Rare Awards". That's it. That's the end of the Call of Duty: Vanguard Season 2 Zombies Main Quest Easter Egg. Exciting...?
There's no ending cutscene, no boss fight, and absolutely nothing special to get excited about. The Zombies community is in tatters now, considering that Black Ops Cold War is well and truly over and nothing in Call of Duty: Vanguard seems to be worth our time. It's a shoehorned-in mode that was clearly an afterthought as Sledgehammer focused on delivering one of the worst campaigns in modern Call of Duty history and a pretty bland competitive multiplayer mode (that did, admittedly, have a lot of freakin' maps).
What Do You Get From the "Terra Maledicta" Easter Egg?
Once you have completed the "Terra Maledicta" Easter Egg, you will be rewarded with 10,000 points as well as various rare pieces of equipment, scorestreaks, and rare weapons. It's pretty underwhelming, overall. To be honest not totally worth trying out, as it is boring, bland and rather tedious. It doesn't really build upon the Dark Aether Story and... it's short as fork.
It is going to require a real miracle for Activision to turn this catastrophe around. A big content drop like last year's Outbreak mode, some big blockbuster easter eggs, and some maps that act as true successors to Black Ops Cold War. That's what we want and need. We want to know what happens next in the Dark Aether Story, and we truly wish that things had been different. We were wrong. Let's hope that Modern Warfare 2, or Treyarch's next game, brings Zombies back to the glory days. For now, it's a snooze fest not worth the pixels used to generate its sub-par graphics. Trash.