Ascension

Ascension opens in black and white. The Ultimis crew arrive at an abandoned Soviet cosmodrome by lunar lander, and until someone throws the power switch the whole map stays monochrome — a first-DLC flourish that tells you Black Ops planned to open with this map before it slipped to the First Strike pack. It is also where the modern main quest was invented: the Casimir Mechanism was the first true multi-step group Easter egg in Zombies.

Power

The switch sits on the top floor of the main building at the centre of the map. Flipping it restores colour, wakes the perk machines and traps, and activates the three lunar landers — which everything else on the map runs through.

The lunar landers

Three landers wait at stations in the far corners of the map, marked with Cyrillic letters. For 250 points a ride carries you back to the central spawn pad, shooting as you fly — the map’s escape tool, its fast travel, and the vehicle for a main-quest step. A lander can also be called over empty to a station from its control panel.

Pack-a-Punch

Pack-a-Punch hides behind the rocket. Ride each of the three landers back to the centre — the ride must actually be purchased, calling one over does not count — then press the launch button beside the power switch. The rocket lifts off, the door below it opens, and the machine is yours for the usual 5,000. Unlike Kino’s teleporter room you can hold this room as long as you like; and if you shoot the rocket down as it launches, a free Double Points drops below it.

Wonder weapons and tacticals

The Thundergun returns from Kino in the Mystery Box, upgrading to the Zeus Cannon. The bigger news is what debuts here: the Gersch Device, a thrown singularity that drags a crowd into nothing and doubles as a personal teleporter if you dive in after it, and the Matryoshka Dolls, a nesting-doll cluster bomb. The two share the tactical slot, so you carry one or the other.

Perks

Two perks debut on Ascension: PhD Flopper, which turns a dolphin dive from height into an explosion and shrugs off fall and splash damage, and Stamin-Up for longer, faster sprints. Jugger-Nog, Quick Revive and Speed Cola round out the set — there is no Double Tap in the original release, and Mule Kick only arrived later via title update. The Random Perk Bottle power-up also debuts here and can push you past the four-perk cap.

Space Monkeys

Ascension swaps dog rounds for Space Monkeys — zombified cosmonaut primates that arrive in crashing landers once any player has bought a perk. They go straight for the perk machines you have bought from: if a machine is battered down, everyone loses that perk and has to rebuy it. Defend perfectly — every monkey dead, no machine damage — and the last one drops a Random Perk Bottle on top of the usual Max Ammo.

The Casimir Mechanism

From round one a voice crackles through the speakers: Gersch, trapped in the Casimir Mechanism, begging for repairs before "she" arrives. The quest that follows — five nodes spanning a sacrificed Gersch Device, four buttons pressed in the same instant during a monkey round, a two-minute stand on a pressure plate, letters collected from lander flights to spell LUNA, and a black hole force-fed wonder-weapon fire — was the first main quest in Treyarch Zombies, and it strictly requires four players. Curiously, it awards no achievement; the payoff is ninety seconds of Death Machines for everyone and a freed Gersch.

Story

The cosmodrome belongs to the Ascension Group, the Soviet mirror of Group 935, whose radios tell the map’s real story: the scientists Gersh and Yuri, a demotion, Richtofen’s recovered diary whispering to Yuri, and a betrayal that trapped Gersh in his own invention and let Samantha through. Ultimis arrive the day after, chasing the diary; freeing Gersh earns them a push through the rift toward a certain Siberian ship graveyard.