You can find the Staff of Ice as part of the main easter egg in Zombies’ The Tomb map inCall of Duty: Black Ops 6, but it’s not that great unless you upgrade it to Ull’s Arrow.
Getting the upgrade isn’t a simple process, however. It’s also part of the main easter egg, so you’ll need to go through a specific process to upgrade the Staff of Ice. That said, it’s definitely worth doing! Ull’s Arrow is a massive upgrade from the basic staff.
In this guide, we’ll tell you everything you need to know to upgrade the weak Staff of Ice into the powerful Ull’s Arrow.
How to Upgrade the Staff of Ice into Ull’s Arrow | Black Ops 6 Zombies: The Tomb
Freezing the Aether Crystals
You can do this step right after you craft the Staff of Ice in The Tomb. Alternatively, you can also just obtain it from a Mystery Box. Either way, you now need to go into The Tomb itself and look for the purple Aether Crystal lanterns. They’re the same ones you use to complete the mural puzzles when crafting the Staff of Ice itself.
Now, you need to freeze 3 Aether lanterns by shooting them with the Staff of Ice in quick succession. Based on tests from players, it seems that you have 10 seconds to freeze all 3, with the timer starting when you freeze the first one.
Ideally, you want to find 3 Aether lanterns that are fairly close to each other. You can shoot them with your normal guns to move them if you wish. You can also retry this as many times as you want, so you can’t really fail this.
Manage to freeze 3 Aether Crystal lanterns within 10 seconds and you’ll receive a transmission from Archibald. He’ll comment on the fact that you “extinguished the flames, froze the crystal”. Which simply means that you did it, you succeeded in this step!
Find the Symbols
Next up, we recommend that you have a pen and paper or something with you. You may need it! Once you’re ready, you need to go back to the Dark Aether Nexus section of the map and look at the sky. You should notice that some of the floating stones have glowing purple symbols on them. Shoot them with your Staff of Ice to lower them, allowing you to look closer at the symbols.
There are 3 stones with symbols in total. Find all 3 and take notes of which symbols they have. As you might guess, which symbols appear are randomized each match so we can’t just show them to you.
Opening a Portal
You’ll hear Archibald once again after you’ve shot all 3 stones with symbols on them. At this point, one of the 4 colored portals in the Dark Aether Nexus will close. Your next destination within The Tomb depends on which portal closed, as follows:
Blue Portal – Go to the Dig Site near the initial spawn point.
Red Portal – Go to the Subterranean Temple. It’s where the Quick Revive machine is, on the easternmost tip of The Tomb.
Yellow Portal – Go to the Shrine of the Hierophants. That’s where the Stamin-Up is, on the northernmost section of The Tomb.
Green Portal – Go to the Ossuary. It’s near the Speed Cola vending machine in the southeastern part of The Tomb.
Once you get to the location that matches the closed portal, look for a closed portal entryway. This one will have 6 buttons with symbols on its door. Look for the 3 symbols that match the ones you saw on the stones in the previous step and shoot them with your Staff of Ice. The order doesn’t matter here.
Do this correctly and the portal will open. Go through and you’ll be returned to the Dark Aether Nexus. Make sure not to fall off the spot where you spawn or you’ll need to repeat this portal-opening step!
Follow the Aether Orb to Upgrade the Staff of Ice into Ull’s Arrow | Black Ops 6 Zombies: The Tomb
Now, as we mentioned before, the portal will take you to a high spot in the Dark Aether Nexus. You should now also notice a purple Aether orb floating right in front of you. Interact with it and it will start to move around the Nexus. Simply follow it while defending yourself from enemies as you see fit.
Eventually, the Aether orb will loop around the Nexus and get into the C-shaped stone structure in the very center of the area. It’s the same spot where you crafted the Staff of Ice previously, for reference. The orb will disappear and open a small purple portal. Interact with the portal the orb left behind and you’ll automatically upgrade the Staff of Ice into Ull’s Arrow!
That’s all you need to know to upgrade the basic Staff of Ice into the extremely powerful Ull’s Arrow while exploring The Tomb in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies. The staff is quite underwhelming without this upgrade, but Ull’s Arrow is well worth the effort it takes to acquire.
Venezuelan gamer cursed by being interested by most games, resulting in a ridiculous backlog he’ll never be able to conquer. Been gaming for over two decades now! Few things exemplify his wide variety in gaming tastes as the fact that he’s a big fan of both Souls games and the Atelier series at the same time. Also a big fan of Yakuza/Like a Dragon, Deadly Premonition, Zero Escape, and Dead Rising, among others. Considers Lost Judgment and Sekiro to both be masterpieces.