If you’ve been running Zombies matches in Black Ops 7 long enough, you’ll know the game loves throwing curveballs at you, but nothing hits quite like Cursed Mode. It shows up just when you think you’ve cracked every trick in the book, and suddenly the whole tone of the match shifts in a way that feels almost cruel. The first time you hear about it, you might assume it’s just another difficulty spike, but it’s way nastier than that. And unless you’ve already pushed through the Main Easter Egg or survived one of those brutal late‑round grinds, you won’t even see the option appear, which is why a lot of players lean on things like CoD BO7 Boosting before diving in.

Main Quest Unlocks

The most familiar route is still the Main Easter Egg, even if it feels like something the devs cooked up after a late-night dare. You’re bouncing between obscure switches, weird symbols, and sudden mini-bosses that seem to pop out of thin air. Anyone who’s done a BO quest before knows the routine: everything’s fine until it absolutely isn’t. But finishing the storyline usually rewards you with a Cursed Artifact, and once that’s in your inventory, Cursed Mode quietly slides into the difficulty menu like it was there the whole time. It’s a weird feeling—half accomplishment, half “why did I just unlock something that wants to ruin me.”

Survival Route

If puzzle hunts aren’t really your thing, the game does offer a more straightforward path, though “straightforward” doesn’t mean easy. Making it past Round 25 on Normal looks simple when you read it, then the chaos ramps up and suddenly you’re sprinting around the map trying not to get boxed in. Ammo dries up, perks drain your points, and one bad reload can erase twenty minutes of work. Some players stumble into hidden Cursed Artifacts instead, scattered in corners most people run past without thinking. Grab enough of them and trigger the altar ritual, and Cursed Mode unlocks that way too—assuming you manage to finish without getting clawed apart.

What Cursed Mode Actually Feels Like

The moment you start it, you know something’s off. Weapons you trusted suddenly jam or throw a misfire right when a pack of sprinters is breathing down your neck. Sometimes your ammo just evaporates, and you get that horrible little hiccup of silence before the panic kicks in. Zombies move quicker, hit harder, and seem a lot smarter than they should be. Even the map turns hostile, with floors collapsing or hazards popping up where you least expect them. Perks become harder to stack too, so you can’t just brute-force your way to safety, and managing your loadout becomes this constant juggling act.

The Appeal of the Chaos

For all the frustration, there’s something addictive about surviving it. It pushes you into these moments where you’re improvising on the fly, making calls you wouldn’t make in a normal run, and hoping the game doesn’t decide to punish you for it. A lot of players like going in fully prepped, especially if they want a clean shot at the mode, which is why they’ll sometimes pick up things like CoD BO7 Boosting for sale before jumping into the fire.