Look, we’ve all been there. You’re running through the mud in the excavation site, a giant robot is about to crush your skull, and you’re staring at those glowing blue tiles in the Crazy Place like they’re some kind of ancient trigonometry exam. Upgrading the Ice Staff—or Ull’s Arrow, if you want to be all lore-accurate about it—is easily one of the most tedious tasks in Call of Duty: Black Ops II and III Zombies. But it’s also the most rewarding. Once you get that upgrade ice staff code sorted, you basically become a god of crowd control. You can freeze entire hordes with a single charged shot. It’s glorious.
The problem is that the game doesn't explain a single thing. It expects you to know how to translate base-4 Ternary code into Roman numerals or some nonsense. Honestly, unless you have a photographic memory or a second monitor, you’re going to struggle.
Decoding the Crazy Place Puzzle
Once you've built the basic Ice Staff using the three parts found in dig sites during snow rounds and the blue disk from the tank station, you have to head to the Crazy Place. This is where the real headache starts. Above the portal exit, you'll see a row of stone panels with blue symbols. These are your "keys." On the ceiling, there are circular tiles with different patterns of dots and lines.
You have to match the symbol shown on the stone panel to the correct tile on the ceiling. If you miss a shot or hit the wrong one, the tiles reset. It's annoying. Most players just spam shots and hope for the best, but that wastes precious ammo. The "code" is actually a numerical system. The symbols on the wall represent a number, and the dots on the ceiling represent that same number in a different format.
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Think of it like this: the wall is the question, and the ceiling is the answer. The symbols usually look like a combination of circles and lines. A single empty circle might represent 1, while a line with a dot might be 5. You don't actually need to learn the math, though. You just need to recognize the patterns. If you see the symbol that looks like a "hook" or a "sideways L," you need to find the corresponding tile on the ceiling that matches that specific value.
Why People Fail the Ice Staff Upgrade
It's usually the giants. Or the lack of ammo. If you're doing this on a high round, the Crazy Place becomes a deathtop. The walls start shifting, and if you're distracted by the upgrade ice staff code, a stray zombie will end your run.
- You aren't clearing the area first. Spend the points on a shield. It'll save your back while you're looking up at the ceiling.
- Speed is everything. You don't have to wait for the symbols to "settle." If you know the code, just fire.
- Your teammate is probably stealing your kills. Tell them to stay by the portal and leave you alone for five minutes.
The Tombstone Step: Not Just Random Shooting
After you finish the tile puzzle, you'll hear a sound—sort of a celestial chime. That’s your cue to leave. But you aren't done. Now you have to find three tombstones scattered around the map. This is where a lot of "expert" guides get confusing because they don't emphasize that you have to use the Ice Staff to freeze them and then use a bullet weapon to shatter them.
If you just shoot them with the staff, nothing happens. If you just shoot them with a gun, nothing happens. You gotta freeze, then break.
The locations are static, but finding them in the fog is a pain. One is near the giant robot footprint by Gen 4. Another is tucked away behind the excavation site near the soul box. The third is usually over by Gen 2, right behind the tank station. It’s easy to miss because it blends into the gray mud. Once all three are shattered, a blue orb will fly toward the bottom of the excavation site.
Aligning the Rings
This is the mechanical part. Go down to the bottom of the excavation site where the staff pedestals are. There are four levers on the walkways above. You need to flip these levers until all the rings on the massive hanging machine show blue lights.
Once they’re all blue, go to the very bottom and shoot the blue orb that’s floating inside the rings. If you did it right, the orb will fly up into the ceiling. This is the "soul" of the staff heading back to the Crazy Place for its final form.
The Final Charge
Go back to the Crazy Place. Place your staff on the blue pedestal. Now comes the grind. You need to kill about 20 to 30 zombies near the staff to feed it their souls.
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Pro Tip: Don't do this during a heavy round if you can help it. The Ice Staff is your primary defensive tool, and while it's sitting in the pedestal being upgraded, you don't have it. You're vulnerable. Use a secondary weapon like the MG08 or a Pack-a-Punched Mauser to hold off the horde while the staff drinks up those souls. When the staff icon on your HUD glows, you're done. Pick up Ull’s Arrow and start wrecking shop.
Is It Actually the Best Staff?
People argue about this constantly in the Zombies community. Some swear by the Fire Staff for its raw damage. Others love the Wind Staff for its "get out of jail free" blast. But the Ice Staff, especially after you've mastered the upgrade ice staff code, is statistically the best for high rounds.
Why? Because it has an area-of-effect (AOE) that lingers. When you charge up a shot, it creates a blizzard that freezes everything that touches it. In late-game scenarios where zombies have millions of health points, infinite damage triggers (like freezing) are the only way to survive. The Fire Staff eventually stops killing in one hit. The Ice Staff? It doesn't care how much health a zombie has. Frozen is frozen.
Step-by-Step Action Plan
To get this done efficiently without dying on Round 8, follow this specific flow. It’s the most optimized route used by speedrunners and high-round players alike.
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- Round 1-3: Focus entirely on points. Don't buy any doors you don't need. Try to get the shovel and start digging every pile you see. You need those Ice Staff pieces early.
- The Snow Check: Ice pieces only spawn during snow rounds. If it starts snowing, drop everything. Go to the three main zones (Church, Excavation, Spawn) and dig until you find the part for that zone. If the snow stops and you missed a part, you have to wait several rounds for it to snow again, which can ruin a run.
- The Puzzle Prep: Before heading to the Crazy Place, make sure you have a weapon with actual bullets (not just the staff) for the tombstone step.
- The Exit Strategy: Once you place the staff in the pedestal for the final soul-charging step, stay in the center of the Crazy Place. Don't get cornered in the elemental tunnels. The walls move, and they will crush you if you're not paying attention.
Getting the upgrade isn't about luck; it's about muscle memory. Once you've done the tile puzzle three or four times, you stop looking at guides. You start seeing the patterns. It becomes second nature. And honestly, there’s no better feeling in Origins than watching a Panzer Soldat get turned into a giant popsicle while you just stand there reloading.
Don't overcomplicate the math. Just look at the symbols, match the dots, and keep moving. The mud is your biggest enemy, not the code. Stay out of the trenches, watch the robot feet, and get that staff upgraded before Round 15 if you want a smooth game. Once you have Ull's Arrow, the map basically belongs to you.