You're standing in the mud of World War I, giant robots are stomping overhead, and the mud is slowing you down so much it feels like you're running through molasses. If you’ve played Origins—the legendary Zombies map from Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Black Ops III—you know the panic. The ice staff the tomb (officially known as Ull’s Arrow once upgraded) is basically the holy grail of survival in this map. It isn't just a weapon; it's your insurance policy against a Round 50 disaster. Honestly, most people think it’s the "easy" staff to get because you just dig for it, but if the RNG gods are angry, you’ll be stuck with a Mauser while the Panzer Soldat is melting your face.
Getting the ice staff the tomb requires a mix of patience and literal weather watching. Unlike the Fire Staff which involves killing a boss or the Lightning Staff which requires parkour on a moving tank, the Ice Staff is entirely dependent on the sky.
The Frustration of Waiting for Snow
You need three parts. All of them are buried underground. Here is the kicker: they only appear in dig spots when it is snowing. Not raining. Not clear. Snowing.
If you’re playing on a high-round run, you've probably noticed that the weather cycles. It’s a mechanic designed to stress you out. You might go four rounds with nothing but rain, and by the time it finally starts snowing, the zombies are fast enough to trap you in a corner while you're frantically looking for a glowing shovel spot.
There is a part in the "Church" area (near Generator 6), one in the middle of the map (near Generators 4 and 5), and one in the "Spawn" area (Generators 1 and 2). If you miss a dig spot during a snow round, you're basically sitting on your hands until the next cycle. It’s annoying. It’s tedious. But the reward is a weapon that can freeze a whole horde in their tracks with a single blast.
The Blue Disc and the Gramophone
You can't even get into the Crazy Place to craft the thing without the Blue Disc and the Gramophone. The disc usually hides around the Tank Station (Generator 2). Check the shelves, check the tables. It’s small, blue, and easy to miss if you’re sprinting past a group of templar zombies.
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The Gramophone is always at the bottom of the excavation site (the tomb). You need to place it on the table to open the secret floor, then pick it back up. Don't be that guy who leaves the Gramophone at the bottom of the stairs and then realizes he can't enter the teleporter. It happens to the best of us. Seriously.
Solving the Ice Tile Puzzle Without Losing Your Mind
Once you have the parts and the crystal from the Crazy Place, you have to upgrade it. This is where most players drop the ball. The upgrade process for the ice staff the tomb involves a tile puzzle in the Crazy Place that looks like alien gibberish.
The ceiling has symbols. The pedestal has symbols. You have to match them.
- The symbols are actually base-4 and base-3 numerical systems.
- You are looking at circles and lines.
- A dot might represent 1, a line might represent 5, but honestly, most people just use a cheat sheet because who has time to do math while a giant blue rock is collapsing on them?
You use the Ice Staff to shoot the tiles on the ceiling that correspond to the symbol shown on the floating stone. If you mess up, it resets. If you get it right, you'll hear a distinct chime. It’s satisfying. Then you head back to the main map for the "extinguish" step.
The Three Gravestones
This part is actually kinda cool but easy to mess up if you’re using the wrong weapon. You have to find three stone slabs around the map, freeze them with the Ice Staff, and then immediately shoot them with a bullet weapon (like a DSR or even a pistol).
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- The Giant Footprint: Near Generator 4, there’s a slab sitting in the mud inside a footprint.
- The Tank Path: Behind the excavation site, near the path the tank takes toward the Church.
- The Station: Near Generator 2, hidden behind a fence.
If you don't shoot them fast enough after freezing them, they thaw out. You have to be quick. Once all three are shattered, a blue orb will fly toward the bottom of the tomb.
Aligning the Rings in the Tomb
Down in the excavation site, there are four massive stone rings hanging from the ceiling. You’ll find four levers scattered around the wooden walkways. Each lever rotates one of the rings. You need to flip them until all the lights on the rings are blue.
Once they are aligned, go to the very bottom, shoot the blue orb that’s floating inside the rings with your Ice Staff, and watch it fly into the ceiling. Now, you just have to take the staff back to the Crazy Place, put it in its pedestal, and kill about 20 zombies near it to "charge" it with souls.
Why Ull’s Arrow is Actually Better Than the Fire Staff
In the early rounds, everyone wants the Fire Staff (Kagutsuchi's Blood) because it looks cool and melts things. But around Round 30, the Fire Staff starts to fall off. It creates lag. It doesn't always kill instantly.
The upgraded ice staff the tomb, known as Ull's Arrow, is different. Its charged shot creates a blizzard. Anything that walks into that blizzard dies. Period. It doesn't matter if it's Round 10 or Round 100; the scaling on the ice blizzard is incredible. It’s the ultimate "get out of jail free" card. If you're trapped in a corner, you charge up the shot, fire it at your feet, and watch the world turn into a popsicle.
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Common Mistakes and Misconceptions
People think you can find the parts in the rain. You can't. They think you can find them in the mud without a shovel. You can't. And for the love of everything, don't forget that you need a Golden Shovel if you want to find the hidden perk slots later on, but for the basic Ice Staff parts, a standard shovel works fine.
Another big mistake is not picking up the crystal first. You can have all three parts, but if you haven't gone through the blue tunnel to the Crazy Place to grab the elemental crystal, you’re just carrying around a bunch of scrap metal.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Run
To master the ice staff the tomb, you need to optimize your early game. Time is everything in Origins.
- Prioritize the Shovel: Grab a shovel in the spawn room immediately. Do not leave without it.
- Watch the Sky: If it starts snowing on Round 3 or 4, drop everything. Ignore the generators for a second and hunt those dig spots. You might not see snow again for three more rounds.
- Save a Zombie: When doing the tile puzzle in the Crazy Place, keep one crawler alive. Trying to solve a base-4 math puzzle while a full horde is sprinting at you is a recipe for a "Game Over" screen.
- The Pistol Trick: Keep your starting Mauser or grab a cheap wall gun like the RK5 (in the Chronicles version) to break the gravestones. Using a heavy LMG is a waste of ammo for that step.
- Ammo Management: Ull's Arrow eats ammo fast. Always keep a Max Ammo or an Alchemical Antithesis (if playing Black Ops III) ready.
Once you've got the upgraded staff, stay near the excavation site or the Church. The open spaces make the blizzard effect much more effective for training zombies. If you're playing co-op, you are the designated "medic." Your job is to freeze the ground so your teammates can be revived safely. The Ice Staff isn't just a weapon; it's the backbone of any successful Origins high-round strategy.