Call Of Duty: MW3 Zombies – How To Unlock Season 2 Dark Aether Rifts And New Schematics

Estimated read time 9 min read


Season 2 Reloaded is live in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and the update adds the second main Easter egg quest for Zombies mode. This is another multi-step Easter egg that unlocks access to the Dark Aether via the rifts, and it allows you to earn this season’s powerful new schematics for the Mags of Holding, Blood Burner bike, and the V-R11 Wonder Weapon. Here we’ll guide you through completing it.

If you haven’t done Season 1’s main mission, Easter egg, or earned those schematic rewards, we have a full guide for completing the Act 4 “Bad Signal” story mission, and the Dark Aether Rifts and Season 1 schematics.

The setup

You need to complete the new Season 2 story mission called Countermeasures to start this Easter egg. This isn’t a particularly tough mission, and you’re given a generous 30-minute timer, but you’ll still want to make sure you’re properly geared up with decent perks and Pack-a-Punched weapons. Completing this will award you with a gold-rarity Drum item in the mission reward rift. Make sure to grab the Drum and complete the mission to extract with it.

It’s worth noting that you can complete the second step of this guide in your first playthrough of the Countermeasures story mission. This is best accomplished with teammates, and you can split the tasks by having one player advance the story mission while the others hunt the quest items.

However, you can replay the mission as many times as you need to collect the quest items listed below. Just remember, you’re still in the story mission, so you’ll still need to complete the mission objective each time to have a successful exfil.

Collect remaining quest items

The Drum item from the story mission rewards is one of four items you need. You don’t need to get these remaining pieces in any specific order, but the recommended order listed below will make the best use of your time.

While not necessary, it’s helpful if someone brings in a Scorcher Wonder Weapon just to make it easier and faster to get around the map and collect the quest items. This also works for collecting the bunnies in a later step.

Crafting a dog bone to spawn a friendly hellhound is also helpful when collecting quest items, because the pup can revive you if you’re split up from your team or trying to collect these items solo.

Tattered MMA Gloves

Ship obelisk location for the MMA Gloves
Ship obelisk location for the MMA Gloves

You’ll want to head to the giant cargo ship, which is in the area right beside where you spawn into the story mission. You can’t miss it. On the ship deck is an obelisk. Activate the obelisk’s seal, and it will spawn an Insta-Kill powerup item. Grab it and melee zombies within the glowing circle around you. Do this until the event is completed, and you’ll be rewarded with a purple-rarity MMA Gloves item.

Perforated Target

Green ping on map marks the obelisk for the Perforated Target
Green ping on map marks the obelisk for the Perforated Target

For this item, head north of the soccer field, and you’ll see a four-way path on your map at the E3 quadrant. The obelisk is located in the center of the four-way. Activate the seal, and this challenge requires you to get headshot kills within the glowing ring around you. Do this until the event is completed, and you’ll be rewarded with a purple-rarity Perforated Target item.

Pristine Mirror

Green ping marks the obelisk location for the Pristine MirrorGreen ping marks the obelisk location for the Pristine Mirror
Green ping marks the obelisk location for the Pristine Mirror

You’ll need to head down to the bottom right corner of the map. This one is hard to spot because it’s in a foggy area, but just go to your tac-map and mark the grid section I-8 on the map. Activate this obelisk seal and the challenge requires you to get kills with specific ammo types. There will be ammo mods sitting by the obelisk to make sure you have the ammo type you need. Completing this will reward the purple-rarity Pristine Mirror item.

Upgrade the quest items

The Drum is the only quest item you have in the gold rarity. The three purple items will need to be upgraded before continuing. Spawn into a new match with one or more of the items you want to upgrade, and again, this can be done in any order.

Take the Tattered MMA Gloves to the boxing gym located at the bottom of the map at the Zaravan Suburbs.

White ping marks the gym location for Zaravan SuburbsWhite ping marks the gym location for Zaravan Suburbs
White ping marks the gym location for Zaravan Suburbs

Take the gloves to the center of the gym’s boxing ring, and you should get a prompt to interact. This will require you to melee all three punching bags hanging on the wall beside the ring. Start with the far-left bag, melee until it’s on fire, and then melee the middle, and right side punching bags until all three are on fire. That will spawn a zombie with fire hands. Melee it to death, and then you’ll have the upgraded gold rarity gloves.

Take the Perforated Target to the training area just south of Shanin Manor. Interact with the central-most target. This will spawn a bunch of purple glowing targets. You need to shoot them all until they each turn red. This will spawn a red glowing zombie to kill with a headshot. This will award you the gold-rarity target item.

Tip: Get on high ground to get a better visual, and also make sure to check the backsides of the nearby crates. Sometimes the targets spawn in tricky spots.

Take the Pristine Mirror to the graveyard located on the right edge of the map below the military base. There will be a place in front of the mausoleum (location shown in the picture below) to interact with and deposit the item.

Yellow ping marks the mausoleum location for the graveyardYellow ping marks the mausoleum location for the graveyard
Yellow ping marks the mausoleum location for the graveyard

Then, you’ll need to kill zombies in the area with a specific ammo mod type. Just like the previous step with ammo types, you’re given ammo mods to provide you with the type you need. These are in the glowing part of the tower structure next to the mausoleum. Completing this will give you the gold rarity mirror. If you don’t do this fast enough and the zombies stop spawning, run back to the mausoleum and start the process over.

Place the items

You need to have all four of these items at the start of a fresh match. You only need one of each, so if a teammate already has the mirror, you won’t need a mirror of your own. Collectively, just make sure you have all four gold items.

Make sure you’re geared up with tier 3 Pack-a-Punch weapons, 3-plate, killstreak, and perks. I’d also recommend the Tombstone perk for whoever is holding the items. You don’t want to die and lose all of the items here.

Head to the purple tornado swirling on the map. Place the items on the four pedestals that match for each of the four items. Take out the Mimic mini-boss that spawns to get the rift sigil item it drops.

You don’t have to use the Sigil now, but if you’re still well geared up and want to continue, use the Sigil on the portal. This is a one time use item, but you now have a chance to earn more Sigils from completing contracts in the Dark Aether Rifts or by completing tier 3 contracts.

How to complete S2 Dark Aether Rifts and unlock new schematics

This works just like the Season 1 rifts. Use the Sigil by placing it on the side of the gate, and the gate will unlock and glow yellow. Once you’ve stepped into the Dark Aether, you’ll have a 30-minute timer to complete three contracts. Find and interact with three Mister Peeks plushies (the blue bunny from the Mystery Box) and complete the contract each one gives you.

These can be done in any order and found in the following locations:

  • A bunny can be found upstairs in the warehouse near the spawn area. As soon as you spawn, turn around and head inside.
  • Another bunny is found at the highest point of the mall roof
  • Bunny on top of the tallest building in the E6 quadrant of the map

Listen as you search around. These bunnies have a sound cue. You’ll hear a giggling child when you get close.

Also, make sure you search each reward rift you get from the bunny contracts. Each one of these has the chance to reward one of the new items in the game: Mags of Holding or the Blood Burner bike. However, these are just one-time consumables. Just like last season, you’ll need to go back into the Dark Aether rift a second time to try and collect the schematics to craft these items.

You or someone on your team should also find at least one Elder Sigil item drop. Make sure to collect these to exfil with.

When ready to exit, find one of the triangle portals like you entered through. They are random but there should be more than one, so you should have a few options here. Any of these portals will end your match, and you’ll keep any sigils and acquisitions you found during your time in the Dark Aether.

Start a new match with the Elder Sigil. Put the Sigil on the opposite side of the gate as last time. The gate will turn red. This is a tier 5 threat zone.

Having a six-player “super squad” here is very helpful. You’ll rinse and repeat the same steps as above. Go to the same bunny locations as before and do the contracts. Your timer has been reduced to only 15 minutes.

This tier 5 zone is how you collect and unlock the Season 2 schematics for crafting the Mags of Holding, Blood Burner bike, and the V-R11 Wonder Weapon schematics.



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