CoD: Black Ops 6 Zombies Will Have An Arachnophobia Setting

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies will introduce a new, spider-like enemy type, but those who aren’t keen on creatures that crawl around on eight legs will be able to activate the game’s Arachnophobia mode to make its terrifying appearance a little more manageable.

Activision recently blew the doors off of how Zombies will work in Black Ops 6, detailing all of the new and classic features players can expect to see in the return of the round-based co-op mode. As part of the information dump, developer Treyarch revealed the Vermin, a horrific looking creepy-crawler that looks like it came straight out of John Carpenter’s The Thing.

As described in the official Call of Duty blog, the Vermin are “large, spider-like ravenous scuttlers with a central thorax that seems to take the form of a screaming human head.” They are weak on their own, but are dangerous in groups, ripping themselves free from fallen zombie hosts. To attack, the Vermin sprint and leap at foes, and can even spew a corrosive substance to kill their prey. They can also evolve and transform into another insect-like creature, the flying Parasite.

These are some nasty-looking monsters, but Treyarch has confirmed (via Modern Warzone on X) that there will be an Arachnophobia setting in the game’s options that will disable the Vermin’s appearance.

It’s a nice accessible setting to include, and one that has become more popular in recent years. Grounded, the Honey I Shrunk the Kids-like survival game from Obsidian that features various bugs as its primary enemy type, included an arachnophobia mode. More recently, World of Warcraft will include it as a feature in its upcoming The War Within expansion, which features an entire zone populated with sentient spider people, the Nerubians.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies looks like it bring back ideas from Black Ops 3 and Black Ops: Cold War, with some new twists. The Black Ops 6 multiplayer beta will run from August 30-September 4 for those who preorder, with an open beta to follow September 6-9. The full game, which sees the return of fan-favorite Black Ops character Frank Woods and new multiplayer features like omnidirectional movement, releases on October 25.