Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Endgame is a replayable PvE mode for squads of up to four, with as many as 32 players taking part on Avalon. Each run sends operators through increasingly dangerous exposure zones, where a higher Combat Rating unlocks more ways to customize a build.
This guide covers the Season 5 selection of Major Abilities, Minor Abilities, Skill Tracks, Exotic Skills, Nightmare Skills, and Operator Prestige rewards. You can equip one Major Ability and one Minor Ability before deploying, then earn more upgrades during a match by completing objectives, collecting intel, and defeating enemies.
Black Ops 7 Endgame Abilities
Abilities are part of your pre-match loadout alongside weapons and field equipment. Major Abilities generally offer a large combat effect, while Minor Abilities focus on movement, utility, or support.
Major Abilities
- Ballistic Shell: Deploys an energy shield that blocks incoming enemy fire.
- Active Camo: Makes you nearly invisible for a short time. Gunfire briefly reveals your position.
- Hand Cannon: Provides a high-damage handgun that remains accurate at range.
- Crash Cart: Instantly revives nearby downed squadmates and grants temporary invulnerability. It can also revive you when you are downed.
- Vision Pulse: Sends out a pulse that marks enemies through walls for your squad. Marked enemies take increased damage.
- War Machine: Equips a powerful single-shot grenade launcher with a large blast radius.
- Shadow Break: Creates an energy-warping field that damages and teleports enemies.
- Drone Pod: Deploys a device that launches aerial drones. The drones seek enemies and explode.
- Sentinel Protocol: Calls in an armed Guild robot to fight alongside your team. It can revive downed teammates and use a small area attack when surrounded.
- Thermal Spike: Releases a blast of flames that incinerates enemies. The fire remains in the area briefly.
- Death Machine: Gives you a deadly machine gun with high damage per shot and a large magazine.
Minor Abilities
- Grappling Hook: Grapples onto surfaces to help you escape danger or reach higher areas.
- Portal Grenade: Creates hallucinations that target enemies for a short time.
- Kinetic Jump: Launches you to extreme heights. Holding the button increases the jump distance, while landing stuns nearby enemies.
- Flicker: Teleports you a short distance in the direction you are facing. Holding the button allows you to pre-aim, and the teleport can pass through enemies.
- Supply Link: Instantly supplies you and your squad with ammo, armor, equipment, and part of a Major Ability charge.
- Black Hat: Hacks enemies, equipment, and vehicles. Hacked targets can be disabled, destroyed, or converted to fight for you.
- Blood Burner: Spawns a mystical motorcycle for traversal and combat. Running over enemies charges a special area attack.
- Aether Blade: Throws an Aether-infused knife that hunts targets. Hitting five enemies with one throw restores part of its charge. This Ability is unlocked through Black Ops 7 and Warzone Season 3 Week 1 challenges.
- Psych Grenade: Explodes on impact and releases a lingering hallucinogenic gas that brain-rots enemies.
Season 5 Exotic Ability Boosts
Season 5 adds Exotic Ability Boosts, rare upgrades that improve an equipped Major or Minor Ability. Possible bonuses include shorter cooldowns, extra ammunition, bonus damage effects, and other performance increases.
These boosts can appear in item cases with other rewards. They have a small chance to drop in Zone IV, but Nightmare Activities and Assignments are the main sources. The Tac Map reward list shows where each reward can be found.
Every Major and Minor Ability has two Exotic Ability Boost options. After you obtain one, it stays active until you wipe or replace the matching Ability.
Skill Tracks and Skills
Your Combat Rating rises when you complete objectives, gather intel, and eliminate enemies. Whenever the rating increases, you choose between two Skill Tracks or individual Skills. Progress continues up to Combat Rating level 60.
Gunner
- Reload Speed: Improved reload speed.
- Fast Replate: Faster armor re-plating.
- Fast Weapon Swap: Reduced time needed to swap between weapons.
- Ammo Auto-Refill: Weapon magazines slowly refill over time for both held and stowed weapons.
- Aiming Expert: Improves weapon accuracy while aiming and increases the speed to fire when jumping, sliding, and diving.
- Shocking Reload: Reloading releases an electric discharge that damages and stuns nearby base enemies. The effect grows stronger with a more empty magazine and has a cooldown.
Surgeon
- Healthy Recovery: Health recovery starts sooner when you are not taking damage.
- Last Stand Fighter: Extends last stand and improves movement and pistol ammunition.
- Agile Handling: Allows you to fire while sprinting and walk faster while aiming.
- Heal Faster: Speeds up healing after leaving combat.
- Fast Revive: Revives yourself or a squad member faster. The revive briefly increases movement speed and restores full health.
- Off the Floor: Eliminating an enemy during last stand revives you. This has a cooldown.
Daredevil
- Dive Bomber: Diving aggressively with a wingsuit releases a concussive blast on the ground.
- Wingsuit Glider: Improves wingsuit handling and airtime.
- Thick Skin: Reduces damage from melee attacks.
- Super Slider: Increases sliding distance and speed.
- Reload and Run: Grants a brief movement-speed boost after reloading.
- Slide Explosions: Sliding and diving trigger an explosion around you.
Tactician
- Equipment Hound: Improves equipment ammunition.
- Quick Deploy: Speeds up equipment deployment and increases its distance. It also improves sprint and tactical speed while reloading.
- Hit and Run: Grants a temporary speed boost after equipment kills an enemy.
- Recharger: Speeds up the recharge rate of Equipment and Abilities.
- Quick Rounds Back: Eliminating two enemies quickly has a chance to return two rounds to your magazine.
- Piñata: Eliminating an enemy has a chance to spawn a live piece of Equipment.
Berserker
- Fast Weapon Fire: Increases weapon fire rate.
- Kills Regen Armor: Eliminations regenerate part of your armor. At the highest upgrade, eliminating an Elite enemy restores more armor.
- Crit Chain Speed Boost: Temporarily increases speed after several consecutive critical kills.
- Endurance Sprinter: Allows reloading while tac sprinting and improves tac sprint duration and sprint-to-fire time.
- Fall Damage Reduction: Reduces fall damage. The highest upgrade grants immunity to fall damage.
- Fall Explosions: Falling from a height creates explosions.
Bulldozer
- Armor Regen: Regenerates one armor plate if you take damage or have no armor slots filled.
- Point Blank: Grants a damage bonus against enemies at point-blank range.
- Adrenaline Rush: Deals bonus damage while your health is low.
- Revival Protection: Self-revived or revived players take reduced damage for a short time.
- Explosive Resistance: Reduces explosive damage. The highest upgrade makes you immune to your own explosives.
- Tackle: Knocks Fears and Soldiers down when sliding, diving, or tac sprinting.
Phantom
- Ambush: Attacks from behind deal more damage. If the enemy has full health, critical shots deal double damage.
- Fast Melee: Increases melee speed.
- Trap Avoidance: Traps and Mines take longer to detect you. The highest upgrade makes you undetectable.
- Silent Movement: Quiets movement, lowers enemy detection distance, and speeds up interactions with devices.
- Elusive Target: Reduces the accuracy of enemies shooting at you.
- Decoy: Taking heavy damage deploys an Echo Unit that distracts enemies.
Eagle Eye
- Increased Crit Damage: Critical hits deal more damage.
- Big Hit: Increases critical damage against enemies at full health.
- Last Shots Plus: Deals more damage when your weapon has low ammunition.
- Rampage: Rapid kills briefly increase weapon damage.
- Aim Faster: Speeds up aiming down sights.
- Armor Breaker: Stuns and damages enemies when their armor breaks.
Warband
- Plague: Eliminated enemies can explode and convert nearby enemies into allies.
- Wirehand: Eliminations have a chance to spawn an attack drone.
- Smuggler: Gives you a chance to instantly replenish used Equipment and Scorestreaks.
- Bloodrunner: Grants a damage bonus for rapid multi-kills. The bonus ends when your momentum stops.
- Healthhounds: Damage and eliminations from summoned allies restore part of your health.
- Steelhand: Picked-up armor equips automatically.
Guardian
- Payback: Enemies that damage you take damage themselves.
- Battle Cache: Increases the chance of spawning an Ammo/Armor Resupply pack after an elimination.
- Power Tap: Picking up an Ammo/Armor Resupply pack also recharges Equipment.
- Fortified: Reduces incoming damage for every equipped plate. More plates provide a larger reduction.
- Iron Grip: Reduces hip-fire spread and flinch when you are hit.
- Rescue Pulse: Downed allies can be revived when you are nearby. If you go down, other players can revive you simply by staying close.
Exotic Skills
Exotic Skills come from Exotic Skill Cases earned by completing World Events. Each case randomly grants one Skill. You can equip and upgrade one Exotic Skill at a time. When you find another case, you can improve the current Skill or replace it.
- Mega Punch: Replaces your weapon butt with a punch that knocks enemies back and deals more damage. The first upgrade hits more enemies. The final upgrade can trigger a Photon Round that damages enemies and drops a healing capsule.
- Conjuration: Enough kills summon Toxin Butterflies that harass and damage enemies. The first and final upgrades increase their damage.
- Echo Shell: Greatly reduces damage taken from behind. Both upgrades reduce that damage even further.
- Celebration: Enemies damaged or affected by Equipment can trigger Mortar Rounds against enemies. Each upgrade increases the chance of triggering them.
- Frost Cloud: Enemies affected by Equipment can trigger a Frost Cloud that slows enemies. The first upgrade adds damage, while the final upgrade spreads frost to nearby enemies.
- Resurrection: Fatal damage makes you temporarily invulnerable instead of killing you. It works once per match. The first upgrade restores full health, while the final upgrade grants a Permanent Self Revive that recharges when you are not downed.
- Shattered Shield: Breaking Armor Plates stuns and damages nearby enemies. The first upgrade grants temporary invulnerability after the final break. The final upgrade triggers a Photon Round that deals damage and drops a healing capsule.
- Graviton Reaction: Melee hits can create a Black Hole that damages and displaces enemies. The first upgrade also triggers it from ranged attacks, while the final upgrade affects enemies around the original target.
- Conductive Shot: Weapon fire sometimes launches a taser that can stick to an enemy and deal damage over time. The first upgrade increases the Drone’s fire rate and duration. The final upgrade gives Drone shots a chance to trigger the Shrapnel effect.
- Fission: Killing an Elite can trigger a large explosion that deals heavy damage nearby. The first upgrade increases the blast’s damage and radius. The final upgrade creates friendly Toxic Fears from explosions.
Nightmare Skills
Nightmare Skills become available after clearing a Glitch Fracture, an off-map activity that takes your squad into corrupted C-Link data. Defeating the Glitch Boss lets you equip or upgrade one of the following Skills.
- Nova Strike: Melee attacks can create an electrical field that damages enemies. The first upgrade Shocks the struck enemy, while the final upgrade leaves the field active briefly and Shocks enemies who pass through it.
- Phoenix Burst: At low health, an explosion damages enemies and fully restores your health. The first upgrade grants full ammunition and temporary infinite magazine ammo. The final upgrade grants temporary immunity after the explosion.
- Hellwing: Wingsuiting over enemies leaves an incendiary trail. The first upgrade extends the trail’s duration. The final upgrade Flashbangs normal and Special enemies inside the fire.
- Chaos Rounds: Weapon attacks can trigger Photon, Incendiary, Frost, or Shock effects. The first upgrade adds Graviton, Mortar, Shrapnel, and Neuro-Disruption effects. The final upgrade lets affected enemies trigger random Chaos Rounds on nearby targets.
- Frost Vortex: Bullets can create a Snowstorm that pulls enemies in. The first upgrade applies Frost to normal enemies, while the final upgrade also affects Special and Elite enemies.
- Wingman Unit: Several kills in a short period summon a Drone that follows you and shoots nearby enemies. The first upgrade increases the number of tasers fired per activation. The final upgrade extends its duration and lets tasers stick to all enemies.
- Sleeper Agent: Hits can turn base enemies into allies that rush nearby hostiles and detonate. The first upgrade attracts enemies to the Sleeper Agent. The final upgrade adds cluster munitions that expand the damage radius.
If you already have a Nightmare Skill equipped, finding another one lets you upgrade it or replace it.
Operator Prestige in Endgame
Season 4 introduced Operator Prestige to Endgame. After reaching the maximum Combat Rating, you can enter Prestige 1 and begin progression again in exchange for permanent upgrades.
Prestige resets your Operator’s Combat Rating, removes equipped Skills and Field Acquisitions, and returns loadout weapons to their base rarity. You then redeploy into Avalon and build your power back up.
- Prestige 1: Unlocks one additional Exotic Skill slot.
- Prestige 2: Unlocks one additional Nightmare Skill slot.
- Prestige 3: Allows you to equip a fourth Skill Track.
With so many choices available, the best setup depends on whether your squad needs damage, mobility, healing, crowd control, or safer revives. Share your favorite Endgame Ability and Skill Track in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram for more gaming updates.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
Developed by Treyarch, Raven Software
Embrace the madness.
In Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Treyarch and Raven Software are bringing players the most mind-bending Black Ops ever. The year is 2035 and the world is on the brink of chaos, ravaged by violent conflict and psychological warfare following the events of the fan-favorite titles Black Ops 2 and Black Ops 6. Wielding cutting-edge technology, the Black Ops team led by David Mason must fight back against a manipulative enemy who weaponizes fear above all else.
- Genre: Shooter
- Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox One
- Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative
- Release: 2025-11-14
- Publisher: Activision
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Age Rating:
ACB MA 15+ / ESRB M
- IGDB Rating: 31.0/100
