The best way to start your Dark Ops journey is by focusing on the six easiest challenges that require more planning than raw skill. These give you early cosmetic flex while teaching you the core systems of Black Ops 7 Zombies, from survival pacing to relic synergies.

New Main is a perfect starter: you must kill 1,000 zombies with each of the eight dedicated crew operators, which are clearly marked as purple-framed characters on the operator select screen. Running high-intensity survival modes like Farm with the Rampage Inducer active lets you hit 1,000 kills per operator in roughly 20–30 minutes, so the whole challenge can be finished in around four hours with consistent play.

Box Addict is another easy win that looks scarier than it is. Instead of pulling every unique weapon, you simply need to buy 30 weapons from the Mystery Box in a single match, which becomes trivial in Survival mode where the box never moves and can be sped up further with Speed Cola and its related upgrade. This turns what used to be a RNG grind in older titles into a straightforward points sink.

Armed to the Teeth is more time-consuming but still beginner-friendly once you know how to cut the costs. You need three Pack-a-Punch tier 3 legendary weapons (including a fully upgraded knife), all with ammo mods, plus eight active perks, which normally runs around 184,000 points and 30,000 salvage. Leveraging a specific side Easter egg to earn high-rarity weapons and Pack-a-Punch tier 2 for free massively reduces that grind and may even provide some perks along the way.

Harbinger of Doom challenges you to kill 100 zombies with a single scorestreak, and Survival mode shines here as well. Instead of waiting for high-level streaks, you can rely on the sentry turret, which is cheap at 1,500 salvage and becomes extremely effective after round 25–30 when spawn rates spike. Placing it in a central area like Farm allows it to shred entire waves, and even if the calling card animation does not appear mid-game, it registers once you exit to the menu.

Two more relatively approachable Dark Ops, Lucidity and Countdown, are both tied to Ashes of the Damned and can be completed in the same standard run with good planning. Lucidity requires playing as Dempsey, turning on power to reach the Cosmodrome, finding a hidden dog tag at the crashed rocket site, and following a black mist through multiple waves, ultimately transforming into a Disciple before returning to the main map and earning the reward. Countdown, meanwhile, only asks you to weaken an elite bear (Zorsa) and finish it by triggering a jump pad as it charges you, creating a cinematic kill that immediately unlocks the card when you land.

Read more: All Black Ops 7 Dark Ops Challenges: Complete Campaign, Multiplayer & Zombies List