The Blood Vials is a Wicked tier relic on Ashes of the Damned that disables all of your augments when equipped. To unlock it you answer five ringing red telephones across rounds 20 to 60, then survive a 6-wave trial where your weapons deal 50% less damage. It sounds like the hardest relic on the map because of the round 60 requirement, but the actual unlock is one of the simpler ones once you know the pattern.
- Cursed Mode on Ashes of the Damned, Wicked access needed (2 Grim + 2 Sinister relics equipped)
- Answer a ringing red telephone on rounds 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 (five total)
- A red portal opens at the Cabin by Blackwater Lake after the fifth phone
- Survive 6 waves with weapons dealing 50% less damage
- Relic effect: all augments disabled (grab it for completion, not for equipping)
We unlocked this relic ourselves and grabbed screenshots of every stage, from the telephone rounds to the trial banner and the final unlock. That run is how we nailed down the one thing most players get wrong about this relic: the real trial modifier. Creators like ZoneX and his community also covered Blood Vials, and MrDalekJD has a full video walkthrough.
Requirements
Blood Vials sits behind Wicked access, so you cannot start it from a fresh Cursed run. Here is everything you need in place first.
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Map | Ashes of the Damned |
| Relic Tier | Wicked (highest tier, 3 points) |
| Cursed Tier Needed | Wicked access. Equip at least 2 Grim and 2 Sinister relics to unlock it. |
| Main Easter Egg | Must have completed the Ashes of the Damned main Easter egg. |
| Round 20+ | The first telephone rings on round 20. The quest runs up to round 60. |
| Loadout | A wonder weapon or a high Pack-a-Punch tier weapon for surviving to round 60 and clearing the trial. |
New to the relic system? Our What Is Cursed Mode guide breaks down the three tiers and how relic points work. It is worth reading before you commit to a round 60 run.
Step 1: Answer the Five Telephones
Starting on round 20, a red telephone starts ringing somewhere on the map. Follow the sound, walk up to the phone, and hold your interact button until it stops ringing. Mr Peeks laughs and the phone disappears, which confirms it counted. A new phone then rings on rounds 30, 40, 50, and 60, so you answer five in total, one on each of those checkpoint rounds.
You are looking for an old red rotary telephone sitting on a counter or shelf. Here is one on the desk inside McDougal’s Service Station.
The phone rings in a different room each checkpoint round, so the location is random. ZoneX runs through the possible spots in his video, and players have mapped at least nine of them across the map. We have clear shots of six below, each showing a small pink marker once you get close. Click any shot to enlarge it.
Click to enlarge Market Square 
Click to enlarge Control Room 
Click to enlarge McDougal's Service Station 
Click to enlarge Toolshed 
Click to enlarge Lost Cabins 
Click to enlarge Farmhouse 
The other known spots include the Server Room in spawn, the Diner near Exit 115, a cabinet inside Ashwood, and the garage. However many rooms it could hide in, you still only answer five phones total, one per checkpoint round. Just chase the ringing.
The ringing phone (what you are listening for)
This is the exact ring the phones give off. It is loud and distinct, so once one starts you can track it down by ear.
When you hold your interact button on the phone, you will see a small puff of smoke as you answer it, but the Mr Peeks laugh is your real confirmation that it counted.
You do not have to answer the phone the instant it rings. The one that starts on round 20 stays available until round 29, so you have the whole decade to find it. Reach round 30 without grabbing it, though, and that phone is gone and a fresh one spawns for the new checkpoint. Just clear each checkpoint’s phone before the next tenth round.
Because the phones are locked to rounds 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60, the whole quest is really a survival check. Our tip is to play it safe: camp a defendable spot like the jail and coast up to round 60 with a wonder weapon and Toxic Growth, only pushing for kills when you need the next phone round.
The Blood Vials relic is prone to glitching. On our own run we walked past a ringing phone, never interacted with it, and the game still counted every phone as answered. Our portal opened around round 43 instead of 60, which is why our screenshots show that round. Do not plan around this. Treat all five phones and round 60 as the real requirement, and take any early trigger as a lucky bonus.
The Mr Peeks laugh (your confirmation sound)
Every phone ends with this laugh to confirm it counted. Hear it on the fifth phone at round 60 and the portal has opened at the Cabin.
Step 2: Enter the Portal at the Cabin
After you answer the fifth phone on round 60, a red portal opens inside the Cabin by Blackwater Lake. It is a swirling red vortex on the wall, hard to miss once it spawns. Walk up to it to bring up the relic trial prompt.
Interact with the portal and the trial prompt appears. Read it before you start, because it tells you exactly what you are walking into.
Some guides claim the Blood Vials trial forces explosive-only damage. That is not what happens. The in-game banner reads “Weapons deal 50% less damage,” and it also disables every relic you have equipped for the duration. Any weapon works, it just hits for half. That is why a high Pack-a-Punch tier matters more than a specific gun type.
Step 3: Survive the Trial (6 Waves)
Once you start, the “Wicked Trial Activated” banner drops and you are locked into a 6-wave fight at Blackwater Lake. Every wave is a kill objective. Some waves ask for standard kills to fill a bar, others mark HVT enemies you have to take down.
| Wave | Objective | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clear standard zombies | Warmup, get a feel for the reduced damage |
| 2 | Clear standard zombies | Bigger crowd, keep training |
| 3 | Kill all HVTs | Focus fire the marked enemies |
| 4 | Clear standard zombies | Watch your ammo, half damage burns through it |
| 5 | Clear standard zombies | Keep moving around Blackwater Lake |
| 6 | Kill all HVTs | Final push, take down the last marked targets |
The 50% damage cut is the whole challenge here. Zombies take roughly double the shots they normally would, so you burn ammo fast and take longer to clear each wave. Keep training the horde in a circle, use your traps and scorestreaks where you can, and do not get greedy pushing into a group when your damage is halved.
Watch out for mimics during the trial, since a bad Kazimir can end a run fast when your damage is already halved. Lean on equipment to make up for the weaker guns: combat axes, monkey bombs, and a war machine are all strong picks for the HVT waves, and you can pick combat axes back up if you keep a tidy training pattern.
Clear all six waves and the “Trial Complete” banner appears. The Blood Vials relic is permanently unlocked for Ashes of the Damned.
Relic Effect
Equip Blood Vials in a future Cursed run and every augment you own is turned off. That covers your perk augments, ammo mod augments, and field upgrade augments, all of it gone for the entire match. Augments are one of the biggest power sources in BO7 Zombies, so switching them off strips a large chunk of your build.
We ran an akimbo Mustang and Sally at Pack-a-Punch tier 4 with the relic active, and it really does change how survivable you are and how much damage you deal. This is not a small tweak, it is a genuine handicap.
Is Blood Vials Worth It?
As a relic to actually equip, no. Losing every augment hurts your survivability far more than most players expect, and there is no upside to balance it out. You grab Blood Vials for the completion and for the 3 relic points it adds toward your Wicked score, not because you want to run it.
Here is our honest ranking of the Wicked relics: the Bus relic is the worst of the three to deal with, and Blood Vials is the easiest of the Wicked trio to unlock. So if you are working through the Wicked relics for completion, Blood Vials is a good one to knock out early. For us, it is a relic you only really grab for achievement purposes.
Unlock Blood Vials once for the points and the completion, then swap back to a relic that actually helps. Disabling every augment is not a challenge worth keeping on for a normal run.
All Ashes of the Damned Relics
Ashes of the Damned has 9 relics total, the most of any map, split across the three tiers. Here is the full set, with the relics we have written guides for linked in the table. For free perks while you grind toward the Wicked tier, our Mr Peeks guide covers the egg drops that hand them out.
| Tier | Relic | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Grim | Dragon Wings | Power-ups do not spawn |
| Grim | Lawyer’s Pen | Mimic props infiltrate the map |
| Grim | Teddy Bear | 75% round delay reduction |
| Sinister | Vril Sphere | Limits you to 4 perks |
| Sinister | Samantha’s Drawing | Weapon swaps each round (gun game) |
| Sinister | Focusing Stone | Self-revives disabled |
| Wicked | Bus | Enemy health regenerates |
| Wicked | Dragon | Ammo caches disabled |
| Wicked | Blood Vials | All augments disabled |
Tips
- You get a full 10-round window for each phone, so the round 20 one lasts until round 29. No need to stall your kills the moment it rings, just answer it before you reach the next tenth round.
- Camp a safe spot between phone rounds. The jail is a solid hold, and a wonder weapon lets you coast to round 60 without much risk.
- Bring your highest Pack-a-Punch tier into the trial. With 50% less damage, raw firepower matters more than any specific weapon.
- Watch your ammo in the trial. Half damage means double the shots, so top up before you start and use traps for free kills.
- This relic is fully soloable. We cleared it solo with no Gobble Gums.
- Only equip Blood Vials for completion or tier stacking. For an actual run, pick a relic that does not gut your build.
- Need to survive comfortably to round 60? Our best BO7 Zombies loadout guide covers a setup that holds up in the late game.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Blood Vials relic do in BO7 Zombies?
The Blood Vials relic disables all augments while it is equipped. Every augment you have unlocked across perks, ammo mods, and field upgrades is switched off for the whole match. It is a Wicked tier relic on Ashes of the Damned, the highest of the three relic tiers.
How do you unlock the Blood Vials relic on Ashes of the Damned?
Reach Wicked tier access by equipping at least 2 Grim and 2 Sinister relics, then answer five ringing red telephones on rounds 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60. After the fifth phone a red portal opens at the Cabin by Blackwater Lake. Enter it and survive the 6-wave trial.
What is the Blood Vials trial modifier in BO7?
Your weapons deal 50% less damage for the entire trial, and all your equipped relics are disabled during the fight. That is the only modifier. The banner on screen reads "Weapons deal 50% less damage," so bring your highest Pack-a-Punch tier and plenty of ammo.
Where do the telephones spawn for the Blood Vials relic?
The ringing phone location is random each round, and players have mapped at least nine possible spots. Confirmed rooms include Market Square, the Control Room, McDougal's Service Station, the Toolshed, Lost Cabins, and the Farmhouse, plus the Server Room, the Diner near Exit 115, and Ashwood. Just follow the ringing sound, then hold your interact button until the phone stops and you hear the Mr Peeks laugh.
Is the Blood Vials relic worth equipping in BO7?
Not for normal runs. Turning off every augment is a real hit to your survivability and damage, so most players only grab it for the completion and to stack relic tiers. Our team rates it as a collect-it-once relic rather than something you keep equipped.
Can you unlock the Blood Vials relic solo in BO7?
Yes. It is fully soloable and we completed the trial with no Gobble Gums, using an akimbo Mustang and Sally at Pack-a-Punch tier 4. The 6-wave trial is manageable solo as long as you account for the 50% weapon damage cut.
How many telephones do you need for the Blood Vials relic?
Five in total. The first rings on round 20 and stays available until round 29, then a new one spawns on each of rounds 30, 40, 50, and 60. You have the full ten rounds up to the next checkpoint to answer each one, so there is no need to rush it the moment it rings.
What tier is the Blood Vials relic in BO7 Zombies?
Blood Vials is a Wicked relic, the top tier, worth 3 points toward your relic score. Ashes of the Damned has three Wicked relics: Bus, Dragon, and Blood Vials. You need Wicked access unlocked before the telephone quest becomes available.
Stuck on the round 60 grind or the trial? Join 50,000+ players in the COD Central Discord. Our Zombies channels are full of people running Cursed relics daily, and someone is usually up for a carry to round 60.
