The Seed relic is a Grim tier relic on Astra Malorum, and its effect is simple: it disables the Mystery Box. To unlock it you reach round 20 in Cursed mode, find a grey rarity pistol that spawns on the map, and get kills equal to your round number with it before finishing the round with another weapon. Do that and a trial portal opens at the Observatory Dome.
- Map: Astra Malorum, Cursed mode, main Easter egg already done
- Reach round 20 and find the grey pistol (we found it at The Luminarium)
- Get kills equal to your round number with the pistol, do not Pack-a-Punch it
- Switch weapons to finish the round, hit the next round, Mr. Peeks laughs, portal opens
- Clear the four-wave trial. Effect: the Mystery Box is disabled
We unlocked this one on the first try and grabbed first-hand notes and screenshots along the way. Our run clears up a step that most guides get slightly wrong, so we will walk through the exact method, the trial, and whether losing the box is a real downside.
What the Seed Relic Does
Seed switches off the Mystery Box for the rest of your run. You keep Wall Buys, the Pack-a-Punch, and your Arsenal upgrades, but you cannot spin the box for a random weapon. There is one loophole worth knowing: Fire Sale power-ups and the Immolation Liquidation GobbleGum still drop a temporary box you can use, so the lockout is not total.
On paper that sounds harsh, but in practice it rarely changes an Astra Malorum run. Most of your kit comes from Wall Buys and Pack-a-Punch anyway. In our experience, on most maps the Mystery Box rarely matters. The one time it bites is when a box weapon is tied to an Easter egg step, which is not the case here.
No Mystery Box, but Fire Sale and Immolation Liquidation still spawn one. On Astra Malorum you build from Wall Buys, so the downside is small.
Requirements
Sort these before you start grinding round 20. Missing the main Easter egg requirement is the most common reason the relic will not trigger.
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Map | Astra Malorum |
| Relic Tier | Grim (the lowest of Grim, Sinister, Wicked) |
| Cursed Tier Needed | Tier 1 or higher. Grim relic trials become available from round 20. |
| Main Easter Egg | Must have completed the Astra Malorum main Easter egg at least once. This applies to every relic on the map. |
| Round | Round 20+ for the grey pistol challenge. |
| Pistol | The grey rarity pistol that spawns on the map. Do not Pack-a-Punch or upgrade its rarity. |
Step 1: Find the Grey Pistol
From round 20, a grey rarity pistol spawns somewhere on the map as a pickup on the floor. We found ours at The Luminarium, but the spawn is random. Which pistol you get is random too, so it can be the Jager 45, the Velox 5.7, or the Coda 9. It does not matter which one, they all work the same for the challenge.
We ran the map and marked every spot we found it. The pistol can turn up in any of these areas, so sweep them at the start of round 20:
Click to enlarge Machina Astralis 
Click to enlarge The Luminarium (storage room) 
Click to enlarge The Luminarium (study) 
Click to enlarge Observatory Dome (machine room) 
Click to enlarge Observatory Dome (back room) 
Click to enlarge Archive of Orbis 
Whichever spot it lands in, it looks like this on the floor, a plain grey pickup you walk over to grab:
Grab it and swap it into a weapon slot. Leave it grey. The moment you Pack-a-Punch it or bump its rarity at the Arsenal, the kills stop counting.
Step 2: Get the Kills, Then Switch
This is the step most guides describe loosely, and the exact count matters. With the grey pistol equipped, you need kills equal to your current round number in a single round, and it has to land on that number exactly. On round 20 that means exactly 20 pistol kills, no fewer and no more. The moment you hit 20, stop firing the pistol. That is the whole reason this step is called “then switch”: you swap to a different weapon, clear the rest of the round’s zombies with that, and let the round tick over.
Open the Weapon Stats screen (the scoreboard tab) to track your kills on the pistol. This is the cleanest way to confirm the counter is climbing, since it shows eliminations per weapon.
When you roll into the next round, Mr. Peeks laughs. That laugh is your confirmation the challenge registered. Because the kills have to come from the grey pistol, anything that kills for you eats into the count, so watch out for effects like Wisp Tea or Elemental Pop finishing zombies before your pistol does.
The Mr Peeks laugh (your confirmation sound)
Roll into the next round and this laugh confirms the grey pistol challenge registered.
The grey pistol is weak, so racking up 20 kills in one round can drag. One trick from our own runs speeds it up a lot: head toward Machina Astralis at Scholar’s Way, where a glowing skull sits wedged in the rocks by the entrance.
Shoot the skull and it drops an Insta-Kill power-up. Grab it and every pistol shot becomes a one-hit kill, so you can burn through the round-number kill count in seconds instead of chipping away shot by shot.
Time the Insta-Kill for the round where you are grinding the pistol counter. With one-hit kills the 20 required eliminations go by fast, and you still switch to another weapon to finish the round once the count is done.
The kill counter is tied to the match and only resets if you save and quit. So you do not have to nail all 20 on the first round 20 attempt, you can keep chipping at it. We cleared it in one go using a Temporal Gift and a Killjoy GobbleGum to control the round.
Avoid save and quit while you are working on this. In our runs it is the one thing that resets the counter, and save-and-quit bugs have broken other relic unlocks on this map too.
Step 3: Enter the Portal
After the laugh, a green trial portal opens at the Observatory Dome. Head there and interact with it. The prompt reads “You only have a packed pistol,” and it warns that all relics are disabled inside the trial. Hit start when you are ready, because there is no perk setup to prepare here.
Step 4: Clear the Trial
The portal drops you into the trial arena at the Stargazer’s Courtyard with only a Pack-a-Punched pistol and no relics. It runs four waves, and the “kills remaining” bar tells you how many enemies are left in each one.
The later waves mix in HVT enemies and a mech, so the pistol alone gets tested. We leaned on the environment to handle them: kite the heavies into a map trap and let it chew through their health while you stay mobile. A Disciple Injection helps you tank a hit or two if you get cornered.
Clear all four waves and the relic is yours. We finished it on the first attempt, and the trial is the easy part of the whole unlock.
Is It Worth Equipping?
For a Grim relic, Seed is a solid pickup. Grim relics fill the smallest chunk of your Cursed tier bar, so you want the ones that get out of your way, and a disabled Mystery Box is about as low impact as a Cursed penalty gets on Astra Malorum. It is a solid one to get up to Tier 3, and a definite good relic.
The honest way most players treat it: unlock it, bank the tier points toward the higher Cursed rewards, and then swap to whatever relic suits their high-round run. If you are chasing the LGM-1 wonder weapon route, you get that from the map’s quest and Pack-a-Punch, not the box, so Seed does not slow you down. Higher tiers also mean better egg drops from Mr Peeks, one more reason to stack tier points early.
All Astra Malorum Relics
Astra Malorum has six Cursed mode relics across the three tiers. For a full breakdown of the relic system and tier rewards, see our What Is Cursed Mode guide. We link each relic guide below as it goes live.
| Tier | Relic | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Grim | Seed | Mystery Box disabled |
| Grim | Gong | Field upgrades charge only from full power-ups |
| Sinister | Spider Fang | Perk prices only ever increase |
| Sinister | Matryoshka Doll | Salvage drop rate halved |
| Wicked | Golden Spork | Enemies deal double damage |
| Wicked | Civil Protector Head | Lose 1 perk every 100 kills |
Tips
- Finish the Astra Malorum main Easter egg first. No relic on the map unlocks without it.
- Do not Pack-a-Punch or upgrade the grey pistol. That is the number one way people brick the attempt.
- Use the Weapon Stats screen to watch your pistol kill count instead of guessing.
- Get exactly your round-number of pistol kills (20 on round 20), no fewer and no more, then switch weapons to finish the round.
- Shoot the glowing skull by the Machina Astralis entrance at Scholar’s Way for an Insta-Kill, then blow through the pistol kills while it is active.
- Do not save and quit mid-challenge. It is the one thing that resets the counter.
- For the trial, kite HVTs into a map trap and keep a Disciple Injection handy.
- Need a stronger setup for the round 20 grind? See our best BO7 Zombies loadout guide, the Spider Fang relic guide for the map’s Sinister tier, and the Mr Peeks spawn locations on Astra Malorum.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Seed relic do in BO7 Zombies?
The Seed relic disables the Mystery Box on Astra Malorum, so you are limited to Wall Buys for the rest of the run. Fire Sale power-ups and the Immolation Liquidation GobbleGum still spawn a box you can use, so it is not a full lockout. It is a Grim tier relic, the lowest of the three Cursed tiers, and we rate it as one of the easier points toward Tier 3.
How do you unlock the Seed relic on Astra Malorum?
Reach round 20 in Cursed mode with the main Easter egg already done, then find the grey rarity pistol that spawns on the map. Get kills equal to your round number with that pistol without Pack-a-Punching it, switch to another weapon to finish the round, and progress to the next round. You hear Mr. Peeks laugh, a portal opens at the Observatory Dome, and clearing the four-wave trial unlocks the relic.
Where does the grey pistol spawn on Astra Malorum?
It spawns randomly on the map from round 20 onward. We found it at The Luminarium, and other players report the Observatory Dome, Machina Astralis, and the Archive of Orbis. The pistol you get is random too, so it can be the Jager 45, the Velox 5.7, or the Coda 9. Open the Weapon Stats screen to confirm your kill count on it.
How many kills do you need for the Seed relic?
You need kills equal to your current round number in a single round, and it has to be exact. On round 20 that is exactly 20 pistol kills, no fewer and no more. The moment you hit that number, switch to a different weapon and finish the round with it. The counter is tied to the match, and it only resets if you save and quit. Do not Pack-a-Punch or upgrade the pistol's rarity, or the kills stop counting.
Does the Seed relic disable the Mystery Box completely?
Almost. The box itself is turned off, but Fire Sale power-ups and the Immolation Liquidation GobbleGum still spawn a temporary box you can spin. On most maps this barely matters because you build your loadout from Wall Buys and the Pack-a-Punch anyway. It only stings when a box weapon is part of an Easter egg requirement.
Is the Seed relic trial hard?
No, we cleared it on the first attempt. It is four waves at the Stargazer's Courtyard, you only have a Pack-a-Punched pistol, and all your relics are disabled for the fight. HVT enemies and a mech show up, so a Disciple Injection and kiting them into map traps helps, but most players find it one of the more forgiving relic trials on the map.
Is the Seed relic worth equipping in BO7?
As a Grim relic it is worth grabbing for the tier progress, since the Mystery Box rarely matters once you are set up. We rate it a definite good relic and one of the easier ways to push toward Tier 3. Most players unlock it, bank the tier points, and swap to a different relic for their actual high-round runs.
Stuck on the pistol counter or hunting for a co-op partner for the round 20 grind? Join 50,000+ players in the COD Central Discord. Our Zombies channels run relic trials daily and the team that wrote this guide is in there to help.
