How to Fully Upgrade Ol’ Tessie in in Black Ops 7 Zombies

Enhancing Ol’ Tessie isn’t a background task in Ashes of the Damned.

It’s what every successful run depends on. The fog outside each zone is brutal, the highways are packed with elites, and traveling on foot becomes a quick way to lose everything.

Tessie fixes all of that. Once you bring her to her highest tier, she basically becomes a fortress on wheels with Pack-a-Punch capability, a beam burst attack, and, later, a full Wunderwaffe loadout.

The process stretches across several locations and quest steps, but each upgrade makes the map easier to handle and opens up paths you wouldn’t survive without her.

Here’s how to take Tessie from a dead truck in the plaza to your strongest ally in the Dark Aether.

How Do You Get T.E.D.D.’s Head and Start Tessie?

Ol’ Tessie starts out as a dead pickup sitting in Janus Towers Plaza, but once you bring her back to life and upgrade her, she becomes the most valuable tool on the entire Ashes of the Damned map.

Credit: Activision

She goes far beyond simple transport. She acts as your shield in the Dark Aether, your on-the-go Pack-a-Punch spot, and later a tank built for blasting through anything in your way.

Fully upgrading her takes several steps spread across multiple regions, but once every piece is installed, Tessie becomes essential for both survival and completing the map’s biggest objectives.

The truck doesn’t work when you first find it, so your opening task is waking it up. In the spawn area, head into the Server Room tucked on the southern side of Janus Towers Plaza.

Inside, look down for a metal grate. Hit it with a melee attack to break it open and reveal T.E.D.D.’s Head beneath the floor.

Pick it up, leave the room, and install it into the rusted pickup parked right outside. Once T.E.D.D. is placed, the engine roars back to life, and you can finally drive Ol’ Tessie out into the fog-covered highways.

With T.E.D.D. installed, Tessie also starts auto-repairing whenever she’s not being used, which helps immensely early on before stronger enemies begin piling up.

How Do You Restore Power to the Power Pumps?

Before Tessie can receive any high-tier upgrades, power must be restored across the outskirts of the map.

Credit: Activision

Drive out of Janus Towers and choose either main road. One leads to Vandorn Farm and the other to Blackwater Lake.

Both of these locations contain large Power Pumps covered in bright Aether fungus. When you start the event, several fungal bulbs sprout across the machine, and you need to destroy them all before the timer expires.

The final chunk usually appears near the top, so make sure to check all sides.

Finishing the cleanup triggers a strong pulse that kills nearby zombies and unlocks that zone’s power switch, typically on a roof or upper walkway.

Flip the switch to fully activate the area. Completing one outer pump opens the route toward Ashwood, where a third Power Pump awaits near the bridge.

Clear that one is using the same process. Flipping the Ashwood switch opens the town garages, which serve as the primary stations for Tessie’s major upgrades.

How Do You Install the Pack-a-Punch on Tessie?

Once Ashwood is fully powered, Ol’ Tessie gets her first real upgrade when you drive her into the Ashwood garage and follow the route inside.

Credit: Activision

The building has a zipline that takes you to the upper level, and passing through a few broken walls and alleyways leads to a door that must be opened with essence.

Behind it is yet another Power Pump that needs to be cleared before the Vehicle Upgrade Station becomes active.

After turning on the switch tied to that pump, bring Tessie back to the garage and park her on the central upgrade pad.

The Pack-a-Punch station is installed directly onto her rear, allowing you to upgrade weapons without returning to a fixed machine ever again.

When this upgrade is added, Tessie can perform a short forward dash that’s perfect for cutting through mobs or getting rid of zombies stuck on the sides.

How Do You Get the Abomination Heads Upgrade?

The next part turns Tessie from a simple workhorse into a weapon.

Credit: Activision

For the Abomination Heads, you need to reach Exit 115, which is accessed through the southwest road leading out of Ashwood.

Park Tessie outside and head into Reba’s Diner. A special zombie dressed like a cook eventually appears here, and defeating him drops a key to a freezer in the diner’s back hallway.

Unlock the freezer to retrieve what’s left of an Abomination’s skull.

Take it with you and head straight to Ashwood’s garage. Zombies tend to get more aggressive whenever you’re holding key items.

Back in the garage, interact with the hanging heads on the workshop wall while Tessie is parked nearby.

This sets a cluster of Abomination Heads on her hood, allowing her to unleash a powerful beam in front of her.

The blast wipes out anything directly in front of the truck and even destroys certain environmental objects, such as purple Aether plants.

However, it operates on a cooldown, so it’s best saved for tight choke points or dangerous situations.

How Do You Unlock the Wunderwaffe DG-2 Turret?

The last upgrade is by far the most involved, requiring you to gather special ingredients for a serum, survive a lockdown event, and hunt down three keys scattered across the map’s connecting roads.

Credit: Activision

You must also already have the Necrofluid Gauntlet, since several steps rely on its abilities.

The laboratory ritual requires a mix of rare drops:

• A Ravager must be lured into a blade trap at Vandorn Farm and killed inside it to release its eyes.
• A hanging corpse in the farm barn hides a foot that can be knocked off with a thrown Combat Axe, then burned to reveal the needed bones.
• Bring a Zursa to its end using Tessie’s Abomination beam, and it’ll drop the limb you need.
• Purple Aether plants along the highways drop Horde Chunks when blasted with the same hood beam.
• The Jar of Spores at Blackwater Lake eventually becomes the Widow’s Lantern after interacting with the dead horse near the farm and waiting a few rounds.
• The Powder of the Forgotten is acquired by activating the Wisp Tea perk and using the Necrofluid Gauntlet on a mirror in Ashwood.

Once all items are collected, take them to Yuri’s Lab inside Zarya Cosmodrome.

A puzzle involving symbols on a chalkboard determines which ingredients to place into the mixing bowls in what order.

Choosing the right combination makes the mixture turn red and activates a lockdown, and you’ll need to stay alive in the lab until it finishes.

Where Do You Find the Three Keys for the Final Lockbox?

Completing the ritual reveals a chained box in Ashwood.

Credit: Activision

Three unique keys are needed to unlock it:

• Bruin Key — hidden along the route between Ashwood and Zarya Cosmodrome.
• Nightbird Key — found in the dinosaur-filled graveyard path leading to Exit 115.
• Terrapin Key — located on or around the grounded ship pathway toward Vandorn Farm.

Each key floats high above the environment and must be shot with the Necrofluid Gauntlet, then pulled down by reloading.

When picked up, each one inflicts a debuff like loss of sprinting or no health regeneration, so getting them back to the locked box while surviving the fog can be tense.

Delivering all three triggers a cutscene and causes the DG-2 turret barrel to appear nearby.

How Do You Mount the Final DG-2 Turret on Ol’ Tessie?

Pick up the barrel and return to the Ashwood garage one last time.

Credit: Activision

Park Tessie on the upgrade pad and interact with the workshop to attach the Wunderwaffe DG-2 turret to her roof.

This gives the truck a mounted electric weapon that strikes groups of zombies automatically if no one is operating it, or can be manually controlled by a player riding in the gunner’s seat.

How Do You Keep a Fully Upgraded Tessie Alive?

Even with every upgrade installed, Tessie can still take significant damage when driving through the deeper fog zones.

Credit: Activision

She has a few different repair options. Driving through green Aether growths fixes her right away, parking her lets T.E.D.D. patch her up over time, and the Ashwood garage pad restores her fast.

If she’s ever destroyed, you can summon a replacement from the same garage for essence, which prevents your entire run from collapsing.

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