Permanent Double Points for melee kills sounds like the kind of modifier that should be locked behind a menu toggle. In Ashes of the Damned, it’s tied to a Dark Aether bear hunt instead. The reward is the Claw Talisman: once equipped, every melee kill for the rest of the game is worth double Essence, with no drawback.
The process is the same whether you’re playing Standard or the more punishing Cursed mode, but it expects you to treat melee as an actual build, not a last-resort panic swing. It also funnels you into one of the map’s nastier side arenas and forces you to fight an HVT Zursa with nothing but a knife (or other melee weapon).
Permanent melee Double Points requirements
Before the Zursa side quest even starts, a few things are non‑negotiable. The game expects you to be able to stand toe‑to‑toe with an Elite bear in a tight, dark forest, so set yourself up properly on early rounds.
| Requirement | What it is | Why you need it |
|---|---|---|
| Death Perception | Perk-a-Cola in the Barn at Vandorn Farm | Reveals and enables interaction with the glowing bear footprints in the fog roads. |
| Fully upgraded melee weapon | Knife or other melee at max rarity, Pack-a-Punch Tier 3 | The Zursa miniboss can only be damaged by melee for the Easter egg reward to trigger. |
| Basic survival perks and armor | Jugger-Nog, Stamin-Up, Quick Revive, Melee Macchiato, Tier II–III armor | Helps you survive the teleport and bear fight without being one-shot. |
| Time on low–mid rounds | Ideally before enemies scale too hard | Lower round health pools make the Zursa fight safer and shorter. |
Death Perception is mandatory; without it, the bear tracks simply don’t exist for you. Everything else is technically optional but strongly recommended. The melee requirement is strict: if any non‑melee damage touches the HVT Zursa during the fight, the Double Points reward will not be granted.
Upgrading your melee weapon for the Zursa fight
The melee pass in Black Ops 7 Zombies makes headshots and heavy attacks matter, but that only goes so far against an Elite enemy. Treat your melee the same way you’d treat a wonder weapon.
- Push your knife or preferred melee weapon through all rarity tiers (up to Legendary) via the Arsenal machine.
- Pack-a-Punch it three times so you’re at Tier 3 before attempting the quest.
- Pick a melee‑friendly perk mix: Melee Macchiato, Jugger-Nog, Stamin-Up, and Quick Revive are a solid core.
- Grab at least Tier II armor from an Armor Wall Buy; Tier III is ideal.
There’s an efficient early‑round path to this: using the Toxic Growth Field Upgrade on the green plants in Janus Towers Plaza and then hitting them with a fumigator can spit out Weapon Rarity boosts, Mystery Perks, and even Pack-a-Punch upgrades. It’s possible to walk into round 10 with a purple Tier 2 Pack-a-Punch knife using only this interaction and some focused Essence farming.
Finding the bear footprints in the fog
Once Death Perception is active, the map quietly adds a new layer to its fog roads. Somewhere along those routes, a single glowing bear pawprint appears, visible only to players with the perk running.
| Fog road | From | To | Where to start looking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crashed Rocket road | Ashwood | Zarya Cosmodrome | Near the Ashwood gate, then deeper into the fog. |
| Orda Graveyard road | Ashwood | Exit 115 | Again, favor the Ashwood side when scanning. |
| Other fog connectors | Between Ashwood, Diner, Cosmodrome, etc. | – | Footprints can also appear on other foggy stretches, so sweep all roads if needed. |
The footprint is hard to miss once you’re close: a glowing orange‑yellow bear track on the ground. The key rules here:
- You must be on foot. Being in Ol’ Tessie or any vehicle will not let you interact.
- You need to physically be near the footprint; Death Perception reveals it, but it’s still easy to run past if you sprint the roads without looking down.
Interact with the first pawprint to start the trail. A second one spawns further along the road. Interact again, and the process repeats, sending you deeper into the mist.
Following the trail into the Dark Aether forest
The footprint sequence is linear: find a print, interact, watch the next one appear ahead, and chase it. Each interaction locks in your progress; you can’t skip or break the sequence by sprinting off‑path.
- Take your time between prints — the fog roads already spawn stronger, faster enemies, and overcommitting here can burn armor and self-revives before the real fight.
- Use your main gun to manage the horde during the trail; the melee‑only requirement doesn’t start until after you’re teleported.
At the final footprint, interacting one last time kicks off a short Zursa attack animation and fades the screen to black. When you regain control, you’re no longer on the main map; you’re in the same Dark Aether forest that Dempsey’s side quest uses, facing an HVT Zursa.
What happens when you enter the Zursa arena
The teleport strips you down visually, but your gear isn’t gone. Instead, everything you brought into the fight is dropped on the ground around you.
| Event | Effect | What you should do |
|---|---|---|
| Teleport cutscene ends | You spawn in a dark forest arena; weapons and perks appear as glowing pickups on the floor. | Immediately locate and grab your guns and equipment. |
| HUD perk wipe | Perk icons vanish from the HUD when you arrive. | Picking up your dropped gear silently returns your perks and armor, even if the HUD doesn’t fully refresh. |
| First Zursa engagement | The HVT Zursa begins to charge and swipe as soon as you spawn. | Stay mobile while recovering your loadout to avoid being downed before the fight starts. |
How to kill the HVT Zursa with melee only
This is the one condition that matters: every tick of damage that kills the HVT Zursa has to come from a melee weapon. Bullets, explosives, support streaks, and Ammo Mod procs will all invalidate the Claw Talisman reward if they touch the boss.
- Switch to your upgraded melee as soon as your weapons are recovered.
- Aim for head and neck swings to trigger melee critical hits and speed up the kill.
- Learn and play around the Zursa’s patterns: charging rushes, heavy swipes, and brief pauses after certain moves are your openings.
- Keep some space; hugging the bear’s flank makes it easier to adjust your strikes without getting pinned.
With a Legendary, triple Pack-a-Punched melee weapon and a decent perk stack, the fight is short — roughly ten strong hits can be enough. On higher rounds or with weaker gear, expect a longer duel. As soon as the Zursa dies, it detonates in a Dark Aether blast, and the arena changes again.
Claiming the Claw Talisman and other loot
Defeating the HVT Zursa spawns a familiar visual: a small black orb appears on the ground, then floats over to a crate or chest in the arena. That chest is the payoff for the entire sequence.
| Reward | Type | Effect / Use |
|---|---|---|
| Claw Talisman | Quest item / Talisman | Once picked up and equipped, grants permanent Double Points on every melee kill for the rest of the match. |
| Ray Guns (up to several) | Wonder Weapons | High‑tier loot pool that can roll free Ray Guns as part of the drop. |
| Disciple Injection | Support item | Temporarily turns you into a Disciple with powerful Dark Aether attacks and crowd control. |
| Mystery Perk / Perma Perk | Perk reward | Grants a random permanent perk effect in addition to your usual perk lineup. |
Interact with the crate once the orb settles into it. The loot spills out, and the Claw Talisman appears as an interactable pickup. Grab it along with anything else you want from the drop pool.
After a short delay, the game fades you back into the main Ashes of the Damned map. From that point on, the talisman stays in your inventory for the duration of the run.
How permanent melee Double Points works
The Claw Talisman doesn’t change your HUD the way a normal Power-Up does, but its effect is simple and immediate:
- Every zombie you kill with a melee attack awards double Essence compared with a normal melee kill.
- The benefit applies across the entire match in any mode where the Easter egg was completed (Standard or Cursed in that session).
- There is no penalty for taking damage; you don’t lose points when hit, and the talisman doesn’t introduce any hidden debuff.
That last point is important. This isn’t one of Cursed mode’s Relics that bakes in a downside — it’s a straight buff tied to a one‑time quest. On low rounds, when zombies are easier to manage with knives and axes, the extra Essence snowballs quickly into Pack-a-Punch, perks, and Support items. In Cursed mode, where point flow is tighter and restrictions stack through Relics, turning melee into a permanent Double Points engine is especially strong.
The tradeoff is practical, not mechanical: you now have a strong incentive to favor melee over guns whenever it’s safe, especially when farming Essence between objectives.
Most side quests in Ashes of the Damned throw out gear, a perk, maybe a Wonder Weapon if you’re lucky. The HVT Zursa bear hunt does all of that and quietly rewires the game’s economy around melee for the rest of your run. Take the time to set up a proper melee build, follow the tracks into the fog, and survive the Dark Aether arena. The payoff sticks with you long after the roar fades.
