GobbleGums are the quiet power spike of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7’s co-op modes. Used well, they flatten early rounds, bail teams out of bad mistakes, and let you bend Dead Ops Arcade’s chaos in your favor. Used badly, they sit untouched in your inventory while you scrape by on basic wall buys.
This explainer breaks down how GobbleGums function in Black Ops 7, the differences between Zombies and Dead Ops Arcade 4, how you actually get them, and what each rarity is built to do.
What GobbleGums are in Black Ops 7
GobbleGums are single-use consumables you bring into Zombies and Dead Ops Arcade that grant a specific power when activated. You don’t unlock them mid-match by random chance alone; instead, Mr Peeks’ machines pull from the GobbleGum packs you set in your loadout.
- They are consumed once when you “chew” them.
- You can hold up to three GobbleGums in your inventory at a time.
- The machine offers one GobbleGum from your selected pack; you can accept it or leave it and then wait out a short cooldown before rolling again.
Taking a GobbleGum from the machine doesn’t trigger its effect. It simply adds that gum to your inventory, ready for when you choose to activate it. That timing control is the core of why GobbleGums matter: you decide when to cash in an insta-kill, pause round progression, or flood the map with power-ups.
GobbleGum rarities and what they’re for
Black Ops 7 splits GobbleGums into five rarities. Four of them are functional power tools; one is pure cosmetic chaos.
| Rarity | Role in Zombies | Role in Dead Ops Arcade 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Rare (Blue) | Basic power-ups, ammo and armor tools, escape buttons. | Short bursts of damage, power-up uptime, or survivability. |
| Epic (Purple) | Economy boosts, box control, equipment and loot scaling. | Weapon, treasure, and item economy manipulation. |
| Legendary (Orange) | Pack-a-Punch shortcuts, team-wide revives, round control, high-impact support. | Round skipping, persistent safety nets, map-wide effects. |
| Ultra (Red) | All perks at once, guaranteed Wonder Weapons, 30k Essence, panic-clears. | Massive SlayerMart cash, long-lasting chickens/mutants, global discounts, max-level weapons. |
| Whimsical (Rainbow) | Purely visual joke modifiers (pumpkin heads, rubber rings, rainbow burps). | Same joke modifiers as Zombies. |
Within those bands, GobbleGums also fall into three behavior types:
- Instant: the effect happens the moment you consume it (for example, triggering an insta-kill or starting a Fire Sale).
- Timed: the effect begins immediately and runs on a fixed timer (such as Free Fire, which removes ammo consumption for a short window).
- Conditional: nothing happens until a condition is met (for example, Temporal Gift doesn’t do anything until you next pick up a time-based power-up).
How GobbleGum packs and loadouts work
Before jumping into a Zombies match, you must choose at least one GobbleGum pack in your loadout. Packs define what Mr Peeks’ machines can spit out; there’s no “off” switch.
- Each pack holds five distinct GobbleGums.
- The first three slots are especially important in Zombies, because you start the match with those three gums already in your inventory.
- Every individual GobbleGum in your collection has a finite quantity; if you slot one you’ve run out of, the machine can roll a dud and give you nothing.
You can create several packs tailored to different roles. Many players split them roughly by rarity or purpose:
- A “starter” pack full of early-round tempo tools: Kill Joy, Cache Back, Wall Power, Armor Gettin’, Power Keg.
- A “support” pack centered on team rescue and perk distribution: Phoenix Up, Perkaholic, On The House, Near Death Experience, Profit Sharing.
- A “panic button” pack with Time Out, Round Off, Reign Drops, Exit Strategy, Hidden Power.
In round-based Zombies, you can switch the active pack mid-mission through the pause menu, so one practical approach is to start with a pack of match-openers, pop them early, then swap to a more defensive set once the map is built out.
How to get GobbleGums in Black Ops 7
The game treats GobbleGums as a long-term resource. You expand your stockpile in three ways: simply playing Zombies, leveling your profile, and spending COD Points in the in-game store.
GobbleGums from playing rounds and exfil
Standard Zombies matches can award GobbleGums as you clear rounds. The exact round that drops a gum and the rarity you get are random, but long matches tend to hand out new pieces roughly every 20–30 minutes of play.
There’s a separate track for Whimsical GobbleGums. You don’t get those from pure playtime; they drop on successful exfil attempts:
- Exfil between rounds 15–29 grants one Whimsical GobbleGum.
- Exfil between rounds 30–44 grants two.
- Exfil at round 45 or higher grants three.
Higher rounds don’t appear to raise the odds of higher rarities for the normal pool; the reward is volume, not better drop rates.
GobbleGums from level milestones
Career levels also award specific GobbleGums. These are one-time unlocks that expand your pool permanently; they do not relock when you prestige.
| Level | GobbleGum unlocked |
|---|---|
| 6 | Aftertaste |
| 9 | Power Keg |
| 14 | Kill Joy |
| 20 | Power Vacuum |
| 23 | Stock Option |
| 30 | Requipment |
| 32 | Dead Drop |
| 36 | Round Off |
| 39 | Explosive Flourish |
| 41 | Hidden Power |
| 45 | Armor Gettin' |
| 50 | Gift Card |
These milestone rewards are some of the strongest economy and safety tools in the roster — Gift Card alone injects enough Essence to rebuild an entire loadout.
GobbleGum packs and bundles in the store
Black Ops 7 also sells GobbleGum packs and Zombies-focused bundles via the in-game store, purchasable with COD Points. These grant extra copies of specific GobbleGums or mixed assortments. They don’t unlock any exclusive activation rules; they simply increase your available quantities.
Carry forward from Black Ops 6
If you played Black Ops 6, your GobbleGum inventory doesn’t reset. The entire stash carries into Black Ops 7, so returning players start with a sizable bank of returning flavors alongside the six new ones featured at launch.
This also means that the same power pieces — Perkaholic, Wonderbar!, Near Death Experience, Reign Drops, and others — retain their identity, even as some effects have been tuned for the new systems.
How to use and convert GobbleGums in Zombies
Using GobbleGums is a two-step process: pick them up from Mr Peeks’ machine, then manually trigger them from your inventory.
- On controller, you open the GobbleGum inventory from the d-pad, then choose which gum to chew.
- On keyboard and mouse, each GobbleGum slot is bound to a number key by default.
There’s also a “convert” action on the same inventory screen. Converting destroys the GobbleGum and pays you Essence instead of granting its effect. Payout scales with rarity:
| Rarity | Essence gained on convert |
|---|---|
| Whimsical | 100 Essence |
| Rare | 500 Essence |
| Epic | 1,250 Essence |
| Legendary | 3,000 Essence |
| Ultra | 5,000 Essence |
This gives you a safety valve for flavors you don’t need in a given run. You might convert an extra Soda Fountain if perks are already capped, or cash out a Time Out you don’t expect to need on a low round where Essence is more valuable.
Key GobbleGums in Zombies by rarity
The full Zombies roster spans 44 GobbleGums. A few stand out because they reshape how you approach rounds, perks, or weapon progression.
| Rarity | GobbleGum | Core effect | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rare | Kill Joy | Spawns an Insta-Kill power-up. | Fast objective steps or clutching revives in tight spaces. |
| Rare | Cache Back | Spawns a Max Ammo power-up. | Late-round Wonder Weapon sustain. |
| Rare | Aftertaste | Keep all perks after being revived. | Insurance if you’re weak on self-revives. |
| Epic | Requipment | Equipment slots refill over time. | Long sustain for lethal/tactical-heavy strategies. |
| Epic | Power Vacuum | Kills have a higher chance to drop power-ups. | Extends chains of Nukes, Max Ammo, and double points. |
| Epic | Free Fire | Weapon shots don’t consume ammo for a short time. | Burn through boss health or dense special waves. |
| Legendary | Wall Power | Next wall-buy weapon is Pack-a-Punched on purchase. | Early access to high-damage weapons without opening PaP. |
| Legendary | Phoenix Up | Revive all teammates and let them keep their perks. | Team wipe recovery in one button press. |
| Legendary | Round Off | Stops rounds advancing for two rounds. | Extended setup time for quests or economy on a safe wave. |
| Ultra | Perkaholic | Grants every available perk at once. | Skip the entire perk economy and focus on weapons/objectives. |
| Ultra | Wonderbar! | Next Mystery Box weapon is a Wonder Weapon. | Guarantee a marquee gun early without gambling box spins. |
| Ultra | Gift Card | Grants 30,000 Essence. | Instantly build out weapons, armor, and field upgrades. |
| Ultra | Time Out | Clears all normal and special enemies and ends the round. | Panic button when the map gets away from you. |
The remaining GobbleGums fill in the gaps: Sow extra perks on purchase (Soda Fountain), duplicate Essence across nearby players (Profit Sharing), or pack the Mystery Box weapon you take (Crate Power). Together, the set covers ammo, perks, mobility, round flow, and team recovery.
Dead Ops Arcade 4 GobbleGums and how they differ
Dead Ops Arcade 4 uses the same GobbleGum names and rarities, but almost all of the effects are rewritten around the twin-stick arena format. The flavor is familiar; the behavior isn’t.
Examples:
- Kill Joy (Rare): instead of granting an insta-kill power-up, it makes anything die in one shot for 60 seconds, with bosses excluded and a global cooldown before you can trigger the effect again.
- Cache Back (Rare): equips a maximum-power Ray Gun with infinite ammo for a brief window, rather than dropping Max Ammo.
- Anywhere But Here (Rare): lets you adopt a chicken companion for up to five minutes instead of teleporting you.
- Exit Strategy (Epic): causes chicken eggs to hatch coins for 30 minutes, turning a pet mechanic into an economy engine.
- Wall Power (Legendary): removes damage from electric poles for one round, reflecting how environmental hazards work in Dead Ops.
- Perkaholic (Ultra): hands out a random Field Upgrade, random ammo mod, level-one armor, and a 30-minute chicken, packing several small boosts into one chew.
The Whimsical set behaves exactly the same in both modes: zombies float, burp rainbows, wear inner tubes, or pick up festive decorations for three minutes at a time. There is no gameplay upside; they exist to make the chaos funnier.
How many GobbleGums there are in Black Ops 7
At launch, Black Ops 7 Zombies supports 47 GobbleGums. Six of these are new flavors introduced for this game — including Aftertaste, Requipment, Power Vacuum, Round Off, Armor Gettin’, and Gift Card — while 41 return from Black Ops 6 with adjustments where necessary.
That roster is mirrored between Zombies and Dead Ops Arcade 4, but each mode attaches its own rules: durations, cooldowns, and sometimes entirely different effects. The one thing that doesn’t change is how you acquire them and how they fit into your loadout packs.
Used thoughtfully, GobbleGums let you script your run: open strong with a Pack-a-Punched wall weapon, lock in permanent perks, use Round Off to stretch low rounds while you finish Easter egg steps, then fall back on Time Out or Phoenix Up when everything goes sideways. They aren’t a replacement for good aim or map knowledge, but they are the single most flexible system Black Ops 7 hands you to keep a doomed run alive.
