Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Citadelle Des Morts Sword Unlock and Upgrade Steps

If you are a Call of Duty Black Ops Zombies fan, you are most likely playing through the different maps in Call of Duty Black Ops 6. Last month, Treyarch released the first DLC map for Black Ops 6 called Citadelle Des Morts. Despite the map being out for a month, we have noticed that there are several people out there who still do not know how to get the Bastard Swords and upgrade them in Citadelle Des Morts. This month, alongside the Squid Games update, Treyarch released the Directed mode for Citadelle Des Mors walking players through the Easter Egg steps. Despite the game mode being available, many do not feel like playing it since it is capped at round 15 and excludes the other Easter Eggs available on the map.

So in order to help you learn the steps to unlocking the Bastard Swords in Citadelle Des Morts and how to upgrade them we have made this guide. Yes, you do need to upgrade these swords in order to unlock the incantations and complete the Easter Egg.

Unlocking and Upgrading the Swords.

Before you can unlock the swords, you will need to find a Stamp first. Starting at wave 9/10, Unique Helmeted Zombies will start to appear around the map each round. Once you kill it, you can head to the Dining Hall to present a stamp to one of the four knight statues. In Directed mode, the game will have you start with the Dragon Sword first and direct you through the other swords. In Directed, the game will hold the round at 10 until you collect a stamp and start the sword upgrade process.

The Dragon Sword – Caliburn: Dragon’s Fire

Up first is the front right statue, The Dragon Knight. The Dragon Knight will give you a Bastard Sword and start the process to unlock the Fire Sword Caliburn.

With the Dragon Bastard Sword in your possession, leave the Dining Hall and head to the Entrance hall, make a right, and head up the stairs. At the top of the stairs you will see a Dragon Statue; insert the sword into the Dragon Statue. With the sword inserted, three Dragon fires will appear on the map. In order to upgrade the sword, you will need to grab all three fires and bring them back to the statue. Be careful, picking up the Dragonfire can be dangerous, so we recommend getting Juggernog first.

The first fire is located on the castle walls above the gate leading to Speed Cola (Village Ramparts). With the first Dragon flame in hand, you will need to run back to the Dragon Statue. While running back to the statue, purple-eyed zombies will spawn. Punching the zombies will heal you and reduce the burn damage that you are taking for a short time. If you are downed, you will drop the flame and have to start over.

With the first flame acquired, you will need to get the two other other dragon flames. The next Dragon flame can be found in the Nature Path. The Nature Path connects to the Hilltop (Left Castle Gate). Run up the hill and back through the Courtyard in order to turn in the second Dragon Fire.

Now head back to the Town Square (Spawn) in order to gather the third and final flame. At this point, you can choose to either run it through the Hillside route or the side village. Going through the Village Ascent is faster than going through the hillside. Once you have inserted the three Dragon Fire flames into the statue, the Sword will start to glow. Interact with it to pick up Caliburn, the Fire Dragon Sword.

With the Fire Dragon Sword in hand, you can now kill zombies with it easily. Once enough zombies have been slain, the sword will be charged allowing you to use its special ability. Caliburn’s special ability throws three fireballs out; this can be used to light the fire beacons on top of the castle. These three fire beacons must be lit in order to find Ra’s Ankha and unlock the fire scroll; alternatively, the player can throw three Molotovs at the beacons to set them ablaze.

The Lion Sword – Solais: Lion of Light

After you have completed upgrading the Fire Sword Caliburn, the game will have you upgrade the Light Sword. In order to do this, you will need to get another stamp from a Unique Helmeted Zombie and turn it into the Lion Knight Statue. Upon grabbing the Lion Bastard Sword, four glowing Parasites will spawn in the Dining Hall. Upon slaying one, the Bastard Sword will start to glow. With the sword glowing, you will need to head over to the Village (Speed Cola) and melee the Sanctuary Door located on the far right side in between Speed Cola and the Well.

Once at the door, you will need to melee the Lion Head to transfer the Glowing Parasite Essence. Repeat this step by killing the additional three glowing parasites and transferring their energy to the door. As you transfer the energy, you will notice ruins appearing on the door. If you accidentally kill a parasite without meleeing it, all you have to do is progress to the next round for it to respawn. Once the door has four ruins on it, knock on the door and it will bring you into the Sanctuary.

Once inside the Sanctuary, place the Lion Bastard Sword into the Plinth of Light to start the sword trial. Once the Lion test starts, Krafft will say, “The Lion’s test begins! You must succeed where he fell short.” The stand will show a symbol and you must find the corresponding symbols floating in the room and shoot it. As you are looking for each symbol, zombies will spawn. Shooting the wrong symbol will reset the process. Once you have obtained all four symbols take Solais from the stand; this will result in you being teleported out of Sanctuary.

The Stag Sword – Durendal: Stag of the Storms

After upgrading the Lion Sword, the game will want you to move on to the Stag Knight Statute to unlock the Lion Sword. With another stamp in your possession, you can unlock the Stag Bastard Sword. In order to upgrade the Stag Bastard Sword, you will need to acquire three Lightning Rods. The game directs the player to head to the Dungeon to kill a zombie with a lightning rod. On most occasions, the game will spawn a zombie with a lightning rod attached to his body allowing for quick obtainment; we have noticed that sometimes the zombie does not spawn for a few rounds, however, in Directed mode, it is guaranteed to spawn.

Once you have obtained the first lightning rod, you will need to head to the stables located on the hillside to gather the second lightning rod. The second Lightning Rod can be found next to the crates next to Deadshot Daquari.

With the second rod acquired, you will need to get the third and final rod by shooting the fuse box by the Lion Sanctuary door in the Upper Village. In order to short-circuit the fusebox you will need to either throw a shock charge at it or shoot it with Deadwire; Deadwire can be purchased at the Arsenal for 500 Salvage.

Once all three lightning rods have been obtained head to the courtyard and go in the Hillside Ramparts. On the right side of the castle wall, there will be a pot with three holes in it. Walk up to the Weather Machine and insert the three lightning rods into it. Once all three lightning rods have been inserted, the weather machine will start to spin and you will need to kill zombies that are spawning nearby in order to survive. Once you have been struck by lightning, hit the weather machine with the electrified sword to charge it. Once you have done this three times, the weather machine will stop spinning and you can insert the Stag Sword into it. Pull it out to get Durendal – the Stag Sword.

The Raven Sword – Balmung: Raven’s Shadow

With three swords complete, all that is left is to get the Raven Sword from the Raven Knight. Head back to the Dining Hall and turn in the stamp to unlock the sword. With the sword in your possession, head over to the Alchemical Lab to find a unique Antiquity. Once you have the antiquity, head to the Tavern Cellar located in the Town Square.

On the wall, there will be a Summoning Circle; insert the antiquity into the summoning circle and interact with it. You will need to match the inner and outer rings to the antiquity that you obtained in the lab. You will need to look at it carefully to determine what it is. If it is a fish, you will need to find the Pisces symbol and match it with the water sin. The jawbone correlates with Leo the Lion which is a fire sign. A scorpion will correlate with Scorpio which is a water sign. You can also have two bird skulls that symbolize Gemini which has an air symbol.

Once the Summoning Circle accepts the combination, a Dark Aether Portal will appear and you must lure Shadow Entities to the portal. The Shadow Entites will have different Zodiac symbols on them and will chase you in order to damage you. If they hit you they will disappear so lure them over to the portal. The first portal will spawn in the basement. The second portal will appear by the bar on the main tavern floor, and the final portal will appear in the loft by the pool table.

Once all three portals have gotten three shadow entities in each, a final wisp will appear and head to the Summoning Circle. Once the wisp touches the Summoning Circle, you will see a prompt saying complete transformation ritual. Interact with the ritual to have the sword go into the shadow rift. Once it comes back out it will be the Balmung sword that can suck enemies in with its special ability.