When people first start talking about the Blood Vials relic in Black Ops 7, it sounds like the game is out to get you, but once you sit down and actually play a long run, it feels more like a patience test than some impossible wall and that is also why a lot of players quietly look at BO7 Bot Lobbies when they are tired of wasting whole evenings on failed attempts.

Main Setup Work

You cannot just load into Ashes of the Damned and hope it works out, because the game wants the main Easter Egg done first and expects you to bring in the lower Grim or Sinister relics before Cursed mode even counts for the challenge, so there is a bit of homework before the fun part starts.

Once you are actually in a Cursed run, the real checklist kicks off around round 20, when you start wandering between places like the Blackwater Lake cabin and the docks listening for that annoying ringing phone, and the first time you do it, you will probably run past it a few times because the sound blends into the chaos.

Phone Rounds And Punishment

After you find the phone, the pattern is simple on paper, because you just need to answer it at rounds 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60, and as long as you hear the Mr Peeks laugh and see the red smoke, you know the game has ticked the box.

In practice most people do not fail because of hard enemies, they fail because they forget to check the phone between training zombies, grabbing ammo or reviving a teammate, and then you hit round 35 and realise the whole run is dead, which feels awful when you have already sunk more than an hour into it.

Red Portal And Trial Waves

When the red portal spawns after round 60, it is easy to panic on your first run, especially when you see that 50 percent damage nerf, but if you have a solid Ray Gun or a well built Necrofluid Gauntlet, it is way less scary than it looks.

The cabin defence is only six waves, no weird melee only rules or headshot only drama, so you just hold angles, burn down Doppelghasts as soon as you see them and trust your perks and armour to carry you, and a lot of players who reach this point solo actually say it feels calmer than the rounds leading up to it.

Why People Still Look For Shortcuts

The real problem is not the fight, it is the time, because reaching round 60 over and over means you are gambling hours on a single game, and if the server crashes or you miss one phone, there goes your night and your mood.

That is why some players decide they would rather level guns, chase camos or pick up rare gear in safer spaces, and they end up looking for services where you can relax a bit, like when people buy game currency or items on RSVSR, and once you finally grab the Blood Vials relic and run without augments, it really does feel like you are showing off pure gun skill instead of just another meta build.