Ol' Tessie Upgrades: Fully Upgrading the BO7 Truck

Ol’ Tessie is the drivable wonder-vehicle on the Ashes of the Damned Zombies map. Left alone she’s just transport, but she takes four upgrades, and the big one — a mobile Pack-a-Punch — changes how you play the whole map. This guide walks the four upgrades in the order you should actually do them, because each step unlocks the next.

Upgrade 1 — T.E.D.D.’s Head (lets you drive)

Start in the Janus Towers Plaza spawn area. Spend 1,250 Essence to open the Server Room door, melee the crate inside to get T.E.D.D.’s Head, then install it on Ol’ Tessie. From here you can drive her anywhere on the map and reach areas that were blocked before. Do this first — every later step needs her mobile.

Upgrade 2 — Pack-a-Punch (mobile Pack-a-Punch + speed boost)

Once Tessie runs, drive her to Blackwater Lake or Vandorn Farm and clear the Infested Power Pump: destroy the orange blobs within 30 seconds, then hit the switch in that area to restore power. Repeat the same pump-clear at Ashwood. With Ashwood powered, drive Tessie into the Ashwood garage, park on the workbench, and install the Pack-a-Punch. This is the payoff upgrade — you can now Pack-a-Punch weapons without returning to a fixed machine, and Tessie gets a short forward dash that cuts through mobs.

Upgrade 3 — Abomination Heads (front energy beam)

After Ashwood has power, go to Exit 115 and open Reba’s Diner. Kill zombies inside until the Freezer Key drops (it’s random, so keep the kills inside the diner). Use the key on the freezer in the diner’s upper-right corner to grab the Abomination Carcass, then drive back to the Ashwood garage and install the heads at the workbench. The beam fires straight ahead, wipes choke points, and can destroy purple Aether plants — it runs on a cooldown, so save it for tight spots.

Upgrade 4 — DG-2 Turret Barrel (roof lightning turret)

The final upgrade is the most involved and requires the Necrofluid Gauntlet Wonder Weapon first. The path: gather the serum ingredients (Widow’s Lantern, Hoard Husk Chunks, Ravager Eyes, Human Bones, Powder of the Forgotten, Mysterious Limbs), grab the syringe at Zarya Cosmodrome near the Wisp Tea perk, take it to Yuri’s Lab (the building with the red star), solve the chalkboard symbol puzzle to turn the vial red, add blood to trigger a soulbox lockdown, and survive until the room fills with purple smoke. Then use the Gauntlet to collect three fog keys — Nightbird (Orda Graveyard), Bruin (Crashed Rocket), Terrapin (Grounded Ship) — noting key spots are randomized each match and carrying them applies debuffs, so bring Tessie. Deliver all three to the Ashwood prism for a cutscene that yields the DG-2 Turret Barrel, then park Tessie on the garage pad one last time to mount it. The turret fires automatically at zombie groups or can be manually controlled from the gunner seat.

What to prioritize

Do Head → Pack-a-Punch → Abomination Heads early; the mobile Pack-a-Punch alone is worth the detour and the garage door costs 1,000 Essence to open and the debris beyond it another 1,750 Essence. Treat the DG-2 Turret as a late-run project after you’ve already got the Gauntlet and the serum ritual down. Our Ashes of the Damned guide maps the zones these steps move between, and the BO7 Weapon Prestige guide explains why a mobile Pack-a-Punch matters once you start prestiging weapons for permanent unlocks.