Two of the most approachable Ashes of the Damned Dark Ops, Lucidity and Countdown, can be cleared in one Standard match with a bit of routing. The key is to build a loadout that handles both sustained zombie waves and a controlled elite kill near a jump pad, while also selecting Dempsey as your operator so you qualify for the Lucidity side quest.

Lucidity starts by activating power at Ashwood, which opens access to the Cosmodrome, then driving toward the crashed rocket site and disembarking into a narrow path filled with dead soldiers and a hidden dog tag. After interacting with the nearly buried tag, you are teleported into a jungle area where you must follow a trail of black mist, stopping three times to clear increasingly intense zombie waves, culminating in a sequence where you become a Disciple before returning to the main map and earning the card.

Once Lucidity is done, you can pivot toward Countdown by preparing for the first Zorsa bear spawn at round 16. The safest approach is to clear the regular wave first, then chip the bear down to low health with a strong shotgun or your preferred high-damage weapon before luring it onto a jump pad. Standing on the pad and triggering it as the bear charges results in a cinematic launch-and-kill that unlocks the card the moment you land.

Beyond these, Ashes of the Damned also hosts some of the most punishing Dark Ops, including completing the main Easter egg at round 100 or higher. Many players treat this as an endgame capstone, tackling it only after they are comfortable with high-round play, elite management, and boss mechanics on lower thresholds.

In parallel, other global Dark Ops like Invincible, Social Distancing, and Ingenuity either directly or indirectly intersect with Ashes of the Damned depending on which mode and relics you choose. Treating each long session as an opportunity to knock out multiple objectives—whether that is flawless rounds, cursed relic thresholds, or Easter egg completions—makes progress feel meaningful even if you are still far from extreme milestones like round 999 or one million kills.