This guide came about because all the videos I could find relating to prestiging were either during double XP weekends(5 hour games would be 10 for the rest of us) or are absurdly long and outdated(7+ hours on shadows or campwalk camping). I thought to myself, "I can do WAAAAAAY faster and better then this." This would lead to me testing and trying out different methods I thought of with an the first initial guide. After some feedback and more testing it eventually culminated in me making this guide. The guide will be going over the basics and strategies for pulling this off and things you will need before starting.

I Also made a video of me doing this strategy that I will be referencing a few times in this guide. Of note I was slight above level 1 as of the guide. I was around level 3 but I played for an extra amount of time to make of for this.

There's a couple things to note for the video though:
1: I did this in 3 hours and 20 minutes INGAME, I paused multiple times, making the video around 1 hour longer then it needed to be.

2: I did this on PC, so my Field of View is much higher on console, as well as I have lower graphics settings since my CPU is not up to the task, especially with all the particle effects. That being said the fundementals dont change on whether this is on PC or console

3: I was listening to music and/or podcasts throughout.

Here is the youtube video, I will have it embedded throughout so need to open it in a new tab. I have 2 version embed because one got blocked on copyright claims in certain countries so if the first one wont play try the second
With all that out of the way lets start the guide!

I do want to mention there are some other similarly effective strats on other maps, these are:
Camping in tunnel 11 with wave gun and gersh on moon
Camping fire tunnel in origins with ice staff

While both these options can be done they are either slower (origins) or take a lot longer to setup(moon) they can be done as a change of pace if needed. I wont be providing guides on them here but the strats are quite easy to find. You can find the base strategies on Sulky118s youtube channel(u can modify them to be easier cause your not trying to go for the highest round possible just round like 95).

1. The Revelations Map Pack:
I'm using revelations map for this so you kind of need it for this to work.

2. Be Good at the Game:
This strategy is not made to make this easy. It's made for speed. I assume you can train WELL in small, tight spaces for this guide. I will also will not be going over things like shield parts, pap, etc.

3. Gobblegums:
Alchemical Antithesis: While you don't need megas for this strategy, you need alchemical. If you play without alchemical there is a very real chance of running out of ammo and will make your game way slower.

4. Music/Podcasts:
This strategy can get boring at times, so having a podcast or music to listen too can keep you from zoning out and/or getting too bored.

overall goal and approach:
for some of you might be wondering things like:
"why aren't I knifing more?"
or
"why am i not buying the bowie knife?"
The answer to this and other similar questions is quite simple. Because the endgame of this strategy gives you XP way faster then any of this early stuff could. This means your goal should be to get to that point as quick as possible. This is why we aren't knifing or using bowie knife or any other sort of slower, but higher XP strat.

Round 1-2:
Run towards the alter and start it. After finishing the alter process shoot zombies in the head with the mr6, knife when they are close and headshot them when they are far.

Round 2-4:
Buy the shieva and start killing zombies. Going for headshots is important here as it gives you more XP and points then bodyshots and kills them faster. While you may knife them while you get the chance do not slow down to knife them.

Round 5:
The ultimate goal is to get round 5 done in 5 minutes for the bonus XP(1000). This why we aren't point farming with melee and trying to kill as fast as possible.

Round 6+:
After you finish round 5 start making your way towards the box, wherever it spawned. You can buy jugg in nacht if you aren't confident you can do the next few rounds without it but it will cost some time and points. you can also buy QR here but buying QR spawns death machine powerups, so if your confident enough I would hold off on buying it for a bit

This is where you start opening the map and powering the altars. Make sure you are constantly killing zombies during this time. I found that its much faster to finish a round off in one area then move onto another, start the ritual there then finish off the round there, and repeat.


If you want examples, rounds 1-5 are 0:00:00-0:5:42 in the video

you need these 3 wonder weapons for this strategy to work:
Apothicon Servant(or squid gun as I call it sometimes)
Thundergun
Ragnorok DG4's
I find it usually takes me until around round 16-25 to get everything I need, as it is highly dependent on box luck. Once you have everything make sure you upgrade them(preferably at the same time). If you got the Lil Arnies upgrade those two. These can be quite helpful on parasite/fury rounds.
(you can also unlock the pack a punch with widows wine grenades if needed as well)

Perk Loadouts:
For perks you have a few options. Your getting jugg and most likely quick revive. You could hypothetically swap out quick revive so u don't get death machines and get more max ammos and other drops but I don't recommend it given how the bosses and one hit you sometimes.

Now you have 2 guaranteed(more on that later) slots open. If you want to play it safe you could can go staminup and widows for maximum safety. If you more confident you can swap out staminup for speed cola and if your feeling very confident you can swap out widows for speed cola.

There is also 2 free perks that you can get quite easily as well. First is the bottom challenge on the nacht gravestones(purple). The second free perk is from a low gravity parkour challenge in Der Eisendrache. While not required these extra perks are definitely nice to have and if you get good RNG can make the run significantly easier (as my extra perk for this run was widows meaning i have all the perks i want).

Box Strategies:
While hitting the box for the wonder weapons you should also be killing zombies. If you don't have a wonder weapon yet then hold onto a good weapon(like the haymaker, drakon, or dingo) and use it to kill zombies and deal with any Margwas that spawn. Aim for headshots too, some bonus XP headshots is nice.If you already have a wonder weapon then use that to kill zombies and constantly trade out your other weapon.

If the box moves then go to nacht and look up in the sky in the general direction of the islands. After you see the box light go through the portal to whatever island it's on. If you don't have that island unlocked yet work towards getting it open all the while, hopefully, killing zombies at the same time Also, if it's the first time the box has moved then you should go through the giant Apothican. Also the Thundergun cannot break the things holding up pack a punch in the monsters stomach, you need a bullet gun or the squid gun to break them.

Time Trials
If you can you should try and get the round 10 in under 12 minutes(2000xp) but this will heavily depend on your box and drop luck. Your Main goal is to get the round 20 in under 32 minutes. This one is a significant amount of XP and is pretty reliable to get once you are used to the strategy.

If want to see exactly what I did during the main setup faze from the end of round 5 to fully setup 0:05:42-29:21
Now you'll notice that I basically am fully setup by 0:24:39 but take a few rounds to go get the free perk. This was to make sure I got the round 20 under 32 challenge done. If you don't get everything but end up being tight on time go for the round 20 under 32 first. u can always spin the box more but you cant get that time trial bonus again.

The Verruckt Training Spot:
The reason this guide is so fast is because of the training spot it uses(and why widows is basically mandatory). you will be training in Verruckt part of the map. It's by the stairs to the left once the enter the teleporter to Verruckt.
Now the cool thing about this spot is that zombies will only spawn from the two windows close to you with an occasional keeper or fury spawning down lower and coming up the stairs. As long as you don't go past the broken down wall behind you (it's pretty obvious to tell in game) or past the electric trap it will be like this for the whole game.

Reduce keeper spawns for faster time:
when Keepers and/or furies spawn it slows down the strat, so we want to try and to reduce the amount they spawn. Luckily for us there is quite an easy way to do this. For whatever reason if you stand next to the electric trap switch where the buy trap prompt appears they will not spawn. So when you are shooting the squid gun or after putting down dg4s stand here.

Faster special rounds
For the special rounds where just furies and parasites spawn its actually faster to move to the back of Verrukt for faster special rounds. You want to play above speed cola in the corner with the wheelchair and broken wall. For this strat you want to be using the squid gun for as long as possible until u run out of ammo. once you do u can use Lil Arnies or Thundergun. for an example heres timestamp for example.
2:03:49-2:06:01

Avoid Game Crashes:
Don't shoot the thundergun into the zombies spawns. Not much to it but it WILL crash your game, especially past rounds 40. Nothing very complicated but the likelihood you'll crash the game is very very high if you do this.

Dealing With Panzers and Margwas:
First; Margwas and Panzer will spawn right in the f*%&@#$ middle of the training spot so you should always start the the round decently far from the middle incase anything spawns. Trust me, I've been downed plenty of times from a god d*mn Panzer spawning in front of me and not noticing until I'm on fire and downed.
The best way to deal with these guys is to hold them off in the training area for as long as you feel comfortable spamming Thundergun. For Margwas you can basically instakill them the second they spawn in as all 3 of there heads are open when it spawns. Panzers are harder and can require you to kite back. If things get to dicey and your far from the training spot, make a mad dash backwards and take the roundabout way to the Verruckt courtyard to kill it.

Sidenotes
Margwa distractions: If a Margwa spawns at rounds below 70( and given you have enough ammo) you can shoot the apothican to serve as a distraction for the Margwa and to take of zombies sneaking up on you while dealing with the Margwa. I use this in my timestamp below:

if you want a video reference on how dealt with them here you go:
Panzer-2:15:25-2:15:40(and also an example of why not to stand in the middle. widows wine appeared to have saved me here)
Margwa-1:41:50-1:42:05

Apothican and Max Ammos and Alchemical Efficiency:
a great way to speed things up and effectively use a max ammo is to shoot the apothican into the zombies spawns for some free fast kills. This should also be used when activating Alchemical. If you want a reference here is some timestamps for an example.
1:56:58-1:57:43

Using the Ragnorok-DG4s:
You don't really need to use these until past round 40-50 depending on your ammo situation, in the example video I rarely used them because i was trying to get my drop cycle setup but I kept messing it up. They are pretty simple to use. You place them down in between the two windows
for an example here is a timestamp:
1:42:54-1:43:16

If its a little to chaotic then you should slam them down instead, alternating between the two windows to clear out enough to place them down.
2:24:27-2:24:41
Now sometimes(like if your red screened) its better to just keep slamming which is totally okay.

Using instakills
For instakills you can either use Lil Arnies or melee with the Ragnoroks for instas. Lil Arnies for instas should really only be used if your looking for drops as it is slower then normal or have yet to get the kills required to upgrade them. Meleeing with the ragnoroks is just as fast but you don't get drops.
Here's an example of meleeing with the ragnoroks and what to do after:
2:06:32-2:07:10

sidenote: start watching your widows wine grenades when you get into the higher rounds(70+). up into the high 70s and onward you might need to train with the Thundergun, something which widows can make easier and safer.

The first 50 rounds in Verruckt( especially before round 30) plays noticeably different then after 50. This is due to the increased spawn rate in the later rounds.

Rounds Below 30:
for rounds below 30 you should just be using the squid gun. Since you get ammo rounds every 10 rounds or so there's no reason to worry about ammo here. If you start getting low then switch between the squid gun and the gravity spikes. You can also start shooting the squid gun close to the window inside of spawn for an ammo drop.

Rounds 30 to 50:
After round 30 you should have both the wonder weapons upgraded. The strat is simply to shoot into the the window with the Apothican and then switch off to the to the ragnarok and place them down. Once they run out shoot the Apothican into the window and pick the the dg4s and rinse and repeat.

Here is a demonstration of a full cycle.
3:20:18-3:20:53

So there's a cycle to what gobblegums and drops you get. This isn't super important but it can make your game much easier as well as potentially faster.

The Basic Cycle:
so out of the 5 gobblegums and the 5-7 drops(more on that later) you HAVE to get one of each. this means that if you've already gotten a ammo drop or alchemical you're not going to get one until you go through all the other drops/gobblegums. this also mean you can very reliably know when you get a max ammo and alchemical. Im going to cover each cycle more in detail below
Also the you will know the cycle resets when you get a drop you've gotten already.

The Gobblegum Cycle:
so you have to go through each gobblegum before your cycle resets. This is important if you're trying to get alchemical. Why? because if you get it first hit then you're going to have to hit the machine 4 more times for just the chance to get the gobblegum again.
here's a video explaining it if you want a visual:

The Drop Cycle:
So everything above applies to the drop cycle. But there is some more variables to take into consideration. First is that you only get 4 drops per round. This is important because after you get 4 drops in a round and you didn't get a max then your s*%&$ outta luck until next round.
Second is that you can effectivily remove potential drops. How? well first is that firesales only drop when the box moves (this map has to many things out of the box you need to even consider trying for perfect box)and that carpenter if there are 4 or less full breached windows(the ones u can board up) on the map. This means that if you've already gotten a carpenter you shouldn't get another one until you step out of the training area, thus changing the spawns and having more then 4 windows unboarded.

You should try and keep track of this as soon as the match starts as it will make having to force drops to figure out where you are in the cycle later or being absolutely certain of what your next cycle can be so you can play faster or slower depending will make this much easier. In my run I did not and spent much of the first 20-40 rounds trying to get my drop cycle right when I could've been saving time using alchems

If you want a more visual explanation here is an excellent video explaining how both of these mechanics work

Last thing to mention. If you don't want to keep track of all this on a piece of paper(like I did) or just suck at keeping perfect track of everything here is a sight that you can use to keep track. I highly recommend as it is quite convenient and I wish I had found it for my runs lol
https://www.zombacus.com/dropcycle/bo3/revelations

Rounds 50-70s:

Basically keep repeating what you were doing in the start of the 30s and 40s. use apothican and dg4s. The real difference is you need to start watching your ammo and keeping track of the drop cycle.

you should have an alchemical for backup but using parasyte rounds and drop cycle you shouldn't need it until later, if at all.

Rounds 70+:
This is where you need to really start watching your ammo. Make sure you start keeping track of your drop cycle. as in the previous rounds you will be doing the exact same thing as before, alternate dg4s and apothican. If you run out of ammo and you don't want to use the alchemical you have(because its been 9 rounds since parasytes and next round there coming) then use the thundergun, just don't shoot it into the windows as this can easily cause your game to crash.

Rounds 96+ for Prestige Masters:
If your prestiging then go until you get to max level, which will be about round 94, +/- a round depending on how your game is going. If you want to keep going because your prestige master I would recommend stopping around 130. Why? Well because ammo starts to become a serious problem and you have to start using the thundergun much more. Training and killing with the thundergun is noticably slower then camping with the apothican and dg4s. After around round 130 it will be faster to restart then to keep going.

Death Machine Headshots:
In bo3 the death machine damage scales with the zombies health, making it useful on any round. This means we can use it rapidly kill zombies with headshots(or without) for a bit of extra XP, however its not a perfect 1 to 1 scale and spawns speed increases. So about rounds 40-50 using death machine becomes to much of a risk or becomes to slow to be useful. Here's an example of how to use the death machine in the early rounds.
Try and go for headshots by aiming at head level. That's really the most you can do here, really the main goal of this is to kill zombies faster
timestamp:
1:00:55-1:01:20


Time Trials:
There's 2 potential time trials you can consistently get. First is round 5 in 5 minutes. This really depends on whether or not you get parasites on round 5. While not much the extra 1000 XP is nice.

The second time trial you can get is round 20 in under 32 minutes. As long as your box luck isn't the absolute worst ever then this is easy. This trial is actually important, because you an extra 10,000 XP. Thats right, and extra 10,000XP or 200 regular kills. This is a super sweet XP bonus and easily cuts off 2 minutes from your overall time.

I know there are other trials but I could never consistently get them. This was mainly due to the fact that I spent a large amount of the game hitting the box for the wonder weapons, rather than actively trying to speed through the low rounds.

Computer Specs:
64bit Windows 7 prof
CPU:i5-4590 3.30GHz
GPU: GeForce GTX 960
keyboard: Razor Deathstalker expert
mouse: Logitech g502
recorded with shadowplay

Other Notes:
I've actually been thinking about making a followup guide for a while for a while now. I started sometime in April of 2017 with tons of unsuccessful attempts and a rough guide idea. after a month of games and some theory crafting I planned and pulled off my first successful attempt at this. But I ended up burning myself out and gave up on the guide for a while. After about 3 months away from bo3 zombies I ended up randomly decided to finish the first guide. After posting to reddit and getting a surprising amount of upvotes and good feedback I decided I would improve the guide even more. It took me less then a month to make a better strat, another month to get a good run and ANOTHER month of on and off editing leading to me taking a couple hours to finally finish it on Sept 19th

I first got the idea for this guide by watching high rounds for revelations. Now the strategies are a little different, mainly being shooting the apothican into the window. I think if I tried this again and pap the apothican and did this up until the 70s I could probably shave off another 30 minutes from the time. But I have other things I want to do and I'm burnt out on revelations; maybe in the future but not now.

Changelog:
Jul 22, 2017: 1.0
guide first made
Jul 22, 2017:1.1
added spec info
small grammatical corrections
added WW ammo section
Aug 8, 2017: 2.0
literally to many things to list. Pretty much a rework of the whole guide.
Sept 19, 2017: 2.1
Privatized old guide and reposted it so more people will see the better version.
Also finished any unfinished or rough parts of the guide I had leftover.
Sept 19, 2022
added missing timestamps to mention of how to get max value out ammo in the training section
Oct 17th, 2022
start of guide overhaul. I doubt anyone still uses this but there's some inaccuracies that I noticed and with steam library share I can use my alt to re-record stuff on a fresh bo3 account.
Oct 21st, 2022
started the overhaul and almost finished. some missing links and some sections I didn't get to but I'll fix that as soon as I have time
Oct 24th, 2022
Overall is finished. I'll check over the next day or so to make sure I didn't miss anything
Oct 30th, 2022
fixed the embed youtube links.
Nov 17th, 2022
added a missing timestamp to the death machine part.
Also cool to see people are still finding this guide helpful. I mostly did this because it bothered me and I am a perfectionist. So seeing people get actual use out of an overhaul of a 5 year old guide to a 7 year old game feels great.