Vulture Aid

Vulture Aid is the scavenger’s perk, and its debut on Buried was also its only classic-era appearance. Three effects for 3,000 points: wall-buys, perk machines and the Mystery Box glow through walls as green vulture icons; zombies drop small pouches of ammo and points as they die; and some fall exhaling a green stench cloud that hides any player standing inside it from the horde.

That last effect is the sleeper. The ammo-and-points drip is a pleasant economy boost, but a stench cloud is a portable panic room — a place to reload, revive or simply breathe while a train mills around blindly. On Buried it even earns quest duty, revealing the wisp that Richtofen’s side of Mined Games must chase.

After a decade away it resurfaced in the modern rosters, reaching Terminus via Der Wunderfizz in a later Black Ops 6 season and returning as a machine perk in the Black Ops 7 line-up — the longest gap between appearances of any perk in the mode.