Black Ops 6 timeline explained

Since the Black Ops series is 14 years old, plenty of players will be jumping in for the first time, as well as others who haven’t had a chance to play every game in this series. Here’s everything you need to know to get up to speed on the overarching timeline.

Every Black Ops title up until now has followed a connected storyline with a familiar cast of characters and foes. Black Ops 6 features three returning characters from previous Campaigns. Frank Woods, Russel Adler, and Helen Park play a pivotal role in the new spy-action thriller.

Before you step into their shoes as you embark on the six to nine-hour cinematic adventure, let’s take a look at where it all started.

Where does Black Ops 6 fit in the Black Ops timeline?

Activision

Black Ops 6 takes place in the 1990s after the events of Black Ops, Black Ops Cold War, and Black Ops 2. The original Black Ops title was set in the 1960s. Black Ops Cold War tells a story during the Cold War in the 1980s, and BO2 continues that narrative starting in 1986.

Black Ops

Frank Woods first came into the picture during the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, in which the United States supported Cuban exiles in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. The mission went wrong, and one of Woods’ partners, Alex Mason, was captured and delivered to the Russians.

Mason escaped, but not before the Russians started the process of brainwashing him as part of the Numbers Program to make him a sleeper agent. Eventually, Woods, Mason, and other agents stopped the Numbers Program before it activated other sleeper agents in the United States.

Black Ops Cold War

Activision

Mason, Woods, and Jason Hudson teamed up again 13 years later to unravel a terrorist plot during the heat of the Cold War. The team of agents learned about Perseus, a Soviet spy and leader of a rogue organization tied to the rising threat.

Perseus learned about the CIA program that placed neutron bombs in major European cities as a countermeasure to Soviet invasions and stole one of the bombs. The team destroyed the detonation code transmitter, but Perseus escaped.

It was later discovered that Perseus was an ideology rather than a person, which makes more sense as to why they were never captured.

Black Ops 2

Mason retired in 1986 but was dragged back into duty after Woods was captured during an investigation in Central Africa.

After escaping, Woods set out for revenge against the Menendez Cartel leader, Raul, for capturing him.

In 1989, during an American investigation in Panama, Menendez tricked Woods into killing Hudson when he believed that he was taking down Menendez. And to add insult to injury, Menendez appeared and shot Woods in both knees, which is why he needed a wheelchair in the 1991 Black Ops 6 Campaign.

Hudson later sacrificed himself to save Woods, leaving David, Mason’s son, and Woods suffering over the losses.

Black Ops 6

Activision

Now in a wheelchair and suffering from immense grief, Woods oversees his own Black Ops team to train a new generation of agents. Meanwhile, Russel Adler has a capture-or-kill order in effect after being labeled a mole after the incident in Panama where Woods was captured.

Helen Park was a British MI6 agent who previously worked with Adler on a CIA-sponsored project. She helped Adler run the safehouse and planning operations in the Black Ops Cold War.

For more on the Black Ops 6, check out our guide on the Campaign rewards.