I have only been playing Black Ops II: Zombies for 2 months, and I was constantly searching for legitimate, concrete answers on how to rank up. I was stuck on the single bone with 5 tally marks for almost the entire time until about 10 minutes ago. I have almost 20,000 kills and roughly 280 downs, but I simply could not rank up. Here are the THREE FACTS that I can be absolutely sure about (and I say facts because I'm fed up with all of this speculation):
1). The tally marks have absolutely nothing to do with your kills, downs, deaths, OR your highest level reached. They are simply a mirror to how many consecutive days you play zombies. You can only lose tally marks by NOT playing zombies for multiple days in a row. Also, in addition to that, if you have say 4 tally marks with any underlying emblem, and do not play, you will lose the tally marks (one per day) but, you WILL NOT de-rank, or lose your current emblem.
2.) After all my gameplay, racking up kill after kill, opening door after door, drinking perk after perk and not ranking up once, I finally reached my ah-ha! moment. For *****, I tried playing the two maps I have never attempted before (Tranzit and Town). I got pissed off with the lava cracks and fire at Town, and simply was confused at Tranzit with all the "parts" and the Bus and where to go/what to do. Therefore, I only made it to levels 10 and 7, respectively. BUT as soon as my game at Tranzit ended, I finally ranked up to the crossbones. What does this mean? Simple. You must play at EVERY map in order to successfully rank up. Yes, your KDR, hits, miles traveled, etc. all counts towards your individual, overrall rank, but a huge piece of the "Zombies Ranking Puzzle", is simply playing around the globe. Think about it, how can you have a skull emblem, or any emblem higher than the single bone for that matter, if you don't play at every map?! In order to be a true zombies pro, and have a respectful rank/emblem, it is paramount that you expand your horizons, and test your skills at EVERY map Treyarch has to offer in the Zombies game mode.
3.) Custom Games are just as good of a way to rank up as any other. Whether you have your game set to "Easy", "Original", "No Magic" etc, it does not matter. Although, one thing is for certain, Custom Games will not be saved to your Theater for later viewing, or editing films. Also, after a Custom Game, all of your stats will be saved to the Leaderboards EXCEPT the level you reached. This is simply to stop gamers from posting ridiculous level-highs by playing with the game mode set to "Easy".
Hope this feed helps to answer any questions you may have, or fill any holes or gaps surrounding the ranking system for Black Ops II Zombies. In the meantime, continue to mow zombies down, and make heads roll...thanks for the time...Hasta la Pasta...
