Team Up
Ideally, when you play Zombie mode in "Call of Duty: Black Ops" you try to find other players to join in your quest for survival. You can ask friends to play locally or you can join friends online. Up to four people can play the Zombie mode at once. When trying to survive Zombie mode, work together for the best results. Zombies often crawl through breach points or holes in the wall. Having each player watch these breech points can prevent the team from getting overwhelmed. This strategy can also help each player gain points evenly, necessary to purchase upgraded equipment and access new rooms.
Knife
Throughout the first three or four rounds in Zombie mode, use your knife to kill zombies. This conserves ammunition and points so that you can spend points on more effective weapons and equipment in the higher level rounds. During the first few rounds of Zombies, the zombies are much slower moving, making it possible to flank them and knife them in the side or back. Knifing a zombie kills it instantly.
Crawlers
When you throw a grenade at a group of zombies, sometimes the zombies don't die and crawl after you slowly. Allowing half-dead crawling zombies to live for extended periods of time can keep the rounds from advancing and allow you and your team to regroup and restock ammunition. Be aware that crawlers do eventually die on their own after a period of time.
Random Boxes
Random boxes are available as your team unlocks new rooms. Random boxes contain random upgrade items. Random boxes can contain any item, including the Ray Gun, a weapon that kills zombies in one shot. Random boxes, however, cost a hefty point price -- 950 points. Although it may seem like a gamble to open the random boxes, doing so could change the outcome of the zombie onslaught. Take your chances opening the random boxes. If the contents prove to be worthless, don't pick the item up.