Aetherium and Aether Tools are consumable upgrades that increase Pack-a-Punch levels and Rarity for your weapons in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) Zombies mode. Read on to see a full list of all Aetherium and Aether Tools and how to get them!

List of All Aetherium and Aether Tools

All Aetherium Crystals and Effects

Aetherium	Effect
Flawless Aetherium Crystal	Consume to Pack-a-Punch currently held weapon to Level 3
Refined Aetherium Crystal	Consume to Pack-a-Punch currently held weapon to Level 2
Raw Aetherium Crystal	Consume to Pack-a-Punch currently held weapon to Level 1

All Aether Tools and Effects

Aether Tools	Effect
Legendary Aether Tool	Consume to upgrade currently held weapon to Legendary rarity
Epic Aether Tool	Consume to upgrade currently held weapon to Epic rarity
Rare Aether Tool	Consume to upgrade currently held weapon to Rare rarity
Uncommon Aether Tool	Consume to upgrade currently held weapon to Uncommon rarity

How to Get Aetherium and Aether Tools

How to Get Aetherium and Aether Tools
Loot Reward Rifts Opening Loot Caches Destroying Harvester Orbs Craft via Schematics Obtained as a Reward from Missions

Loot Reward Rifts

Reward Rifts spawn after completing Contracts and have a chance to contain Aetherium Crystals and Aether Tools as potential rewards.

Low tier Aetherium such as Uncommon and Rare Aether Tools and Raw Aetherium Crystals will often drop in Low Threat Zone contracts. Higher tier Aetherium like Refined Aetherium Crystals can usually be found in Medium Threat Zone contracts.

How to Complete Contracts

Opening Loot Caches

There is a random chance that you can obtain Aetherium while looting caches all over Urzikstan. Based on our testing, we managed to get a Legendary Aether Tool while looting caches in the Medium Threat Zone.

Where to Find Loot Caches

Destroying Harvester Orbs

Harvester Orbs will always drop Aether Tools upon destroying them. The rarity of the dropped Aether Tool will be random, meaning you'll have a chance to get the Uncommon, Rare, or Epic versions of it.

Harvester Orb Locations and How to Destroy

Craft via Schematics

You can also craft Aetherium Crystals and Aether Tools for free if you have their Schematics unlocked. Note that crafting these comes at the cost of initiating a cooldown timer.

Here are the confirmed locations and methods of where to find Schematics for Aetherium Crystals and Aether Tools:

How to Get All Crafting Schematics

Obtained as a Reward from Missions

Completing certain missions in different Tiers and Acts of the Zombies story will reward you with Aetherium Crystals and Aether Tools. Do note that you can only claim these rewards once.

Here are the missions that you can get Aetherium and Aether Tools as free rewards:

Zombies Acts and Mission Rewards

What are Aetherium and Aether Tools?

Upgrades a Weapon's Pack-a-Punch Level

Consuming any of the Aetherium Crystals will Pack-a-Punch your weapon to a level depending on the type of Aetherium Crystal used. The more rare an Aetherium Crystal is, the higher the level your Pack-a-Punched weapon will be.

How to Pack-a-Punch Weapons

Upgrades the Rarity of a Weapon

Once an Aether Tool is consumed, it will increase the Rarity of your weapon, providing additional bonus damage to it. The type of Rarity that a weapon receives will depend on the type of Aether Tool used.

You'll know the Rarity type by looking at the highlighted color of your weapon in the UI on the bottom right corner.

Weapon Rarity Effects Explained

Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) Related Guides

Zombies Mode Walkthrough and Guide

All Zombies Guides