(SPOILERS) How To Get The BEST ENDING Possible!

In this guide, I will be showing you how to get the best ending on Black Ops II.

With this ending, you will:

Save Alex Mason and Woods, and stop Menendez's Invasion to save the world!

ALL STRIKE FORCE MISSIONS MUST BE COMPLETED!

This is very important if you want to achieve the best ending, complete any Strike Force Mission when given the chance!

Chapter 1: Pyrrhic Victory

You play and beat this chapter normally.
Trivia: Black Ops II features the choices you can make in the franchise for the first time.

Chapter 2: Celerium

You play and beat this chapter normally.
In-Chapter Easter Egg: Thor's hammer can be found near the start of the chapter inside a small dark cave standing upright on a rock, and there's a way to interact with it (Video below).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2q9a_gRPlI

Chapter 3: Old Wounds

After you hold off the Russian attack at the end of the chapter, you will start interrogating Kravchenko, and Mason will be very tempted to kill him. You will need to resist by spamming the use key in order to learn about the mole in the CIA. (This part is crucial for doing the next step in the following chapter 'Time And Fate'.
In-Chapter Easter Egg: In the beginning after the initial Soviet attack, you will plant a cratering charge to blow up the entrance of the ruins, if you go prone and take a closer look at the charge, you will see the following text "FOR MAKING BIG HOLES ONLY, NOT FOR AHOLES, DONT BE AN AHOLE WITH EXPLOSIVES, COVER YOU AND YOUR BUDDY'S EAR"

Chapter 4: Time And Fate

In Time And Fate, after entering the cocaine bunker, you will have to find the intel file which contains information about the CIA Mole, search quickly or the file will burn.
Trivia:. Black Ops II is the first Call Of Duty to feature custom loadouts for the campaign.

Chapter 5: Fallen Angel

Throughout Fallen Angel, you will have to record Raul Menendez, DO NOT LOOK AWAY, you need to learn as much information as possible! (3 Intel Recordings must be acquired).
In-Chapter Trivia: In the driving sequence, if you accidentally burn Harper's face, it will only change certain dialogue in the following mission, while the ending will remain unaffected.

Chapter 6: Karma

At the end of Karma, you have to kill DeFalco before he escapes with Karma (Having a Sniper is highly recommended!). If you fail at doing so, you will trigger a new Strike Force mission called 'Second Chance', in which you get the second chance to save Karma. Saving her is very important.
Trivia: In the main menu, the background will often change, depending on how far along the player has progressed in the story.

Chapter 7: Suffer With Me

Towards the end of this chapter, you will get to a rooftop with Noriega, and will be ordered by Hudson to kill Nexus target who's confirmed to be Menendez, it's not him, It's Mason, you will need to shoot him in the leg, when you do, Hudson will again order you to shoot him in the head, don't, shoot his leg again, and the next cutscene will trigger.
Trivia: The character Manuel Noriega is actually a real person. In fact in July of 2014, he sued Activision for the false portrayal and use of him in the game.

Chapter 8: Achilles Veil

Once you meet with Menendez at the Citadel, he will shoot down Harper's VTOL and capture him. You're then ordered to execute him, killing Harper is necessary, otherwise Farid's cover will be blown.
Easter Egg: Once you finish the campaign, there is a cutscene of the metal band Avenged Sevenfold appearing in the game with the song "Carry On".

Chapter 9: Odysseus

The only thing you need to do here is to shoot Admiral Briggs in the leg, after that, he survives. With Karma on his side and the SDC, the Obama will be successfully protected from Menendez's attack.
Trivia/Reference: In the Avenged Sevenfold easter egg cutscene, you can see aged Alex Mason and Viktor Reznov dancing. In the next cut Reznov is gone and Mason is looking around confused. This is a reference to Black Ops I, in which Mason saw Reznov in his mind throughout the game, thinking he was actually there.

Chapter 10: Cordis Die

You play and beat this chapter normally.
Trivia: There is an actual Youtube channel called cordisdie with 1 video uploaded (4 months before the release of the game) titled "A New World", which connects to the cutscenes we've seen in the game of Menendez's propaganda video. In the campaign it's titled "A Newer World".

Chapter 11: Judgment Day

And finally when you get to decide Menendez's fate at the end of the final chapter, you will ultimately have to capture him.
Easter Egg: You can see a very young Jimmy Kimmel at the end of the game (only if you kept Menendez alive). He is seen on the tv during the jail cell scene.

Thank you!

Well, there you have it! The best ending for Black Ops II.
Thanks a lot if you read my entire guide, it took me hours to make!
Be sure to leave a rating and comment down below your opinion.
If I made a mistake somewhere be sure to correct me by leaving a comment!
Thank you again!

[PyroFierceDeity]

I did every single strike force mission, so pretty sure that's required.

[PyroFierceDeity]

I got the best ending without needing to collect that intel in chapter 4, so it can probably be omitted.

[hiro1protagonist]

Karma, I've only killed Falco if I have sprint perk unlocked and run / ignore everything after you get the outside door open. I like to miss Falco though, to have the strike force in the play list. Also strike force 2 save Karma, when you free her, play as her and sprint to the exfil area and only get 1-3 enemies in the way (you can pistol 1-3 guys down or take their rifle) on regular diff.

Kravchenko part I've played Xbox (as a kid) and PC (currently, this and MW 2 2009) the F key has certain rhythm, unlike Xbox / controller its way easier you can spam button rapidly and get away with it (same for last scene in MW 2 you have to spam a key) but in PC version there's a rapid rhythm of hitting F key or else it fails, fast spamming doesn't work. Seriously its not DDR or guitar hero but PC version F key pressing for B0 2 and MW 2 its similar

[malfunction]

Very concise and well formatted. Pictures were a good touch too, thanks for the help!

[Walter Wallaby]

but MAN am I mad and sad that they went with the timeline where Woods shoots Mason in the head :( I know Woods thinks it really was Menendez but how didn't he see it coming? Where'd Mason go? Why is the hooded man I'm gonna shoot wearing Mason's clothes? Frank's a top tier soldier, he didn't think something was going down? Especially after learning about the mole in the CIA? Hudson talking all shadowy the WHOLE mission in Suffer With Me? It's just annoying what the writers wrote. They can sniff any other bullshit out, but not on their most important mission yet? To capture and kill Raul Menendez? It's frustrating, that's all.

[Walter Wallaby]

NightOwl is it Mason who shoots him or Woods? Woods is supposed to shoot him

[Sneaky Tater]

Bro i swear to god im on the verge of giving myself carpel tunnel with how fast im tapping, im gonna have to get an autoclicker and an OSK

[MisterTenBel0w]

@NightOwl not hard but fast, you just need to spam faster unfortunately hahah

[Sneaky Tater]

No matter how hard i spam F kravchenko always gets shot, how do i prevent this

[MisterTenBel0w]

@lotuspulse, great idea, will add that soon