The 5 BEST Black Ops Zombies Boss Fights

Black Ops 6 will see the triumphant return of the beloved Round-based Zombies mode that fans have been clamoring to see again after years of absence. What started as a simple sidemode evolved into a dimension-spanning adventure with secrets, quests, and eventually even bombastic boss fights. From mechanized giants to beings from myth and legend, these encounters can become integral parts of a map identity and the really great ones will remain with players long after the fight has ended. So we prepare for the future, we decided to look to the past and decide on what we think are the best boss fights the mode has ever seen.

What We Think Makes a Great Boss Fight

Before we dive into our list, let’s explore what exactly makes a good fight and what we were looking for when putting our list together. As we looked through the best fights in Call of Duty Zombies, we found a few traits that make these encounters special. Firstly is narrative stakes. The best fights can’t just be battles for the sake of a fight but must really feel like the culmination of everything the map’s main quest was building to. Next is the setting. For the climax of a map, you want the arena you’re playing in to feel both unique and part of the challenge. A simple backdrop that blends into the background as you just shoot at the boss fails to really immerse you in the battle so that is a big part of what we’re looking for.

The final ingredient is how engaging the actual fight is. To be an all-time great boss fight, the Zombies, the boss, and even the arena need to feel like they are all working together to present its challenge. All of these different aspects work in unison to help make a boss fight in Zombies and the best and most memorable ones see all different parts at their best. And before you comment, no, the Mephistopheles boss fight from Infinite Warfare’s Super Easter Egg won’t be here since we are only looking at bosses in Treyarch’s Black Ops games, but consider that an unofficial Number 0 as it is definitely the best fight the series has ever seen as it combines everything we just covered in a battle where they all synergize perfectly. Good on Infinity Ward for making the gold standard but now let’s look at the best of the best that the mode’s creators have to offer. With that established, these are our 5 best Black Ops Zombies boss fights!

Legion – Outbreak: Operation Inversiya | Black Ops Cold War

The giant Legion boss that awaits you at the end of the first main quest in Cold War’s Outbreak map is no slouch and was a pretty strong stumbling block right at the finish line for many players when they first tried this Easter Egg. On the surface, the fight isn’t that special as the boss is just a scaled-up version of one of the Tempest Special Zombies you encounter in Cold War, the arena isn’t some fantastical location but rather just a missile launch site, and the boss itself isn’t even too much of a threat. What really makes this battle is the introduction of a time limit. You see, Legion has blocked the silo doors and it just so happens that the missiles inside are about to launch. You must defeat the boss before the time hits zero or it’s an instant game over as the entire area is destroyed.

While the atmosphere of the battle isn’t mindblowing, the fight itself is actually super engaging. Legion will constantly teleport between different parts of the arena and fire bolts of lightning at you while hordes of undead attempt to stop you. These are just regular Zombies as Manglers, Mimics, and even Krasny Soldats will try and stop you from taking out the boss. All you need to do is target the armored chest of Legion until the armor breaks, at which point 3 orbs will float out of the boss before slowly retracting back in. During this time you must target the orbs and destroy one of them, which is easier said than done when trying to outrun the Zombies while landing your shots on moving targets during a short window.

When an orb is destroyed, the boss will lose a third of its health and all you need to do is repeat the process 2 more times and the boss fight and the quest will be completed. What this fight lacks in presentation is more than made up for in high-octane action which works great with the fantastic mobility present in Cold War. Couple that with the constant dread of the ticking clock and this fight will always get your blood pumping.

Corrupted Keeper – Der Eisendrache | Black Ops 3

If the battle with Legion is an exciting battle that really tests your abilities in a not-so-interesting setting, the Corrupted Keeper is carried by its atmosphere and context. In fact, it is rather fitting that these fights are next to each other on the list since they are very similar: Giant versions of enemies we have previously faced that must be defeated by targeting the weakpoint in their chest. Der Eisendrache’s battle just edges out our previous entry thanks to the location the battle takes place in and the fact this was Treyarch’s first Zombies boss fight ever, and you always remember your first.

The beings known as the Keepers had only been properly introduced to us in Shadows of Evil, just one map prior to Der Eisendrache, so there were still a lot of questions we had about them. Within one map, we weren’t just forced to battle one of them, but one that had gained the power of the MPD. For longtime fans, this was a perfect combination of the new story threads and the game’s long and winding history. And this is just setting the context for the battle we haven’t even gotten to the fight itself.

After interacting with the MPD, the Primis Crew is teleported to some sort of dark space with rune-engraved stone structures making up the arena as the Keeper, corrupted with the power of the Aether and now grown to a gigantic size, starts to teleport around the arena as skeletons, Hellhounds, and eventually Panzer Soldats begin to attack. While the Keeper will do some attacks, the boss itself isn’t too much of a threat. The only move you really need to look out for is the charged electric strike that happens shortly after he teleports to the center of the arena and an orb appears below him. If you don’t place your Ragnorok DG-4s into this orb, a large electric blash will cover the whole arena, instantly downing anyone it hits. The only way to avoid this is to stand behind the stone pillars surrounding the boss as he charges. This is a move that will likely get you the first time you try this battle but once you know to look for it, it will never be a problem for you again. To defeat this boss, you must put your Ragnoroks in the orb during the charging stage of the electricity attack and then shoot into the Keeper’s chest while it glows. If you do enough damage, the arena will shake and the boss will start teleporting again. Repeat this process two more times and you will topple the Keeper.

As I said, this is very similar to Legion, and honestly, the Corrupted Keeper is a much easier fight which is largely thanks to the powerful Ancient Bows you get in Der Eisendrache and the less aggressive Zombies. The setting and presentation of this fight, however, do just push it over the edge. And you blow up the moon afterward! So that’s cool!

The Dragon and Mechanized Nikolai – Gorod Krovi | Black Ops 3

Yes, hopping the multiverse in Black Ops 3 Zombies brought us to many fantastical places and even just covered fighting an interdimensional being in a pyramid from the moon, but we were all still shocked when Gorod Krovi showed us dragons in the Battle of Stalingrad. Not to be upstaged, Nikolai made sure to make quite the impression as well when we meet him in his fight against the beast from myth and the undead while he pilots a giant robot! We would have been so disappointed if we didn’t face off against these foes and luckily, we get to go up against back-to-back. The dragon is actually a very easy fight as you have Nikolai and his giant mech on your side for this fight.

The only attack the dragon will do is to shoot fire all over the battle arena, but the corners and destroyed buildings on the sides of the arena are far enough away that you don’t need to worry about it. If you do find yourself in the fire, equipping the Shield will protect you from the heat. The only thing you need to do to take down the scaly beast is to wait for Nikolai to shoot it with an electric lance and then shoot the glowing weak point. He will hit the shoulder, stomach, and then the neck. Once this is done the dragon will die and the fight with Nikolai will commence and the very strength that helped you feel the monster is now your enemy. With the Russian national anthem playing in the background, it’s time for the final confrontation with our old drunken friend.

Similar to the dragon, you will need to target several glowing weak points, 5 batteries to be exact. The only difference here is that the enemy that you need to shoot is much more dangerous. Two of his batteries are on the front of the mech and are easy to take down but two of these batteries can only be seen when you are being attacked with very specific attacks. When his left Gatling gun lets out a series of massive shots, the battery over his left shoulder appears while his right shoulder battery is shown when he deploys his R.A.P.S., which adds a whole new type of enemy to the combat arena. You will need to keep an eye out for when these attacks are happening to make sure you get a chance to take out these batteries. Once these 4 batteries are destroyed, the battery at the center of this robot will be revealed. Destroy this and you will finish the boss.

The only things that hold the fight back is that the arena, while a new part of the map is only accessible for the fight, is just a wide open area that doesn’t really feel unique from the rest of the map. Also, while Nikolia’s mech functions as a good fight, the robot’s design doesn’t really stand out design-wise with what we can only really describe as a lack of identity. It doesn’t really scream “Nikolai.” The Dragon has the opposite problem where the beast itself is very memorable but the battle itself is far too easy. They make up for each other’s weaknesses and still end up being a bombastic final encounter, landing it right here in the middle of our list.

Eye of Odin – Voyage of Despair | Black Ops 4

Voyage of Despair had the tall task of being the first map in the ill-fated Chaos Storyline and it made quite the splash. If battling the undead on the sinking Titanic wasn’t outlandish enough, The map’s story took some, let’s say creative liberties when it revealed that the iceberg that sank the famous vessel was actually the Yggdrasil from Norse Mythology and you are then forced to battle the Eye of Odin himself. If you can say nothing else of the Chaos Story, it sure knew how to put on a show! This fight works so well because the boss itself is a threat alongside the Zombies. The boss fight forces you to balance assessing the Eye and the Zombies with the environment of the fight also playing a hand in the difficulty, making this one of the more well-rounding fights in the series. Starting on the ship’s Poop Deck, the battle doesn’t start too bad as the first two phases just require you to kill Zombies which will include every type of enemy on the map from Catalysts to Stokers to Blightfathers. When enough enemies have been defeated, you’ll be teleported to the Engine Room where you will need to repeat the process.

After finishing up in the Engine Room, the real fight begins as you are taken to the State Halls, two extremely narrow hallways that will quickly be filled with Zombies and the Eye’s beam of ice. You must attack the Eye from one of the paths that connect the two hallways while it fires its beam. You are going to need to balance aiming at the Eye and battling the horde within the halls. When enough damage is done to the Eye, you will be brought to the Promenade Starboard Deck, a much easier area to maneuver around, and will repeat the process of damage to the Eye again. When that is done, you will be brought back to the Poop Deck for the final phase.

The Eye darts around the Deck as the undead flood in. Target the Eye while it fires its beam and eventually, it will return to the far end of the ship, shaking violently. You will have a brief window to do as much damage as possible to stop the Eye from attacking because if it gets its explosion off, you will instantly go down. If you do enough damage while the Eye shakes, it will vanish and when it reappears, it will start showing cracks. Repeat this process 2 more times and you will tame the Eye of Odin. Multi-faceted, engaging, and very difficult, the Eye of Odin stands among the best the mode has to offer. The only, and I mean only thing that holds it back is that the battle isn’t in a unique location. I know, wild to say when the map takes place on the sinking Titanic, but by the time you reach the boss fight, you know the vessel in and out. The fight does a great job using the locations of the map that it teleports you to pose a challenge but the reuse of the areas is what causes this great fight to fall just short of topping our list.

Undead Pegasus & Zombie Warlord Perseus – Ancient Evil | Black Ops 4

Our pick for the best Black Ops Zombies boss fight is the battle above the clouds against the fallen hero Perseus and his trusted steed. This is an encounter that is strong in every part of our criteria and combines many of the best aspects of our previous entries to create something truly special. Ancient Evil was an absolutely fantastic map and stands head and shoulders above the rest of the offerings in Black Ops 4 and its boss fight plays a key part in that. Teleported to Mount Olympus, the Chaos Crew must take down Perseus who, in the millennia since his time as a fearless hero, has become the leader of the Zombie hordes that have infested the underground city of Delphi. To end the torment and save the Oracle of Delphi, you and your team must travel to the home of the Gods to take Perseus.

The local is stunning, the dark sky as the moonlight bathes the area and Perceus stands atop the mound at the center, yelling down at what he sees as insignificant foes and the winged horse flies overhead. The arena is not just eye candy, however, as space that you actually fight in is both engaging and challenging. Surrounding Perseus’s mound are 3 floating islands that you can jump between. Each one is a perfect size that you can move around found not big enough that the Zombies stop being a threat. Speaking of threats, there are a ton here. Zombies, skeletons, the diabolical Blightfathers, and even the giant 4-armed Gegenees fill the area. The first step is to eliminate the Gegenees to get Pegasus to appear since they are the first boss you must defeat. These enemies can be overwhelming and are made even more difficult when Pegasus does return to the fight, flying overhead while leaving a trail of lightning rods on the island and Perseus throws down fire. The combinations of Zombie enemies and environmental hazards filling the small islands forces you to utilize the traversal methods and move between the different islands while also trying to target the boss.

You must damage Pegasus as he flies through the air until he falls to the ground and begins to glow orange. At this point, you must start attacking the boss with your Specialist weapon. The fact that the only way to actually damage the boss is with this powerful weapon is another great part of the fight as it forces you to consider if you want to use this weapon while fighting the Zombies since it can be a get-out-of-jail-free card and can quickly thin any horde but then leaves you unable to target the vulnerable boss when the time comes. After you damage Pegasus enough, the arena will once again come into play as one of the islands is destroyed. Bring down Pegasus one last time and finish the corrupted beast off to finally begin your fight with Perseus but not before the would-be god destroys the second island, leaving you with just one small playspace to take on the boss and their minions. This constant decreasing of playable space constantly raises the tension and leaves you with such a small play space for the final battle really feels like the perfect final challenge to overcome.

While Perseus stands on his mound, he cannot be damaged and will continue to throw down fireballs, environmental hazards that are now much more dangerous without the ability to move to a different island. Eventually, Perseus will descend down to your island, letting out a large slash of his sword that throws out a wave of blades across the arena before heading back to his mound. This small window is the only chance you have to hurt him and when you do enough damage, he will stagger and glow like Pegasus at which point you must use your Specialist Weapon to do actual damage to the boss. The zombies, arena, and boss all work in perfect tandem here to serve as a challenge that feels like you really need to try to succeed while not being unfair. Repeat this process until Perseus is defeated.

From the decreasing play space that captures the feeling of the ticking clock of Legion, the spectacle of the arena from the Corrupted Keeper, the duo bosses of Nikolai and the Dragon, and the threat of the bosses from the Eye of Odin, Perseus and Pegasus take all of the best elements of the last 4 entries on our list and has the all work together so wonderfully. Ancient Evil was the last map in the seemingly discontinued Chaos Storyline, so while that shocking cliffhanger will likely never be resolved, the story went out with an absolutely fantastic boss battle that lands here at the very top of our list!