How to kill Mimics and Manglers faster in Firebase Z in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Zombies

You can knock these guys down a peg or two if you have the right loadout.
Image via Treyarch

Mini-bosses are becoming more present in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s Zombies mode. In Die Maschine, the Megaton Zombies were tough tanking zombies that could take tons of damage before going down. In the newest map, Firebase Z, two additional mini-bosses have entered the fray. Mimics and Manglers will continuously spawn as you progress through rounds. Here are some tips for taking these guys down before they can do the same to you.

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Mimics

Mimics will appear before Manglers do, not long after you turn the power on at the Firebase. If you notice equipment or a scorestreak laying on the ground in a random area, it is likely a Mimic. They will transform as you get close and attack.

If you get a little distance between yourself and them, they can pull you back with their tendrils and land a couple of hits, which can be dangerous if a group of zombies is nearby. However, the frequency in which they do this is rarer than you would think.

In terms of damage, shotguns are the quickest way to take a Mimic down. We still find the Gallo SA12 as the best gun in the category (and one of the best in the game), so if you Pack-a-Punch it and upgrade its damage tier, you can quickly kill Mimics with just a couple of shots into the high-20 rounds. Their weak spot is their giant mouth, so aim there to crank out even more damage.

Mimics also have an additional weakness against weapons with the Brain Rot ammo mod. That damage will hurt them a little more than the other elemental mods you find. Combine that with Ring of Fire and you can easily one-shot Mimics for quite a while.

Manglers

Manglers won’t start spawning into Firebase Z until rounds 15 or 16. These armored guys walk around slowly with a cannon attached to their right arm. It will periodically fire out a sonic blast or swing at you if you get too close. When you shoot their armor off, they will begin to lightly jog around the map towards you, but the speed increase is not significant.

Like Mimics, Manglers can be quickly taken down with shotguns, most notably the Pack-a-Punched Gallo SA12. They also have a weakness against the Napalm ammo mod, so like the Brain Rot mod on Mimics, Napalm will take their health down faster.

When firing at a Mangler, you might think your best course of action is to remove their armor and whittle down their health, but actually, you want to aim all of your fire into his cannon. Removing the cannon from a Mangler will instantly kill them, no matter how much health they have. With the enemy moving the cannon around to fire, you might think it is difficult to hit, but it moves so slow that there should be no problem, especially if you are using a shotgun.

RAI-K84

For an alternative method to quickly take out not just Mimics or Manglers, but also hordes of zombies, the RAI-K84 wonder weapon is excellent. First, you need to acquire or build the wonder weapon. If you are feeling lucky, you can get it out of the Mystery Box or from trial rewards as well.

Be sure to Pack-a-Punch the rifle as much as you can, and when you start training a group together, switch to the secondary fire and shoot out the charge. Immediately when it lands, change back to the primary fire and shoot into the center of the black hole-like entity, causing it to expand and explode. The explosion causes massive damage and has a wide area of effect. Even before the explosion, the charge will slow enemies running through it and deal slight damage.


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John Hansen
John Hansen is a Full-time Staff Writer for Gamepur as well as a host for the YouTube channel Pixel Street Videos where he co-hosts a weekly gaming podcast and more. His favorite games include Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Breath of the Wild, Left 4 Dead 2, and Overwatch. He covers Overwatch 2 and other FPS titles, Minecraft, Sonic the Hedgehog, Legend of Zelda, and whatever zombie games are placed in front of him.