In Call Of Duty's Zombies mode, there's been tons of innovation throughout the years. This took the form of new weapons, new mechanics, new perks, and of course, new zombies. Shi No Numa introduced unique zombies with Hellhounds and laid the groundwork for more powerful zombies.
In Black Ops 1's Five, the first-ever boss zombie was introduced with the Pentagon Thief. A boss zombie is a unique zombie that generally has a lot more health than regular ones that do a lot more damage as well. Some help elevate the game and push the map to greatness, while others have done quite the opposite.
10 Best: Russian Mangler Soldier
It's only had one appearance on Black Ops 3's Gorod Krovi, but the Russian Mangler Soldier set itself apart from other boss zombies. It's a regular zombie in a robotic mech suit, with a gun on one arm and sickles on the other.
The Russian Mangler Soldier is one of the easier boss zombies to kill, but are enough of a threat to need to take care of right away for how much damage it can do. They're the perfect balance of powerful in attacks, but weak in health to make for one of the most well-designed boss zombies out there.
9 Worst: Astronaut Zombies
The Astronaut Zombie has thankfully only ever appeared on one map, that being Moon. It won't attack you at a range, but if you get too close to it the Astronaut will grab you, teleporting you to a different part of the map while stealing one of your perks.
Partly the map's fault, but Astronaut Zombies are incredibly hard to hear. This means they can sometimes surprise you, leading you to lose an important perk like Juggernog. With the perk mechanics at Groom Lake, this makes the Astronaut especially annoying.
8 Best: Gegenees
The Gegenees, based on the mythical creature of the same name appeared on the map Ancient Evil. It was one of the most powerful boss zombies but made for one of the most fun ones to fight.
Gegenees were one of the few boss zombies with multiple attacks, making it feel like a real boss. Having more than one spawn in can prove to be hard, but feels rewarding when you take care of them. Having a good Hand can help take care of zombies while you're fighting the Gegenees, and they're slow enough so you can make a proper distance from them before attacking.
7 Worst: Blightfather
Appearing in every Chaos map in Black Ops 4 (excluding Dead Of The Night), practically everyone wished it's appearances were zero. The Blightfathers take the worst aspects of other boss zombies for one awful one.
It can stop the purchasing of items by vomiting on them, requiring you to pay points in order to clean it off. They also have tons of health, practically requiring a Specialist to be used in order to kill them. There's no way to stop a zombie from transforming into one either, so once it starts to spawn it you're doomed to deal with it.
6 Best: Werewolves
Werewolves only had one appearance, that being on Black Ops 4's Dead Of The Night. They spawn in sparingly, with a guaranteed one spawning after opening up the forest where the Pack-A-Punch Machine is. These have a lot of health and can be especially hard to kill without Silver Bullets.
Werewolves are such a good boss zombie because they're something that on paper is hard to kill, but with a bit of searching, you can find the tools to take them out much easier. It's the only boss zombie with a weakness quite like it, which helps to make it one of the best.
5 Worst: Megaton
Even though Cold War Zombies is so new, the Megaton took its place as one of the worst boss zombies in the series. The first few times the Megaton spawns it's not too bad, but when it's at max health in the later rounds it's almost required to have a Wonder Weapon to deal with it.
To make matters worse, after you kill a Megaton's base form, it will split into two that are just as hard and annoying to take care of. Without using Ring of Fire, it takes forever to kill a Megaton on later rounds, something made even worse with so many zombies that are spawning at this point.
4 Best: Brutus
Mob Of The Dead is widely considered to be one of the best maps ever released. It only makes sense that its boss zombie, Brutus is one of the best as well. Without Brutus, Mob Of The Dead might have been too easy, giving the map the perfect balance.
Brutus can lock down the box, workbenches, and perk machines. He doesn't have a ton of health, but enough to make him not too easy to take down. Brutus is probably the most balanced boss zombie in the entire series, which is what makes him so good.
3 Worst: Napalm Zombies
Shangri-La was the first Zombies map to introduce two new boss zombies that could spawn, one of them being the Napalm Zombie. The Napalm Zombie walks slowly towards you while lighting you on fire if they get too close. They have a decent chunk of health as well, making them hard to get rid of.
After killing one, they will explode, killing zombies around them but if you're too close, it'll damage you as well. It also leaves behind a puddle of fire, which will also hurt you. So if you're ever in a corner and it dies too close to you, you're stuck.
2 Best: Panzersoldat
Introduced in Origins, the Panzersoldat also starred in Revelations and Der Eisendrache. It is the most iconic boss zombie of the entire series, with its siren signaling its arrival the scariest noise in Zombies.
The robotic zombie is incredibly powerful, with long and close-ranged attacks that do devastating damage. They have a ton of health as well. The Panzersoldat's difficulty is balanced out by having incredible weapons to deal with them on the maps they appear on. Like Brutus, the Panzersoldat keeps the balance in maps that may be too easy otherwise. Appearing on two of the best maps ever made helps contribute to its love as well.
1 Worst: Shrieker Zombie
The other boss zombie of Shangri-La, the Shrieker Zombie joins the Napalm as the worst in the game. When you're somewhat close to it, the Shrieker Zombie will blur your screen making it incredibly hard to see.
The Shrieker Zombie is easy to get rid of and doesn't even do that much damage. However, Shangri-La is one of the hardest maps in the series, and vision is very important to make sure you don't make any mistakes. In Zombies, one mistake can mean going down, and going down on Shangri-La is one of the worst things that can happen with how hard it is to buy perks mid-round.