As is Call of Duty tradition, the Nuketown mannequin Easter egg returns in Black Ops Cold War. The map originated in the original Black Ops as a nuclear test site mocked up as a 1950s American suburb with cars and mannequins styled to fit the era. Nuketown’s been reimagined for every Black Ops title since, and now the test facility has been reskinned for Cold War.
Nuketown ’84 officially went live in Black Ops Cold War today, and this time the vibes are a little more rustic and ruined. The houses of Nuketown are now heavily weathered and graffitied. Some of the test dummies who reside there are outfitted with those overly colorful ‘80s tracksuits. There are even some punk mannequins with denim jackets and mohawks.
In a callback to Nuketown Easter eggs of the past, if you quickly shoot all the heads and arms off the mannequins you’ll get a cool surprise. In the past, we’ve seen all the mannequins come to life and attack. Black Ops 3’s aggroed mannequins rushed to attack, but in a nod to Doctor Who’s “Blink,” they’d freeze if you looked at them. We also saw a variation of zombie mannequins in Black Ops 4. In contrast, Cold War’s mannequins are actually non-hostile, despite getting their body parts blown off. Instead, the map itself will react.
There are two variations of Cold War’s Nuketown mannequin Easter egg. The easier one just requires you to shoot off all the mannequins’ heads in about a minute and a half, which will apply a retro blue-and-magenta filter as an ‘80s-style synth track kicks in. The harder version requires you to shoot off the heads and both arms from each mannequin in the same timeframe. This can be a little challenging—there are several mannequins and their spawns are random for every match—so it’s best to attempt this in a private match with the help of friends. But completing the second version will warp the map into a black-and-green neon version of Nuketown, and the same synth track will play.
This is a very fitting Easter egg for a 1980s Nuketown, but I think it’s best experienced in a private match. Even if you manage to quickly assassinate all the mannequins during a public match, the results are a little distracting, and I don’t believe there’s any way to disable the filter once it activates.
At the time of writing, I didn’t have any friends online to help with the more complex version, but Youtuber “MrDalekJD” has an Easter egg guide that shows you both variations of the filter.
A double XP event arrived with the release of Nuketown ’84, so this is the perfect time to jump on and level up. Both Double XP and Double Weapon XP are live until November 30 at 10 a.m. PT. There’s also a Nuketown 24/7 playlist, so you can just play the iconic map over and over if that sounds like fun.