Mob of the Dead

Mob of the Dead casts four Prohibition-era gangsters — Finn, Sal, Billy, and Albert "Weasel" Arlington — in a purgatorial loop on Alcatraz. It is widely held up as the best-designed map in the series, and its systems are unlike anything before it: no power switch, a death state you use on purpose, and a Pack-a-Punch machine that is not on the island at all.

Power: there is no switch

Alcatraz has no central power. Doors, perk machines and utilities are energised locally, by a player in Afterlife mode shocking the volt panels beside them. You start the match with one Afterlife charge: activate it at the panel by the cell, and a blue meter drains while you walk the spectral prison. In Afterlife you can pass through marked walls, shock panels to open routes and power machines, and — the part that defines the map — revive your own body before the meter empties.

Pack-a-Punch: the plane and the bridge

Pack-a-Punch sits on the Golden Gate Bridge. Reaching it means building the Icarus — five plane parts scattered across the prison, most locked behind Afterlife barriers — on the workbench at the roof. Fly to the bridge, upgrade for the usual 5000, and come back by sitting in the electric chairs, which returns everyone to spawn in Afterlife mode. That full loop is one "cycle", and the main quest cares how many times you have completed it.

The bridge is also the only place PhD Flopper and Mule Kick appear in a normal game, and its open deck makes it a legitimate high-round arena — with the caveat that the only way home is the chairs.

The Blundergat and Hell’s Retriever

The Blundergat — a Blunderbuss-Gatling hybrid — comes from the Mystery Box, or free from a table in the Warden’s office after you collect five blue skulls with the Hell’s Retriever. The Acid Gat Kit buildable converts it into the Acid Gat, whose darts detonate and draw zombies; it is the map’s crowd-control backbone.

The Hell’s Retriever itself is a returning tomahawk earned by feeding zombie kills to the three Cerberus wolf heads around the prison. It pierces hordes, comes back when thrown, and upgrades to the Hell’s Redeemer through a further challenge. The secret Golden Spork — a melee weapon that one-hits to round 34 — is the map’s deepest side reward.

Perks

There is no Quick Revive — the Afterlife is the self-revive on this map, which is why managing charges matters more than any perk order.

Brutus

The map’s boss is Brutus, a hulking guard who arrives mid-round rather than in his own round. He locks down whatever players depend on — perk machines, workbenches, active traps, the Mystery Box — and reopening each costs 2000 points, scaling up by another 2000 per utility he disables in the same round. He also spawns as a punishment for over-rolling the box. Kill him for a power-up, and treat his helmet as the weak point once it is shot off.

High-round strategy

The standard run trains the cell block and docks with the Acid Gat covering collapses, keeps the Redeemer charged for free horde clears, and banks an Afterlife at all times as insurance. The bridge is the alternative: open space, both bridge-only perks, and the chairs as a scheduled exit. Traps do the heavy lifting past the point guns fall off — just remember Brutus stalls on any active trap he meets, which is the cheapest way to handle him.