Monkey Bomb

The Monkey Bomb is a wind-up cymbal monkey that plays a jingle, gathers every zombie not currently killing someone, and explodes. It debuted in Der Riese’s Mystery Box as the Cymbal Monkey, and no piece of equipment in the mode has ever done more work: it is a revive window, a Pack-a-Punch escort, a door-buy distraction and a last-resort escape, all in one toy.

How it works

Thrown, it lures the horde for several seconds before detonating hard enough to clear its own audience — though the kills pay no power-ups, the classic tax on convenience. You carry up to three in the classic era, refilled by Max Ammo and, from Black Ops on, trickled back round by round. It has no Pack-a-Punch upgrade; the one exception is a Gorod Krovi side quest that produces a red-pulsing version that kills the zombies it lures.

Where it shows up

Nearly everywhere, with pointed absences: Ascension, Call of the Dead and Moon replaced it with the Gersh Device and V-R11, and Mob of the Dead and Shadows of Evil kept it out entirely. The modern titles made it craftable equipment under its original Cymbal Monkey name. Throw one into Der Riese’s furnace and it screams instead of playing — and Samantha, somewhere, protests that Mister Monkey just wanted to play.