Mannequin Turret Relic Guide: Black Ops 7 Cursed Mode

The Mannequin Turret relic is the reward Treyarch handed to anyone nostalgic for the days when armor didn't exist and dying meant something. Unlocking it in Black Ops 7 Zombies Cursed mode on Kowakujo is not a quick errand. It is two separate ordeals stacked on top of each other, and both are designed to punish carelessness.

You cannot fail a single Assault Wave on the way to Round 60. Zombies are permitted to overrun the first area of an Assault Wave, but the second area, the flag itself, must never fall. One lost flag and the run is dead, so quit before you find out the hard way.

Requirements Before You Start

• The main story quest for the map must already be completed, since relics stay locked without it.
• You need a Cursed Tier 2 or higher match, because Tier 1 will not trigger the relic portal at all.
• You must reach Round 60 while completing every Assault Wave along the way.
• You are allowed to save and quit between sessions, as long as no Assault Wave has been failed yet.

Grinding to Round 60

Rotate the central courtyard tree on the non-Assault rounds and treat every wave as a warm up for the next one. Chase golden armor and a fully upgraded Pack-a-Punch level four Necromancer as fast as possible, since the wonder weapon carries the entire run once the Assault Waves start biting. Upgrade the traps whenever you can, all four upgrade levels are available, and lean on grenades or monkey bombs to clear congestion before it spreads.

There is a known bug where saving and quitting can strip your armor and block you from repurchasing golden armor on reload. Anyone who values their sanity finishes this in one sitting instead of testing that theory personally.

Clearing Round 60 without a single flag loss spawns a red portal inside the War Room. Interact with it and you are dropped straight into the relic trial, solo or by vote in a group. Health regeneration is switched off for the entire trial, and the game only tops you up once a wave ends, so every mistake is now permanent until you survive.

Surviving the Six Trial Waves

Bring anything that heals without regeneration, since regeneration is the one thing the trial takes away from you. Light Mend ammo mod and Stim shots still work, upgraded ghostly rifleman traps drop healing orbs, and cherry blossom trees give a temporary damage resistance layer once melee'd into full glow.

• Frenzy Guard blocks health damage outright and covers for sloppy positioning.
• The Mannequin Echo creates a protective ring you can shoot from safely once upgraded.
• Gobblegums Temporal Gift, Killjoy, and Cash Back buy insurance against the waves that go wrong.
• Mask of Distraction on Whisp Tea and Cordyceps on Toxic Growth both control crowds cheaply.

Survive all six waves and the game teleports you back to the map, relic unlocked. The Mannequin Turret is officially catalogued as a Wicked relic on Kowakujo, in the same tier as effects strong enough to change how the whole map plays.

What the Relic Actually Does

Equip it in any future Cursed run and you start with no starting armor at all. Gold armor bought from the wall becomes the only armor source in the entire match, and it replenishes on its own, which is the detail that makes the whole relic worth the six waves of suffering. This is the closest Cursed mode gets to the old pre armor Zombies era, and it is exactly what a chunk of the community has been asking Treyarch for since launch.

Kowakujo Relic Context

Kowakujo carries six relics total in Cursed mode, and the Mannequin Turret sits alongside the Gramophone, Film Reel, Dragon Egg, Valkyrie Helmet, and Druid Stone. Collecting every relic across every map eventually unlocks the Best Friends super Easter egg and its universal camo, so this grind is one piece of a much larger and much less forgiving collection.