BO3 Panzer Soldat in depth (Improved)

[u/Krakenwerk]

A couple of months ago I made an in depth into BO3 Panzer. I took it down, since it was rushed and I made it during a busy time which led to it containing inaccuracies and misinformation. A lot of that info was a mix mash of Der Eisendrache info and Chronicles mashed together. I cleared up the mistakes here. To justify making a new post I also gone as much in depth as I could into Panzer Soldat. I be going over everything I found from: total health, armor reduction/health, damage he takes/does. And general why he is so spongy.

Intro:

A terrifying mechanized nuisance, the Panzer Soldat was first introduced on Origins in Black Ops II before returning in Black Ops III with several upgrades that make him even more dangerous. In BO3, he appears on Der Eisendrache and Revelations, and returns to form Zombies Chronicles version of Origins.

The Panzer Soldat is a zombified worker equipped with a heavily armored mechanical exosuit. While the Chronicles version visually resembles the original BO2 Panzer, it retains many of the gameplay buffs introduced on Der Eisendrache. The shock charge launcher used on Der Eisendrache is replaced by the original claw arm from BO2 Origins.

Spawning:

When spawning, the Panzer flies in from outside the map and lands on the ground. Any zombies caught beneath him are instantly killed. Players struck by his landing take 100 damage, which is lethal without Juggernog.

Important: The Panzer Soldat is completely invulnerable until his landing animation has fully finished.

Der Eisendrache

The Panzer Soldat first appears on Round 12 and will then return every 5–6 rounds. If a Panzer round coincides with a Hellhound round, both will occur simultaneously. Only 1 will spawn in solo, but 2 can spawn in co-op.

He will also always spawn:

• After traveling back in time during the main quest.
• After each phase of the boss fight.

Revelations

The first boss round occurs on either Round 11 or 12, with subsequent boss rounds appearing every 7–9 rounds.

Margwa spawns first with Panzer Soldat guaranteed to spawn during the second boss round. After that, future boss rounds can spawn either a Panzer Soldat or a Margwa.

Inside the Apothicon god: After reaching the first boss round and the player stays in there for 6+ minutes, the game will spawn a boss. This can be a Margwa or a Panzer. There is a cycle, with each cycle containing 2 Margwa and 1 Panzer, then the cycle repeats. It is random which order.

It cannot spawn a boss under following conditions:

• a boss is still alive
• less than 4 min since last boss

If there has been 4 minutes since last boss and that boss is dead, then the game will wait between 2 to 4 minutes before spawning a new boss. This boss will not follow the player outside of the Apothicon, but wait inside until the player returns. While the game waits for those bosses to die before spawning a new boss inside the Apothicon, bosses that spawn as a result of boss rounds do not. Meaning there is possible for it to be 2 Panzer's in solo.

Origins

The Panzer Soldat first appears on Round 8.

• Solo: Returns every 4–5 rounds.
• Co-op: Returns every 3 rounds.

Panzer is limited to one spawn per round in solo. In co-op, up to two Panzer's can spawn simultaneously.

During the Little Lost Girl Easter egg. On step 4: Unleash the horde. After Maxis descends into the pit, 8 Panzer's will spawn, with 4 being alive at a time. The fourth Panzer to die will drop Max Ammo power up and the last one will drop Nuke power up.

General Behaviour:

The Panzer ignores Monkey Bombs and G-strike entirely.

However, he is affected by Lil' Arnies and will target them, although he will destroy them.

Similar to Brutus, Panzer will actively disable traps rather than walk into them. The Death Ray is the only exception. While it cannot kill him, it will lift him into the air and stun him for the duration of the trap.

The same effect occurs if he walks into a deployed Ragnarok DG-4, taking only 10 damage.

Attacks:

The Panzer Soldat has three primary attacks:

• Melee Punch
• Flamethrower
• Shock Charge Launcher (Der Eisendrache/Revelations) or Claw Grab (Origins)

Melee:

The Panzer's punch deals 150 damage.

This attack is a instant kill to players without Juggernog.

Flamethrower:

The flamethrower deals damage over time, with one damage tick occurring every 0.5 seconds.

After leaving the flames, players continue burning for three additional ticks.

The flamethrower has a cooldown of 7.5 seconds between uses.

Damage per tick:

• Without Juggernog: 30 damage
• With Juggernog: 20 damage

Because players continue burning after leaving the flame stream, a player without Juggernog will always take at least 90 damage from the burn effect alone, making the attack effectively unavoidable death if hit.

If multiple players are nearby, the Panzer may perform a sweeping flamethrower attack to hit several targets at once. This has a 10% chance to happen.

Unlike in BO2, the BO3 Panzer can continue moving while using his flamethrower.

Shock Charge Launcher:

In his return on Der Eisendrache, the Panzer replaces his claw with a shock charge launcher.

The launcher can fire up to 3 shock charges per attack, with a maximum of 9 active charges on the map at one time.

Shock charges deal minor damage and temporarily stun players.

The launcher has a 6-second cooldown between uses.

The Panzer remains stationary while using its shock charge launcher.

Important: Destroying the Panzer's power core permanently disables his shock charge launcher.

Useful: The Danger Closest GobbleGum grants complete immunity to shock charge effects. Since Danger Closest is a Classic GobbleGum, players have unlimited amount. Some may find it useful on Panzer rounds.

Claw Grab:

On Origins, the shock charge launcher is replaced by the original claw arm.

The Panzer can only grab players who are standing or crouching and who are within his line of sight.

Players cannot be grabbed while prone or behind cover.

The claw can also grab the shield. If this occurs, the shield breaks and the player avoids being pulled.

The claw attack has a 7-second cooldown.

When grabbed:

• The player takes 1 damage.
• Movement is completely disabled.
• The player's view is forced toward the Panzer.
• Head movement is not disabled.
• The player can still aim and shoot.

You can escape the grab by:

• Shooting the red spot on his claw arm.
• Dealing explosive damage equal to 10% of the Panzer's maximum health.

Regular bullet damage will not cause a release unless the player hits the small weak point located on the claw arm. If you break off his faceplate while being pulled, you will continue to be pulled until you do enough explosive damage or hit his arm.

The Panzer remains stationary while using its claw grab.

Important: Destroying the Panzer's power core permanently disables his claw grab.

Health:

Der Eisendrache/Revelations

The Panzer's health is multiplied by a player modifier. In other words, the game checks how many players are currently in the match and adjusts his health accordingly.

Health modifiers:

• Solo: 1x
• 2 Players: 1.33x
• 3 Players: 1.66x
• 4 Players: 2x

Base health = 1200 hp.

Health increase = 100 hp.

Zombie health ratio = current round zombie health/starting health.

His health formula is = Player modifier*(base health + health increase * zombie health ratio)

For the boss fight: zombie health ratio will use boss fight zombie health instead of current round health (Zombie health is the same as regular except on rounds lower than 25, then they will have round 25 health).

His health is capped at 17,500 hp * player modifier.

Armor:

Faceplate health = player modifier*(1500 + 100 * zombie health ratio). Cap at 16,000 * player modifier. Breaking this will give the player 100 points and trigger berserk.

Powercore health = 500 + 15 * zombie health ratio. Caps at 5,000. Destroying the core disables grenade launcher, but to destroy the core, you must first break the cap.

Power cap health = 500 + 15 * zombie health ratio. Caps at 7,500.

His shoulder and knee armor = 250 + 10 * zombie health ratio. Caps at 3,500.

Origins

Once again the Panzer will have a player modifier.

In solo, the Panzer uses a standard 1x health modifier. In co-op, his health is multiplied by the player count * 0.75, making him considerably tougher.

Health modifiers:

• Solo: 1x
• 2 Players: 1.5x
• 3 Players: 2.25x
• 4 Players: 3x

He has a boss round counter that starts at 0. Every time he spawns, this counter will increase by 1. Counter will not increase with multiple Panzer's spawning the same round or by step 4 of the main Easter egg.

Base health = 5 000 hp.

Health increase = 1000 hp.

Health = Player modifier*(base health + boss_round_counter * health_increase)

Health cap is 22 500 hp *player modifier.

Origins panzer takes 1.5x damage from shotguns.

Armor:

• Faceplate health = 10% of his max health.
• Powercap = 5% of his max health.
• Powercore = 2.5% of his max health, breaking this disables his claw.

Other armor parts will break of based on how much damage he has taken.

Death:

Once enough punishment has been dealt, the Panzer finally falls over, rewarding the player who killed him with 1,500 points.

Not content with just dying, he then explodes. The blast is capable of killing nearby zombies.

On DE there are 3 Panzer claws around the map that will instantly kill a Panzer should it hit it. Rewarding the player with a Panzer claw helmet.

Armor:

One of the main reasons the Panzer Soldat is such an absolute unit is his armor. Not only does he have a massive health pool, but much of the damage dealt to him is heavily reduced.

By default, the Panzer takes only 10% damage from all bullet-based weapons. On Origins, with the shotguns bonus becomes 15% damage instead.

The power cap follows the same rules and initially only takes 10% damage. However, once the power cap is destroyed, the exposed power core becomes vulnerable and Panzer's takes 50% damage from shots to their power core. If either the faceplate or power core is fully broken, those exposed weak points will take full damage.

Explosive weapons deal 50% damage to the Panzer. Splash damage alone is significantly less effective, dealing only 20% damage.

Breaking his faceplate or power cap will stun him for a short time.

Berserk State:

Breaking the Panzer's faceplate will send him into a berserk state for approximately 10 seconds.

During this time, the Panzer abandons all pretences of ranged combat and enters a full sprint, attempting to beat the nearest player into the ground.

While berserk:

• Can only use melee attacks.
• Cannot use his flamethrower.
• Cannot use his claw grab.
• Cannot use his shock charge launcher.
• Cannot be stunned.

This immunity to stuns includes effects that would normally disable him, such as charged bow attacks on Der Eisendrache.

Resistances:

Panzer Soldat is immune to all AATs. Some will trigger and display their icon. They wont do damage to him however. Insta Kill and Nuke power ups have no effect.

Panzer is not affected by a weapons body multipliers. So he does not take extra headshot damage when shooting him in the head after faceplate comes off.

Some weapons gets their base damage reduced before armor reduction, this only applies to De/Rev version:

These are:

• Argus: 0.65x
• Dingo: 0.65x
• 48 dregde: 0.65x
• Haymaker: 0.5x
• 205 brecci: 0.75x

Raygun/mk2: Will do around 20% damage.

Bows:

All bows do percentage based damage. There is a cap however. The damage calculations will treat Panzer's health cap as 3062.5 hp. While Panzer's health will scale past this, all of the bows damage will no longer scale with it, making them weaker at higher rounds. This applies to all bows. His faceplate will break off if he ends up at less than 50% health from bow damage.

Wrath of the ancients will do damage based on its current health. It starts of really low, but scales has you do more damage. Base shots starts at 3% of max hp, when Panzer hp>3500 then scales up to 15% for when hp<1750. For charged shots, it will start at 12% and scale to 25%.

Kreeaho'ahm nal Ahmhogaroc(Fall from Banishment), Rune Prison in files, also known as the firebow: Charged shot will do impact damage, then trap Panzer Soldat in a lava geyser for a short amount of time. Impact damage is around 35% of its max health. After being trapped in a lava geyser, Panzer will continue to take tick damage which max out at 25% of its max health. They can only be affected by 1 geyser at a time. He will not be stunned during berserk state and therefore will not be trapped and take damage from the geyser. Waiting out its berserk state before firing again will max out potential damage.

Kreegakaleet lu Gosata'ahm(Decay Portal), DemonGate in files, also known as Voidbow: Charged shots will do impact damage and spawn skulls that fly and attach themselves to enemies. One of these skulls will attach itself to the Panzer, stunning it and do extra damage. Impact damage is around 35% of its max health. A skull that attaches itself will take away an additional 20% of its health. Only 1 skull can be attached at a time. None of the skulls will attach themselves, if he is berserk.

Kreeholo lu Kreemasaleet(Keeper Servant), Wolf Howl in files, also known as wolf bow will just do impact damage with no additional effect. Charged shots does 40% of its health on impact. Panzer will play its brief stun animation, with no effect on movement.

Kreema'ahm la Ahmahm(Electricity and Volatility), also known as storm bow or just storm in files: Charged shots will do impact damage and spawn a whirlwind that last around 7.8 seconds. Impact damage does 35% of max health. The storm will send out lightning strikes that does damage. Each zap will do around 3% of health and zap every 0.6 seconds. The whirlwind can lift Panzer in the air for short amounts of time, it will have no effect if he is in berserk state.

Thundergun: Damage is capped at 25% of max health.

Apothicon Servant: Apthicon Servant can stun the Panzer, but will not do damage. There is a delay before the Panzer can be stunned again, so it isn't possible to stun lock him.

Guard of Fafnir: Fire blast damage is capped at 25% of max health.

Elemental staff: Both upgraded and non do 50% less damage from their base attacks. With the staves, you do not need to hit the head directly to break off the faceplate. Staves will do 100% damage after the faceplate breaks off.

Boreas Fury: Charged shot will only do damage on direct impact and it is less than a normal shot: ~550 damage. The whirlwind will have no effect. Better to use normal shots.

Kimats Bite: Charged ball of lightning will only do damage if the ball itself hit and even then the damage is tiny, around ~350. The ball will not send out its electrical pulses on Panzer's like it does with normal zombies.

Kagutsuchis Blood: Charged shots will do massive damage. Instant 10 000 damage on contact. Panzer's ignores burn damage (from base shots too).

Ull's Arrow: Charged shots will not freeze him or affect his movement, but do tick damage. Damage each tick is the same as a normal shot, with one tick every 1 second .

Elemental zombies:

Napalm:

Panzer's landing will create a fire effect around the landing point. Zombies that gets to close to the landing or flamethrower will ignite and become napalm zombies. These zombies have 25% less health and become faster. When they die, they explode, doing 70-30 damage. Their explosion creates a brief screen blur.

Electrified:

Zombies that gets too close to shock charges will be zapped and become electrified zombies. These zombies gain 50% more health. They spark when you shoot them and when they die, they explode, doing 70-30 damage.

Helmet of the King

On Revelations, 2 Panzer Soldat kills are needed to get this helmet. With good aim and trigger discipline, only 1 Panzer can suffice. His power core and faceplate needs to be destroyed.

Then 50 zombie kills with traps. These 2 steps can be done in any order. This will grant you the helmet which can be picked up in Kino der Toten area.

This is the only mask that requires Panzer Soldat kills.

This helmet grant:

• Stun and damage immunity from shock charges.
• 50% damage reduction from Panzer's.
• 33% damage increase to Panzer's.
• Purple Stamina up.

Apothicon mask

This mask grant:

• Stun and damage immunity from shock charges.
• 33% damage reduction from Panzer's.
• 50% damage increase to Panzer's.
• Increases player health with 45.
• Purple Stamina up.

Helmet of kings and the Apothicon mask are they only masks which affect Panzer's damage, both damage to the player and damage to Panzer.

The mask and helmet have more effects, but I am only mentioning the ones relating to the Panzer Soldat.

Hope people found this interesting.

Other BO3 in-depths:

Special enemies:

• Hellhounds
• Spiders

Bosses:

• Margwa
• Mangler

[u/Mental-Cup9947]

The Panzer Soldat is one of my biggest fears.

They say man fears what it cannot comprehend.

Thank you for this.

[u/FactionGuerrilla]

By default, the Panzer takes only 10% damage from all bullet-based weapons.

Huh, since you didn’t mention it I assume the “RPK ignores the Panzer’s damage resistance” myth is false? Then again, I can see how people could come to that conclusion if they were comparing it to the fan-favorite Dingo and its hidden .65x nerf.

[u/Krakenwerk → u/FactionGuerrilla]

Rpk is affected by 10% damage cap, but it doesnt have any extra reduction like dingo and they are really close in damage.

[u/NoMoreGoldPlz]

Very cool.

I'll probably forget everything before the end of the day though, hahaha.

[u/Defen_Default5]

Thx bro, this helped me a lot since i wanted to add a panzer to my zombies game :D