The Mothership, also known as the Leviathan, is an enemy boss vehicle in the campaign and a Scoresteak in the multiplayer in Call of Duty: Black Ops III and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Campaign
The Mothership appears as the Leviathan, an NRC VTOL with the capacity to be controlled by remote pilot. It hovers on a series of six Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) engines, with four engines on the front wings and two on the rear wings. It is equipped with a series of machine gun emplacements, rocket launchers, and air-to-surface missile launchers. The Leviathan is also capable of deploying R.A.P.S. remote homing mines. The Leviathan's hull is impenetrable by small arms fire, but the four forward-mounted VTOL engines are vulnerable to damage, although still heavily armored. As a climactic boss fight in "Lotus Towers", Taylor will summon and control the Leviathan to battle Player. The Player is eventually able to bring down the Leviathan by destroying its VTOL engines, but is seriously injured in the process after the damaged Leviathan falls and crashes into the Towers.
As soon as the initial spawn is created, Kane will radio the player to inform them of mobile armories being dropped into the surrounding area. These armories will have Death Machines and XM-53 launchers, but stalling inside of the armories will allow vulnerability to the Mothership's homing missiles.
After substantial damage is caused to the ship's turbofans, the Leviathan will retreat and launch several R.A.P.S. and Cerberus units, providing a distraction. If they're not dealt with quickly enough, they may still be a threat when the Leviathan resurfaces.
After several more shots to the turbofans, the ship will shut down, ending the battle.
Service/production history
- In service: 2060-present
- Produced: 2059-present
- Number built: 150+
Specifications
- Weight: 50 tons; max takeoff weight is 80 tons
- Length: 27 meters
- Width: 15 meters
- Height: 8 meters
- Crew: 4 (capable of remote operation)
- Passengers: 4
- Engine: 8x vectoring turbofans
Multiplayer
In multiplayer, the Mothership is a VTOL aircraft armed with multiple powerful turrets and an array of rocket launchers. Teammates can take control of secondary turrets, which grants the Mothership the ability to engage multiple targets simultaneously.
The player who earned the Scorestreak will take control of the main turret, which has unlimited ammo and will never overheat and will have access to the rocket launchers, which fire in volleys of four before reloading. The main turret will kill in one shot (unless the enemy has Flak Jacket, where it becomes three shots). The rockets also have unlimited ammo.
The player in the main gunner position is able to control when the Mothership changes position. Secondary gunners will control smaller turrets. If a secondary gunner kills a player, both the main gunner and the secondary gunner will receive a score bonus. The Mothership will last 90 seconds on the map.
The time will not begin until the Mothership reaches one of its positions on the map, and the Mothership can still engage targets before then while it flies towards its position.
The Mothership is essentially used as a powerful tactical tool to grant the team full control over outdoor sections of the map. This can be particularly useful when trying to control an area around an objective like a hardpoint or domination point.
The Mothership is also useful for destroying exposed enemy scorestreaks, such as Hardened Sentries or Talon-MGs, and given the excellent map coverage, it is likely that a Mothership will kill every member of the enemy team, resetting their scorestreaks.
The Mothership is also the most durable scorestreak in the game, and the only one able to take all the ammo from a BlackCell without being destroyed. It takes eight shots from the BlackCell or XM-53 rocket launchers due to a patch which had given the Mothership more health. However, it is easier to destroy with the Banshii (six shots) or with the Rift E9 (three bursts).
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
The Mothership returns in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's multiplayer mode. It's functionalities appear to be completely unchanged from Black Ops III.
Trivia
- When playing as the CDP, callsigns referring to the Mothership vary from:
- Empire Actual
- Guardian Actual
- Diamond Actual
- Checkmate Actual
- When playing as the Black Ops, callings referring to the Mothership vary from:
- Royal Actual
- Overlord Actual
- Defender Actual
- Dragon Actual
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