Best Mule Kick Augments in BO7 Zombies

Free Throw is the best Mule Kick Major in Black Ops 7 Zombies, with BOGO and Fully Equipped as the two Minors. None of these are run-defining. Mule Kick augments are utility, the same way Speed Cola’s are, so the pick comes down to which one does something useful in a normal run instead of something spectacular in a rare one.

We ran every augment and here is the honest breakdown, with the numbers from our own testing.

The Best Mule Kick Augment Build

The whole build is about equipment. Mule Kick already hands you the third weapon slot for free, so the augments that stretch your equipment are the ones adding something you cannot get anywhere else. BOGO halves what crafting costs you, Fully Equipped raises the ceiling on what you can hold, and Free Throw occasionally hands a piece back after you use it. Three small effects that all point the same way.

What Mule Kick Actually Does

Mule Kick lets you carry three primary weapons instead of two. That is it. The perk does not change your weapon stats, magazine size, or Pack-a-Punch level. It is purely a slot perk, and its value scales entirely with how good your third weapon is.

When you go down and lose Mule Kick, the third weapon drops. You buy the perk back and pick the gun up. On a high-rarity or Pack-a-Punched primary it usually sits on the ground long enough to retrieve before the horde catches up, which is exactly why one of the Majors below is dead weight.

How to Unlock Every Mule Kick Augment

The Mule Kick research grid runs three rows of three and unlocks in a snake. Row one is Fully Equipped, Pack Mule, and Plate Hunter. Row two comes back the other way: Free Throw, then BOGO, then Ol’ Reliable. Row three is Kick Back, Multi Pack, and Extra Slot.

Our top Major, Free Throw, is the first node of row two, so you need to clear row one to reach it. BOGO is two nodes further along. Fully Equipped, the Minor we pair with it, is the very first unlock. Running both Minors at once needs Extra Slot, the final node in the tree. If you want to stop the grind early, Free Throw plus Fully Equipped covers most of what this build is worth without Extra Slot.

Is Mule Kick worth prioritising for research? Only if you are already running a strong three-weapon setup. Jugger-Nog and Quick Revive augments pay off in every run, so finish those first.

All Major Augments for Mule Kick Ranked

Free Throw gives equipment a chance to not be consumed when you use it. The in-game text rules out the Combat Axe, so we tested it with grenades instead: 72 throws, 15 of them handed the grenade straight back. That is one in five, give or take. It is not a number to build a strategy on, but it is the only Major here that does something in every single session.

Pack Mule increases your stock ammo. Boring, but real. If you are running a gun that eats through ammo fast, or the ammo caches are not keeping up with you, this is the practical choice. We do not run it ourselves, but the problem it solves is legitimate.

Multi Pack gives a chance for a second weapon to upgrade when you Pack-a-Punch one. Chance-based Majors are a gamble by definition, and this one is worse for it, because you walk up to the machine wanting one specific gun upgraded. The random second upgrade is a bonus when it lands, not something you can plan around.

Ol’ Reliable recovers your third weapon when you repurchase Mule Kick after a down. It does not apply to limited-quantity weapons. In practice you go down, buy Mule Kick back, and walk over to the gun, which is still lying there. There is no situation where this Major does something you could not do yourself with twenty seconds of looting, and it costs you the Major slot to find out.

All Minor Augments for Mule Kick Ranked

BOGO is the standout Minor, and the easiest one to prove. We walked up to the crafting table with 1,575 Salvage and the LT53 Kazimir slot empty. One craft, 1,500 Salvage gone, 75 left in the bank. The slot came back reading two.

That is 750 Salvage per Kazimir instead of 1,500, on the single most useful piece of equipment in the game right now. Salvage is the resource that actually runs out at high rounds, and halving the price of your panic button is worth more than anything else on this list. It works on whatever you craft, so cheap lethals double up too.

Fully Equipped raises how much equipment you can carry. Without it your Kazimir reserve stops at two, which is exactly where the craft above ran into INVENTORY FULL. With it you carry three. Next to BOGO that counts double, because the carry cap is the only thing that makes BOGO stop paying out: one crafting session now fills three slots instead of two.

Kick Back gets you a discount on perks. Both with and without it, perk prices start at 2,500 Essence and climb in 500 steps, so your early buys cost exactly the same. What changes is the ceiling. Without Kick Back our perks topped out at 9,000 Essence each. With it, the same purchase capped at 8,000.

A thousand Essence off every purchase at the cap sounds useful, and in a vacuum it is. The problem is when it applies. By the time perks are costing you 9,000 you are deep enough into a run that Essence is not what you are short of, Salvage and equipment are. That is the same slot BOGO or Fully Equipped wants, and those keep paying out at exactly the rounds where this one stops mattering.

Plate Hunter increases your armor plate reserve. We counted three in the reserve without it and four with it, which is a real difference and still not one we felt. Three plates covers the gap between one armor station and the next in almost every run, so the fourth is insurance against a mistake rather than a fix for a problem.

When to Buy Mule Kick in a Run

Mule Kick is a late buy. Jugger-Nog, Quick Revive, and Speed Cola all come first because they decide whether you survive the rounds where you are still building your kit. Mule Kick only pays off once you have a third weapon worth carrying, and that takes time to set up. Buy it when you are already comfortable, not as an early priority.

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