The Warriors looked fit, clinical and cohesive in both attack and defence on Saturday at Queensland Country Bank Stadium and ran away with the contest early in the second half after taking a 16-12 lead into the break.
Shaun Johnson looked like the magician of old and orchestrated their shapes well, squaring up the Cowboys' line for his bullocking pack.
His halves partner Te Maire Martin also impressed, finishing with two try assists and three linebreak assists.
But it was the Warriors' forwards, much like Canberra's in their second-half effort against North Queensland in round one, who did the damage using deft short passing between them to unlock the hosts defensive line.
Six forwards finished with over 100 running metres with 11 players cracking the three digit mark.
With all the possession and territory early in the second stanza, a relieving penalty gave them field position for Adam Pompey to bowl over three defenders and find Edward Kosi for a 22-12 lead.
Soon after they were back deep in the Cowboys' half and Martin's cut-out pass arrowed to Marcelo Montoya for a diving finish and the winger's second.
Heilum Luki made his return from an ACL injury suffered last year with 20 minutes remaining and the hosts lifted, but for the third week running ball control let the Cowboys down and the Warriors registered their first win in Townsville for five years, and just their third in the last 20.
Montoya led his side with a polished performance running for 214 metres, but even with two tries it was his tough runs inside their own 20m line that had an enormous impact.
Townsville-junior Tom Chester impressed in his starting debut at fullback and it was the 21-year-old who opened North Queensland's account four minutes in.
Addin Fonua-Blake then split a hole in the defensive line and found hooker Wayde Egan for the Warriors to respond immediately.
Chester latched onto another Chad Townsend kick five minutes later, this time air-borne, and somehow found Reece Robson in an offload as both hookers were on the score sheet within 15 minutes.
With 64 per cent of possession over the next 10 minutes, the Warriors bagged their second after a sniping run to the left edge by Johnson - Montoya the beneficiary in a three-on-one shortside play.
Their stranglehold in the contest continued and after another handling error by the hosts within their own half, Johnson took on the line and Jazz Tevaga had their third.