Crossbow

"Hudson, we need to keep this quiet, use your crossbow. If we get heat, switch to explosives."

- Brooks in WMD.

The Crossbow is a special weapon that is featured in Call of Duty: Black Ops. It is a silent, high-powered weapon, and takes up the Secondary slot under the category of Special. It uses explosive and regular arrow bolts for ammunition which are affected by gravity over range. The explosive tip does 50 damage upon impact and has a 1.5 second fuse, but does not start until it hits an object. It does 200-75 damage with a 4M blast radius.

Campaign
The Crossbow appears in the mission "Executive Order" with a Variable Zoom scope.The Crossbow also appears in the mission "WMD". It can fire two different types of bolts, normal or explosive bolts. It also has an attached Variable Zoom scope, which the player can steady and also zoom in further. The Crossbow has fairly high hip accuracy, and although it is fairly strong, the bolt needs to hit an enemy's head or chest to score a one-shot kill.

Unlike other scoped weapons, the crossbow can be reloaded while aiming down the scope.

Multiplayer
The Crossbow also appears in multiplayer, available at level 33. It has no attachments (though sometimes the camouflage on your primary will be on the crossbow) and always fires explosive bolts. Unlike its Single-player counterpart, the multiplayer crossbow fires projectiles that do drop over a certain distance like the ballistic knife. It is one of the weapons used in the Sticks and Stones Wager Match playlist, along with the Ballistic Knife and Tomahawk. It is also the 19th weapon in Gun Game. When a player is hit by an Explosive Tipped bolt, the screen flashes red and an indicator comes up in the shape of an arrow with the word "Stuck" on it, indicating the player has been hit with an explosive bolt. At this point, there is nothing the player can do to save themselves, and will be killed along with any teammates within the blast radius by the explosion after 1.5 seconds, One of the few things a "Stuck" player can do in this situation is attempt to take his attacker out with him by rushing towards them in the hope the blast kills them as well.

When using this weapon in conjunction with Scavenger Pro you gain a total 5 explosive bolts. As well, the crossbow is the one of the few secondary weapons that refills from scavenger (the other being the ballistic knife). Pair it with Sleight of Hand (Pro) and the player would have a explosive weapon that can receive ammo more regularly from the Scavenger perk, and fire faster through Sleight of Hand, than the Launchers in Black Ops. When using Sleight of Hand, a good way to get the Fast Hands Kills is to stick enemies with the Crossbow. The player damages the enemy when the bolt hits and reloads quickly before the bolt explodes, which counts for the challenge if the player does not cancel the reload (e.g. by sprinting).

The killfeed icon for a direct impact from a crossbow bolt is the same as that of any other grenade direct impact.

In Hardcore, being hit by a bolt is fatal. In Core and Barebones, a player can be killed by the bolt alone if the player's health is low enough, and a direct impact in any game mode to a player in Second Chance is sufficient enough for the kill. The Crossbow does not have a damage multiplier for the head, but a direct impact kill can still register as a headshot.

Zombies
The crossbow can be obtained in Zombies mode via the Mystery Box. The very long reload time makes it difficult to use effectively in solo mode, as the player is left vulnerable. Its Pack-a-Punched version, the "Awful Lawton", distracts any zombies near where the bolt lands, similar to a Monkey Bomb, though the time the zombies are distracted is shorter than a Monkey Bomb's. If a Zombie is shot with the Awful Lawton, it will always be gibbed, and the zombie will humorously claw at the bolt that is stuck in it. Also, the Pack-a-Punched crossbow can be used to collect the Sacrificial Lamb Trophy/Achievement.

Speed Cola helps with the reload unless upgraded when it is not as important, though it is still convenient. Juggernog is not too helpful, but it will help if a zombie is shot when it is too close by and explodes near the player. Double tap has no effect, as only one shot is available. This weapon is a great backup weapon ONLY IF upgraded to the Awful Lawton as the "Monkey Bomb" addition to the bolts can help when someone needs to be revived or there are too many zombies to handle.

Attachments

 * Explosive Tip
 * Variable Zoom (Singleplayer Only)

Videos
Video:"WMD" - Gameplay 3|Crossbow in singleplayer mission "WMD" Video:Crossbow Double Kills - Call Of Duty Black Ops|This video shows the accuracy and power of the Crossbow. Video:Hazard_dude_ZX - Crossbow use|Crossbow use in multiplayer Video:Call of duty black ops, Crossbow only (with some knives) Video:Black Ops Zombies - Crossbow - Lets Pack That Punch, Episode 6|When Pack-a-Punched Video:How to Get a Golden Crossbow ONLINE|How to get a golden crossbow online.

Trivia

 * It's very unusual for the Variable Scope attachment not to be featured in multiplayer, however this could be to balance it with the Ballistic Knife.
 * This is the first weapon in the Call of Duty series that can be reloaded while aiming down its sight.
 * In campaign, the Crossbow uses both regular and explosive tip arrows and a Variable Zoom Scope, while in multiplayer and Zombies it uses iron sights.
 * The Crossbow was possibly included in Call of Duty: Black Ops because Major John Plaster, an actual SOG operator, told Treyarch that one of his squad-mates used a bow and arrow during his stealth missions.
 * On the Wii version the Crossbow can be tilted sideways.
 * The Crossbow has Siberia Camouflage in WMD; however, in early game footage released, it had Yukon Camouflage.
 * In Executive Order, it is seen with a Nevada Camouflage.
 * In multiplayer the Crossbow does have camouflage; it uses the same as the player's primary weapon. However the camouflage is only visible when in third person. Golden camouflage does not apply.
 * It's possible to see the camo in first person due to a glitch.
 * If one is picked up or taken out, empty, the character will still insert an arrow.
 * When switching between explosive or regular tip bolts in single player, the user will always load a bolt, regardless if the crossbow is already loaded or not.
 * The explosive on the bolts' tips appears to be Semtex. Also, in the personal bests it counts Semtex sticks, rather than crossbow sticks.
 * A fired bolt cannot be picked up, even if it is not explosive.
 * On the single player level "Executive Order" it is possible to destroy the Soyuz-2 with the Explosive Tip Crossbow. (Confirmed on Wii)
 * On the Black Ops version of Shi No Numa, arrows from the crossbow will pass through the meteor, rather than sticking to it.
 * The Crossbow appears in the mission Vorkuta (Only on Wii).
 * Sometimes, when you fire the Crossbow at the ground in the campaign, enemies will try to pick up the arrow and throw it back like a grenade. (Confirmed on PS3 and Wii)
 * In multiplayer, bolts can be fired at Attack Helicopters and Spyplane and deal damage.