Flamethrower (attachment)

The Flamethrower is an underbarrel attachment for assault rifles, that appears in Call of Duty: Black Ops. It is available for purchase once the player has bought an assault rifle, and costs.

Mechanics
The Flamethrower lets out an invisible projectile traveling along the flame stream that causes 50 points of damage. Each projectile eats up 4% of fuel in the 100% tank, meaning 25 "shots" total. The flame projectiles reach out to about 12.5 meters before fading out, almost the range of shotguns. It carries one spare fuel tank, and if reloaded, it substitutes the whole tank, discarding any leftover ammo, unlike all other weapons. The Flamethrower can also be reload canceled. As with the other under-barrel attachments, the flamethrower's ammunition cannot be replenished via Scavenger. If the player is using Warlord, they can't equip any other attachment if the Flamethrower is equipped.

This is a good attachment if the player has a long-range weapon or has run out of ammo and is in a CQB situation. The Flamethrower's flames travel significantly slower than bullets, so it is possible to still kill an enemy after a recent death. However, this also means that you have to lead a target at a further range. If you try to aim directly at a moving enemy, chances are the the stream of flame will land behind them.

In comparison to the Masterkey shotgun attachment, the Flamethrower is outclassed in terms of power, as the Masterkey is capable of one shot kills to an enemy of full health, while the Flamethrower would kill in two shots. However, if one misses a shot with the Masterkey, or should it not kill in one shot, the pump-action will most likely prevent a user from getting the kill, or prove fatal in a close quarter battle, whereas the Flamethrower's stream of flames will likely allow the user to get the kill in those circumstances. Against enemies with Flak Jacket Pro, the Flamethrower is relatively useless, whereas the Masterkey will kill enemies with Flak Jacket Pro. Unlike the Masterkey, however, the flamethrower will serve as a distraction to targets, as when fired in the face one will not be able to see anything else.

Trivia

 * In campaign the pilot light doesn't turn on at all, but in multiplayer, once turned on, it stays on even when not being used.
 * The pilot light activates when the Flamethrower is readied.
 * If the player reloads the Flamethrower before the canister is empty, they will lose whatever fuel was left in the canister. It was most likely added for balancing reasons.
 * The Flamethrower attachment will give some weapons a heat-shield. Interestingly, some of the heat shields are colored bright red. This can be clearly seen on the M16, M14 and Commando.
 * The Flamethrower attachment is not available on the Wii due to large amounts of lag occurring when it is used.
 * In the campaign, the flamethrower attachment is only found on AK-47s wielded by enemies, suggesting that it is of a Russian origin.
 * The Flamethrower is the only underbarrel attachment that does not appear in Nazi Zombies on Pack-A-Punched weapons.
 * The Flamethrower attachment uses the same reticle as the Wunderwaffe DG-2 and the Thundergun.
 * The Create-a-Class image shows the Flamethrower attached to an M16 heat shield.
 * On SOG, if an AK47 with the flamethrower attachment is picked up when the US Marines are climbing the hill after the napalm barrels part, it will have 100 ammo with 9 spares. If this is reloaded before it is finished, the spares will stay at 9 and the ammo will refill. This effectively means that it is impossible to run out of ammo for it.
 * In single-player, it is impossible to kill friendlies with this attachment.
 * If you are burnt with the flamethrower in the campaign, you will hear Mason screaming. (This also applies in multiplayer.)
 * If the player has this attachment, the pilot light's distortion effect may still be present during killcams.

Bugs/Glitches

 * (Confirmed on PS3) Sometimes, though the situation remains unclear, it is possible that, when killed by a flamethrower in multiplayer, the pilot light will appear above the sights of the current weapon the player has equipped. The effect does not transfer if the player switches to their secondary weapon. However the left Python when using Python Dual Wield will appear to be "on fire."
 * If the player has turned on the lighter for the flamethrower and switches to another underbarrel attachment for their other gun, the lighter's flame will still be there, this glitch is purely visual and has no gameplay effects.

Videos
thumb|300px|left|A FAMAS with the underbarrel Flamethrower thumb|right|430px|3x Flamethrower domination launch