Thundergun

The Thundergun is a weapon featured in the zombie mode of Call of Duty: Black Ops, and can be found via an easter egg in the campaign mission "Numbers". The Thundergun is a cannon-shaped weapon that fires directional blasts of incredibly strong wind. It has no iron sight. It appears to be able to kill large numbers of zombies with a single shot, sending them flying backwards or up. Those who are not killed by the wind blast are thrown backwards and will remain on the ground for a few seconds before getting back up. The Thundergun holds two rounds in a magazine, holds twelve reserve rounds and can only be reloaded when all shots have been fired. When Pack-a-Punched it becomes the "Zeus Cannon", it has an increased magazine size of 4 and carries 24 reserve rounds. It has increased range and radius, and can now knock over and slightly damage zombies off screen. The Thundergun is most important during the later rounds as it is useful for clearing large groups of zombies in order to reach a downed teammate or make an escape. It is extremely useful when swarmed because it will easily kill a large group of zombies in one shot. It is probably the best weapon you could use in "Zombies".

It is often used as a reserve weapon, as it has a low amount of ammunition and a moderately slow reload. It can only be reloaded when the entire magazine is empty, except on PC, Wii, and in the single player campaign mission Numbers, where one can execute a partial reload. Because of this, it is advised to shoot any extra rounds in a magazine before obtaining a Max Ammo. Wasting ammo on one zombie is not advised. It is also a decent weapon against Hellhounds as it can easily take large numbers of them out and will always kill them in one hit. Since the last hellhound will always drop a max ammo, it is a good strategy to use the thundergun on the hellhounds until they are either all dead or the Thundergun is on its last drum, in which case the user should switch to their secondary if there are any hounds left.

Finding the Thundergun in the Campaign
The Thundergun appears in the singleplayer level "Numbers" as an easter egg, similar to the Ray Gun on "Little Resistance." The steps and video on how to do it are as follows:
 * 1) After the interrogation scene ends there are six big white canisters in front of the player on the walls. (Note: they are not the small propane tanks on the ground; they are the big white ones)
 * 2) Shoot, or throw grenades all six canisters until Nova-6 comes out. (Note: you must cause damage to the canisters before your attackers do. You might want to flashbang your attackers too)
 * 3) Run past the ladder to a small room connected to where you first start the mission.
 * 4) If done correctly the player will see a black tape sticking out of a cassette player next to the door way.
 * 5) Hold down the action key and the tape will disappear from the cassette player, or the obvious shake in the screen as cue.
 * 6) Continue on until you get to the first of Clarke's weapon caches, behind the fridge after the rooftop jump.
 * 7) Look to the left and you should find a cassette player.
 * 8) When at the cassette player, press the use button and notice the cassette go in.
 * 9) If done correctly, notice the tape goes in and the player makes several tunes, and the screen shakes.
 * 10) The Thundergun will appear on the wall above the cassette player.

The gun found in "Numbers" comes with two shots in the magazine and 12 shots in reserve. It also gains a full ammunition refill after sliding down the pipe and at the second weapons cache. Because of this, it becomes very useful when playing on Veteran. In essence, it works much like an extremely powerful shotgun, throwing and almost always instantly killing anyone caught in its massive spread, often with enough force to tear off limbs.

You can swap out for another weapon, and you will be able to pick it up. But sometimes after picking up another weapon, the Thundergun becomes unusable because of a bug.

Zombies
The Thundergun can be obtained in the Mystery Box for 950 points in the maps Kino der Toten and Ascension, and the revamped version of Nacht der Untoten. It shoots a compressed air shockwave blast that knocks any zombies backwards that survive the original hit. When Pack-A-Punched, it becomes the "Zeus Cannon". The Zeus Cannon carries 4 shots at a time rather than 2, and its reserve capacity is 24 instead of 12. Despite not being usable, the Thundergun makes an appearance in "Five" in the weapons-testing lab. This likely means that the Thundergun was found and is being reverse engineered. Various references throughout World At War Nazi Zombies are stating that the Americans were experimenting with Element 115, one notably being the Shi No Numa starting room secret radio message. This may be referencing the Winters Howl, which is confirmed to be powered by Element 115 and is most likely manufactured by the Americans, as it can be seen in development in the Pentagon science labs.

Video
 Video:Call Of Duty:Black Ops Zombies New Badass Gun(Thunder Gun)|The Thunder Gun in action. Video:Call of Duty Black Ops Kino Der Toten Every Weapon Upgraded! Missing ThunderGun(Chuck Norris Cannon)|The Thundergun pack-a-punched into Zeus Cannon Video:Upgraded Thunder Gun and Ray Gun on Kino der Toten|The Upgraded Thunder Gun and Ray Gun Video:How to get the Thundergun in Black Ops Easter Egg|How to get the Thundergun in the level "Numbers".

Trivia

 * The "Zeus Cannon" is an obvious reference to the Greek god, Zeus, King of the Gods and also God of the Sky.
 * The Thundergun is also the second gun that has a name of a Greek god in the upgraded version with the Olympia upgraded named "Hades".
 * The Thundergun is the only Wonder Weapon, when upgraded, that doesn't keep part of it's name. (e.g. Wunderwaffe DG-3 JZ, Porter's X2 Ray Gun, Winter's Fury)
 * The gun has "Osterezheniye" written on its side, which is the misspelled Russian word for "Warning", which correctly spelled is "Предострежение" (Predostrezhenie).
 * If some zombies are not hit directly with the aerial blast, it is possible to see them get back up slowly.
 * The two red glowing lights on the front of the canister when loaded into the gun indicate how many shots are left in the magazine.
 * If zombies that are knocked down by the Thundergun's blast are attacked by players, they will instantly be back up on their feet, instead of slowly rising up
 * Richtofen states that this weapon was invented by Ludvig Maxis, but was deliberately hidden from him. He may be wrong as the Thundergun is referred to as Project Thunder in a radio found in Ascension.
 * It is impossible for two people to have the Thundergun at once, though if one upgrades to the Zeus Cannon, other players can get it..
 * The Thundergun and the Ray Gun are the only Wonder Weapons that can be found in campaign. These are also the only two Wonder Weapons to have an official pick-up icon.
 * Thundergun cannot be picked up more than once for unlimited ammo.
 * The front grip on the Thundergun isn't used.
 * The Thundergun deals no friendly fire damage in "Numbers".
 * The Thundergun has been known to gib body parts off of Russians in the campaign instead of launching them backwards.
 * There is an unusable Thundergun in a metal locker in "Five". It is in the same room as the unusable Winter's Howl and Death Machine.
 * In campaign it is possible to manually reload instead of being forced to wait until the gun is empty.
 * On all consoles, when the Thundergun is being used, the Russians start screaming like zombies.
 * If the player turns off rag doll effects, zombies will not fly backwards when shot, just fall as if they were taken out by conventional weapons.
 * If the player looks closely, it is clear that the character actually puts two separate magazines into the gun. This means each clip only has enough power for one shot but when Pack-a-Punched, the clips each hold two shots.
 * The Thundergun has a faster draw animation when it is out of ammo or needs a reload, implying the magazine is fairly heavy.
 * There are multiple "clamps" on the Thundergun to hold the two magazines in place.
 * Occasionally, zombies caught at close range in the blast will not be affected at all, as if the weapon missed them entirely.
 * In the later rounds if the player isn't close enough to the zombies they will fall down but get up after a few seconds.
 * Stainless Steel can be seen written on the Thundergun.
 * Richtofen refers to the Thundergun as the DG-3.