Knife

The  is the standard close quarters combat (CQC) melee weapon in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and one of the melee weapons in Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3,  Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified.

Overview
Prior to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the knife made only incidental appearances, and could never actually be used. Melee attacks in the games prior had used pistol whips and bashes with the stock of the gun. Since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the knife has been the main melee weapon, triggered by pressing the melee button (default E or V on the PC, clicking the right thumbstick on the Xbox 360, clicking the R3 Button on the PS3, or pressing down on the D-Pad on Wii), as taught in the Missions "F.N.G." and "S.S.D.D."

Call of Duty 3
In "The Crossroads", a German soldier attacks Nichols with a knife in a scripted Close Quarter Battle. He is not able to stab Nichols, and after his death, the knife does not make a reappearance. The knife is a, as evidenced by the German etching on the blade, which reads "Blut und Ehre!", or "Blood and Honor!"

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
The knife in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is the only knife featured in the game. It possesses a range of a little over three feet and has a slight delay between the stab and the actual hit. This is easily observed in multiplayer, where connection issues amplify this. However, it always kills an enemy in one slash or stab, except in Old School multiplayer matches, where two knife attacks are required to kill an enemy player at full health. This two-hit kill knifing also applies when double health is applied on Private Matches. In Campaign, the only NPC appearance of the knife is when Captain Price uses one to execute an Ultranationalist in "Ultimatum."

Call of Duty: World at War
The knife in Call of Duty: World at War is based on the knife, and shares the same statistics as its counterpart from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The "stab" animation is slightly faster and the hit "connects" when the user retracts the knife, instead of slightly after the player punctures the enemy. However, it can be rather inconsistent in its ability to connect and kill enemies, making its effective range only about one to three feet. It also makes a very loud and distinguishable swinging noise, especially when performing the "stab" animation (observed from the knifer's point of view), which can easily reveal the knifer's presence. If there is no more ammunition inside a player's gun, they will swing the knife faster.

In Nazi Zombies, the knife is one of the starting weapons received in every map. Killing a zombie with it yields 130 points. The number of knife hits it takes to kill a zombie is generally equal to the level number (with the exception of level 4, in where it only takes 3 hits to kill). Because of the number of hits required to kill and because of its short reach, by the mid to high levels it is ineffective.

In the Nazi Zombies map Der Riese, the players can replace their usual knife with the Bowie Knife (near teleporter C, just as the player goes through the courtyard) for 3000 points. Dealing a total of 1150 damage (1000 in Call of Duty: Black Ops), it allows for one-hit kills up to round 12 (9 in Call of Duty: Black Ops). The Bowie Knife upgrade remains with the player after being downed and if no one revives them, upon respawn, the player keeps the Bowie Knife, making it worth the points spent.

In multiplayer, the Bayonet is an alternative weapon for the knife, and can be attached on all bolt-action rifles (the Kar98k, Springfield, Mosin Nagant and Arisaka), for the M1897 Trenchgun, the M1 Garand, the M1A1 Carbine, and the Type 99. The Bayonet increases the lunge distance to about six feet, and can be used to lunge over obstacles, but slows the speed of meleeing. Of the bayonets, all of them are knife or sword bayonets, except for the Mosin Nagant's, which is a spike one instead.

Call of Duty: ZOMBIES


The knife in Call of Duty: ZOMBIES, is aesthetically similar to its Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops variants. It also features a special knife called the Shovel which is used for the Peter's Grave easter egg.

Modern Warfare 2: Ghost
Simon Riley uses the Knife in Modern Warfare 2: Ghost to kill several enemy soldiers in combat. He also uses it to murder Marcus Washington.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the knife's appearance and range was changed from its appearance from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It is based off the Blackhawk Tatang; however, in "Endgame" it is based off the Boker Plus Armed Forces.

The game introduced two new knives apart from the default knife: the Tactical Knife, an attachment for handguns that allows faster knife stab and faster recovery, and the Throwing Knife, a ranged alternative available as Equipment. Besides their multiplayer appearances, they also make appearances in single-player: the Tactical Knife is always used with the USP .45, but not credited, and the Throwing Knife is used at the end of the game to kill Shepherd.

Also featured in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer is the tier 3 perk Commando, which greatly increases the knife's lunge range to about nine feet. This perk is often used with Marathon, Lightweight and the Tactical Knife to create a class capable of using only the knife effectively.

In single player, NPCs are able to knife, although they do it very rarely. There are four scripted events where an enemy attacks the player with a knife. The first three occur in "The Only Easy Day...Was Yesterday," "Just Like Old Times" and "Loose Ends," where the player breaches a door and an enemy charges at him with a knife. The other occurrence is when Shepherd stabs Soap in the chest after knocking him down during "Endgame."

Call of Duty: Black Ops
The knife returns in Call of Duty: Black Ops with the same damage as its predecessors, and a range less than that of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's. In the Campaign, the knife sees a lot more use in scripted events and has a wider range for different uses, usually when stealth is required. Knifing has an important special effect in Gun Game, demoting players to the previous gun tier if they are knifed. Besides the default knife, there are seven other special variants featured in the game: four in the Campaign, three in Nazi Zombies, and one in Multiplayer.

Types of Knives featured in Black Ops

 * The Ballistic Knife, a secondary weapon that fires the blade out of the grip for a silent, ranged attack. A regular melee attack with the Ballistic Knife is faster and appears to have longer range, similar to the Tactical Knife from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
 * The Prison Knife, a shiv-like primary weapon briefly wielded during the mission "Vorkuta." It appears to be a shard of glass with black tape around one end.
 * The Karambit Knife, a curved combat knife used in "Executive Order".
 * The SOG Knife, which is used in "Victor Charlie."
 * The Bowie Knife, which is available on the Zombie maps Kino der Toten, "Five", Shangri-La, Moon, and the revamped Der Riese.
 * The Throwing Knife is used once by Grigori Weaver in "WMD." It is unavailable to the player because its replacement is the Tomahawk.
 * The Sickle, the spiritual successor to the Bowie Knife, making an appearance in the Zombies maps Ascension and Call of the Dead.

Call of Duty: Black Ops DS
The Knife is used in all levels, and is a one hit kill in campaign and multiplayer. While it can be used in zombies, it is not suggested as it takes one hit by a zombie to down the player. The Knife only takes one hit to kill a zombie, no matter what round, but if a zombie is running it takes two hits to kill. If Aiming Down the Sights(ADS) while wielding it, the player is able to use it as a throwing knife.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
The knife appears again in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 as the standard melee weapon. After knifing, it takes much longer to draw the weapon the player was using than in previous titles; also, its range is greatly reduced. It seems to have retained many visual aspects when compared to the knife in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The knife also is now capable of not killing enemies upon making contact, as it will only achieve a hit marker. This happens if the enemy is wearing Juggernaut armor. When using the Melee proficiency on a weapon, the player will knife faster while wielding that weapon. Also, the tactical knife on pistols will make the knife slash out earlier.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Defiance
The knife appears in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Defiance. It is an instant kill weapon and retains this status in multiplayer.

The knife now features a "return sweep": if the player swipes the knife and retracts it, the blade can still slash enemies and kill them while being put away. Like its predecessor it can be used as the throwing knife by pressing the ADS button.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II
The standard knife now has little to no lunge, making it nearly impossible to use. However, the knife can now be used as an individual weapon, the Combat Knife, and has a lunge similar to the knife in previous games.

It is brought out as a weapon in "Suffer with Me" then used as a Throwing Knife later.

Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified
The Knife is seen in the Gamescom Trailer.

Trivia

 * On the Wii version of Call of Duty: Black Ops, there is no knife lunge unless the player is are using a CCP.
 * On Modern Warfare 3, if the final killcam is with a knife, a blood splatter will appear out of nowhere once the knife leaves the enemy's body.
 * On PC versions of Black Ops I and II the knife has no range / lunge.