Crossbow

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 and are affected by gravity over range as it fires projectiles instead of hitscans. The explosive tip does 50 damage upon impact and has a 1.5 second fuse, but doesn't start until it hits an object. It does 200-75 damage with a 4M blast radius.

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

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 or camouflages available 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. Its explosive bolt's explosive range is very small, and will not even cover the width of most of the rooms in the game. 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.

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, player on their "2nd chance" can be killed with just one bolt. 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. It automatically comes with Explosive Bolts like in Multiplayer. The blast radius makes it useful for taking out groups of zombies. However, the very long reload time makes it difficult to use effectively in solo mode, as the player is left vulnerable. However, its Pack-a-Punched version, the Awful Lawton, partially solves this problem by distracting any zombies near where the bolt lands, similar to a Monkey Bomb. 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.

Speed Cola helps with the reload unless upgraded when it doesn't become a big deal to acquire. Juggernog isn't 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. The unupgraded version is not as helpful against the zombies as a zombie that is hit can potentially get up close before the fuse expires, explode, and injure most, if not all, the players.

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

Trivia

 * 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 stealth missions.
 * On the Wii version the Crossbow can be tilted sideways, making it look like a bow & arrow.
 * This weapon is almost identical to the Explosive Tip Crossbow from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized, except the fact that tips detonate at a delay instead of on impact.
 * In Campaign, it is possible to cripple enemies with the Crossbow.
 * 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.
 * Due to the behavior of explosive tips their usage essentially makes the Crossbow a Semtex-variant of a grenade launcher albeit with less drop.
 * 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.
 * If one is picked up or taken out, empty, the character will still insert an arrow. However, the crossbow still cannot be fired, as there still isn't any ammo to fire.
 * 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.
 * In the early round of Zombies the Crossbow can kill a Zombie from its impact alone, yet the explosion will still go off and can kill other surrounding zombies.
 * A fired bolt cannot be picked up, even if it is not explosive.
 * The KS-23 and the Crossbow have identical iron sights.
 * On the single player level "Executive Order" it is possible to destroy the Soyez-2 with the Explosive Tip Crossbow. (Confirmed on Wii)
 * Having the Awful Lawton (Pack-A-Punched Crossbow) can make a player the team's rescue member. With 13 shots with the conjunction of Sleight of Hand and Monkey Bomb, they can have 13 fast rescues, as well as four backup rescues.
 * Although Flak Jacket will protect against the explosive damage of a nearby bolt, a player who is "Stuck" with one will die no matter what.
 * If this weapon is Pack-a-punched, and a player earns a direct impact on a zombie, the bolt will take slightly longer to explode. This is probably to allow more zombies to be attracted to it and give its user more time to revive a team member.
 * On the Black Ops version of Shi No Numa, arrows from the crossbow will pass through the 115 meteor, rather than sticking to it.
 * If the player switches to another type of bolt after one is fired, when it is switched back, it will seem to reload twice.
 * When Pack-a-Punched, the crossbow can be used to get an achievement/trophy in Zombie mode. To get it, the player must shoot the Pack-a-Punched crossbow at a team member, then when the crossbow bolt explodes and kills at least 6 zombies, both players will be awarded with the achievement/trophy.
 * In Black Ops, if an American based faction is stuck by a crossbow, they will yell certain things. They are as follows: Black Ops,"Get the hell away from me!" Op 40,"Shit! Sticky!" SOG,"Get it off of me!" Other factions will also panic and swear, but oddly, the Tropas will never panic when stuck. The same applies for the semtex.
 * The Crossbow appears in the mission Vorkuta (Only on Wii).