Ray Gun

"Where's this thing keep 160 rounds?"

- Tank Dempsey The Ray Gun is a wonder weapon featured in Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Black Ops II,  Call of Duty Online and Call of Duty: Black Ops III. It is one of the most iconic Zombies features in the game, due to the fact that it appears in every Zombies map and is the first wonder weapon created by the illustrious Group 935. A direct successor to the Ray Gun, known as the Ray Gun Mark II, appears in every Zombies map of Call of Duty: Black Ops II with the Vengeance downloadable content.

Zombies
The Ray Gun is available in all Zombies maps in Call of Duty: World at War available only in the Mystery Box. The Ray Gun is often the most favored weapon in Zombies due to its ability to kill in one shot until rounds 18 to 22, or 22 to 25 when Pack-a-Punched, and its large ammo capacity for such a high-damage weapon. As well, the Ray Gun can hit multiple zombies at once, courtesy of its splash damage. However, the same splash damage can be dealt to the user themselves, and can potentially down them in unfavorable locations. It is pinpoint accurate, and the bullets have a travel time, meaning that the player should aim their shots very carefully, especially since it takes a small, but noticeable amount of time for the shot to reach its target. The Ray Gun can hold 20 rounds (40 when Pack-a-Punched) inside its magazine. However, after said rounds, the Ray Gun will steep off immensely in terms of usefulness, commonly creating crawlers. The Ray Gun shoots slowly, and as such, can benefit from using Double Tap Root Beer in order to increase its effectiveness; however, it can cause inaccurate players to burn through ammunition supplies at alarming rates. The reload animation for the Ray Gun ends when a distinct, distorted sound is heard, after the barrel of the Ray Gun is closed. As such, players should be aware of its Reload Cancel time, as attempting to reload cancel as soon as the battery enters the barrel will yield danger to the user. To alleviate this, Speed Cola can be useful in order to perform its 3 second reload faster.

Achievement/Trophy
Acquire Waffle Weapons (25 / Silver Trophy ) - Obtain the Ray Gun, Wunderwaffe DG-2 and the Monkey Bomb at the same time in one game of Der Riese

Campaign
The single player mission "Little Resistance" also features the Ray Gun as an Easter egg. After using the first artillery strike, head onto the beach. Next, on the far right there is a puddle. Get into the puddle and then move on to the next puddle in the general middle of the shore. Then, just stay in the far left puddle about 10 seconds. After that, the ground will shake and then the player should hear a japanese-like voice. Four statues will arise from the ground holding a Ray Gun. To get it, walk up to any of the four statues and then press and hold the action button. The gun starts with maximum ammunition, and the player can come back to the statues and get a new Ray Gun an unlimited amount of times.

The player can get the Ray Gun as a tertiary weapon by holding the radio to get it. By doing so, the player will lose the ability to call the rocket strike. To prevent this, call a rocket strike then immediately get the Ray Gun from the statues before the radio hand-off. After that, the player should have three guns and have the radio back after the count. This trick can be done again if players wishes to acquire different guns by replacing the Ray Gun with other guns they do not have.

The Ray Gun can be used to destroy enemy tanks with two shots at the end of "Little Resistance" instead of calling an artillery strike. It also has the ability to distort dead bodies.

Call of Duty: Black Ops
The Ray Gun is available in Call of Duty: Black Ops in all the maps in Zombies game mode. While still being very powerful (one-shot-kill up to round 15-16), the gun has a tendency to start making crawlers on rounds 18 and higher more often if shot at the legs. Although this can be very useful, the player may be caught unaware by them and blocked/surrounded. At about round 23, the Porter's X2 Ray Gun (the upgraded version of the Ray Gun) will start to make crawlers. Occasionally, when the player aims down the sight, the reticle can change colors from red, green, purple, white, yellow, and blue. One problem is that it makes a mere 50 points per kill, making it one of the worst weapons to accumulate points with. The Ray Gun, along with the other wonder weapons, is very useful on Kino der Toten, "Five", and Moon, as Gas Zombies will not release their toxic gas if killed with it. In most rounds past round 30, the Ray Gun and Porter's X2 Ray Gun will be near useless against the zombies, taking multiple shots to kill them, and as such, should be traded out for a better weapon. Also, the splash damage can be lethal to the player if fired at a zombie or an object close to them, unless they have PhD Flopper. In the case where PhD Flopper is active, there is zero detriment to shooting zombies at extremely close quarters, and can even make the Ray Gun a life saver in the case of being surrounded.

A document from Dr. Vannevar Bush reveals more about the Ray Gun. The document reveals that the Ray Gun was developed by Dr. Ludvig Maxis of Group 935 and was based on designs seized from the Rising Sun Facility in Japan. It is powered by a combination of Element 115 and Cold Fusion Technology, creating "Cold Cell Batteries" to be inserted into the gun as ammunition.

Call of Duty: Zombies
The Ray Gun also makes an appearance in the Call of Duty: Zombies application for the iOS, with a few differences from its counterpart on the consoles. It causes no splash damage to the user and loses its one-shot-kill ability earlier (compared to Call of Duty: World at War), at round 17 for Verrückt and Nacht der Untoten, and round 20 for Der Riese and Shi No Numa. Along with these differences, it is not fully automatic on the iOS version. Obtaining it on the iOS version gives the player the "Space Man" achievement, and using it to kill 100 zombies gives the player the "Laser Face" achievement. It also causes no aesthetic damage to zombies, and cannot make crawlers.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies
The Ray Gun returns in Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies. It was not released with the game but an update added the Ray Gun on February 2. It can be found in the Mystery Box on Kino der Toten, Ascension, Call of the Dead: Director's Cut, or in Dead Ops Arcade as a power-up. It has many of the same features of the Ray Gun in Call of Duty: Zombies, the only differences is that in this game, the Ray Gun is not as well textured and the reticule is black instead of changing colors or red. One similarity is that the Ray Gun is not fully automatic in both games.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II
The Ray Gun returns again in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, again with a new look. Its performance is identical compared to previous games, however, it now seems to have a reduction in splash damage against the player. The Ray Gun now has a new sprinting animation, dive-to-prone animation, and a new front sight which rests higher up. The only real difference between the Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops versions of the weapon is that it has a much higher chance of being gained from the box, as there are no other wielded wonder weapons available in the game, akin to the first Zombies map, Nacht der Untoten. Furthermore, with the map Buried, it received a graphical update. However, the Ray Gun does not appear and is not available in the Grief maps Town and Farm. It remains largely the same from previous games: it performs well up until around round 15-20, and performs horribly at any round past 30.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III
The Ray Gun returns in Call of Duty: Black Ops III. It can be found in Shadows of Evil and The Giant. The Ray Gun has a slightly longer reload animation, as the cold cell batteries are now put in one by one, rather than two at the same time. It has also been reskinned, as the green window featured in past games is now replaced by a yellow and green meter-like device.

Call of Duty Online
The Ray Gun makes another appearance in Call of Duty Online, in the Cyborg Rising game mode and in the multiplayer mode Ray Gun Only. In Cyborg Rising, it can only be used by one player at a time.

Porter's X2 Ray Gun
When Pack-a-Punched via the Pack-a-Punch Machine, the Ray Gun becomes the Porter's X2 Ray Gun. With the upgraded version, the magazine capacity is doubled, the reserve ammo is increased from 160 to 200, it gets extra damage through damage multipliers, it shoots red-orange rays instead of green, and the splash damage is reduced. Also, should a player get downed with a Porter's X2 Ray Gun, they will have a larger amount of ammo to cover teammates.

The Porter's X2 Ray Gun gets its name from H. Porter, the scientist that was working on the next Ray Gun model. He was trying to reduce its peripheral damage and apparently succeeded if the Porter's X2 Ray Gun is really the second generation model he created. H. Porter is a reference to Max Porter, the programmer that created the Ray Gun.

Ray Gun vs. Porter's X2 Ray Gun (Call of Duty: Black Ops)
Exactly the same as World at War.

General

 * There appears to be a writing on the back of the gun next to the "handles". On the left side it says "220 V~", while on the right side it says ~V 022.
 * H. Porter invented the Porter's X2 Ray Gun and also made the Porter's X2 Zap Gun.
 * The real life story behind the naming of the Porter's X2 Ray Gun is that Treyarch weapon artist, Max Porter, came up with the weapon as a side project.
 * The origins of the Ray Gun are contradicted in Black Ops and Black Ops II. In Black Ops a dreamland server document states that it was created from plans retrieved from the Rising Sun Facility while in Black Ops II, on the map Origins, Richtofen states he made it prior to the events taking place in the map.
 * The batteries read "Atomic Cold Cells".
 * In the German versions of Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops, the Ray Gun is named "Beam Cannon".
 * When the Ray Gun is shot, the player is pushed backwards.
 * Upon picking up the Ray Gun from the Mystery Box in several maps, a small guitar riff heard by everyone in the game will play.
 * On the upgraded version of the weapon, an "Atom Smasher" logo can be seen.
 * The Ray Gun's iron sights have always differed in some way between games:
 * In Call of Duty: World at War, the iron sights are the default.
 * In Call of Duty: Black Ops, the front sight on the Ray Gun will switch in color constantly throughout the game.
 * In Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the front sight is taller, extending above the cog shaped mechanism that previously surrounded the front sight. It does not change color like it does in Call of Duty: Black Ops.
 * In the Ray Gun Only mode in Call of Duty Online, the front sight is missing all together and is just replaced with the hipfire reticle.
 * The Ray Gun is the only weapon to appear in every zombies map.

Call of Duty: World at War

 * When the player lowers gravity and shoots the Ray Gun at the player's feet, they will be pushed up into the air.
 * When used on "Little Resistance", the player can shoot a dead Imperial Japanese Army soldier and after a couple seconds, the corpse will be distorted.
 * In "Little Resistance", the Ray Gun can destroy a tank with two shots.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

 * There is an unusable Ray Gun on a table in "Five", in the window on the right of the AK-74u.
 * The Ray Gun in the Nintendo Wii version has a different firing sound.
 * The Porter's X2 Ray Gun in the Nintendo Wii version is black and orange instead of red and blue.
 * When the Ray Gun is fired, the needle on the left side gauge will jump forward into the green section of the meter then bounce back.
 * On Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies, the Ray Gun has no splash damage, yet still interestingly has the ability to create crawlers.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

 * With the use of a Persistent Upgrade in Buried, it is possible to obtain a Ray Gun off the wall from Olympia's purchase spot. The player needs to have a rank of two or lower, and needs to purchase the Olympia, then purchase its ammo thrice. The next time the player purchases ammo for the Olympia, the Ray Gun replaces it.
 * When the Ray Gun is fired, the cog shaped mechanism behind the Ray Gun will rotate.
 * In the multiplayer map, Studio, in the large trailer are some images that shows dual wield Ray Guns, a Sliquifier, a Vector K10 with a large scope and the Ray Gun Mark II.
 * In Mob of the Dead, if the Ray Gun runs out of ammo and the player attempts to shoot it, a beeping noise plays and can be heard, loudly, anywhere on the map.
 * The Ray Gun receives a re-texture in Buried, sporting a more solid, glossy red body similar to the Ray Gun Mark II; the red, amber, and green meter on the side of the gun is more colored. It also gains a dark pistol grip, the neutron symbol on the top of the gun glows green and the cold-cell housing compartment on the upper receiver of the weapon will glow green instead of blue. When Pack-a-Punched, the window will glow red. This carries over to Origins.
 * The player can actually see their left hand while holding the Ray Gun. The hand itself, which is empty, can be seen by setting a high sensitivity and quickly looking down, or by setting a high field of view on PC.