Ray Gun

"I LOVE THIS FUCKING GUN!!"

- Nikolai Belinski

The Ray Gun is a Wonder Weapon which appears in Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops. It is one of the most iconic Zombies features in the gamemode, due to the fact that it appears in every Zombies map.

Overview
The Ray Gun is often the most favored weapon in Zombies due to its one-hit kill strength up to about round 18-22 (when Pack-A-Punched it loses its one-hit kill status at rounds 22-25) and its large magazine capacity for such a high-damage weapon. It is pinpoint accurate, 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 shots (40 Pack-a-Punched) inside its magazine, which is, strangely, stuck into the barrel (the magazine seems to be two batteries stuck into the barrel). The Ray Gun shoots a series of green circles and orbs, and after it is used in the Pack-a-Punch machine, violet or dark red circles. Since most people tend to fire one shot at a time while using the Ray Gun, reloading won't be too frequent, and plus, reloading only takes about one second when Speed Cola has been purchased and three seconds without it. However, one downside is that it cannot be reload canceled, as the magazine becomes full at the instant the weapon is ready to fire, sometimes making the reload accidentally unsuccessful, forcing the player to reload again. An often unnoticed feature of the Ray Gun is that it is fully automatic, although it has a very low rate of fire.

A document from Dr. Vannevar Bush reveals more about the Ray Gun. The document reveals that the Ray Gun is powered by Element 115, which must be contained in the Atomic Cold Cell batteries inserted into the gun as ammunition.

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 with direct hit up to round 10, and one-shot-kill with maximum splash damage up to round 15), the gun has a tendency to start making crawlers on rounds 18 more often if shot in the legs. Although this can be very useful, the player may be caught unaware by them. At about round 23, the Porter's X2 Ray Gun (the upgraded version of the Ray Gun) will start to make crawlers. One problem is that it makes a mere 50 points per kill, making it one of the worst weapons to make points with. The Ray Gun, along with the other Wonder Weapons, is very useful on Kino der Toten and "Five", as crawler zombies will not release their toxic gas if killed with it. It becomes useless at later rounds, since it takes a lot of ammo to kill a zombie and ammo is low. Also, the splash damage can be lethal to the player if fired at a zombie close to the player, unless they have PhD Flopper.

Call of Duty: ZOMBIES


The Ray Gun also makes an appearance in the Call of Duty: ZOMBIES application for the iPhone, with a few differences from its counterpart on the console. It causes no splash damage to the user and loses its one- shot kill abilities earlier (compared to World at War), at round 17 for Zombie Verruckt 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 iPhone. Obtaining it on the iPhone 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.

Porter's X2 Ray Gun
When upgraded in the Pack-A-Punch Machine, the Ray Gun becomes the "Porter's X2 Ray Gun." With the upgraded version, the magazine capacity is twice as big, the spare ammo is increased from 160 to 200, it gets extra damage through damage multipliers, it shoots red rays instead of green, and the splash damage is reduced (although the player can still receive damage from it). Also, should a player get downed with a Porter's X2 Ray Gun, he/she 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.

Finding the Ray Gun in Singleplayer
The singleplayer mission Little Resistance also features the Ray Gun as an easter egg. After using the first artillery strike, head onto the beach. Starting from the far right side, there are three puddles. Jump into (and then out of) these in order (right, middle, left), until the player reaches the last puddle. Stay in this puddle for a while. After a while, the ground will shake and a deep, garbled, voice speaks. Four Shisa statues will arise from the ground holding a Ray Gun. To get it, walk up to any of the four statues and then press the action button. The Ray Gun has a laser-cross-hair sight, comparable to a Red Dot Sight. The gun the player is given has maximum ammo, and the player can come back to the statues and get a new gun an unlimited amount of times. It can be used to destroy the tanks with two shots at the end of Little Resistance and making it easier instead of calling an artillery strike.

Videos
Video:CoD WaW: 4 Ray Guns on Little Resistance Tutorial (High Quality)|Ray Gun Acquisition on Little Resistance Video:Ray Gun & Porter's X2 Ray Gun Upgraded Pack-A-Punch Shangri - La COD Black Ops

Trivia

 * In the German versions of Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops, the Ray Gun is named "Beam Cannon."
 * The batteries read "Atomic Cold Cells."
 * If the Ray Gun is out of ammo and the player is downed, they will pull out an M1911 rather than the Ray Gun. This applies to both the normal and Pack-a-Punched version.
 * When the player shoots the Ray Gun at the ground under him, he will be pushed up into the air, similar to the Panzerschreck.
 * The pick-up symbol is the same as the Colt M1911.
 * When used on "Little Resistance" the player can shoot a dead Imperial Japanese Army soldier and after a few seconds their skin starts to decay.
 * In "Little Resistance", the Ray Gun can destroy a tank with one or two blasts.
 * The Ray Gun is the first out of ten fictional weapons in the Call of Duty series.
 * In Call of Duty: World at War, the aiming reticule is always red, whereas in Call of Duty: Black Ops, it can be green, red, blue, yellow, white, turquoise or purple. It may change after teleporting or upgrading.
 * This is the only gun that appears in all the zombie maps, as M1911 is not featured in Dead Ops Arcade, where Ray Gun appears as a power-up.
 * In Call of Duty: Black Ops, when a player receives a Ray Gun or Porter's X2 Ray Gun, they will twist a knob on the side of the Ray Gun to turn it on, as well as flipping up the fire-mode selector.
 * There is an unusable Ray Gun on a table in "Five", in the window on the right of the AK-74u.
 * The first person model for the Ray Gun holds it with one hand while the third person model shows the character holds it with both hands.
 * The Ray Gun's hipfire cross-hairs expand when the player turns their view. It shares this trait with the 31-79 JGb215.
 * In third person, the reload looks and sounds like an M1911 reloading.
 * The Ray Gun in the Wii version of Call of Duty: Black Ops has a different firing sound.
 * In Call of Duty: Black Ops, 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. This is only seen when hip-firing.
 * In Call of Duty: Black Ops, there is a Group 935 logo on the top of the gun. This can only be seen by other players or if in third person spectating. It can briefly be seen when switching weapons.
 * In Dead Ops Arcade, Ray Gun shots bounce off of walls.