Ray Gun

The Ray Gun is the oldest wonder weapon in Zombies and still the one most players hope for when they hit the Mystery Box. It fires slow-moving energy projectiles that do heavy damage to whatever they hit and splash damage to everything nearby — including, at close range, you.

That self-damage is the whole character of the weapon. It is devastating into a trained horde at a distance and genuinely dangerous when something is in your face, which is the opposite of how most players instinctively want to use a panic weapon.

How to get one

The Mystery Box, in almost every game it appears in. There is no wall buy and no crafting recipe. On most maps it is one of the rarest box pulls, and the box relocates after a number of uses — so chasing it is an expensive way to spend points that could have gone on Jugger-Nog and Pack-a-Punch.

Pack-a-Punch

Upgrading changes the name and the behaviour, not just the numbers.

The splash-damage problem

A Ray Gun round that detonates close to you will take a large chunk of your health, and an upgraded one can down you outright without Jugger-Nog. The failure case is predictable: you get surrounded, panic-fire at the zombie directly in front of you, and drop yourself.

• Fire into the middle of a trained group, not at the closest zombie.
• Keep a second weapon for anything within a couple of metres.
• In Black Ops III, the Danger Closest GobbleGum removes self-inflicted splash damage entirely, which changes the weapon from risky to excellent.
• Reviving a downed teammate with a Ray Gun equipped is a good way to down yourself as well.

How it has changed across the series

The Ray Gun has appeared in nearly every Treyarch Zombies title since World at War, and its role has shifted as the mode has grown. In the earliest games it was straightforwardly the best weapon available and could carry a run deep into the high rounds. As later titles added their own map-specific wonder weapons — usually buildable, usually upgradeable — the Ray Gun settled into being a strong generalist rather than the outright best option.

Black Ops II introduced the Ray Gun Mark II as a separate weapon with its own burst-fire behaviour, and later titles have carried variants of both. Exact damage values change between games and are frequently retuned in patches, so treat any specific number you read as version-dependent.

When to actually use it

• Good: clearing a trained horde at range, dealing with an armoured enemy, opening up space when you are being pushed into a corner.
• Bad: point-blank defence, tight corridors, reviving, or any situation where you cannot see how far away the nearest zombie is.
• Best: paired with a fast-handling second weapon that covers everything inside its blast radius.