Activision will officially release Call of Duty: Warzone and Black Ops Cold War’s new crossbow this week after accidentally releasing it last week.
The R1 Shadowhunter crossbow comes to Warzone and Black Ops Cold War on 24th March, when it’ll be available in base form via an in-game challenge, or available immediately to those who fork out for its Lancehead legendary blueprint via the “Archaic Range” bundle.
This bundle was accidentally sold via the in-game Warzone store for 1200 COD Points (around £10) on 18th March.
Players were confused, since the new weapon was not mentioned in any patch notes. But that didn’t stop many players from buying it – even though the crossbow was not useable in Warzone itself.
But it was usable in Black Ops Cold War. And the base version of the crossbow was available via a challenge that, once completed, would unlock it for use. In Black Ops Cold War, the crossbow was listed as a secondary weapon under the “special” category, and you could unlock it by using a weapon with no attachments to get three “One shot, One kill” medals in 15 separate games. And so that’s exactly what Black Ops Cold War players started working towards.
Some simply bought the bundle from the Warzone store and unlocked the crossbow for use in Black Ops Cold War straight away. Others unlocked it for free via the Black Ops Cold War challenge. Either way, for a time, this crossbow was usable in Black Ops Cold War multiplayer and zombies.
In response, Activision pulled the crossbow from the game and promised to refund those who bought the bundle.
Initially, Treyarch said all progress relating to the crossbow would be reset, angering the Call of Duty community. But it backtracked, and came up with a “compromise”.
The upshot is players who previously unlocked the base R1 Shadowhunter via the challenge will be placed at 14 / 15 match completions “due to technical limitations” with player inventories.
This, Treyarch said, lets the developer adjust inventories appropriately and establish “a path of least resistance” to obtain the R1 Shadowhunter when it eventually comes out.
Players who began the unlock process, but did not obtain the R1 Shadowhunter, will retain their previous challenge progress. And players who previously unlocked the R1 Shadowhunter will retain their camo progress.
Refunds on the R1 Shadowhunter bundle were issued last week.
Meanwhile, Activision said Multiplayer modes Stockpile, Gun Game, and Face Off continue unabated this week.
