How to unlock the R1 Shadowhunter crossbow in Warzone and Cold War
The new R1 Shadowhunter crossbow.
How about a second crossbow in Call of Duty: Warzone? It’s more likely than you think. This one works as a secondary weapon though, and can be unlocked through a couple of different means. Here’s our guide on the requirements and best loadout to unlock the R1 Shadowhunter crossbow in Warzone and Cold War.
On this page:
- Unlock requirements for the R1 Shadowhunter
- Best loadout to unlock the R1 Shadowhunter
- How to equip the R1 Shadowhunter in your loadout
How to unlock the R1 Shadowhunter in Warzone
The free way to unlock the R1 Shadowhunter crossbow in Warzone is as follows:
- Using a weapon with no attachments, get 3 One Shot, One Kill medals in 15 different matches.
The wording here is important - in order to actually receive the ‘medals’, you need to finish each match. No backing out and restarting as soon as you get those three kills.
Here’s a few tips to unlock it faster in Black Ops Cold War:
- Do Nuketown 24/7 or any other small-map mode. You only need three kills before switching to a real class, so get them out of the way ASAP on Nuketown.
- Keep an eye out for the actual One Shot, One Kill medal. You don’t get credit for it if a teammate has been putting bullets into the enemy you’re firing at already. When you get a kill, the medal will appear briefly on the top half of the middle of your screen, so make sure you’ve counted three of them before stopping the one-shot efforts.
- Unlock the Shadowhunter in Black Ops Cold War. There’s been a few bugs with unlocking and equipping it in Warzone, coupled with the fact that it’s way harder to get one shot kill medals in Warzone compared to your standard Team Deathmatches. If you don’t have Cold War, it might even be worth waiting for a free weekend, or hopping into a Plunder match rather than standard BR.
- Lock down passageways and sight-lines. You won’t have all the bonuses that come with attachment combos and fancy pants loadouts, so it’ll be a whole lot tougher to actually secure those one-shot kills. Remember - your one-shot range with shotguns are much shorter than you think in Cold War, so be sure you’re up close and personal.
Of course, another way to successfully unlock the R1 Shadowhunter crossbow is to go into the Store tab of Warzone or Cold War’s menu. It costs 1200 COD Points, which translates to between around £9 to £12, depending on the COD Points bundle you purchase in the store. The bunde is called ‘Archaic Range’, and comes with the Stolen Idol charm, Medieval Archer emblem, and Olde Time Sniper sticker as well as the Lancehead legendary blueprint for the Cold War Crossbow.
Best loadout to unlock the R1 Shadowhunter crossbow
Here’s the best loadout we’ve found to unlock the R1 Shadowhunter when jumping into Black Ops Cold War’s multiplayer mode:
- Primary Weapon: LW3 - Tundra
- Secondary Weapon: Hauer 77
- Tactical: Decoy
- Lethal: Semtex
- Field Upgrade: Field Mic
- Perk 1: Flak Jacket, Tactical Mask
- Perk 2: Quartermaster, Tracker
- Perk 3: Ghost, Ninja
- Wildcard: Perk Greed
The LW3 - Tundra is obviously best used fully decked-out with attachments, but out of all the guns in Cold War, it’s by far the most reliable for one-shot kills while sniping. I’ve managed to get more than a few notches on my R1 Shadowhunter unlock progress simply by firing shot after shot at a corner enemies just keep sprinting around.
The Hauer 77 is a shotgun with a lot of firepower to the point where it can one-shot kill, but you have to be extremely close-up to your enemy in order to do this. It’s honestly barely further than melee distance. If you aren’t close enough, you won’t get the One Shot, One Kill medals, so it’s usually best to stick with your Tundra unless you’re in a building like the Nuketown houses.
Remember: don’t put attachments on your guns! It’s so second-nature that I made the mistake of just decking out my LW3 - Tundra with a proper loadout and popping off before realising none of it counts. Oops.
How to equip the R1 Shadowhunter in your loadout
The R1 Shadowhunter crossbow is a secondary weapon under the ‘special’ category in Cold War, just underneath the M79. If you scroll to hover over it, you can see your progress with its unlock.
At time of writing, there’s a problem with equipping the R1 Shadowhunter in Warzone, but Raven Software are looking into the problem at the moment so it should be fixed soon.
That’s all for unlocking the R1 Shadowhunter crossbow! It’s a really fun weapon to use, so go grind it out if you fancy it. I’m excited to take it into Verdansk and talk about it on the next Warzone Audio Bang podcast, but if it isn’t for you, check the full Warzone best guns tier list for in-depth advice on what to pick.