Ronson WP Flamethrower

The Ronson WP Flamethrower is a fully-automatic flamethrower introduced in. As a flamethrower, it is short-ranged, but its unique 2 second damage over time and rapid-fire property makes it ideal for taking out through hordes of zombies. It is also useful for finishing off a boss or taking it into Last Stand on multiplayer when cornered by a boss. Each shot of the flamethrower deals 200 damage over 2 seconds, which is more than doubled for the version.

The Ronson WP's nature of being a flamethrower makes its attack range is limited, so tasks like engaging faraway targets may be more difficult. Its movement modifier, -30%, makes the Flamethrower quite hefty to wield, not making it suitable for rushing on missions like Vaccine until higher levels. The 15 RPS, high stopping power and high pierce of this weapon make it very useful for mobbing or handling even Fiery Skin zombies, also making it a useful weapon to stall huge crowds in Nightmare if cornered. While this weapon does fire fast, one does not need to worry about ammunition due to its large clip count (third-highest in the game) and rather high damage over time - unless Overclocked has been acquired to increase the DPS thereby increasing ammo consumption - and it can make short work even of the likes of a Bloater with only a few bursts. However, ammunition costs $160 for a hundred rounds (or ten times that money for a Flamethrower), so the Ronson WP Flamethrower will burn through a player's funds relatively fast if used carelessly.

Prior to the update on December 10, 2014, the Flamethrower's shots actually have a burst effect like what you would expect from a rocket launcher (though a small one); this can be increased by 50% with a Level 5 Flamethrower mastery. This made the Ronson WP Flamethrower exceptionally ideal for dealing with Shielders, since the "explosion" effect from the Flamethrower penetrated both the riot shield and the physical resistance of the Shielder.

However, after the weapon and armor expansion update on December 10, 2014, the Ronson WP Flamethrower got buffed and tweaked. The main aspect of the Flamethrower that changed is that the "bullets" shot from the Flamethrower no longer "explode" as they hit a zombie. Instead, the bullets behave like shots fired from Assault Rifles, LMGs, etc. This means that the shots fired from the Flamethrower actually penetrate zombies until they hit their pierce cap, which is 6 for the Flamethrower. The Flamethrower prior to the update shot bullets that stopped in their path as they hit the first zombie they came into contact with, "exploding" right there. Now, the Flamethrower has significantly better crowd control it can now hit zombies in a straight line. However, this update also means that the Flamethrower will no longer penetrate a Shielder's riot shield. Still, the raw stats of each shot stack well with the high rate of fire with the Flamethrower, making the potential damage of it much higher than it seems.

Mechanics

 * The flames used to be considered like rocket projectiles, exploding on contact with anything. However, it is now similar to regular bullets, where flame will pierce through zombies like bullets according to the pierce.
 * It has blast radius, where is hits any zombies around (inside the blast radius), which counts as 1 hit regardless of how and where.
 * The Enlarged augment, previously only increased the blast radius after the impact, now increases the width of flame and the distance flame travels, which is how Flamethrower mastery level 5 also works.
 * It can only damage minion eggs and the boss egg when the player is "hugging" them, otherwise the flames will bounce off harmlessly.
 * If the player fires at any wall, the flames will flow across and around the wall, meaning the player can effectively kill zombies by hugging a wall and firing at an angle. Note that the player must fire the flamethrower at a sharp angle for the mechanic to be effective.

Trivia

 * It may be a reference to the Ronson system, a flamethrower used in World War II that was mounted on vehicles such as tanks. It was improved by the US army who named it the "Satan" and was used in the battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific and other operations.
 * It could also be a reference to a brand of lighter called Ronsons, whose motto was "Lights first time, every time".
 * "WP" stands for "White Phosphorus", a powerful incendiary element, used in bombs and missiles.
 * The Black version is one of the few weapon with colors other than black, grey and white.
 * This is one of only three weapons that can be augmented with anything, the other two being the Luftplatzen and Ronson WPX Incinerator.
 * The Ronson WP Flamethrower received a "Halloween Edition" around Halloween (October 31st) 2015. It was called the Van Helsing, and replaced the WP Flamethrower from Strongboxes and Crafting. Its description was "You cannot escape destiny by running away!"
 * The Ronson WP Flamethrower is the only Flamethrower that is not a Premium or a Faction War Exclusive gun.