Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's Halloween event, The Haunting of Verdansk, features scarecrows that'll blow up in your face if you do too much damage to them. The explosive interaction was uncovered last night by VValkyr, who posted their findings to the Modern Warfare subreddit last night.
In their clip, VValkyr runs up to the scarecrow during a multiplayer match. The way the effigy spins on the spot to face the approaching player is pretty spooky in its own right, which is possibly what encouraged VValkyr to repeatedly hit it with melee attacks.
Scarecrows don't like to be abused :( from r/modernwarfare
Unfortunately, after four such strikes, the scarecrow seems to have had enough. It hops briefly up in the air, before unleashing a devastating explosion that kills VValkyr instantly, throwing their body clear off the screen.
If you're hoping to avoid a similar fate, then you'll probably be fine. Elsewhere in that Reddit thread, use WetTrumpet says they tested what exactly triggered the explosion, and found that you'll need to do 350 damage to a scarecrow before it'll take its revenge. It's also worth noting that there are no damage multipliers for chest or headshots, meaning a stray bullet probably won't result in some explosive retaliation. Also important is the fact that the scarecrows will only target the player that's attacking them, so you won't be able to mess with your teammates or lay a trap for the other team.
There's a lot more than spooky scarecrows in the Haunting of Verdansk event, from crossovers with Saw and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to the new Zombie Royale game mode, where if you die, you'll turn into a zombie who can eat other players in order to return to the world of the living. The Halloween event runs until November 3.
Modern Warfare will soon stop being the new CoD on the block, so here's everything we know about Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War instead.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.