Bowgun

The Bowgun is a weapon that appears in Claire's game in Resident Evil 2 and its subsequent reappearance in The Darkside Chronicles, with a similar weapon appearing in Resident Evil Code: Veronica, and yet another in Resident Evil 4.

Resident Evil 2
The Bowgun can be found is different places depending on the scenario being played. In Scenario A it can be picked up from the corpse of Robert Kendo or found later in the police station's rear car park cabin. In scenario B it can be found in the upstairs S.T.A.R.S. office. This Bowgun is roughly analogous to Leon's Shotgun, in as much as it's a close range weapon with the potential to hit several enemies at once, carrying up to 18 bolts and firing them in a spread three bolts at a time. The Bowgun is however unable to decapitate zombies but can kill one in one shot at close range as long as all three bolts hit. The Bowgun is much less effective with larger B.O.Ws such as Lickers although interestingly, the bowgun's silent firing can sometimes confuse these sightless B.O.W.s.

Resident Evil Code: Veronica
A different bowgun can be found in the Training Facility upstairs in the small office next to the B.O.W. lab where the albinoids were being grown. Like the Grenade Launcher, the bowgun can carry nearly unlimited amounts of ammunition of a single type. Although weaker than a handgun, often forcing the player to fire over a dozen bolts to down a single zombie, the bowgun is much faster due to a near total lack of recoil and has a near unlimited range. The bowgun's most useful attribute in Code Veronica however is it's ability to carry special 'explosive bolts' comparable to a grenade round in power but without the arc of fire that so drastically reduces their range. These bolts are fired with the same speed as regular bolts and are devastating when launched en masse.

Resident Evil 4
The bowgun is a crossbow that can only be bought during the Seperate Ways minigame. According to the in-game description, the weapon's bolts have a specially treated liquid on the tip, which is very volatile, and is said to rival the destructive power of grenades (rightfully so.) It can be purchased for 70,000 Pesetas from the Merchant. It takes up 15 spaces (3x5) of Ada's inventory. It has a firepower of 16.6, and can fire every 2.43 seconds. It fires one bolt at a time. The number you see in the HUD is the total number of bolts you have. The bowgun can not be upgraded.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
The bowgun is one of the unlockable weapons in the game and can be used by anyone. Its rate of fire is similar to the Matilda from Resident Evil 4 as it shoots three arrows in quick sucession.

Trivia
So far in the Resident Evil series, there has been no male protagonist or antagonist to wield a bowgun, with the possible exception of Chris Redfield and Steve Burnside by means of a cheat.