Pistol

General Information

Pistol

The standard issue XCom pistol is a high powered semi-automatic with a 12 round capacity.

Source: Enemy Unknown Ufopaedia

The standard issue X-COM pistol is a one-handed handgun that is light, compact and has a high single-shot rate of fire. It features a 12-round magazine. It is the cheapest weapon in the arsenal and also does the lowest damage - though each round is nearly as powerful as standard issue Rifle round.

The Pistol lacks the auto-fire and high aimed accuracy of the Rifle, but compliments it excelling at snapshots. It has identical accuracy with a lower time unit costs, allowing more rounds and provides an improved chance at getting an attack of opportunity.

The poor accuracy/time trade off for its aimed shot does not make the standard pistol especially suited to precision attacks.

The pistol's biggest draw, beyond its rapid fire, would be its small size and one-handed grip. The size allows it to be carried in the hip pockets and the one-handed grip allows soldiers to hold another object without any loss in accuracy.

Despite being the weakest weapon that X-COM can use, it is a fairly competent weapon and many of the enemies that are encountered early in the war can be felled with a few well placed pistol rounds. Though very quickly replaced by other weapons, the Pistol remains useful throughout the campaign as a training weapon for training Reactions as well as Firing Accuracy.

This weapon appears in UFO: Enemy Unknown. For the Terror from the Deep equivalent, refer to the Dart Gun.

Key Features
Small and One-handed
Pros	Cons
Fast Firing Cheap Moderate accuracy	Weak

Recommendations

Soldiers that require high mobility (scouts), soldiers that require the use of the other hand (grenadiers, medics, etc) and heavy weapon operators will find the Pistol and the other pistol sized weapons to be invaluable sidearms to carry. Just be aware that enemies with high armour, such as terror units and Mutons are very resistant to the standard Pistol's armour piercing rounds.

Due to its simplicity (and cheapness) the Pistol is a remarkably good training weapon. It takes effort to improve any combat skill, and the ordinary pistol certainly encourages a soldier to put in a lot of effort! The speed of the snapshots allow the trainees to react faster than with other weapons, and even though it may not be a very effective weapon against strong enemies, the experience is invaluable.

When facing psionic enemies, the Pistol and Rifle are great weapons to use in combination with Power Suits. They are generally strong enough to deal damage to Sectoids and Ethereals, but simply cannot do any damage to Power Suits. Therefore soldiers under alien control cannot harm other soldiers with their weapons. Be mindful that the Cyberdisc and Sectopod have heavy external armour, and will not receive any damage (if at all) from either of these weapons. For them, consider alternative weaponry.

Stats

Pistol

• Size: 2 high x 1 wide
• Weight: 5
• TUs:
  • Snap: 18% (Accuracy 60%)
  • Aimed: 30% (Accuracy 78%)
• Cost: $800
• Sell Price: $600

Pistol clip

• Power: 26 AP
• Ammo: 12
• Size: 1 high x 1 wide
• Weight: 3
• Cost: $70
• Sell Price: $52

Usage notes

The following lists how many times a soldier can fire the gun by shot type continuously in any given round and the remaining percentage of any left over TUs that cannot be spent as a shot.

• Aimed: 3 Shots, 10% Remaining TUs
• Snap: 5 Shots, 10% Remaining TUs

General pistol warning

This note covers the regulation pistol, Laser Pistol and the Plasma Pistol.

Pistol-class weapons are prioritized so that they will always be the last weapons to be selected by your soldiers.

In addition to that, the Collectors Edition introduces a further anomaly where pistols either be armed:

1. Normally. Or;
2. Armed on only one person, with all available slots filled with clips