Pistol

The standard issue X-COM pistol is a high caliber semi-automatic handgun with a 12 round clip. It fast and reliable, but although almost on equal power as the standard Rifle, it lacks stopping power.

The most notable feature of the pistol is its one-handed grip. A one handed weapon can be operated in one hand and not suffer from any loss in accuracy if the other hand is not free.

Unlike most modern handguns, the standard pistol lacks the ability to fire in short bursts. This is not a big disadvantage as it is still the fastest single-shot weapon in X-COM's entire arsenal. The only weapon to match it is the Laser Pistol. This makes the pistol less effective in short range combat.

As the pistol is one of the most elementary of weapons, it is not designed for high precision shooting. Normal shots from the hip have a 60% hit rate, but studies show that to get an additional 18% inrease in accuracy, soldiers have to spend almost twice as much time to fire the weapon. For more accurate aimed attacks, consider the standard Rifle, Rocket Launcher, Heavy Plasma and Small Launcher.

Due to its simplicty (and cheapness) the pistol is a remarkable training weapon. It takes effort to improve any combat skill, and the ordinary pistol certainly forces a soldier to put in a lot of effort!

The pistols are most effective against Sectoids, Floaters and Snakemen as they wear almost no armour.

Heavily armoured enemies like the Mutons, Ethereals and most of the Terror Units render the pistol and Rifle almost useless.

The pistol's inherent weakness can be turned into a strength when arming soldiers that you think may panic easily or be influenced by Sectoid mind control. Even the toughest of Sectoids will fall to a pistol bullet or two, while a soldier in a Power Suit will not feel a thing.
Like all one handed weapons, pistols are best used as a complimentary weapon rather than as a primary weapon. They work best with grenadiers and scouts. Soldiers with heavy weapons may also want to carry pistols as a backup weapon. For more adventurous soldiers, the pistol also works well when combined with a Laser or Plasma Pistol. Each weapon builds on the weakness of the other.

Overall, the pistol is a good training weapon. For actual combat, it starts off fairly well, but is quickly cast aside for more powerful and advanced weapons.

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 Information

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

Pistols are prioritised so that they will always be the last weapons to be selected by your soldiers. In addition to that, there is also a rather unusual culture amongst X-COM troops regarding pistol-type weapon distribution in general. Sometimes everyone gets the weapons, as normal. At other times, only one person will be armed with the pistol and will be carrying all the clips if applicable. This can prove to be a minor annoyance.