Pistol

General Information

The standard issue X-COM pistol is a high caliber semi-automatic handgun with a 12 round clip. It is very fast and reliable, but lacks stopping power. Of particular interest to gun enthusiasts is that it is nearly as powerful as the X-COM standard rifle, only it's one handed and is faster for snap shots.

The most notable feature of the pistol is its One Handed grip. this means that the pistol can be operated in one hand and will not suffer from any loss in accuracy if the other hand is holding something else.
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 - and only the Laser Pistol has the speed to match it.

As the pistol is one of the most elementary of weapons, it is not designed for high precision shooting. Studies show that to get an 18% inrease in accuracy, soldiers have to spend almost two times as long 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 the best weapon for any soldier to improve their marksmanship, be they new recruits or hardened veterans. It takes effort to improve any skill, and the pistol certainly forces a soldier to put in a lot of effort!

The pistols are most effective against Sectoids, Floaters and Snakemen. All of these aliens wear little to no armour.

Heavily armoured enemies like the Mutons, Ethereals and most of the terror units render the pistol almost useless. This extends to the standard Rifle as well.

The pistol's inherent weakness can be turned into a strength when arming soldiers that you think may panic easily or get under the influenced by mind control of Sectoid psionic users. Even the toughest of Sectoids will fall to a pistol bullet, while soldier in Power Suit will not feel a thing.

Pistols, being one handed weapons, 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. The pistol also works well when combined with a Laser or Plasma Pistol. Each weapon will build on the weakness of the other.

All in all, the pistol is a fair weapon, but its low strength means that it will often be cast aside for a more powerful weapon.

See Also: Laser Pistol, Plasma Pistol, Reactions

Weapon Statistics

Pistol

• Firing Cost:
  • Auto: N/A
  • Snap: 18%
  • Aimed: 30%

• Firing Accuracy:
  • Auto: N/A
  • Snap: 60%
  • Aimed: 78%

• Grip: One Handed

• Weight: 5

• Width: 1
• Height: 2

• Purchase Cost: $800
• Selling Cost: $600

• Production Costs:
  • Build space: n/a
  • Engineering Hours: n/a
  • Build Cost: n/a
  • Build Resources:
    • Alien Alloys: n/a
    • Elerium: n/a

XcomUtil users: These stats refer to the original pistol. Please refer to the XComUtil documentation for information on its enhanced pistol.

Ammo Statistics

Pistol Clip

• Type: Armour Piercing
• Stopping Power: 26
• Ammo Capacity: 12

• Weight: 3
• Width: 1
• Height: 1

• Cost: $70
• Selling Cost: $52

• Production Costs
  • Build Cost: Nil
  • Build space: Nil
  • Engineering Hours: Nil
  • Build Resources:
    • Alien Alloys: Nil
    • Elerium: Nil

Notes

Usage Information

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% left over TUs,
• Snap: 5 Shots, 10% Left over TUs
• Auto: n/a, n/a
  

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.