Sonic Pistol vs. Gauss Rifle

Overview

The Sonic Pistol and Gauss Rifle are the two generally-suggested general-issue weapons, since the Gauss Rifle is obviously better than any other non-alien weaponry, and the Sonic Pistol is better for an assault role than any other alien weapon due to its lower TU cost.

Obviously, there are weapons that surpass both of these in some roles, e.g. the Sonic Cannon for a sniper rifle, the Dart Gun for training reactions and the Disruptor Pulse Launcher and Sonic Pulser for splash damage and terrain destruction. However, none of these really work as a standard weapon assuming you have a choice.

The Stats

Gauss Rifle:

Aimed mode: 60% TUs for 100% base accuracy

Snap mode: 30% TUs for 65% base accuracy

Auto mode: 40% TUs for 50% base accuracy

60 Gauss damage

Sonic Pistol:

Aimed mode: 50% TUs for 85% base accuracy

Snap mode: 30% TUs for 65% base accuracy

80 Sonic damage

Basic Analysis

In general, using these weapons in an assault role involves the Auto mode for the Gauss Rifle and the Snap mode for the Sonic Pistol. There are two general situations of use: point-blank and non-point-blank. The difference is that accuracy hardly matters at point-blank range since it's nigh-impossible to miss.

Point-blank calculations:

Gauss Rifle: 6 shots/turn @ 60 damage = 360 damage per turn

Sonic Pistol: 3 shots/turn @ 80 damage = 240 damage per turn

Non-point-blank calculations:

Gauss Rifle: 6 shots/turn @ 60 damage each and 50% accuracy = 180 on-target damage per turn before soldier accuracy

Sonic Pistol: 3 shots/turn @ 80 damage each and 65% accuracy = 156 on-target damage per turn before soldier accuracy

Intermediate Analysis

The previous analysis ignored damage modifiers and armour effects. The full formula for damage is:

Damage = max(floor((floor(basedamage/2) + randominteger(0, basedamage)) * modifier) - armour, 0)

On Superhuman difficulty, Aquatoids have 4/3/3/2 armour, Gill Men 18/14/14/16, Lobster Men 24/24/24/18, and Tasoths 24/24/24/24 (front/left/right/rear; non-explosive weapons can't hit under armour). Let us assume median values of 3, 16, 24, and 24 respectively.

Aquatoids treat Sonic and Gauss damage identically, but this is not true for the other races. Gill Men take full damage from Gauss and 110% from Sonic. Lobster Men take 30% damage from Gauss and 50% from Sonic. Tasoths take 70% damage from Gauss and 120% from Sonic.

Modifying the damage-per-turn values accordingly, we get:

Point-blank

	Aquatoid	Gill Man	Lobster Man	Tasoth
Gauss Rifle	342	264	1.2	106.2
Sonic Pistol	231	214.7	48	214.8

Non-point-blank

	Aquatoid	Gill Man	Lobster Man	Tasoth
Gauss Rifle	171	132	0.6	53.1
Sonic Pistol	150.2	139.5	31.2	139.6

(before soldier Firing Accuracy)

Terrorists are less commonly faced than the four main alien races, but aside from the Deep One the stats look very similar to those of Tasoths (or in a couple of cases, Lobster Men); terrorists are well-armoured and all of them resist Gauss.

Advanced Analysis

[To be added]

Verdict

The Sonic Pistol is better against Lobster Men, Tasoths, and (more narrowly) Gill Men, and due to the immense disparity against the first two is the better to take on an unknown-race mission (e.g. Ship Rescue Mission, or simple lack of a Transmission Resolver). However, the Gauss Rifle is generally better against Aquatoids as long as you have some other means of disposing of any terror units.

See Also

Weapon Analysis