So let's say that you're playing co-op, got yourself a M4A1 and didn't even get a goofy secondary thinking that you would never ever use it because you have that fat, juicy heavy carrier that holds up a ton of rounds for your primary. You stroll down to the objective and within seconds you see that some of your dummy teammates got owned by bots real quickly, some ran out in the open, some got blasted by a random RPG coming out of a house. You and your remaining teammate cleared and took the objective, but...

COUNTERATTACK!
You realise that you spent all of your ammo in a matter of seconds, and that heavy carrier that was once loaded to the brim is now empty. You're on your last mag and your teammate gets absolutely butchered by the horde of insurgents in the objective. You spend your last magazine, and you're only down to your knife.

> wat do? You await death, it's that easy.

...But what if you had a pistol?

A pistol definitely could've saved your life in that situation. Perhaps any handgun could have saved your life in that scenario. You had a heavy carrier after all, you'd have had FOUR magazines for your pistol, with a high capacity pistol (17 rounds in mag) like PF940 could've saved your life. Or maybe a high-powered pistol like M45A1.

We have a variety of handguns to choose from the next time you end up without any ammo for your primary. (note : the opinions and reviews made for the handguns for the rest of the guide are made by my observations as I have already said above. )

Each of these pistols vary and have different characteristics, but obviously they also share similarities whether it'd be the caliber, magazine size, attachments you can put on them. I divided the secondaries in the ways in order to study them easily, comparing high and low power, because you can change the magazine capacity in order to have some pistols have about the same amounts of ammo they have in another pistol for example, you can not change the bullets a pistol takes though. (Exception of welrod, that can take armor piercing rounds.)

Let's get on with it.

There are already three calibers as you know in the game, which are :

• 9x18
  
• 9x19
  
• .45 ACP

On this part of the guide we're going to look at the 9x18 and 9x19 rounds, and the handguns that fire these rounds. I've played domination on rather more CQC maps, tried to stay in the closed spaces or in streets as much as possible AND ONLY USED QUICK DRAW HOLSTER, LIGHT CARRIER AND LIGHT ARMOR while gaining the data and observations while keeping the study.

The first pistol I'd like to have a look at is the M9, which I find the more satisfactory out of all of the pistols in this guide.


Literal bane of everything there is as a pistol in my opinion, has more than enough ammo in it at a whooping 15 rounds per default magazine, chambered in 9x19 and has a very clear sights which aren't tightly closed into each other unlike the M1911.
After trying out this pistol for a couple of games of Domination, you can rain death on people if you click very quickly, even when coming face to face with a very deadly caliber like 7.62x51 NATO, I somehow managed to survive the gunfights.

Personally, I give this gun a ......................






This comes in the second because it's almost identical to M9, also is chambered in 9x19, has the same capacity, and also takes down enemies in 2-3 bullets. Overall pretty good and reliable weapon, I put this in second, because I am not fond of the sights that much. Even though it has some stats better compared to M9.

Thank you, Kanye, very cool.


I stand behind the fact that you should always carry a Quick Draw Holster (1 point) with your pistol, because you need to whip that sh*t out real quickly if you're in big trouble. Might save your life.
The reason why I put this pistol in the third place is because that I don't think you should spend FOUR points on a handgun... kinda too much if you ask me, but if you think you can make room up for one more and buy the extended mag, you have a capacity of THIRTY ONE F*CKING BULLETS IN A PISTOL. If you're a madman, you might even put more points on your Glock and use it as a primary rifle, which probably will end up like this.

This is a decent pistol in my opinion. It's not THAT good because of the fact that it doesn't have good sights, and is on par with the M9 if it's not a bit worse. I never felt that comfortable using this pistol.

Tariq is like a M9 with a budget as the title says, chambered in 9x19, has 8 rounds (half the mag) and has about the same stats overall, the gun is a copy of M9 itself lol. Also kills in like 2-3 shots just like the other pistols chambered in 9x19 above.

This pistol costs 0. Just because of that fact you can say this Tariq and Makarov is on par.
However there is one thing that's very horrible about this pistol which are low capacity and it really takes 3-4 shots to take down someone.

Absolutely dirt cheap? Yes.
A total peashooter? Also yes.

It's a go-to if you don't want to spend any money or minimal money on a secondary and still think that you can bring down someone. Unlike....


THIS SHOULD'VE STOOD AS A PIPE, IT IS A JOKE. A PRACTICAL JOKE.
It's both very painful to use, and it's also very fun to use if you get a kill. Harder it is to achieve something, more enjoyment when you make it. BUT it's almost impossible to win with this piece of sh**. Even if you have AP rounds or something on it for god's sake.

Imagine having a Tariq with :

• ZERO COST.
  
• INTEGRALLY SUPRESSED
  BUT.
  
• YOU CAN ONLY SHOOT IT ONCE PER SECOND.
  
• AND IT IS... VERY. WEAK. HEADSHOTS, OR DEATH.
  
• AND ALSO HAS %75 MAGAZINE CAPACITY OF A TARIQ.

UGHHHHHHHHH.

Okay that was it for the weak pistols, now we take a look at the BEEG BULLET GUNS

This part has the BIG IRONS. Such as MR73, Desert Eagle, M1911 and M45A1









THE ABSOLUTE UNITS.


Not really, but we have M1911 and M45A1, the younger M1911. We also now have the handcannons, MR73 and Desert Eagle.

This pistol, is a pistol you've probably seen everywhere just like the M9. The difference between the weak pistols and the .45 ACP pistols are :

• They can one hit unarmored opponents, or a hurt opponent.
  
• It generally takes up to two rounds to take down a heavy-armored opponent.
  
• Has low capacity. (7)
  
• Has high recoil, making it harder to spam it.
  
• Costs 2 points.

(The M45 and M1911 are almost identical, they almost share the same stats.)


(Kind of busy currently so I will put the weapon's picture including stats here soon.)

This weapon is a beast, but it comes at a price. And that price is quite fishy. 5 credits for a handcannon that is 7+1 and kicks like a mule, for both ends.

When I tested this gun on the Domination map I got an average of 1.35 KDA, so it's not really bad.
I will say again that the tests' results vary on the skill of the user, but I can definitely say that almost every single shot I fired was a one-hit-kill (OHK) whether they were armored or not, usually one hit took them down. There were some instances where the opponent survived one hit, and there were some instances where the round was effective 50m+, resulting in one hit kill.

Some quick info on the pistol :

• Almost always one-hit-kill (about %95 or more, I'd say.)
  
• Has low capacity, but when compared to M1911 platform pistols, has equal. (7+1)
  
• Has even higher recoil than M1911 counterparts and the MR73, making it the least comfortable weapon to shoot.
  
• Spamming firerate is about equal if not slightly faster than MR73's spam (regular variant), and slower than M1911s. However can be a clutch if you're in panic due to the intense amount of damage and penetration power.
  
• Spamming accuracy is the worst out of all pistols considered. (You're lucky if you can hit the 3rd shot.)
  
• Very powerful penetration, might even one-hit-kill behind some barricades. One shot of this pistol can kill two people at once.
  
• VERY EXPENSIVE (5) and combined with a quick draw, so your weapon is actually useful (1) it makes (6) deployment points. You can buy a proper rifle for 6 points with attachments. FAMAS is 6 deployment points, for example.

You know a lot about this pistol, I shouldn't have talked this much anyways. Next up. MR73.


MR73 is an interesting gun with even more interesting attachments. You can use this revolver as a, i kid you not, a sniper rifle. I will first handle the normal variant, and then compare it with the sniper barrel variant, then we have a little chat about them.

--- NORMAL VARIANT ---

Normal variant of this handgun is double-action only. But what is double-action? Well you could google it, but I'll explain it anyways.
Single-action revolvers are the type of revolvers you see on the wild west movies, the hero has to pull the hammer every time before he fires manually (usually with a thumb, or his palm to use a method called fanning to shoot rapidly.) Double-action revolver means that you CAN pull the hammer back before you fire your revolver, or you can pull the trigger to pull the gun too, but it requires a VERY strong pull to both pull and fire the gun.


Okay? Enough yadda-yadda, what does this mean?
Normal variant is double-action only, so there is a small delay between you pulling the trigger and the gun firing (probably a few miliseconds, but you could still miss your shot.) It still matters quite a bit. You MIGHT have to track your enemy while you're pulling the trigger. This is a big disadvantage but comes with another advantage.

TL;DR : Normal variant has a delay when firing. Sniper variant doesn't at the cost of firerate.

• You have a chance to miss your shot, or get killed due to the small delay.
  
• You can spam the gun.

PROS AND CONS OF THE GUN (TL;DR)

• Costs a bit much for a pistol, I wouldn't spend that much for a pistol. (4)
  
• You almost always need the speed-loader (1) attachment for a quick, six round reload in mere seconds. Otherwise you put the rounds one by one. Your pick. (Disclaimer : To use the speed-loader you MUST spend all six shots. Firing five and reloading will put your rounds one by one.)
  
• Sometimes inaccurate due to small delay.
  
• I feel it has less recoil compared to the other handcannons on the list (M1911 and Desert Eagle)
  
• Fires .357 Magnum, so quite powerful. Almost always will put down an enemy. (About %96 one-hit-kill.)
  
• It's quite fun to handle it, since it has a different mechanic compared to the other guns.
  
• Dirty Harry would approve.

--- SNIPER VARIANT ---

Sniper variant (+1 cost) of the said revolver MR73 is a bit different. (Totals to 5 cost)

It fires in single-action only mode.
Faster muzzle velocity. Less need to compensate for bullet drop, or travel.
You can attach various attachments, if desired. (Bipod and 2.5x CT scope)
Five shots or six? Due to reloading taking a long time (if you don't purchase the speed loader which costs +1) you will need to make your shots count.
You can't spam the gun, way slower firerate.
There is no trigger-pulling delay like on the normal variant. Shoots as soon as you pull it for more accuracy and faster reaction time.

You are probably going to get demolished if you attack someone that is further than 15-20m if you don't headshot them in the first two rounds. Remember that the pistols have shorter barrel lenght, which makes them have slower velocity, and thus they travel slower. So you may need to shoot a tiny tad bit infront and above of your enemy to hit them if they're running and far away. (Shoot only above if they're standing still and far away.)


I've mentioned that the pistols have shorter lenght compared to rifles, just like the label says, it fits in your hand. So this means two things :

• They're shorter so you can come closer to a wall without your aim getting interrupted (firearm raising up when you get close to a wall.)
  
• Not having your pistol's barrel sticking outside when you take aim from a corner of window. (However if you put a silencer on, you'll have a longer weapon so you may be spotted easily.)

This is a rule that you use in real life too! If someone comes to knock your s**t then you shoot them, and shoot them as much as you can until they die. Lucky for you it takes about 1-3 rounds to kill someone, so you just need to click fast. If they're very close range, you don't even need to aim.

You don't always need to take aim, as mentioned above, you can just spam the rounds into the enemy at point blank range. Another fun fact is that when you press Mouse 2 to aim, the aim is always centered. This means that if you know where the center of the screen is, you can start firing at them without having the sights on your screen.

Even though I said that you should shoot them until they're down, don't waste too much ammo and hold R to check up on the amount of ammo you have in your mag. Having a good trigger discipline is key while using the pistols. For example :

While a standard M1911 has 7+1 rounds in a mag.
An extended mag PF940 has 31+1 rounds in a mag.

If you have a Light Carrier. You have a total of 21+1 = 22 of .45 ACP rounds.
But you have 93+1 rounds of = 94 of 9x19mm rounds.

This brings us to Speed Reload (Double Tapping R for a faster reload). Don't do it unless you REALLY HAVE TO. Only do it if you totally ran out of ammo in your mag. Again, hold R to check it.

• Pray to God that you won't have to use your pistol.
  
  
• Buy a Quick Draw Holster, you need to dispatch your pistol ASAP if you run out of ammo.
  
  
• Buy a good pistol like if you can (M9, L106A1, PFB940, M1911 and M45).
  
  
• Don't ever buy Welrod.
  
  
• Your pistol may not be effective as you think it is, so, don't rely on it and waste all of your primary ammo.
  
  
• If you're a shotgunner, invest in your pistol.
  
  
• Don't fight people at range, you'll lose miserably.
  
  
• Don't speed reload if you don't HAVE to.
  
  
• 9x19mm takes about 2-3 rounds to eliminate someone. .45 ACP takes about 1-2 rounds, respectively, .45 ACP has more recoil.
  
  
• and again, Pray to God that you won't have to use your pistol, it is always a last resort.