I can't recommend the Red 9 in this game

[Heavymetalmixer]

It used to be the best 9 mm handgun in the OG, but the remake this handgung is so inaccurate than even with stock it will make your shots fail its target more times than any other gun in its class . . . unless your playstyle consists in runing up to the enemies face to shoot them, then it would be a great gun.

Because of this I'd rather use the Black Tail as the best raw-damage handgun, or the SG-09/Punisher for the laser sight, which allow the player to shoot in the head more often from mid-range.

For a handgun that has a low RoF and needs a stock, Capcom sure went too far with the nerfs.

[Pure Mind Games]

Only use Red 9, got it.

[Dawido]

Seems like skill issue

[Dollmaker]

It still does the most dmg per shot, and the bloom will only be a problem at long distances, specially with the stock.

Its a viable handgun.

[KRON]

I like the Red 9 because it doesn't have much of a recoil with the stock and you don't have to reset your aim after each shot. Sure, blacktail fires faster and have almost the same damage per shot as Red 9, but the need to compensate for the recoil after each shot doesn't add to the practical accuracy.

[Heavymetalmixer]

Originally posted by Dollmaker:

It still does the most dmg per shot, and the bloom will only be a problem at long distances, specially with the stock.

Its a viable handgun.

The bloom isn't the problem, but the reticle size. Actually, I don't find bloom a problem with anything that isn't the Stingray or CQBR.

[Xengre]

I've been doing my minimalist run giving all the handguns a much more substantial testing and the Red 9 is easily, by far, the worst performer sadly despite being on assisted where its dmg scaling vs enemy health scaling should be its peak best case scenario (aka it only gets worse as difficulty goes above assisted... which is quite telling).

Unfortunately, while its dmg barely beats Blacktail it loses a ton of reliability / mobility with its poor fire rate handling multiple enemies, staggering for melee or simply to prevent them from attacking you, for countering weapons and follow up hits, for DPS purposes it loses quite hard (it might have high dmg per shot but extremely poor DPS due to awful fire rate and precision), lacks laser sight (both do but its reticle makes it even worse than usual), and it doesn't handle turning or running around well.

Overall, the Red 9 is viable to beat the game with certainly but its quite bizarre why the gun hasn't been buffed yet as its clearly so much worse than the other pistols. I wouldn't say its as bad as the Skullshaker, which aside from an extreme niche is genuinely dumpster fire bad, but the fact its so much worse in its best difficulty, assisted difficulty, in my minimalist pistol focused run compared to the other guns (I've already subtantially tested HG/S9 so they're not even being used in this run, exclusive full testing of Punisher/Red9/Blacktail) and it simply doesn't compare to Blacktail, HG, S9. Its not even close. Punisher is, surprisingly, performing much worse than I would like, too, as its core value is simply proving to be far less efficient at what it is designed for (even on assisted) vs using a sniper for the same role on professional... still the Punisher is clearly better than Red 9.

Also OP, HG was best in OG just a heads up due to its crit factor being more efficient but also because it gave boosted crits to all types of melee attacks. Red 9 was next behind it.

Originally posted by Pure Mind Games:

Only use Red 9, got it.

lol

[76561198177043055]

imo it could use a faster rof to further justify the use of its stock since it gives recoil control

[QwertyX]

Blacktail best gun. Highest fire rate

[KRON]

Originally posted by QwertyX:

Blacktail best gun. Highest fire rate

Have you tried Matilda with the stock?

[Kitt 🌟 Stargazer]

Had no issues running Red9 on my first playthrough...

[Heavymetalmixer]

Originally posted by Xengre:

I've been doing my minimalist run giving all the handguns a much more substantial testing and the Red 9 is easily, by far, the worst performer sadly despite being on assisted where its dmg scaling vs enemy health scaling should be its peak best case scenario (aka it only gets worse as difficulty goes above assisted... which is quite telling).

Unfortunately, while its dmg barely beats Blacktail it loses a ton of reliability / mobility with its poor fire rate handling multiple enemies, staggering for melee or simply to prevent them from attacking you, for countering weapons and follow up hits, for DPS purposes it loses quite hard (it might have high dmg per shot but extremely poor DPS due to awful fire rate and precision), lacks laser sight (both do but its reticle makes it even worse than usual), and it doesn't handle turning or running around well.

Overall, the Red 9 is viable to beat the game with certainly but its quite bizarre why the gun hasn't been buffed yet as its clearly so much worse than the other pistols. I wouldn't say its as bad as the Skullshaker, which aside from an extreme niche is genuinely dumpster fire bad, but the fact its so much worse in its best difficulty, assisted difficulty, in my minimalist pistol focused run compared to the other guns (I've already subtantially tested HG/S9 so they're not even being used in this run, exclusive full testing of Punisher/Red9/Blacktail) and it simply doesn't compare to Blacktail, HG, S9. Its not even close. Punisher is, surprisingly, performing much worse than I would like, too, as its core value is simply proving to be far less efficient at what it is designed for (even on assisted) vs using a sniper for the same role on professional... still the Punisher is clearly better than Red 9.

Also OP, HG was best in OG just a heads up due to its crit factor being more efficient but also because it gave boosted crits to all types of melee attacks. Red 9 was next behind it.

Originally posted by Pure Mind Games:

Only use Red 9, got it.

lol

In your opinion, which handgun would be the best for most cases and why?

[Xengre]

Originally posted by Heavymetalmixer:

Originally posted by Xengre:

I've been doing my minimalist run giving all the handguns a much more substantial testing and the Red 9 is easily, by far, the worst performer sadly despite being on assisted where its dmg scaling vs enemy health scaling should be its peak best case scenario (aka it only gets worse as difficulty goes above assisted... which is quite telling).

Unfortunately, while its dmg barely beats Blacktail it loses a ton of reliability / mobility with its poor fire rate handling multiple enemies, staggering for melee or simply to prevent them from attacking you, for countering weapons and follow up hits, for DPS purposes it loses quite hard (it might have high dmg per shot but extremely poor DPS due to awful fire rate and precision), lacks laser sight (both do but its reticle makes it even worse than usual), and it doesn't handle turning or running around well.

Overall, the Red 9 is viable to beat the game with certainly but its quite bizarre why the gun hasn't been buffed yet as its clearly so much worse than the other pistols. I wouldn't say its as bad as the Skullshaker, which aside from an extreme niche is genuinely dumpster fire bad, but the fact its so much worse in its best difficulty, assisted difficulty, in my minimalist pistol focused run compared to the other guns (I've already subtantially tested HG/S9 so they're not even being used in this run, exclusive full testing of Punisher/Red9/Blacktail) and it simply doesn't compare to Blacktail, HG, S9. Its not even close. Punisher is, surprisingly, performing much worse than I would like, too, as its core value is simply proving to be far less efficient at what it is designed for (even on assisted) vs using a sniper for the same role on professional... still the Punisher is clearly better than Red 9.

Also OP, HG was best in OG just a heads up due to its crit factor being more efficient but also because it gave boosted crits to all types of melee attacks. Red 9 was next behind it.


lol

In your opinion, which handgun would be the best for most cases and why?

Off what I know Sentinel 9 in hardcore/pro are most efficient in my experience if heavily using handgun, but Blacktail is super close enough that it doesn't matter (especially if you are swapping to a sniper / shotgun to kill plaga which is where S9 particularly excels at in higher difficulties because of their huge health. HG could be better in some cases depending on how the stun/melee mechanic works but I've never seen actual proof just claims so take that for what you will. Otherwise HG/S9 are very close so if you have S9 just go S9. Pistols are not necessary for bosses and not efficient for special mobs (chainsaw/bull mask) so anyone saying dmg matters for these encounters is giving a bad argument out the gate.

Blacktail is very good, overall, though so really any of those three would do great. I tried to test the pistols before and for human only, not plaga transformed kills, this and the crit guns were too close to matter but due to the adaptive difficulty actually influencing enemy hp as well as even crit chance (yup, its a thing) I gave up testing as it would be to much of a chore to figure out where they truly placed (if not for adaptive difficulty clearly reducing crit chance after several tests then S9/HG came out clearly ahead even on humans but that isn't relevant over the extended course of the game if it isn't always the same... while plaga their hp gets so high it actually does benefit regardless of adaptive difficulty's influence on crit reducing). Then again, an argument could be made that if you spawn a plaga why not just use a sniper / shotgun so this further narrows the gap of Blacktail vs the two crit guns.

I don't use Matilda at all as I feel its particular role is better filled by other weapons but that doesn't mean its bad but not a gun I'd honestly recommend in the pistol class, personally.

Punisher is honestly just completely outperformed by either of the two sniper rifles for the same rule but snipers have better ammo economy by comparison since even on pro it takes 1 (stingray sometimes 2) sniper rounds vs a load of pistol rounds whether its plaga / trash mob lined up multi-headshots or wooden shield enemies.


Short version:
Sentinel 9 / Handgun / Blacktail perform almost identical, though Blacktail has no laser sight so you will want to use it at a bit closer range to offset this fact though its range is still good.

[J.]

Literally most raw power and dmg handgun in the game and not even that hard to aim, it's overpowered if anything

[Platapoop]

Red9 is fine. I still like blacktail more, but not having to deal with recoil is quite relaxing. I think it has the best stagger chance out of all the guns, so if you're doing like a pistol only run, you can use a S(G)9 backup with just the exclusive for the crit melee memes.

Overall, I think pistols in pro is ass in general, so I'm more basing this on if you plan on using a pistol for ~80%+ of your playthrough.

[talloyer]

Originally posted by Dewido8:

Seems like skill issue

Ah yes, the cliché brainless reply from the hater, how unsurprising.