Revolver damage nerfed?

[Alendrathril]

I'm coming back to the game after half a year and none of my revolver headshots are killing normal wolves. I'd this a bug or a feature?

[Bobywan]

The revolver is not a reliable weapon against wolves.
It's primary use is as deterent to make wolves flee (shooting without aiming at them)
If you shot the wolf, it will bleed out eventually but instant death is not guaranteed.

[Alendrathril]

Ok. I just recall the revolver being very lethal against normal wolves last time I played.

[IFIYGD]

I am going to be honest- it feels like it has been nerfed a bit. It is a much more common find now, with rifles being much more rare. But it was never meant to be a hunting weapon- the game description for it always said it was useful for defense. But many of us were using it to take down deer, wolves, timberwolves, bears, and even moose. I don't know if they cut back its damage numbers, or if they took its chance-to-crit % down. It's still good for rabbits and it's okay for ptarmigan, which makes sense. It could be that it's range was lessened- so shots from the standard revolver are now falling short or have less impact if they do hit.
It is a small defensive weapon now- which is what it always should have been, IMHO. It's still works in a struggle if you get a chance to get a shot off, but does seem less likely to kill the wolf- I've only been getting bleed-out wounds if used in a struggle or as a hunting weapon before getting a bow & arrows or finding a rifle and ammo (vanilla Stalker).

If you own the Tales From the Far Territories DLC- the variants are similar, with slightly different stats- but the Hunter's Revolver has longer range and seems to pack a bigger punch. But I still wouldn't choose it as a primary hunting weapon- and it isn't easy to find, either.

[Osok]

If the wiki is accurate, the revolver is the only ranged weapon (unlike the rifle, bow, distress pistol) to not insta-kill a wolf when shot in the head or neck.

The revolver only has a 40% chance of a headshot to a wolf being insta-lethal, and only a 20% chance of a neck shot being insta-lethal.

By comparison, deer are still insta-killed by headshots from all four ranged weapons, revolvers included.

Admittedly, this difference is pretty odd, but it was obviously a call made for game balance (i.e. wolves still being a threat after finding a revolver) rather than realism, since a handgun should otherwise be very effective against wolves.

Even if the game-balance desire is for a revolver to not be a guaranteed kill when making a headshot, I think it should still be far higher than 40%. Something like 80% would make a lot more sense to me. That seems like it would accomplish the game balance goal by making the revolver reliable as a defensive weapon against wolves, but still not a guarantee to one-shot-stop a charging wolf - thus keeping the player at least somewhat leery about casually subjecting themselves to wolf-charges.

[Cleric]

Saw someone mention that level 5 ammo crafting is bugged resulting in low quality ammo...thought it was just level 5 cooking. But if so and you are using crafted ammo it would make sense.

[capybaras are cool]

range on the revolver is just really really short. it seems like animal hitboxes are weird too; the only time i reliably get a headshot on a deer is when theyre moving forward. if theyre stopped to pick at the ground then their head's hitbox doesnt actually line up with their physical head.

[iwasa]

The rifle has a + to critical hit % while the revolver has a + to struggle effectiveness %. Might account for some of the difference between a rifle hit versus a revolver hit effects.

If you're going to shoot a revolver at a wolf, might be best to shoot without aiming, which can trigger it to attack, and get the wolf scared. It can or would run around without attacking. Then one can take an aimed shot.

I play in Pilgrim normally but during I think it was "Winter's Embrace"? which would run in Voyager I found out the hard way that aiming can trigger an attack while just firing a shot caused the wolf to "get scared" and while it would be running around I could take the time to try and land an aimed shot on it. If course, YMMV.