Are Pistols Endgame-Worthy?

[Blake81]

So, I've liked Pistols (and guns in general) since they helped me survive a lot when I started. However, as I start to get stronger, have my Pistols skill maxed and try taking on more powerful foes, particularly mid-to-high lvl Robotics, I find all my bullets bouncing helplessly off their armor (WHEN THEY ACTUALLY HIT). I'm using a set of Masterwork Scoped Drum-Loaded Chain Pistols, and while they do WONDERS against anything squishy and fleshy, even on deeper cave levels, I find them as effective as a bronze dagger on the Deathlands; Leering Stalkers just laugh my shoots off (although they're still great at disarming them), so I tried a pair of Overloaded Laser Pistols and the experience was more or less the same.

So, is there any Pistol out there capable of dealing any real damage to a well-armored robot? Or did I mess up when I decided to not take up Bow & Gun back at the start?

[Paperbell]

10 PV is the highest of all pistols, so don't expect to kill robots. Don't with though, very few guns can deal with those robots, so it isn't a big deal whether you chose pistols or not. Just get swipe and dueling stance in swords to disarm them and don't worry about killing them. I feel like the speed of pistols lets them stay relevant. You can kill multiple unarmored targets faster than anything short of explosives, and reduced firing time means you can shoot and retreat faster. Their high crit chance also has a benefit beyond extra PV. Preserved skulk injectors have a chance to give the effect "whenever you perform a critical hit, you...". You can combine this with starapples to basically have pistol lifesteal, or use spark tick to be a constant emp to everyone except yourself. My favorite use is with teleportation ingredients, letting me shoot and then instantly teleport to cover without letting anyone retaliate. You don't even have to crit an enemy for this to work.

[Chad "The King" ThunderCuck]

Originally posted by mediding:

10 PV is the highest of all pistols, so don't expect to kill robots. Don't with though, very few guns can deal with those robots, so it isn't a big deal whether you chose pistols or not. Just get swipe and dueling stance in swords to disarm them and don't worry about killing them. I feel like the speed of pistols lets them stay relevant. You can kill multiple unarmored targets faster than anything short of explosives, and reduced firing time means you can shoot and retreat faster. Their high crit chance also has a benefit beyond extra PV. Preserved skulk injectors have a chance to give the effect "whenever you perform a critical hit, you...". You can combine this with starapples to basically have pistol lifesteal, or use spark tick to be a constant emp to everyone except yourself. My favorite use is with teleportation ingredients, letting me shoot and then instantly teleport to cover without letting anyone retaliate. You don't even have to crit an enemy for this to work.

this, but use automatic guns so you ALWAYS get a crit everytime you fire, and usually several. the guns themselves dont stay relevant, but activating an insane number of proc skills everytime you fire them does.

[Judas Iscariot]

Use overloaded laser pistols. Mod them with the appropriate mods (jacked if you can, masterwork and scoped are a must). They will kill off most of the annoyances (such as dervishes) but if you're going against robots then do carry a backup phase cannon with loads of batteries since the end game robots have tons of HP and AV.

[Blake81]

That sounds a lot like what I've been doing so far. I've mostly been using the Overloaded Laser Pistols (because they're accurate AF!) and the Chain Pistol (in case lasers don't damage, or EMP). So I guess it's time to sink some points into B&R (Good thing I got a Linear Cannon stashed in my hideout). The annoying part with this is having to fiddle with the menus in the middle of a fight, as there's no fast way of swapping between rifle and pistols.

I kinda wish there was a "Vibro" alternative for pistols; melee has Vibro Blade, Dagger and the Ceremonial Khopesh, thrown has the GeoMag Disk, and Rifles has the Linear Cannon... yet nothing for pistols.

[Chad "The King" ThunderCuck]

Originally posted by Blake81:

and Rifles has the Linear Cannon... yet nothing for pistols.

wait wut. youre telling me the linear cannon ignores armor?

[Blake81]

Originally posted by Chad "The King" Thundercock:

Originally posted by Blake81:

and Rifles has the Linear Cannon... yet nothing for pistols.

wait wut. youre telling me the linear cannon ignores armor?

YES IT DOES!!

https://cavesofqud.gamepedia.com/Linear_cannon

The only time I've managed to kill a Chrome Pyramid was with that one bad boy. It's basically the Vibrokhopesh Sniper Rifle...

[Chad "The King" ThunderCuck]

Originally posted by Blake81:

Originally posted by Chad "The King" Thundercock:

wait wut. youre telling me the linear cannon ignores armor?

YES IT DOES!!

https://cavesofqud.gamepedia.com/Linear_cannon

The only time I've managed to kill a Chrome Pyramid was with that one bad boy. It's basically the Vibrokhopesh Sniper Rifle...

well hell. guess i need to start carrying a couple hi-cap radio powered antimater cells.

[surplus_newt]

Does the pistol disarm skill work on shots that don't penetrate?

[Paperbell]

Originally posted by surplus_newt:

Does the pistol disarm skill work on shots that don't penetrate?

Last time I checked, it didn't.

[NotaBear]

Pro: Compared to rifles, pistols have 8 times the shooting speed (dual wield, 0.25 action point per shot), has double crit chance and double crit bonus, can disarm.

Con: much less PV.

Bascily pistols are much much better vs low armor enemies. They are very viable since you can use grenades or geomagnetic disc (throwing slot, infinite PV) vs high armor units

[Fenix-Venix]

Originally posted by mediding:

Originally posted by surplus_newt:

Does the pistol disarm skill work on shots that don't penetrate?

Last time I checked, it didn't.

Shouldn't crit penetrate anyway?

[Paperbell]

Originally posted by Fenix-Venix:

Originally posted by mediding:

Last time I checked, it didn't.

Shouldn't crit penetrate anyway?

Unfortunately the guaranteed penetration only applies to melee crits.

[Fenix-Venix]

Interesting.

[NotaBear]

yeah ranged crits only add +2 to pv value, with pistol's skill, +4 to pv.

although with 14 pv on super charged pistol that should go through most enemies's armor

[Caderdet]

Adding this for anyone searching coming across this issue in the future; The arc-winder and it's high voltage variant bypass AV and PV completely and are considered pistols. They're quite good against robots in particular due to the electric damage type but they are ineffective against the few enemies with high electrical resist.