Kingpin weapons guide (single player)

A guide showing you the advantages and disadvantages of Kingpin's weapons in single player, along with how to best use them.

Lead Pipe

Maximum ammo: Unlimited

The Lead Pipe is a broken piece of a pipe the player starts out with. By clicking in a rhythm with the Lead Pipe, the Kingpin Guy will swing it three times in a row, then stop. It has a very low range, requiring you to be right next to the target in order to hit him or it.

Frankly, the Lead Pipe is a piece of ♥♥♥♥. It’s only useful for taking out the pimp and his ho at the very start of the game, and even then you’ll probably take a lot of damage or outright die. Upgrade to the Crowbar as soon as you can.

Crowbar

Maximum ammo: Unlimited

The Crowbar is a typical crowbar. Unlike Gordon Freeman’s iconic crowbar, this one is rusted, but still hurts. It behaves as the same as the Lead Pipe does, but does more damage than the Lead Pipe does.

It’s marginally more useful than the Lead Pipe is. The main problem is that you have to get right next to foes whack ‘em with the Crowbar, and getting into enemies’ faces is a very, very poor idea in this game because of how much damage they can do it point blank range. Your Crowbar has no hope of outdamaging anything besides a thug with a pipe, making charging into enemies with it a death sentence.

This weapon can dispatch a foe with one hit if you manage to sneak up to him undetected, but with the way the game is set up, enemies will almost always be able to find you before you can even attempt to sneak up on them.

Overall, it’s best used to destroy crates and the melee enemies at the start of the game and the three melee enemies you need kill with the Crowbar in order to recruit the Joker gang as followers near the end. Using it on any type of enemy with a gun is suicide unless the gun user is focusing on an NPC follower, but even then you’re better off using a gun yourself.

Pistol

Maximum ammo: 200 (300 with backpack)
Magazine size: 10

The Pistol is an average pistol chambered in .45 ACP. It has decent accuracy, making it a good weapon to take ranged shots with in early stages of the game. The most interesting part about it is that the Pistol is one of two weapons in the game that can be modified, and it has by far the most mods out of the two moddable guns in the game.

Early in the game, the Pistol is a great weapon for dealing with enemies at range. Because you want to stay as far away as possible from enemies when fighting them, you’ll quickly find that the Pistol’s effectiveness at a distance can be a lifesaver.

This weapon is noticeably less effective against female opponents than male ones, as they’re much thinner than the men are, increasing the odds that a shot will miss. Still, it’s worth using if you can put some distance between you and her.

When you first get the Pistol, you’ll see that it’s very weak. Getting the Magnum upgrade is a must for it, because with it, the Pistol can finally start doing decent damage. The decreased reload speed and rate of fire mods are also great for making it a more effective weapon, so grab them after you’ve gotten then Magnum mod. The suppressor mod isn’t as good as it sounds, as most enemies will be alerted to your presence as soon as they see you, giving little chance to silently take them down before the others are alerted that you’re in the area.

Ammo for this gun is very common. If you need to stock up, Pawn-O-Matic sells 10 rounds for 5 dollars, which is very cheap once you have a decent-sized money reserve.

While the Pistol is a nice little gun at the start of the game once upgraded that can take on enemies at a distance, it’ll become completely obsolete once you get the Tommy Gun.

Shotgun

Maximum ammo: 100 (200 with backpack)
Magazine size: 8

The Shotgun is your typical pump action shotgun. It fires several pellets when the fire key is pressed. The pellet spread is average, making it somewhat useful even at medium range. Enemies will take a lot of damage if all of the pellets connect.

Despite it’s power, the Shotgun is actually a pretty mediocre weapon. In Kingpin, you want to make sure that you’re far from enemies before engaging them because of how much damage they can do at close ranges. However, the Shotgun requires you to be at close range to do the most damage. In most cases, it’s much safer to shoot enemies from a distance than try to bank on the Shotgun’s high damage and rush them with it like you’re playing Doom. This limits you to using it from a distance, where it loses quite a bit of it’s power. It’s ok at range, but not the best choice.

Early in the game, it’s pretty useful for dealing with female enemies. Their models would make it hard to land shots on them with the Pistol, but the amount of pellets the Shotgun fires at once ensures that at least two pellets will hit them.

When using this weapon, it’s best to reload whenever you can instead of waiting for the magazine to be depleted before reloading. If you attempt to reload from empty, you’ll find that it takes a very long time, making you a sitting duck.

This weapon is technically pretty good, but Kingpin’s gameplay heavily discourages the tactics that would make it very effective. Once you get the Tommy Gun, the Shotgun will quickly start rotting in your inventory because of how much better the Tommy Gun is.

Tommy Gun

Maximum ammo: 200 (300 with backpack)
Magazine size: 50

The Tommy Gun is a submachine gun with a large magazine that uses the same .45 ACP ammo the Pistol does. It’s a fantastic all-rounder weapon; it has a high rate of fire for close quarters combat, good accuracy for ranged work, and decent damage. It’ll take a lot of shots to deal with foes that have a lot of HP, but thankfully the Tommy Gun’s magazine is large enough to deal with such enemies with a full magazine without having to reload.

While wanting to unload with it at point-blank range may be tempting, it’s best to use the Tommy Gun at range. Since it’s accuracy is high, you’ll find that most of your shots will land and take down the target almost as well as you would at close quarters. However, it’s not really a weapon for sniping, so don’t try to use it as an improvised sniper rifle. If enemies do pop up in close quarters, it’s high rate of fire will put them down while you retreat to a safer position.

The Tommy Gun has the same issue against female enemies that the Pistol does, but it’s not as bad as it is with the Pistol because of the Tommy Gun’s much higher rate of fire and larger magazine.

It uses the same ammo that the Pistol does, so finding ammo shouldn’t be hard. If you’re going to enter a new area and don’t have a lot of ammo for it, it’s a wise idea to purchase ammo for it at a Pawn-O-Matic until you’re almost at max capacity. A Tommy Gun with a lot of ammo is one of your best friends in the game.

The Tommy Gun is a great jack of all trades weapon that’s a significant boost in power from the Pistol and Shotgun. Later in the game, it loses a little bit of it’s greatness thanks to the Heavy Machine-Gun and Bazooka, but it’s still a solid workhorse even then. You can never go wrong using the Tommygun.

Heavy Machine-gun (HMG)

Maximum ammo: 90 (120 with backpack)
Magazine size: 30

The Heavy Machine-Gun, or HMG, is a large gun that fires powerful .308 Winchester rounds. When the fire key is pressed, the gun will shoot a burst of three rounds, like the M16 in the Call of Duty and Battlefield games. After being fired, the gun will have a 1.5 second cooldown before being able to fire again.

It is one of the two weapons that can be modified in the game. The only mod for it, the cooling mod, reduces the cooldown time between bursts to almost nothing, letting the player fire a lot faster than before.

When you first obtain it, the HMG is a fantastic weapon for long range work. The three rounds it fires are very accurate, making it the game’s equivalent of a sniper rifle. A full burst can quickly put down even the strongest of foes in the game. However, the cooldown makes it unsuitable for close quarters, so switch to the Tommygun or Bazooka for those ranges.

Try to get the cooling mod for it ASAP. This will let you take down foes a lot faster and give you a fighting chance in close quarters, the HMG’s only real weakness. There still a delay between shots, but you can shoot a lot faster than you did before. It might be a better idea to switch to the Tommy Gun or Bazooka if enemies are close to you and you have some time to switch weapons, but if you’re suddenly attacked, the HMG with cooling mod works well for getting your attackers off your back.

Despite it’s power, the HMG isn’t too good when dealing with multiple enemies attacking the player at once because its cooldown will make you very vulnerable, even with the cooling mod. Try to position yourself so that only one enemy can hit you before opening fire with the HMG, or switch to another weapon, like the Bazooka or Tommy Gun, depending on the situation.

Ammo is uncommon, but there’s enough to put down most of the foes in the game without running completely out. There’s no need to purchase ammo for it.

Once you learn the HMG’s limits, you’ll find it’s an awesome weapon that makes dealing with foes at medium or long distance a piece of cake. Pairing it with the Bazooka makes for the deadliest weapon combination in the game.

Grenade Launcher

Maximum ammo: 12 (16 with backpack)
Magazine size: 3

The Grenade Launcher is a three shot version of the classic M79 grenade launcher. When fired, it shoots a grenade that can bounce off of walls. After a few seconds, the grenade will explode. Grenade explosions can hurt you if you’re near a grenade when it blows up. Unlike the Quake games, the grenades from this gun will not explode if they hit an enemy, despite behaving otherwise being similar to the grenade launchers in the Quake series.

This weapon is great for scouting hallways. Angle yourself so that you’re facing the entrance of a hallway from one side, then launch a grenade into the hallway. If you hear an enemy grunt or a squish sound, that means someone is there. A squish sound means you managed to kill someone with it. If you hear an enemy grunt, it means you’ve hit someone. Shoot a few more grenades into the hallway to ensure he’s dead. You can also use this strategy in rooms you’ve already entered by heading back to a safe area, then bouncing grenades off of nearby walls so that they hit the enemies on the other side.

It’s also handy for dealing with enemies that are pursuing you. Launch two or so grenades in the direction the enemy is coming from, and it should be enough to blow the bugger to pieces.

If an enemy is on a tight walkway above you, launch a grenade or two at them to blow the jerk into pieces. This will save you a lot of health and time.

Ammo is fairly rare, so don’t depend on it as a primary weapon. It’s also expensive at Pawn-O-Matic. Keep the cash for other armor and Tommygun ammo unless you really like the Grenade Launcher.

Overall, the Grenade Launcher is a great utility weapon that can get you out of some sticky situations if used right. It doesn’t have the ammo capacity to be used all the time, but it will prove invaluable when you need it.

Bazooka

Maximum ammo: 25 (100 with backpack)
Magazine size: 5

The Bazooka is your typical rocket launcher. It’s a late 90s FPS, it’s gotta have a rocket launcher, right? All it does is fire a medium-speed rocket at foes. Any enemies near the rocket’s impact site will also take damage. If you are near a rocket’s explosion, you will take damage too.

This weapon is at it’s most effective when a rocket directly hits an enemy. Most enemies will be destroyed with two rockets, while even the toughest enemies will fall with a single magazine in Medium difficulty. However, the problem is hitting them. It’s best to hit them while they’re standing still, but this also opens you up to being hit. If you have a lot of health and/or armor (or have a reserve of medkits you can get to), this isn’t really a problem, but those with low health and no medkits to grab should use the next strategy.

A safer, but more ammo intensive strategy is find cover, duck out of it, fire a rocket at a foe’s feet, then run back into cover. This will take longer than direct impacts do, but it almost removes the chance of you getting hit by enemies. It takes a lot of ammo to do this, so it might be best to wait until you have a lot of ammo (such as at the Central Towers) to do this.

This weapon works best at close or medium range. These ranges reduce the amount of time the rocket needs to travel before hitting a target, lessening the odds that an enemy will move away from the rocket’s path while the rocket is in the air . If it is being used in close quarters, remember to keep some distance between you and the enemy so you’re not hurt by your own rocket when it explodes.

Ammo for this weapon is rare throughout almost the entire game. It becomes uncommon at Radio City proper, and is just as common as the other ammo types are in Central Towers.

Breaking out the Bazooka when there are multiple enemies close together is a great idea. At least one of the enemies will take the full damage from a direct impact, while the others will take significant damage from the explosion. A group can be cleared out with a few rockets, saving you time and health.

The Bazooka is a great weapon and one of the best in the game. At the end of the game, a Bazooka paired with the Heavy Machine-Gun is the best combo you can use.

Flamethrower

Maximum ammo: 200 (300 with backpack)

The Flamethrower shoots a stream of fire, but quickly eats up ammo to do so.. When a foe has been hit by a stream of fire for a little bit, he’ll start to run around on fire while screaming. Continuing to use the Flamethrower during this time will kill the target. Unlike other guns, the Flamethrower does not need to be reloaded.

As a way to hurt enemies, the Flamethrower is actually pretty bad. It takes a lot of ammo to kill even one enemy, and ammo is hard to find laying around. You’re better off using other weapons to kill foes with.

However, the Flamethrower does have a handy alternate use: it can be a stun gun. Simply shoot an enemy with it enough until he’s on fire, then swap to another gun and finish him off while he’s helplessly running around on fire. This can be quite useful in certain situations, such as when you’re solo and have to face an enemy in close quarters. Stunning him with the Flamethrower will prevent you from unloading into you and costing you a lot of health and armor.

Ammo is somewhat rare throughout the game, making it hard to use it for an extended period of time. Pawn-O-Matic sells ammo for somewhat cheap, but it’s often better to save the money for regular bullets or armor unless you really, really like the Flamethrower.

This weapon is not really good. In its intended purpose for enemy killing, it’s pretty bad, but makes for a decent makeshift stun gun if you need it.

[LiL blade]

id like to point out that the suppressor mod for the pistol can actually kill the tunnel freaks without the jokers hearing, resulting in the jokers recruiting you even tho you killed the freaks with the pistol instead of the crowbar

[Krychur]

I found some cut pawn broker lines in the game files. apparently, the Shotgun was supposed to have the ability to use acid rounds (presumably to increase damage), some tracer rounds for the Tommy Gun (to increase firepower as well as adding visible tracers to the bullets for a sense of direction/increased accuracy), and some high-velocity rounds for a cut sniper rifle. woulda been cool to see these in action, but they were scrapped sometime before release.

[mrdamage52]

Hi Général Londuzboub

The pistol is weak without the mods so are you using them?

Check out this mod as I believe it changes weapon damage etc - https://www.moddb.com/mods/kingpin-rags-2-riches

[Tarlouze du 93]

Nice work! Thanks for this usefull guide. Can you tell me if there is a way to custom the weapons damage, fire rate etc? Because in hard difficulty, the damage that the player make is just pathetic... (one mag of pistol to kill a hobo...) So if you know something plz tell me. Thanks in advance.